Nintendo Unveils Wii Mini for the Canucks












Nintendo‘s pushing the new $ 299 Wii U console hard (and has already sold 400K units in the process), but in at least one region, the gaming company has a new back-up plan: The $ 99 Nintendo Wii Mini.


[More from Mashable: Wii U Sells 400,000 Units in First Week]












The new smaller, black box with red trim is a simpler game console. It offers no Internet access and cannot play older GameCube console games. What it does do is play virtually all Wii games (Nintendo says there are around 1,300 of them). The other major caveat is that the console is only available in Canada. According to a Nintendo press release on the new system, “Wii Mini is available exclusively in Canada during the holiday season. No information is available about its potential availability in other territories in the future.”


Nintendo also left out some details on the console itself. We do not know the exact size or weight of the box, though judging from the above image, it’s not much wider than a Wii Remote.


[More from Mashable: Meet the Super Fan Who Waited in Line for a Month for a Wii U [VIDEO]]


As Nintendo describes it, the Wii Mini is “all about games,” and without the Internet, it has to be. No Web browsing, cavorting with other Mii’s or multi-player gaming. It’s also worth noting that while the Wii Mini ships with a single Wii Remote Plus and Nunchuk (both red), a brand new Black Wii with Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort (including Remote and Nunchuk) is currently $ 119 at Best Buy.


What do you think of the Wii Mini? Would you game without the Internet? Is this the perfect gift for young, Canadian children? Let us know in the comments.


GamePad


The Wii U GamePad has a 6.2-inch touchscreen.


Click here to view this gallery.


This story originally published on Mashable here.


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Gabriel Aubry: Olivier Martinez Threatened to Kill Me















11/26/2012 at 08:25 PM EST







Olivier Martinez and Gabriel Aubry with Halle Berry


Getty (3)


Gabriel Aubry has come back swinging – this time in court papers.

Halle Berry's ex alleges that it was her fiancé Olivier Martinez who started their Thanksgiving Day fight, unleashing profanities and threats as well as fists.

Aubry claims that during their scrape Gabriel said, "You cost us $3 million. When you see the judge, you're going to tell him you're going to Paris or I'm going to kill you."

Aubry has been tangling in court with Berry over her request to move with their 4½-year-old daughter Nahla to France, where Martinez is a citizen. The judge recently ruled against Berry.

The allegations are contained in Aubry's application for a restraining order against Martinez, which the court granted. Attached to his application were gruesome photos of Aubry's injuries, including a black eye and cuts and bruises to his face.

Martinez has not commented. Aubry's account is disputed by a source close to Berry.

"This incident arose as a result of a fight initiated by Mr. Aubry when Nahla was delivered for Thanksgiving and Mr. Martinez attempted to have a discussion with him," the source tells PEOPLE.

Aubry, himself, faces an emergency restraining order to stay 100 yards away from Martinez, Berry and Nahla.

Aubry alleges in his court papers that as he drove up to Berry's house with Nahla in the backseat, he saw Martinez and thought it was odd since Martinez is not usually at the house during custodial hand-offs.

Aubry claims Nahla said, "Olivier is here. I'm scared."

After handing off Nahla to somebody named Miriam, who took the child indoors, Martinez appeared and told Aubry, "We need to talk," Aubry alleges.

"All of a sudden, Mr. Martinez jumped me on the side of my body, and punched me such that he had taken me down to the ground," Aubry alleges. "He continued to punch me at least two or three times, kicked me in the ribs with his knee or foot, and took my head in his hands and slammed it to the concrete driveway. It all happened so fast and so suddenly; I did not see Mr. Martinez's actions coming, and thus, I was not ready for it and was not able to defend myself."

As Martinez allegedly threatened to kill Aubry, Martinez also said, "From now on you're going to do drop offs on the street. I'm not just some f––ing actor, you don't know me," Aubry claims in the court papers.

Police officers arrived and arrested and handcuffed Aubry after Martinez told them that Aubry had attacked him several times, Aubry claims. (Martinez also was treated at the hospital for hand and neck injuries).

Aubry told the officers that the incident could have been captured on Berry's security cameras and that they should obtain the tapes before they're erased.

Aubry says he was kept in handcuffs while being transported to the hospital.

"I was handcuffed to the bed while I was being examined and treated, and was not allowed to make a phone call," he says in a declaration. "I ended up suffering a fractured rib, multiple bruises on my face and my forehead, an area under my left eye, and three areas in my mouth required stitches."

Reporting by KEN LEE

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Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.

Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.

The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains, cuts and concussions from bounce house accidents. Most involve children falling inside or out of the inflated playthings, and many children get hurt when they collide with other bouncing kids.

The number of children aged 17 and younger who got emergency-room treatment for bounce house injuries has climbed along with the popularity of bounce houses — from fewer than 1,000 in 1995 to nearly 11,000 in 2010. That's a 15-fold increase, and a doubling just since 2008.

"I was surprised by the number, especially by the rapid increase in the number of injuries," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Amusement parks and fairs have bounce houses, and the playthings can also be rented or purchased for home use.

Smith and colleagues analyzed national surveillance data on ER treatment for nonfatal injuries linked with bounce houses, maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Their study was published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Only about 3 percent of children were hospitalized, mostly for broken bones.

More than one-third of the injuries were in children aged 5 and younger. The safety commission recommends against letting children younger than 6 use full-size trampolines, and Smith said barring kids that young from even smaller, home-use bounce houses would make sense.

"There is no evidence that the size or location of an inflatable bouncer affects the injury risk," he said.

Other recommendations, often listed in manufacturers' instruction pamphlets, include not overloading bounce houses with too many kids and not allowing young children to bounce with much older, heavier kids or adults, said Laura Woodburn, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety Officials.

The study didn't include deaths, but some accidents are fatal. Separate data from the product safety commission show four bounce house deaths from 2003 to 2007, all involving children striking their heads on a hard surface.

Several nonfatal accidents occurred last year when bounce houses collapsed or were lifted by high winds.

A group that issues voluntary industry standards says bounce houses should be supervised by trained operators and recommends that bouncers be prohibited from doing flips and purposefully colliding with others, the study authors noted.

Bounce house injuries are similar to those linked with trampolines, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended against using trampolines at home. Policymakers should consider whether bounce houses warrant similar precautions, the authors said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

Trade group: http://www.naarso.com

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Wall Street edges down after recent rally; retailers weigh

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street slipped on Monday, pulling back from last week's gains, as retailers fell on concerns about heavy discounts at the start of the U.S. holiday shopping season and the overhang of the "fiscal cliff" kept investors wary of making big bets.


The Nasdaq outperformed to close higher, led by gains in eBay and as Apple continued its bounce back.


The Standard & Poor's 500 cut most of its losses during the session and managed to stay above the psychologically important 1,400 level. It also remained above the 200-day moving average, maintaining its long-term uptrend.


The S&P 500 consumer discretionary index <.gspd> fell 0.5 percent after the start of the holiday shopping season over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. Target , one of the largest retailers by market value, fell 2.6 percent.


"The concern is big retailers are discounting so much, sales look better, but at what cost?" said Angel Mata, managing director of listed equity trading at Stifel Nicolaus Capital Markets in Baltimore.


Bucking the retail trend, shares of eBay closed at their highest in almost eight years, rising 4.9 percent to $51.40, as the online marketplace notched strong sales on "Cyber Monday." Amazon gained 1.6 percent to $243.62.


The White House threw cold water on a proposal of avoiding the looming "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax highs by limiting tax deductions and loopholes, instead of allowing tax rates to rise for the richest Americans.


Investors are hoping for advances in talks over the $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes scheduled to begin next year, which threaten to drag the U.S. economy back into recession.


Indications of progress in talks, or just political willingness to negotiate, contributed to the market's recent rally. Major indexes last week gained 3 to 4 percent, with the Dow above 13,000 and the S&P above 1,400 for the first time since November 6.


Those gains represented a turnaround from recent losses founded on worries about Washington's ability to solve budgetary problems.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 42.31 points, or 0.33 percent, to 12,967.37. The S&P 500 <.spx> dropped 2.86 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,406.29. The Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> gained 9.93 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,976.78.


About 5.2 billion shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.49 billion shares.


On the NYSE, roughly 13 issues fell for every 10 that rose, and on Nasdaq nearly six rose for every five that fell.


In the other major worry for the market, euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund made their third attempt in as many weeks to agree on releasing emergency aid for Greece, with policymakers saying a write-down of Greek debt is off the table for now.


"There's no catalyst to continue the rally we saw last week, though Greece would have been important if we weren't dealing with the fiscal cliff," Stifel Nicolaus' Mata said.


Shares of Knight Capital Group Inc jumped 13.3 percent to $2.82 following reports that rivals might be preparing to bid for part or all of the trading firm.


Apple Inc has asked a federal court to add six more products to its patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics , including the Samsung Galaxy Note II, in the latest move in an ongoing legal war between the two companies. Apple shares were up 3.2 percent at $589.53.


(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Leslie Adler)


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Egypt’s President Said to Limit Scope of Judicial Decree


Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times


Egyptians stand near a burned out school, before the funeral of Mohammed Gaber Salah, an activist who died Sunday from injuries sustained during protests.







CAIRO — With public pressure mounting, President Mohamed Morsi appeared to pull back Monday from his attempt to assert an authority beyond the reach of any court, as his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood canceled plans for a large demonstration in his support, signaling a chance to calm an escalating battle that has paralyzed a divided nation.




After Mr. Morsi met for hours with the judges of Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council, his spokesman read a statement on Egyptian television that appeared to backtrack from what was widely understood to be Mr. Morsi’s attempt to place himself above the law — even while saying he had not actually changed a word of the statement.


Though details of the talks remained hazy, and it was not at all clear whether the opposition or even the court would accept his position, Mr. Morsi’s gesture was another indication that Egypt’s rulers can no longer operate with impunity. Time and again they have been forced to respond to public demands for rule of law. How far that gesture might go toward alleviating the political crisis, however, remained uncertain. Protesters remained camped in Tahrir Square and the opposition called for going ahead with a protest demonstration Tuesday.


The presidential spokesman said for the first time that the president sought only to assert powers already approved by the courts under previous precedents, not to give himself carte blanche from judicial oversight. Instead, his spokesman said the president had intended to protect the country’s constitutional assembly from the threat of being dissolved by courts of judges appointed by former President Hosni Mubarak before it finishes its work.


In his statement, the presidential spokesman, Yasser Ali, emphasized that the president had not amended his original edict issued last Thursday. He said that the president meant all along to follow an established Egyptian legal doctrine allowing presidential acts above judicial scrutiny “to protect the main institutions of the state.”


Legal experts said that the spokesman’s “explanations” of the president’s intentions, if put into effect, would amount to a revision of the decree he had issued last Thursday. That decree sought to remove all presidential decrees from judicial scrutiny until the ratification of a new constitution. But lawyers said that the verbal statements alone carried little legal weight.


How the courts would apply the doctrine remained hard to predict. And the Mr. Morsi’s political opposition indicated it was holding out for far greater concessions — including the breakup of the Islamist-led constituent assembly.


Speaking at a news conference while Mr. Morsi was meeting with the judges, the opposition activist and intellectual Abdel Haleem Qandeil called for “a long-term battle,” declaring that withdraw of his new powers was only the first step toward the opposition’s goal of “the withdrawal of the legitimacy of Morsi’s presence in the presidential palace.” Completely withdrawing the edict would be “a minimum,” he said.


Most in the opposition focused on the spokesman’s declaration that the president had not revised the text of his decree. Khaled Ali, a human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate, pointed to the growing crowd of protesters camped out in Tahrir Square for a fourth night. “Reason here means that the one who did the action has to be take back, and those people you see in Tahrir Square are reacting,” Mr. Ali said.


Moataz Abdel Fattah, a political scientist at Cairo University, said Mr. Morsi appeared to be trying to save face with a strategic retreat. “He is trying to simply say, ‘I am not a new Pharoah, I am just trying to stabilize the institutions that we already have,’ ” he said. “But for the liberals, this is now their moment, and for sure they are not going to waste it, because he has given then an excellent opportunity to score.”


The attempt to qualify Mr. Morsi’s position follows four days of rising tensions and flashes of violence set off by his edict. He argued that he was forced to act because of indications that the Mubarak-appointed judges of Egypt’s top courts were poised to dissolve the constitutional assembly as soon as next week. The courts had already shuttered the democratically elected parliament and an earlier constitutional assembly — both dominated by Islamists — and the courts had also rejected an earlier decree he issued to try to reopen the Parliament.


By enabling the current assembly to complete its work, Mr. Morsi said, he would expedite the transition to a stable democracy with a written constitution and an elected parliament that would limit his own powers. His supporters portrayed his assertion of executive power over the judges a triumph of democracy over Egypt’s unelected institutions.


But his infringement on the courts touched a nerve. Under Mr. Mubarak’s authoritarian rule, the Egyptians had cherished their courts for providing at least the promise of equal justice and some check on official power even as they grew cynical about what they saw as corrupt or politicized judges, and over the past decade a judges’ campaign for judicial independence had helped lay the groundwork for the 2011 revolt.


To his surprise, according to at least one adviser, Mr. Morsi’s decree exempting himself from judicial scrutiny set off a furious reaction. The president’s fractious political opponents galvanized together into a unified coalition against him. Vandals attacked more than a dozen headquarters of his political party. Thousands demonstrated in the streets. Judges called for a national strike, which has begun in some places.


And the justice minister, a former leader of the judicial independence movement, publicly dissented, arguing that Mr. Morsi should limit his attempt to assert immunity from judicial oversight to acts only related to protecting the constituent assembly or other elected bodies — something the clarification offered Monday appeared to do.


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$1,499 Gaming Laptop is Ready for Steam on Linux












Alternative, Linux-based operating systems like Ubuntu haven’t historically carried much weight with PC gamers. Very few PC games have been made for Linux, over the years, ever since the company that was porting AAA gaming titles to Linux (Loki Games) went bankrupt in 2001. And while it’s possible to use a “compatibility layer” such as Wine to run Windows PC games in Linux, the results are mixed at best and require a lot of technical tweaking, sometimes even in between updates.


Colorado-based indie PC hardware company System76, however, clearly expects that not only are there PC gamers on Linux out there, but that some of them are willing to pay $ 1,499 for a tricked-out gaming laptop — the 17.3-inch Bonobo Extreme. Like all of System76′s machines, it runs the Ubuntu flavor of Linux; and its actual price tag is $ 1,599, but it’s gotten a $ 100 discount for the holidays.












Is it ahead of its time, like the Loki Games ports? Or has the time come for a new age of Linux gaming? For whatever reason, Valve — the creators of the Steam social gaming service — seems to think the latter.


​The hardware


The 17.3-inch screen is full 1080p, with a 1920×1080 resolution. Pretty much every spec starts out at “high end” and maxes out at “over the top”; it comes standard with an Intel Core i7 processor, 8 GB of RAM and a 500 GB, 7200 RPM hard drive, with a second drive bay and the option to swap the DVD burner out for a third storage disk. All three have the option of going up to a 512 GB Crucial solid state disk, or a 480 GB Intel SSD.


Gaming graphics are powered by an nVidia GeForce GTX 670MX, with 3 GB of memory. An extra $ 340 will get you a GTX 680M with 4 GB of memory. All told, with every possible hardware upgrade the Bonobo Extreme maxes out at an “extreme” $ 4,333 … and the Alienware-style, multicolored light-up keyboard is included for free.


​But what about the games?


Valve’s Linux Steam client is currently in beta, with another 5,000 testers added over the Thanksgiving holiday. About two dozen games are already available for purchase, including Valve’s free-to-play multiplayer online shooter Team Fortress 2 and a selection of games from previous Humble Indie Bundles.


The HIB previously became famous not just for having nearly all of its games support Linux, but for posting public sales figures online, and showing that a good-sized chunk of each bundle’s sales were for Linux gamers. Efforts such as this helped to convince Valve that supporting Linux would be worthwhile … and also seem to have reached someone at System76.


Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Tom Cruise Films Helicopter Scene in Empty Trafalgar Square















11/25/2012 at 05:15 PM EST







Tom Cruise in Trafalgar Square


FameFlynet


Back to work!

After spending Thanksgiving with daughter Suri, 6, Tom Cruise filmed scenes for the sci-fi action film All You Need Is Kill in London on Sunday.

The actor, who plays alien fighter Lt. Col. Bill Cage, landed in a helicopter in the middle of the usually bustling Trafalgar Square, which was shut down for the scene, in the heart of London.

Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel, the movie follows Cage as he battles the Mimics, a violent race of alien invaders, while stuck in a time loop.

Emily Blunt also stars in the film as Special Forces fighter Rita Vrataski, who according to Deadline.com, has destroyed more Mimics than anyone else on earth.

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

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Asian shares edge higher on hopes for Greek deal

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares rose on Monday on the hope Greece can avoid a near-term bankruptcy, with euro-zone finance ministers meeting later in the day, but a regional Spanish vote favoring separatist parties clouded Madrid's push for fiscal austerity.


Expectations that an agreement will be reached soon to disburse crucial aid for debt-stricken Greece, and Germany's Ifo business climate index rising for the first time in seven months in November, boosted the euro and riskier assets broadly and reduced appetite for the safe-haven dollar on Friday.


"If there really is an agreement on Greece today, the euro could rise above $1.3 against the dollar and 107 against the yen," Masafumi Yamamoto, chief FX strategist at Barclays in Tokyo, said in a research note.


The euro was at $1.2966, hovering near a three-week high of $1.2991 reached on Friday, and traded at a seven-month peak of 107.10 yen on Monday.


The dollar <.dxy> inched up 0.1 percent, after falling to a three-week low of 80.128 against a basket of major currencies on Friday as risk appetite gained.


MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> was up 0.2 percent after rising to a two-week high on Friday and ending its best week in more than two months with a 2.5 percent gain.


Australian shares <.axjo> were up 0.2 percent on gains in energy and mining stocks, and South Korean shares <.ks11> opened up 0.4 percent.


Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> opened 1.1 percent higher at a seven-month high. Japanese financial markets were closed on Friday for a public holiday.<.t/>


"Although some investors are cautious against the fast-paced gains in the Japanese market, they will likely stay buyers on the back of the improving trading environment in the global market," said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.


Some analysts said risk sentiment may be weighed by Spain's regional elections in Catalonia on Sunday.


Separatists in Spain's Catalonia won regional elections on Sunday but failed to get the resounding mandate they need to push convincingly for a referendum on independence.


The separatists parties win could raise concerns about the negative impact to the Spanish economy and its fiscal conditions, as Catalonia accounts for 20 percent of the economy and provides the most tax revenue to the central government.


"If the government is forced to give more autonomy to Catalonia in its fiscal policy, it risks derailing the push for fiscal austerity in other provinces, raising the possibility of shifting market focus back to Spain from Greece and undermining the euro," Yamamoto said.


European shares posted their best weekly gain so far this year after rising for a fifth day on Friday, while U.S. stocks rose for a fifth day, getting a lift from bellwether technology firms Intel and Microsoft in light volume after Thursday's U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.


Germany's Ifo index, rising on the back of exports outside the euro zone and the prospect of strong Christmas sales, offered hope Europe's growth engine can retain some momentum.


As investors warmed towards risk, the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index <.trjcrb>, a global commodities benchmark, rose to its highest close since October 23 on Friday -- its best weekly performance since mid-September with a 1.9 percent gain.


Spot gold eased 0.1 percent to $1,749.98 an ounce on Monday after rising above $1,750 for the first time in five weeks on Friday as a drop in the dollar and options-related buying triggered a technical breakout.


Analysts said Friday's gains could lead to a test above the $1,800 level which bullion has not seen since its rally to a record $1,920.30 in September 2011.


U.S. crude was down 0.2 percent to $88.07 a barrel.


(Additional reporting by Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo; Editing by Michael Perry)


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Bangladesh Fire Kills More Than 100 and Injures Many





MUMBAI, India — More than 100 people died Saturday and Sunday in a fire at a garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, in one of the worst industrial tragedies in that country.




It took firefighters all night to put out the blaze at the factory, Tazreen Fashions, after it started about 7 p.m. on Saturday, a retired fire official said by telephone from Dhaka, the capital. At least 111 people were killed, and scores of workers were taken to hospitals for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation.


“The main difficulty was to put out the fire; the sufficient approach road was not there,” said the retired official, Salim Nawaj Bhuiyan, who now runs a fire safety company in Dhaka. “The fire service had to take great trouble to approach the factory.”


Bangladesh’s garment industry, the second-largest exporter of clothing after China, has a notoriously poor fire safety record. Since 2006, more than 500 Bangladeshi workers have died in factory fires, according to Clean Clothes Campaign, an anti-sweatshop advocacy group in Amsterdam. Experts say many of the fires could have easily been avoided if the factories had taken the right precautions. Many factories are in cramped neighborhoods and have too few fire escapes, and they widely flout safety measures. The industry employs more than three million workers in Bangladesh, most of them women.


Activists say that global clothing brands like Tommy Hilfiger and the Gap and those sold by Walmart need to take responsibility for the working conditions in Bangladeshi factories that produce their clothes.


“These brands have known for years that many of the factories they choose to work with are death traps,” Ineke Zeldenrust, the international coordinator for the Clean Clothes Campaign, said in a statement. “Their failure to take action amounts to criminal negligence.”


The fire at the Tazreen factory in Savar, northwest of Dhaka, started in a warehouse on the ground floor that was used to store yarn, and quickly spread to the upper floors. The building was nine stories high, with the top three floors under construction, according to a garment industry official at the scene who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the news media. Though most workers had left for the day when the fire started, the industry official said, as many as 600 workers were still inside working overtime.


The factory, which opened in May 2010, employed about 1,500 workers and had sales of $35 million a year, according to a document on the company’s Web site. It made T-shirts, polo shirts and fleece jackets.


Most of the workers who died were on the first and second floors, fire officials said, and were killed because there were not enough exits. “So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building,” said Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, the operations director for the Fire Department, according to The Associated Press.


In a telephone interview later on Sunday, Major Mahbub said the fire could have been caused by an electrical fault or by a spark from a cigarette.


In a brief phone call, Delowar Hossain, the managing director of the Tuba Group, the parent company of Tazreen Fashions, said he was too busy to comment. “Pray for me,” he said and then hung up.


Television news reports showed badly burned bodies lined up on the floor in what appeared to be a government building. The injured were being treated in hallways of local hospitals, according to the reports.


The industry official said that many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and that it would take some time to identify them.


One survivor, Mohammad Raju, 22, who worked on the fifth floor, said he escaped by climbing out of a third-floor window onto the bamboo scaffolding that was being used by construction workers. He said he lost his mother, who also worked on the fifth floor, when they were making their way down.


“It was crowded on the stairs as all the workers were trying to come out from the factory,” Mr. Raju said. “There was no power supply; it was dark, and I lost my mother in dark. I tried to search for her for 10 to 15 minutes but did not find her.”


A document posted on Tazreen Fashions’ Web site indicated that an “ethical sourcing” official for Walmart had flagged “violations and/or conditions which were deemed to be high risk” at the factory in May 2011, though it did not specify the nature of the infractions. The notice said that the factory had been given an “orange” grade and that any factories given three such assessments in two years from their last audit would not receive any Walmart orders for a year.


A spokesman for Walmart, Kevin Gardner, said the company was “so far unable to confirm that Tazreen is a supplier to Walmart nor if the document referenced in the article is in fact from Walmart.”


But the International Labor Rights Forum, which tracks fires in the Bangladesh garment industry, said documents and logos found in the debris indicated that the factory produced clothes for Walmart’s Faded Glory line as well as for other American and foreign companies.


Bangladesh exports about $18 billion worth of garments a year. Employees in the country’s factories are among the world’s lowest-paid, with entry-level workers making the government-mandated minimum wage of about $37 a month or slightly above.


Tensions have been running high between workers, who have been demanding an increase in minimum wages, and the factory owners and government. A union organizer, Aminul Islam, who campaigned for better working conditions and higher wages, was found tortured and killed outside Dhaka this year.


Julfikar Ali Manik contributed reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Stephanie Clifford and Steven Greenhouse from New York.



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