Thursday, September 4, 2014

West signals more Russia sanctions; Corruption costs poor countries $1trn a year; New mobiles are about selfie images

1 West signals more Russia sanctions (BBC) Western countries are preparing to tighten sanctions on Russia over its action in Ukraine, US and British officials say. Targets would include Russia's defence industry, state-owned banks and associates of President Vladimir Putin.

The West accuses Russia of sending arms and troops to back the rebels in eastern Ukraine. Moscow denies this. A UK government official said the European Union would announce - jointly with the US - sanctions on Friday, including more restrictions on Russian banking, energy and defence. More of what the official dubbed "Putin cronies" would have travel bans imposed on them.

Deputy White House National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, speaking at the Nato summit in Wales, said the US was finalising new penalties. French President Francois Hollande said European leaders would announce sanctions "and put them into action if there is no progress [on Ukraine], but everything will depend on the coming hours".


2 Corruption costs poor countries $1trn a year (Dawn) Corruption, fraud and money-laundering cost poor countries a total of $1.0 trillion a year, the anti-poverty organisation ONE has said. The group, founded by U2 rock group singer Bono, said the misuse of funds resulted in $38-64 billion a year in uncollected taxes alone. This in turn cost 3.6 million lives a year that could be saved if the missing money were wisely invested, non-government organisation ONE estimated.

“It is nothing short of a trillion-dollar scandal,” said the report, recommending action on four fronts. To put the $1tr in perspective, ONE said that it was equivalent to the annual profits all the 86 biggest publicly quoted companies in the world. It blamed the loss on “a web of corrupt activity that involves shady deals for natural resources, the use of anonymous shell companies, money-laundering and illegal tax evasion.”

If policies were put in place to combat corruption by means of financial secrecy, deals on natural resources and money-laundering, the cost of corruption could be reduced “dramatically”, the report said. It also argued that natural resources companies should be forced to publish full details of their activities to discourage the theft of resources from poor populations. Governments should also be obliged to publish full and open accounts so that citizens could hold them accountable for money received and how it is spent, the report said.


3 New mobiles are about selfie images (San Francisco Chronicle) Visit any tourist destination, and you're bound to see individuals and groups taking photos of themselves for sharing on social media. It's a declaration to the world that they were there. So it was only a matter of time before tech companies responded with phones and apps specifically designed to help people take more and better selfies.

Several phones unveiled at the IFA tech show in Berlin this week sport higher-resolution front cameras, so selfies will come out sharper. Some even have apps that let you use the rear cameras, too. That means even clearer photos — and the use of the flash, if you need it. Promoting new phones as the perfect selfie camera is a natural move for manufacturers scrambling to stand out.

"The 'selfie phone' race resembles the megapixel race for cameras on the back of the phone," said Gerrit Schneemann, an analyst at research firm IHS. One of the phones Microsoft announced this week, the Lumia 730, has a 5 megapixel front camera and software to help users touch up their image after taking it. But some are wondering whether users will really embrace the idea of capturing themselves in high resolution.

For users who don't want to send around high-resolution images of themselves without a bit of prior enhancement, Microsoft's selfie app offers tools that let them make tired eyes bigger, whiten their teeth and slim down like airbrushed models on magazine covers.

Meanwhile, LG wants to take selfies to a whole new place. The South Korean consumer electronics firm has presented a refrigerator that can send pictures of its contents to users while they're out shopping. That's right, your fridge is soon going to be sending you selfies.

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