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The US tire manufacturer Bridgestone-Firestone has the biggest rubber plantation in the world in Liberia.

It was started more than 80 years ago. In recent years, Firestone has faced claims of child labor, poor living conditions, and environmental mismanagement.

By Taylor Ferry

After reports of labor abuses by major chocolate corporations recently surfaced, smaller businesses and some consumers are moving to purchase chocolate that meets Fair Trade standards for worker treatment and wages.

Colombia, one of the Latin American countries where Valentine's Day is least celebrated, is paradoxically perhaps the country on the continent with most at stake in the event.

For the country's flower industry, it marks the sales peak of a trade which earns $1bn (£500m) a year.

For employee rights groups, 14 February is designated as the International Day of Flower Workers, a chance to raise awareness about alleged poor conditions faced by the industry's 99,000 workers...  

Labour rights campaigners will take some of the romance out of Valentine’s Day on Thursday by warning lovers that their traditional gifts of flowers and chocolates are often bought at an intolerable cost to those who produce them.

At a briefing hosted by the United Nations, they plan to highlight the suffering of farm labourers in Africa and Latin America, some of whom work in near slave conditions to supply goods to a ­predominantly western market.