Mira Oberman
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/ 9 January 2006

US auto makers on defensive

United States auto makers were on the defensive at the Detroit Auto Show this week as Asian rival Honda captured the prestigious car and truck of the year awards and disgruntled auto workers protested outside. "We can’t buy what we build with a 60% pay cut," said Michele Carriere (46), who works for auto-parts supplier Delphi.

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/ 9 January 2006

Growth in new hybrid vehicles still limited

Hybrid vehicles were the toast of the Detroit auto show this month, but many are warning that the segment will see limited growth. "I don’t think that hybrids will occupy the majority of the market, because the hybrid price is still higher than the customer’s value," Nissan chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga said.

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/ 8 December 2005

‘Chickens are the most abused animals’

Scalding chickens alive is the wrong way to prepare meat for a McNugget, animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said on Wednesday. Peta and socially responsible investment firm Trillium Asset Management issued a shareholder’s resolution calling on the fast food giant McDonald’s to require its suppliers to switch to a humane system of slaughtering chickens.

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/ 23 November 2005

They taste so good ‘cos they eat so good

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, there is nothing left in Rick Undesser’s turkey barns but feathers and dirt. The slaughter began 10 days before Thanksgiving. A team of 24 hauled 350 birds a day from the barns to the butcher shop where they were slaughtered, plucked and packaged in air-tight plastic.

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/ 28 October 2005

Odyssey for Katrina victims

The road from New Orleans to Chicago has been a long one for bartenders Webb Rhodes and Fritz Voght. Two months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged their city and destroyed their way of life, the longtime friends are still scrambling to find work and a place to live. It hasn’t been easy.

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/ 27 September 2005

US soldier guilty of prisoner abuse

A United States military panel on Monday convicted Private Lynndie England on six out of seven counts of mistreating Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad. England became the public face of the scandal after photographs of the soldier holding a leash attached to a naked prisoner were shown around the world.