With a growing population of Americans over the age of 65, but a lack of trained home health care workers, more and more people could opt to hire robots to do the job. … Read More
LinkedIn forbids prostitution listings, angering legal sex workers
The social network has never allowed “unlawful” profiles, which it categorizes as those advertising illegal services, but, as prostitution is not forbidden by law everywhere in the world or even everywhere in the United States, escorts have long taken advantage of the opportunity to bring attention to themselves. Under the section titled “Don’t undertake the following,” LinkedIn’s new privacy policy and user agreement stipulates, “Even if it is legal where you are located,” users must not “create profiles or provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution.” Legal sex workers displaced by the update have criticized LinkedIn for assuming the role of moral arbiter of the Internet. “What’s the problem? We have a license to do this stuff,” Dennis Hof, owner of multiple legal brothels including Nevada’s Moonlite Bunny Ranch, told NBC on Monday. “Our business is legal as theirs. We’re the good guys. We have no reason to be knocked off.” Hof said he hopes LinkedIn doesn’t try to remove his or his employees’ profiles as they, like so many other legal businesses in the information age, rely on social media to attract customers. “LinkedIn needs to realize they don’t need to filter out legal businesses in America,” he continued. “These are businesswomen, and some of them are making mid-six-figure incomes. If it’s okay to do that, is it okay to drop Dairy Queen too because it serves too much fat and calories?”A casual inspection of LinkedIn’s listings reveals that many young men and women, while not listing prostitution as one of their career skills, do advertise thinly-veiled massage services, independent escort professionalism, and companionship, among other professions. “I’m not saying we’re going to do a purge, though we very well may,” said Hani Durzy, LinkedIn’s director of corporate communications, during an interview with NBC. “In a nutshell, as we become aware of profiles that violate our policies we will take the appropriate actions. Does that mean shutting them down on day one? Or giving our members the benefit of the doubt, and telling them that’s a violation and you’ve got to change it? There is no hard and fast rule.” … Read More
Revealed: IRS targeted groups critical to government
President Barack Obama on Monday condemned such actions, announcing that the IRS must be “held fully accountable” if the agency did indeed screen conservatives intentionally — particularly before the November elections. Non-profit groups that requested tax-exempt status were more frequently flagged for audits if they criticized “how the country is being run” or if they contained key words such as “Tea Party”, according to an investigative report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).Seeking to “make America a better place to live” and criticizing government spending were also red flags for IRS workers deciding which groups to audit. Key words that generated closer scrutiny also included “Patriot” and “9/12”.The IRS began to illegally target “Tea Party or similar organizations” in March 2010, and by June 2011, more than 100 Tea Party-related tax-exempt applications had been flagged for review by the Cincinnati-based IRS unit responsible for overseeing them, according to a draft IRS inspector general report.By July 2011, the IRS had gone from targeting groups with key words to targeting “organizations involved with political, lobbying or advocacy” – and by January 2012, the restrictions were changed to go after “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, [and] social economic reform/movement,” the TIGTA report states.Facing allegations that the IRS was engaged in these practices, former Commissioner Doug Shulman testified before a congressional committee in March 2012, claiming that the agency does not target tax-exempt organizations based on their political affiliations or ideologies.But during the month Schulman was testifying, the IRS changed its criteria for closer examination to include tax-exempt groups “with indicators of significant amounts of campaign intervention (raising questions as to exempt purpose and/or excess private benefit),” the investigative report states.After news about the IRS scheme was reported on Friday, lawmakers have condemned the agency for what Sen. Susan Collins described as a “truly outrageous” breach of public trust.“It contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government,” she told CNN, adding that President Barack Obama should publicly condemn the agency.Although the IRS practices targeted conservative groups, the agency established a distrust that could run deep among Americans of every political party.“I don’t care if you’re a conservative, a liberal, a Democrat or a Republican, this should send a chill up your spine,” Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said while he was calling for a full investigation of IRS practices.Rep. Darrell Issa told CNNon Sunday that this “kind of thing scares the American people to their core”.The IRS has long denied targeting conservative groups for audits, but last week admitted its illegal missteps. Louis Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS,on Friday apologized for the “inappropriate” targeting of conservative organizations.Facing pressure from lawmakers urging the IRS’ public condemnation, the president on Monday denounced the targeting of conservative groups, but failed to directly accuse the IRS of its engagement in such actions.“If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous and there’s no place for it – and they have to be held fully accountable,” President Obama said Monday after learning of the allegations against the IRS through news reports.The president said he does not want to judge the findings “prematurely”. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for an extensive investigation into what Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus called an “outrageous abuse of power”. … Read More
H&M backs Bangladesh building safety accord
Sweden’s retail giant H&M has decided to sign up to a building safety agreement in the wake of the factory collapse that killed more than 1,000 garment workers in Bangladesh. … Read More
Indian workers fear effect of Saudi crackdown
http://www.youtube.com/v/elovuysZ8Lc?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Original article: Indian workers fear effect of Saudi crackdown
Bangladesh miracle survivor speaks
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Rescue workers had given up hope of finding anyone else alive in the rubble of the Rana Plaza, except Reshma Begum.
The moment of rescue was tense, emergency crews drilled, crowds cheered, others prayed. The nightmare had begun 17 days ago for the young seamstress as she went to work on the second floor of the factory building on the outskirts of the capital Dhaka, in Bangladesh.
Little did she know that in days to come she would be scavenging for biscuits in the rucksacks of dead colleagues.
From her hospital bed Reshma Begum told reporters: “I did not have anything to eat, I only had two bottles of water with me. I got a stick to show them I am alive here but no one could hear me.”
It was 408 hours later that rescue worker Mohammad Rubel Rana did hear the cries of Reshma. He described the moment he found her:
“When I was cutting iron rods, suddenly I found a silver coloured stick just moving from a hole, and I looked through and I saw someone calling ‘please save me”.
The official death toll now stands at one thousand and fifty people. Nine people have been arrested in connection with the collapse of the building including the owner.
More about: Accident, Bangladesh, Rescue, Survivors
Copyright © 2013 euronews
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Massive fire breaks out after fuel tanks derail in southern Russia
Over 50 rail cars of a 71-car-long cargo train derailed at the Belaya Kalitva station in Russia’s Rostov region at around 2 am local time.At least seven cars have caught fire as a result of the accident, and heavy smoke is reported at the scene. The fire had been localized at around 6 am local time.“As a result of the accident, one of the cars with diesel fuel tank started the fire, engulfing an area of 1.5 thousand square meters,” Interfax quoted the local Emergencies Ministry representative.At least 23 people were admitted to the hospital with injuries and burns. Ten of them including the locomotive driver have been hospitalized, one in critical condition.The official representative of the North Caucasian railway Evgeny Boevets told Interfax that during the derailment one of the cars released propane gas, enabling the flames spread to the locomotive.”According to preliminary information, there was no explosion, instead, the tank caught fire,” said the source.At least 2,700 people have been evacuated from the area around the crash site and moved to temporary shelter in the local community center.Over 190 emergency workers and 48 pieces of equipment were at the scene battling the fire. … Read More
