Thursday, 18 December 2014

Apple 'failing to protect Chinese factory workers'


Poor treatment of workers in Chinese factories which make Apple products has been discovered by an undercover BBC Panorama investigation.

Filming on an iPhone 6 production line showed Apple's promises to protect workers were routinely broken.

It found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached at the Pegatron factories.

Apple said it strongly disagreed with the programme's conclusions.

Exhausted workers were filmed falling asleep on their 12-hour shifts at the Pegatron factories on the outskirts of Shanghai.

One undercover reporter, working in a factory making parts for Apple computers, had to work 18 days in a row despite repeated requests for a day off.

Another reporter, whose longest shift was 16 hours, said: "Every time I got back to the dormitories, I wouldn't want to move.

"Even if I was hungry I wouldn't want to get up to eat. I just wanted to lie down and rest. I was unable to sleep at night because of the stress."

'Continuous improvement'
Apple declined to be interviewed for the programme, but said in a statement: "We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions.

"We work with suppliers to address shortfalls, and we see continuous and significant improvement, but we know our work is never done."

Apple said it was a very common practice for workers to nap during breaks, but it would investigate any evidence they were falling asleep while working.

It said it monitored the working hours of more than a million workers and that staff at Pegatron were averaging 55 hours a week.

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Panorama
Watch Panorama: Apple's Broken Promises on BBC One on 18 December at 21:00 GMT or later on the BBC iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer
The poor conditions in Chinese factories were highlighted in 2010 when 14 workers killed themselves at Apple's biggest supplier, Foxconn.

Following the suicides, Apple published a set of standards spelling out how factory workers should be treated. It also moved some of its production work to Pegatron's factories on the outskirts of Shanghai.

But Panorama's undercover reporters found that these standards were routinely breached on the factory floor.

Overtime is supposed to be voluntary, but none of the reporters were offered any choice. In addition to the excessive hours, one reporter had to attend unpaid meetings before and after work. Another reporter was housed in a dormitory where 12 workers shared a cramped room.

Apple says the dormitory overcrowding has now been resolved and that it requires suppliers to retroactively pay workers if it finds they haven't been paid for work meetings.

Pegatron said it was carefully investigating Panorama's claims and would take all necessary action if any deficiencies were found at their facilities.

"Worker safety and well-being are our top priorities. We set very high standards, conduct rigorous training for managers and workers, and have external auditors regularly visiting our facilities to find areas for improvement," a statement said.

Dangerous conditions
Panorama also travelled further down Apple's supply chain to the Indonesian island of Bangka.

Apple says it is dedicated to the ethical sourcing of minerals, but the programme found evidence that tin from illegal mines could be entering its supply chain.

It found children digging tin ore out by hand in extremely dangerous conditions - miners can be buried alive when the walls of sand or mud collapse.

Rianto
Rainto, 12, said he was worried about landslides
Twelve-year-old Rianto was working with his dad at the bottom of a 70-foot cliff of sand. He said: "I worry about landslides. The earth slipping from up there to the bottom. It could happen."

Panorama tracked down a gang who collect tin from the area where Rianto was working. One of them said they sold tin to a smelter on Apple's list of suppliers.

Johan Murod, who runs one of the smelters on Apple's list, said 70% of the tin that is exported comes from the small-scale mines.

"At the smelter there's everything from both large and small scale mines. It's all mixed. There's no way to know what is legal and what is illegal."

Apple says it is a complex situation on Bangka with tens of thousands of miners selling tin through many middle men.

"The simplest course of action would be for Apple to unilaterally refuse any tin from Indonesian mines. That would be easy for us to do and would certainly shield us from criticism.

"But that would also be the lazy and cowardly path, since it would do nothing to improve the situation. We have chosen to stay engaged and attempt to drive changes on the ground."

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Russia considers building its own space station: RIA

Russian state space agency Roscosmos is considering building its own space station, RIA news agency quoted its chief as saying on Monday, underlining how international tensions are affecting space cooperation.

Such a project would rival the International Space Station (ISS), an orbiting laboratory that involves 15 nations including Russia and the United States. Moscow has cast doubt on the ISS's long-term future as ties with Washington plummet over Ukraine.

"I confirm we are considering such an option. This is a possible direction of development," RIA quoted Roscosmos head Oleg Ostapenko as saying when asked about whether Russia has plans to develop it own space station.

He said such a space station could become a key part of Russian missions to the Moon.

It is not clear how such a project would be financed as Russia is widely expected to enter recession next year and the economic crisis is aggravated by Western sanctions over Russia's policy in the Ukraine crisis.

Washington wants to keep the $100 billion ISS in use until at least 2024, four years beyond the previous target. But a Russian government official said in May that Moscow would reject Washington's request to prolong its operations.

The Russian space station Mir, launched by the Soviet Union in 1986, operated until 2001 and President Vladimir Putin is now seeking to reform Russia's once-pioneering space industry after years of budget cuts and a brain drain that led to a series of embarrassing and costly failed launches in recent years.

Meet the U.S. Navy's spy 'fish'

Silent Nemo, an underwater robot, is being tweaked to go into hostile waters to spy on enemies and protect U.S. ships.
view here

Sony demands halt to reporting from leaked documents


Sony Pictures Entertainment told certain news organizations on Sunday to stop publishing information contained in documents stolen by hackers who attacked the movie studio's computer network last month, three media groups reported.

The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety published stories reporting that they had each received a letter from David Boies, an attorney for Sony, demanding that the outlets stop reporting information contained in the documents and immediately destroy them.

The studio "does not consent to your possession, review, copying, dissemination, publication, uploading, downloading or making any use" of the information, Boies wrote in the letter, according to the New York Times report.

A Sony spokesman had no comment on the reports. Representatives for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter could not immediately be reached via email on Sunday.

New York Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said: "Any decisions about whether or how to use any of the information will take into account both the significance of the news and the questions of how the information emerged and who has access to it."

A spokesman for Boies confirmed he sent a letter to certain media outlets on behalf of Sony but declined to discuss details.

Disclosures from the internal documents have caused turmoil at the studio, a unit of Japan's Sony Corp, and shed light on internal discussions key to the company's future. For instance, the unidentified hackers have released troves of documents that include employee salaries and financial information, marketing plans and contracts with business partners.

In addition, the documents that have emerged included an exchange in which Co-Chairman Amy Pascal joked about President Barack Obama's race. After media outlets reported that, Pascal subsequently issued a public apology for "insensitive and inappropriate" emails.

Pascal is scheduled to meet this week with civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, whose spokeswoman says he is weighing whether to call for her resignation. Pascal did not respond to a request for comment, and a Sony spokeswoman declined to comment on Pascal's future.

Sony, in a memo to staff seen by Reuters on Dec. 2, acknowledged that a large amount of data was stolen by the hackers but has declined to confirm specific documents.

Over the weekend, a message claiming to be from the Guardians of Peace, a group that says it carried out the cyber attack on Sony, warned of additional disclosures.

"We are preparing for you a Christmas gift," said the message posted on a site for sharing files called Pastebin. "The gift will be larger quantities of data. And it will be more interesting."

Monday, 15 December 2014

Watch the latest trailer for 'Mad Max: Fury Road'


2016 BMW 6-series facelift debuts ahead of Detroit auto show


Subtle changes inside and out for Munich's coupes

BMW has made a number of changes to its 6-series cars inside and out, and will present the revised lineup at the Detroit auto show next month. The 2016 BMW 6-series cars are scheduled to go on sale during the second half of 2015, and all three model variants -- the convertible, the coupe, and Gran Coupe four-door sedan -- will feature slightly updated styling elements.

When it comes to the exterior, BMW has modified the corporate kidney grille and the the front and rear aprons, with the grille now featuring nine vertical bars instead of 10 (we did say slightly updated). In an effort to further improve aerodynamics, BMW has also redesigned the side mirrors with integrated side marker lights. The biggest visual changes to the Gran Coupe are new window surrounds for the rear windows and restyled badging which appears at the base of the C-pillars.

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Sunday, 14 December 2014

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