By Jeffrey Cohan

Inspired by the Sinaltrainal union's case against Coca-Cola, a La Roche College student filed a similar lawsuit last week against Occidental Petroleum, a Los Angeles-based corporation allegedly involved in the 1998 bombing of his Colombian village.

(Los Angeles, CA)-- On April 24, 2003, a group of international human rights attorneys shall be bringing suit under the Alien Tort Claims Act against Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and its security contractor, Airscan, Inc., for their role in the murder of innocent civilians in the hamlet of Santo Domingo, Colombia on December 13, 1998. The suit is being filed by International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the Center for Human Rights at the Northwestern University School of Law.

By Caroline Tiger

Chances are good that child workers -- some of whom are slaves -- helped produce your valentine bonbons. The chocolate industry has promised to get kids out of the cocoa trade. But profits still come before progress.

By Nicola Carslaw

BBC consumer affairs correspondent in Matagalpa, Nicaragua

However much you are prepared to pay for a cup of coffee, the growers just get paid a pittance.

Coffee is a commodity crop - the second biggest after crude oil - and due partly to over-supply world coffee prices have reached record lows in the past few months.

In Nicaragua, growers are having to abandon their farms.

Now, the United Nations World Food Programme says one-in-eight children is starving.