Being a GUS, I should be posting this in a GUS diary but what the heck, being an ex-smoker gives me a certain privilege, right ?
BBC sez
Cigarette maker Philip Morris International has acknowledged "serious issues" after a report said it bought tobacco from Kazakh farms that used forced and child labour.
The company said it had taken "immediate steps" to ban certain practises and to increase monitoring.
The report, by Human Rights Watch, said migrant workers had their passports seized and worked enforced overtime.
In some cases children as young as 10 were working, the report said.
Human Rights Watch said its report was based on interviews carried out in 2009 with 68 people.
It examined the plight of the tens of thousands of Kyrgyz workers who travel to Kazakhstan each year to work on tobacco farms.
The report found that employers failed to pay workers regularly and cheated them of earnings.
Some families were forced to work for eight or nine months before being paid a lump sum after the tobacco harvest.
Workers who wished to leave found in some cases that they could not - either because they would have to forfeit pay or because their employer withheld their travel documents.
Great isn't it ? Cig cos kill both sides of demand and supply and make a killing in the process.
BBC again
Illegal logging in the world's forests has fallen by nearly a quarter since 2002, according to what claims to be the most thorough analysis yet.
The London-based thinktank Chatham House says consumer pressure, legal restrictions by importing countries and media attention have all contributed.
Some important forest countries such as Brazil, Cameroon and Indonesia have seen much larger cuts, its report says.
But further improvements will be harder to make, it concludes.
The biggest documented falls in illegal timber production have been in Brazil, Cameroon and Indonesia, three of the world's most heavily forested countries.
Indonesia has seen a drop of 75% in a decade. Cameroon's figure is 50%, and Brazil is between the two.
Globally, the figure is 22% since 2002.
That's a great news for environment.
That damned BBC again
Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32ft-long ship (9.8m) hull believed to have been buried in the 18th Century.
Archaeologists believe the ship was used as filler material to extend lower Manhattan into the Hudson River.
Archaeologist Molly McDonald hopes the ship, discovered on Tuesday, would be retrieved by the end of the day.
It is unclear if any large portions of the hull would remain intact, but Ms McDonald hopes to salvage some timbers.
"We're mostly clearing it by hand because it's kind of fragile," said Ms McDonald.
Cool, an 18th century ship ? That's smokin' hot. Female Archaeologists are smokin' hot too.
Sorry for another frigggin' BBC story
Four people have been arrested in a tax-evasion investigation into France's richest woman.
Police have opened three probes involving L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt following allegations of tax evasion and of illegal donations to the president's 2007 election campaign.
Those arrested on Thursday include society photographer Francois-Marie Banier, a friend of the heiress, 87.
The case has rocked Nicolas Sarkozy's government.
Mr Banier was formally detained for questioning at the Paris office of the financial crimes unit.
Mrs Bettencourt's financial adviser Patrice de Maistre and her former tax lawyer, Fabrice Goguel, were also held.
Carlos Vejarano, the manager of the Arros island in the Seychelles, which Bettencourt allegedly owns and used as a tax haven, and allegedly gave to Mr Banier, was the fourth person seized by French police.
...
The affair has embarrassed Mr Sarkozy's government because of allegations that his campaign team accepted 147,000 euros from Mrs Bettencourt to help his election in 2007, around 20 times the legal limit.
Mr Sarkozy has vigorously dismissed the accusations, calling them lies and calumny.
He claimed his opponents were trying to destabilise the government as it tried to reform the pension system.
The hottest smokin' story of the night. I look forward to the day when corrupt right wingers like sarkozy & berlusconi are kicked out of their office.