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Growing concerns over the safety of everyday goods manufactured in China and imported to the US have thrown into relief the problematic (and dangerous) differences in safety and regulatory standards between the two countries.

Last year, the CEOs of the 500 biggest U.S. companies averaged $15.2 million in total annual compensation, according to Forbes business magazine's annual executive pay survey. The top eight CEOs on the Forbes list each pocketed over $100 million. Stunning numbers like these have moved executive pay onto America's political radar screen.

KBR, the government contracting firm formerly under Halliburton, did not keep accurate records of gasoline distribution, put its employees in living spaces that may be larger than warranted and served meals that appeared to cost $4.5 million more than necessary under a contract to perform work in Iraq, according to an audit by a government oversight agency.

Environmentalistsa and land-owners livng along the US-Mexico border express anger at the US government's plan to build 700 miles of fence along the US-Mexico border, claiming that the fence will threaten both local farming and a valuable nature preserve and wildlife corridor.

Environmental campaigners are urging several heavyweight investment firms, including Credit Suisse, Barclays, Fortis Group and Merrill Lynch, to shoulder some responsibility for a catastrophic mud volcano on the Indonesian island of Java that resulted from a gas project the firms helped fund.

Globalization has been both a boon and a bane for South Africa; it has helped along the country's integration into the global economy and strengthened its regional political position, but it has also contributed to the widening gap between a wealthy minority and the poor majority, something that is creating a whole new generation of disenfranchised citizens.

A female pharmacist dismissed by Wal-Mart has been awarded nearly $2m (£1m) in damages after a jury concluded she was the victim of discrimination.

The securities industry dodged a bullet on Monday when the Supreme Court threw out a private antitrust suit that accused 10 leading investment banks of conspiring to fix prices for the initial public offerings of hundreds of technology companies during the 1990s.

False promises of good pay and healthy working conditions fed to Indian migrant workers in Malaysia have led to destitution, physical abuse, and now, it seems, death.

The former chief of the Internet unit at Enron has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for helping mislead investors in the fraud that sent Enron, the world's largest energy trader, into bankruptcy.