A US senator is leading calls for a gun designed to look like a smartphone to be banned.
Senator Charles Schumer said the .380 calibre gun, which could hit shops in the US this summer, was "a disaster waiting to happen".
The company behind the product, Ideal Conceal, boasts on its website: "Smartphones are EVERYWHERE, so your new pistol will easily blend in with today's environment."
The gun is described as "high velocity, increased accuracy" and has a list price of $395 (£277).
Ideal Conceal is hoping to have a prototype ready in May - but Sen Schumer has asked the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate before it sees the light of day.
He fears police will be faced with a situation where they do not know whether a suspect is pulling a phone or a gun.
"Just like toys that too much look like handguns should not be sold, handguns that look too much like toys should not be sold," he said.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
'Significant Activity' At N Korea Nuclear Lab
Satellite images suggest "significant activity" is taking place at a North Korean laboratory that could separate plutonium for nuclear weapons.
The photos appear on 38 North, a US website that monitors sensitive sites in the country.
The website says that during the past five weeks exhaust plumes have been seen two or three times at the radiochemical laboratory complex at Yongbyon.
It suggests buildings there are being heated, but it is unclear why.
Analysis by satellite imagery specialists William Mugford and Joseph Bermudez says: "The plumes suggest that the operators of the reprocessing facility are heating their buildings, perhaps indicating that some significant activity is being undertaken, or will be in the near future.
Whether that activity will be additional separation of plutonium for nuclear weapons remains unclear."
The lab is where North Korea separates weapons-grade plutonium from nuclear reactor waste.
The country announced its intention to restart nuclear facilities in 2013.
In January, North Korea conducted its latest nuclear test explosion, followed within weeks by a long-range rocket launch.
US intelligence suggests North Korea could begin recovering material for nuclear weapons "within a matter of weeks to months".
Tensions on the peninsula have been fuelled by the start last month of annual South Korea-US military drills.
The North has threatened nuclear strikes on Seoul and Washington.
Monday, April 4, 2016
Panama Papers Could Lead to Capitalism’s Great Crisis
It’s hard to know where to start in tallying up the explosive revelations in the Panama Papers, an analysis of leaked documentsfrom global law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Yes, we’ve known for a while now that the shadow financial systemwas growing. But it’s another thing to take in 11.5 million documents showing the way in which Mossack Fonseca was working with big name financial groups like UBS, HSBC, Société Générale, and many others to help elites from the Communist Party leadership of China, to soccer star Lionel Messi, to global financiers hide cash in offshore havens around the world.
It’s just the tip of a much bigger iceberg. “The size of the leak is unprecedented, but the tricks Mossack Fonseca has allegedly used for its clients are neither new nor surprising. Anonymous shell companies and the failure of governments to require lawyers, corporate service companies, or banks to collect beneficial ownership information on clients leave the door wide open for dirty money to flow around the globe virtually unhindered,” says Heather Lowe, the Director of Government Affairs for Global Financial Integrity, a Washington DC-based consultancy.
To me, this is one of the key issues at work in the U.S. presidential election. Voters know at a gut level that our system of global capitalism is working mainly for the 1 %, not the 99 %. That’s a large part of why both Sanders and Trump have done well, because they tap into that truth, albeit in different ways. The Panama Papers illuminate a key aspect of why the system isn’t working–because globalization has allowed the capital and assets of the 1 % (be they individuals or corporations) to travel freely, while those of the 99 % cannot. Globalization is supposed to be about the free movement of people, goods, and capital. But in fact, the system is set up to enable that mobility mainly for the rich (or for large corporations). The result is global tax evasion, the offshoring of labor, and an elite that flies 35,000 feet over the problems of nation states and the tax payers within them.
Where do we go from here? I think we’re heading towards a root to branch re-evaluation of how our market system works–and doesn’t work. The debate over free trade is part of that re-evaluation. The calls for a global campaign against tax evasion are, too. I think there will also be intense scrutiny about the ease with which financial capital can move around the world – we’ve already seen that with the hoopla over tax inversions, but we’ll see a lot more backlash, in new areas.
“I expect that the populist backlash will be intense and will impact everything from high-end real estate to PACs (effectively political shell companies),” says one of my favorite sources, Peter Atwater, a behavioral economist. “Voters are increasingly angry at the seeming transience of the financial/corporate/political elite. The 1% can move anywhere they want—and profit handsomely from the relocation, but the 99% can’t. Worse, the 99% are left with the aftermath—the empty buildings of a deserted Detroit, the toxic waste from chemical plants in West Virginia or the unsustainable tax liabilities of Puerto Rico.”
Fixing all this is a growth issue, and not just for the U.S. and other rich countries. As Global Financial Integrity recently found, developing economies lost $7.8 trillion in cash because of maneuvers like those allegedly done by Mossack Fonseca, between 2004 and 2013. What’s more, illicit outflows are increasing at a rate of 6.5 % a year—twice the rate of GDP growth. At a time when most emerging markets are slowing, and are the reason for the drag on global economic growth that smart people say could cause another recession by this year or next, it’s an issue that we all need to care about.
Jeremy Corbyn To Appear At Glastonbury Festival
Jeremy Corbyn is to join the likes of Adele and Muse by appearing at this year's Glastonbury Festival.
The Labour leader accepted an invitation to speak in the Left Field, where pop and politics are brought together.
The line-up of speakers and groups at the Left Field is being arranged by the singer and activist Billy Bragg.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has also been invited to speak.
Union leaders have taken part in debates at Glastonbury in previous years but Mr Corbyn will be the first party leader to appear.
Many people attending the festival will be there on 23 June, the day of the European Union referendum.
However, it is understood Mr Corbyn has avoided a potential diary clash by speaking at the weekend.
The event runs from 22 to 26 June.
Air France Crew Refuse to Cover Up on Flights to Iran
Air France is hitting some turbulence as it restarts flights to Iran, with female flight attendants taking action against new uniform instructions.
Union leaders and management for the flight company are meeting Monday about objections to a memo telling female attendants they must wear the pants version of their uniform, rather than the skirt option, on the flights to Tehran, as well as a “loose-fitting jacket and headscarf” before exiting their planes, the AP reports.
Now that economic sanctions on Iran are lifted, Air France will begin running three flights a week between Paris and Tehran on April 17, after eight years without service between the two countries.
Union leaders said that the headscarf mandate infringes on the attendants’ personal freedoms and qualifies as being told to wear an “ostentations religious sign,” which is illegal in France.
They want flights to and from Tehran to be optional for flight attendants, and one leader said Air France authorities had floated the possibility of consequences for staff who wouldn’t comply with the uniform specifications.
“They are forcing us to wear an ostentatious religious symbol. We have to let the girls choose what they want to wear. Those that don’t want to must be able to say they don’t want to work on those flights,” said union leader Françoise Redolfi. Air France said it already required staff to wear abayas over their bodies during stops in Saudi Arabia, and the new regulations were not out of the ordinary.
People are not allowed to wear headscarves in government offices or schools within France, and wearing a full veil is illegal in public.
Union leaders and management for the flight company are meeting Monday about objections to a memo telling female attendants they must wear the pants version of their uniform, rather than the skirt option, on the flights to Tehran, as well as a “loose-fitting jacket and headscarf” before exiting their planes, the AP reports.
Now that economic sanctions on Iran are lifted, Air France will begin running three flights a week between Paris and Tehran on April 17, after eight years without service between the two countries.
Union leaders said that the headscarf mandate infringes on the attendants’ personal freedoms and qualifies as being told to wear an “ostentations religious sign,” which is illegal in France.
They want flights to and from Tehran to be optional for flight attendants, and one leader said Air France authorities had floated the possibility of consequences for staff who wouldn’t comply with the uniform specifications.
“They are forcing us to wear an ostentatious religious symbol. We have to let the girls choose what they want to wear. Those that don’t want to must be able to say they don’t want to work on those flights,” said union leader Françoise Redolfi. Air France said it already required staff to wear abayas over their bodies during stops in Saudi Arabia, and the new regulations were not out of the ordinary.
People are not allowed to wear headscarves in government offices or schools within France, and wearing a full veil is illegal in public.
Disneyland Worker Found Dead In Haunted House
Police are investigating after a member of staff at Disneyland Paris was reportedly found dead in the theme park's haunted house.
The 45-year-old technician is thought to have been electrocuted in the Phantom Manor on Saturday morning between 8am and 9am, just before the park opened to the public.
The employee is believed to have been working on lighting at the attraction, which was immediately closed.
The ride features zombies, a ghostly dog and a skeletal bride and promises to turn visitors' stomachs with a series of "ghastly goings-on".
A spokesman for the prosecutor in Meaux said an initial examination had suggested "accidental death by electrocution" was the cause of death.
A post-mortem examination has been ordered, while police and electrics experts are helping police, who have interviewed colleagues who found the man's body.
The technician, who has not been named, was a father from Noisy-le-Grand, to the east of Paris, and had reportedly worked in the park since 2002.
Patrick Maldidier, a Disneyland union rep, told French newspaper Le Parisien he was very popular and "was someone who always had a smile on his face".
A Disneyland Paris spokesman told the paper everyone at the park was "deeply saddened" and sent their thoughts to the victim's family and friends.
The park said it would make no further statements until the investigation into the man's death has finished.
Disneyland Paris is staying open, although Phantom Manor is expected to be closed until at least Wednesday while police from nearby Chessy investigate.
The park had 14.2 million visitors in 2014, many of them from the UK - but has seen accidents in the past.
Five people were injured on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2011 and a five-year-old boy ended up in intensive care after falling from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in 2013.
In 2010, a cleaner died after getting trapped under a boat on the It's a Small World ride.
Massive Leak Ties Vladimir Putin’s Associates to $2 Billion Offshore Money Trail
A massive leak of confidential documents purports to show how allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin may be tied to a $2 billion offshore money trail.
Close friends and family members of the Russian leader have benefited from their relationship with him with millions of dollars made in secret deals, according to The Guardian. The newspaper pored over millions of files leaked from Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca.
The documents were obtained from an anonymous source and shared by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with the Guardian, the BBC and other news outlets. The news outlets say the documents reveal that $2 billion has been secretly channeled through a network of banks and companies linked to Putin’s inner circle. The BBC says the files also show that the law firm allegedly helped many other clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.
Mossack Fonseca did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press. A Putin spokesman said last week that it was bracing for an upcoming “information attack” and that an organization was trying to smear the Russian leader.
Close friends and family members of the Russian leader have benefited from their relationship with him with millions of dollars made in secret deals, according to The Guardian. The newspaper pored over millions of files leaked from Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca.
The documents were obtained from an anonymous source and shared by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with the Guardian, the BBC and other news outlets. The news outlets say the documents reveal that $2 billion has been secretly channeled through a network of banks and companies linked to Putin’s inner circle. The BBC says the files also show that the law firm allegedly helped many other clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax.
Mossack Fonseca did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press. A Putin spokesman said last week that it was bracing for an upcoming “information attack” and that an organization was trying to smear the Russian leader.
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