Working for a private corporation based in the heart of Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre, Bakaya smokes only Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes ' also a favourite of the company executives he drives around.

He has to shell out nearly US$1,40 for a packet of 10 of these cigarettes ' more than a day's wages for most people in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries.

While Bakaya can afford to pay for his expensive smoke, Malawian farmers growing the tobacco that ends up in these cigarettes are finding it hard to survive.

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- New York’s Garment District is being buried in a cheap Chinese suit.

In the child labour debate, one apologistic argument often rears its ugly head. It posits that many poor people rely on their children to work to support the family and that it would be naive to think this situation can be reversed quickly.

Which is preferable, proponents of this line of logic ask: a family able to feed itself, or a starving child in school? It is the question that passes through countless Western heads when they see small children hawking magazines at Indian traffic stops or serving chai at tea stalls.

By Seth Michaels

Outside the embassy of Uzbekistan today, nearly 100 union members and allies from the Washington, D.C., area rallied to show their support for Uzbek children subjected to child labor. Millions of children, some as young as age 7, could be subjected to long hours of labor in cotton fields this fall.