On 1 January this year Wal-Mart introduced a system of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on pallets and cases of merchandise going to 150 stores in the southern US.
Two reports have revealed that the issue of torture of Iraqi detainees is far more widespread than either US or British officials would have us believe.
The first Palestinian election since 1996 has been greeted with a great international fanfare of publicity and a groundswell of expectations that it will usher in a new era of peace and stability, the attack on the Israeli checkpoint of Karni notwithstanding.
Carl Webb from the US and George Solomou from Britain explain to Andrew Stone and Simon Assaf why they refuse to go and fight in Iraq.
Whose elections are they anyway? Mundher Adhami looks at the prospects for democracy in Iraq.
Despite New Labour's claims social justice and the free market are unhappy bedfellows.
Workers faced down the police and the army to unionise in 1930s America. Charles R Walker's classic American City takes up the story.
Satirical cartoonist Michael Leunig discusses art and politics with Peter Morgan.
Bush's faces more problems in his second term than many realise, argues Chris Harman.
There is nothing inevitable about an increasing number of deaths in natural disasters.
