Apple, Samsung and Sony face child labour claims
- 19 January 2016
- Technology
Human rights organisation Amnesty has accused Apple, Samsung and Sony, among others, of failing to do basic checks to ensure minerals used in their products are not mined by children.
In a report into cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it found children as young as seven working in dangerous conditions.
Cobalt is a a vital component of lithium-ion batteries.
The firms said that they had a zero tolerance policy towards child labour.
The DRC produces at least 50% of the world's cobalt. Miners working in the area face long-term health problems and the risk of fatal accidents, according to Amnesty.
It claimed that at least 80 miners had died underground in southern DRC between September 2014 and December 2015.
South China Sea dispute: British ambassador steps into row over pilot 'intimidation'
Envoy Asif Ahmad says Britain would ignore alerts issued in international airspace after Filipino pilots say China warned them away from disputed area
The British ambassador to the Philippines has said Britain would oppose any attempt to restrict freedom of navigation and overflight in disputed areas of the South China Sea, after Filipino pilots said they were sent “intimidating” radio warnings while flying near artificial islands made by China.
“If a British aircraft, civilian or military, was intercepted and not allowed to fly over a space which we regard as international, we will simply ignore it,” Asif Ahmad, the UK’s envoy in Manila, said.
Britain’s intervention in the row over China’s growing military presence in the region comes in response to concern over possible attempts to restrict freedom of navigation and overflight near reefs that China has turned into artificial islands over the past two years.
Turkey in crisis: The Kurdish teenagers fighting - and dying - in urban clashes with security forces
In the second of our three-part series on the pivotal nation, Laura Pitel visits Diyarbakir and finds youngsters taking on the 'tyranny and persecution' of the police under the banner of the recently formed Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement
Mehmet Mutlu was not the brightest of boys – likeable enough, but with little interest in learning. There was a sense of inevitability for his teacher when he learnt, last month, that his 16-year-old pupil had been killed in clashes between Kurdish youths and Turkish security forces.
But it was still a shock. “He was lying on the ground, his face in a pool of blood,” he recalled with sadness. “He was my student.”
For 30 years the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has engaged in armed struggle against the Turkish state. Now the collapse of a ceasefire last summer has plunged the mainly Kurdish south-east of the country into the bloodiest bout of violence since the 1990s.US teachers photograph their mouldy, crumbling classrooms
Detroit, Michigan is known for its dilapidated neighbourhoods full of abandoned houses. But its public schools seem to be falling apart, too. Teachers are so fed up with deteriorating school buildings that they have organised “sick-outs” – so many teachers call in sick that schools have to shut down – and posted photographs of their dilapidated classrooms on Twitter.
Mushrooms in a classroom. #SupportDPSTeacherspic.twitter.com/97FZ53fxxe
— Detroitteach (@teachDetroit) January 12, 2016
Teachers at various schools have also complained of mice, mould, holes in the floors and ceilings, permanently broken toilets, and computer labs with no Internet connection. The list goes on and on…
Four years ago, a friend of mine told me he had been visiting orphanages and old homes around Karachi.
"Take me along the next time you go?"
At the time, I didn't quite realise what I had signed up for. My first visit left me shocked. I had to leave, instantly; I was overwhelmed.
Imagine walking into a room full of the loneliest people in the city.
In Karachi, a city that throbs under our very feet, it was difficult to adjust to how still everything felt in the old people's home — the absence of noise struck me like a blow.
The residents here have gaunt, hollow faces, etched with memories of the past; some fond, others clearly not.
Traces of who they once used to be are now only faint glimmers; in a quick smile or a silent nod.
Why David Cameron's English language requirement hits Muslim immigrants
Prime Minister David Cameron wants British immigrants on spousal visas to learn English, which he argues will defend against sexism and radicalization.
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, who has pushed for "more muscular" British values as European countries grapple with increasing numbers of migrants and immigrants, has proposed requiring recent arrivals to learn English or risk losing their visa.
Under new rules Mr. Cameron outlines in a Sunday column for the Times of London, immigrants coming to the UK on a five-year spousal visa would need to take a language test half way through their stay, a move that the Prime Minister says will defend against sexism and religious radicalization.
"We can't let women be second-class citizens," Cameron writes, saying that 22 percent of British Muslim women struggle with English, which handicaps their ability to work, speak up for themselves, or be involved in community decision-making:
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