INTERNATIONAL BRIEFING
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CANADA
12 Dead in Food-Poisoning Outbreak
Twelve people have now died out of 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning linked to deli meats produced at a plant owned by Maple Leaf Foods, Canadian health officials said yesterday.
There are another 29 suspected cases of listeriosis, officials told reporters, and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said the government expected more cases in coming days. Previously, four deaths had been attributed to the outbreak.
Maple Leaf has voluntarily pulled about 220 products made at the plant in one of the biggest food recalls ever in Canada, with direct costs to the company of about $19 million.
CHILE
President Pushes Equal Pay for Equal Work
President Michelle Bachelet is urging the Chilean Senate to pass a bill to equalize wages between men and women.
Women make up 40 percent of Chile's 6.7 million workers. A 2006 survey says that they earn only 72 percent of what men make doing the same work.
The equal-pay measure has been pending before the Senate since 2006. Bachelet is raising the issue to coincide with an international conference on equality.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean says that pay equality in Chile is ahead of Mexico and Bolivia, where women make 63 percent of men's salaries. But Chile trails Honduras and Venezuela, where women make 81 percent and 79 percent respectively. U.S. women make roughly 80 percent of men's salaries.
SECURITIES
U.S., Australian Regulators Sign Accord
U.S. and Australian stock exchanges and brokers could be allowed to operate in each other's countries without being subject to most local regulation, under a new agreement between regulators.
Wall Street interests praised the announcement made yesterday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. But Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, called it a "radical" deregulatory move.
