Apple Inc. has reported that some of its suppliers hired underage Asian workers to help build the iPhone, iPod and Macintosh computer last year. In China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Philippines and the U.S. Apple also found cases where suppliers “falsified records” to conceal underage hiring, more than 60 facilities where employees were overworked, 24 partners that paid less than the minimum wage and 57 who didn’t offer all required benefits. The company said, “Apple’s Code sets a maximum of 60 work hours per week and requires at least one day of rest per seven days of work,” Apple also said it asked suppliers to end a practice “where wage deductions were used for disciplinary purposes.”  How about instead Apple simply moves its all its manufacturing to the United States of America and employs union labor?  Or would that endanger their executive salaries? And, even worse, encourage hundreds of other high-tech manufacturers to do the same?

In Strange News...a Boozy ape was sent to rehab. A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he picked up in a zoo. "The beer and cigarettes were ruining him," The Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said,"He would pester passers-by for booze."