Kate's famous dress made in a sweatshop

Kate Middleton, or Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge as she is now known, speaks to Michelle Obama wearing a Reoss dress stitched by women earning a little over $1 an hour. Source: Getty Images

The dress is now being sold at prices of almost $1000 on ebay after Kate chose it for her meeting with the Obamas. Picture: AFP Source: The Sunday Telegraph

• Outfit costs $270 but made for less than $23
• Seamstresses earn just $1.54 per hour
• Dress now advertised on eBay for $926

COSTING �175 ($270) on the high street, it helped Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, outshine America's First Lady.

But the Reiss dress (left) that made such an impression when the pair met last week was produced by women paid only 99p an hour in a poor suburb of the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

The camel-coloured "Shola" design was made for less than $23 by seamstresses earning $1.54 an hour� less than the average salary for textile workers in the eastern European nation.

British fashion chain Reiss is one of the Duchess's favourite brands. After she wore the dress to meet Barack and Michelle Obama, demand

for it surged, causing the company's website to crash and the dress to sell out within 24 hours.

It has been advertised for $926 on eBay. Yesterday, Reiss said it would re-release the dress in five to six weeks.

But that glamour is a far cry from the bleak working conditions of those who made it. The 170 staff of clothing firm Rimcor Ex work in a Bucharest factory that resembles an industrial compound, with bars on the windows, high walls and metal fences.

One dressmaker said the typical $259-a-month salary for workers at the factory was above the country's minimum wage. But the nation's National Institute for Statistics said it was $33-a-month below the average net salary for the clothing industry in Romania.

Another worker, 44-year-old Juliana Haita, described conditions as "good" and added: "This is normal for me. I'm used to it."

There is no suggestion that working conditions at Rimcor Ex are below par.

The factory's owner, Ioan Palea, said yesterday: "I had an inspection from the Work Ministry on Monday and Tuesday and they said everything was OK."

But Greg Muttitt, of anti-poverty charity War on Want, said yesterday:

"Kate Middleton has made a point of supporting British fashion - sadly, it appears, at the expense of overseas workers."

�

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/fashion/kate039s-famous-dress-made-in-a-sweatshop/story-e6frfn7i-1226065094885?from=public_rss

metra smallville finale jorge posada ashton kutcher

Google to fight mobile 'wallet' lawsuit

Google Vice President of Commerce Stephanie Tilenius speaks about wallet software at a news conference in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Source: The Advertiser

GOOGLE has rejected a charge that it swiped PayPal trade secrets to build its new mobile application that turns a smartphone into an electronic wallet.

Within hours of the unveiling of Google Wallet, eBay and PayPal filed a lawsuit charging the internet giant tapped into the online financial transaction service's know-how for the mobile payments project.

PayPal spent three years trying to work out a deal in which it would handle payments for Android smartphones, only to see Google scuttle the talks and hire PayPal lead negotiator Osama Bedier, according to court documents.

?Silicon Valley was built on the ability of individuals to use their knowledge and expertise to seek better employment opportunities, an idea recognised by both California law and public policy,'' a Google spokesman said.

"We respect trade secrets, and will defend ourselves against these claims.''

Bedier worked at the eBay-owned online financial services unit as a vice-president of platform, mobile and new ventures until being hired in January by Google.

He played a central role at Google's official unveiling of Google Wallet with financial partners Citibank, MasterCard and First Data and telecom ally Sprint.

''(Bedier) had an intimate knowledge of PayPal's capabilities, strategies, plans, and market intelligence regarding mobile payment and related technologies,'' the lawsuit said.

"He is now leading Google's efforts to bring point-of-sale technologies and services to retailers on its behalf.''
Google Wallet is being field tested and will be available this year.

Google Wallet will initially work with Google's Nexus S 4G smartphone from Sprint, the third-largest US wireless provider, and will eventually be expanded to other phones equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology.

An NFC chip in a phone allows a user who has entered his or her credit card details to ?tap-and-pay'' for purchases at a checkout register equipped with the PayPass system from CitiMasterCard.

Customers can also use Google Prepaid cards to pay for purchases and take advantage of Google Offers, the Mountain View, California-based company's online discount coupon program.

The company said Google Wallet will be accepted at more than 124,000 US merchants at launch and more than 311,000 around the world.

Stephanie Tilenius, Google's vice-president for commerce and payments, described Google Wallet as the ?next generation of mobile commerce''.

The PayPal lawsuit contends Tilenius helped Google poach Bedier and named both executives and the internet company as defendants in a civil case alleging misappropriation of trade secrets.

Mobile payments are being tested or used in a number of countries already, notably France and Japan, but Google Wallet will be among the first to bring NFC technology to stores in the United States.

NFC technology uses short-range, high frequency wireless to enable the encrypted exchange of information between devices at a short distance.

Google said it has built security systems into Google Wallet including the need for a PIN and credit card encryption. If lost, the payment system can be disabled with a phone call.
�

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/google-to-fight-mobile-039wallet039-lawsuit/story-e6frfrnr-1226064672544?from=public_rss

joel osteen the lovely bones apollo 13 eliza dushku

Troicki targets Murray

Troicki: Will look to test Murray's ankle injury

Sky Bet

• Sky Bet are offering everyone a Free �5 Bet Claim your free bet now

Viktor Troicki will attempt to test Andy Murray's fitness to the limit in their French Open fourth round encounter.

British No.1 Murray goes into the match having rolled his right ankle during the second set of his victory over Michael Berrer at Roland Garros.

Berrer admitted afterwards that he hadn't made the most of the injury, however 15th seed Troicki insists he won't make the same mistake against the Scot.

Murray: Rolled his ankle in the third round

Troicki, who has had his own fitness worries after food poisoning forced him out of the doubles, said: "We've never played on clay and I think Murray's weakest court is a clay court. If I play well, I think I have a chance.

Problem

"If he's injured and cannot run, I'm going to take advantage of that. I want to win my match.

"He would also do the same if I had the same problem. We are all professionals, so we try to win. Sometimes it's ugly, but that's our job."

Murray's clash against the 25-year-old will be the third match on Court Suzanne Lenglen on Monday, while other players in action include Rafael Nadal, who takes on Ivan Ljubicic, and Victoria Azarenka, now the highest seed left in the women's draw.

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12040_6959176,00.html

mike huckabee sarah silverman paul simon psn update

NBA Star J.R. Smith Busted ... for Illegal Scootering

5/29/2011 8:33 AM PDT�by TMZ Staff��

---

J.R. Smith is not going to gain any street cred from this arrest -- he was popped in Miami this weekend for operating a scooter without a valid driver's license. THUG LIFE!!!!

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Smith, who has played the last five seasons with the Denver Nuggets, was not taken to jail for the offense. We're told Smith signed a notice to appear -- he'll get his court date later.

South Beach beware -- Smith was released on his own recognizance.

No word on what happened to the scooter.

Tags: J.R. Smith,�TMZ Sports,�Celebrity Justice

---

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.tmz.com/2011/05/29/jr-smith-arrested-miami-beach-denver-nuggets-driving-scooter-without-license/

aztec belize maria sharapova israel news

'100 times more water' on moon - study

What water on the moon looks like, courtesy of scientists at Brown University. Picture: AFP Source: AP

• Water stored in magma crystals
• "As much as the Earth" in places
• Moon formation theory queried

THE moon may have a lot more water than imagined, perhaps as much as on Earth in some parts.

Study results released today have�cast doubt on long-held theories about how it was formed.

The moon was long thought to be a dusty, dry place until a few years ago when frozen water was discovered there for the first time.

Now scientists at Case Western Reserve University, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Brown University believe there is 100 times more water deep inside the moon than previously believed.

Scientists studied a sample of the "orange glass soil", formed during explosive eruptions on the moon 3.7 billion years ago and scooped up by American astronauts during the 1972 Apollo 17 mission, the last to visit the moon.

They used a precision instrument, called the NanoSIMS 50L ion microprobe, to examine lunar melt inclusions, or tiny bits of molten rock.

Unlike the majority of volcanic deposits, these are enshrouded in crystal cases that keep in water during eruption rather than allow it to escape.

"These samples provide the best window we have to the amount of water in the interior of the moon," co-author James Van Orman, professor of geological sciences at Case Western, said.

"The interior seems to be pretty similar to the interior of the Earth, from what we know about water abundance."

The findings are in the May 26 edition of Science Express.

The same team published a paper in Nature in 2008, describing the first evidence for the presence of water in volcanic glasses returned by the Apollo missions.

"The bottom line is that in 2008, we said the primitive water content in the lunar magmas should be similar to the water content in lavas coming from the Earth's depleted upper mantle," co-author Alberto Saal said.

"Now, we have proven that is indeed the case."

While the findings corroborate a long-held theory that the moon and Earth have common origins, they also cast doubt on the notion that the moon may have formed after a chunk of the Earth was dislodged, losing much of its moisture in the high-temperature process.

Under this "giant impact" theory dating back to the 1970s, the moon was formed after our planet collided with a space rock or planet some 4.5 billion years ago.

"This new research shows that aspects of this theory must be reevaluated," the study said.

The NASA-funded findings also raise questions about theories that ice found in craters at the lunar poles may have resulted from meteor impacts, suggesting some of it may have come from the eruption of lunar magmas.

NASA announced in 2009 that two spacecraft sent crashing into the lunar surface had discovered frozen water on the moon for the first time, a dramatic revelation it hailed as a giant leap forward in space exploration.

�

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/times-more-water039-on-moon-study/story-fn5fsgyc-1226063859606?from=public_rss

heart attack grill morganza spillway machiavelli clenbuterol

Women plunge from hotel after play fight

A WOMAN died on her 30th birthday and another woman was seriously injured when they plunged from a 10th-storey hotel window after play-fighting in their room.

Witnesses told police that Lashawna Threatt and a second woman were "play wrestling" in a room at the W Midtown Hotel around 3.15am on Saturday when they crashed into a window and fell four or five storeys on to a slanted glass ceiling above a sunroom.

"They were play wrestling and the next thing you know, they went toward the window and through the window and out they went," said�Lieutenant Paul Guerrucci, commander of the Atlanta Police Department's homicide unit.

Rescuers found Threatt dead on the sunroom roof. The second woman, whom police would not identify, tumbled off that same roof and fell on to an outdoor patio outside the hotel. She was taken to Grady Hospital with multiple broken bones and other injuries and was listed in critical condition.

"According to the witnesses, there was no arguing during the hours leading up to this, either, so it's really a tragic accident,"�Lieutenant Guerrucci said.

None of the handful of people in the hotel room have been charged with any crimes.�Lieutenant Guerrucci would not comment on whether alcohol could have played a role in the accident. Authorities were waiting on blood tests taken from the victim.

Hotel manager Michael O'Donohue referred all questions about the death back to police, citing the ongoing investigation. The hotel remained open on Saturday.

"The incident at the W Atlanta early Saturday is very tragic and our thoughts and prayers are with the woman who was injured and the family and friends of the woman who died in the fall," he said in a statement.

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newscomaumostpopularworldndm/~3/v-xZKnCjT5o/story-e6frfkyi-1226064861227

apollo 13 eliza dushku lacrosse palestine

FBI helping hunt for woman missing in Nepal

THE FBI says it's helping the US State Department in the investigation of a Colorado woman who disappeared while trekking alone in Nepal.

Denver FBI spokesman Dave Joly said today the agency was also working with Nepalese authorities on the disappearance of 23-year-old Aubrey Sacco of Greeley.

Ms Sacco�has not�been heard from since April 20, when she e-mailed her parents from Nepal. She planned to finish her trip around April 30.

Her father, Paul Sacco, told the Greeley Tribune that FBI agents had made two or three visits to his home.

Paul Sacco went to Nepal in May to look for his daughter.

He said he recovered her laptop computer and journal from a hotel.

Aubrey Sacco graduated from the University of Colorado last year.

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/fbi-helping-hunt-for-woman-missing-in-nepal/story-e6frfku0-1225885132162?from=public_rss

jehovah witness mike huckabee sarah silverman paul simon