Sappi, the world's largest maker of fine paper used in glossy magazines, said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 7 U.S. cents in the quarter to end-March from 10 U.S cents a year earlier.

Headline EPS, which exclude certain one-off and non-trading items, is the main profit gauge in South Africa.

The global paper industry is struggling to recover from a slump caused by sluggish demand and over capacity as major consumers in Europe grapple with recession.

But Sappi is turning its focus to higher margin businesses such as specialised cellulose to boost its earnings.

The company, also the world's top producer of chemical cellulose, is currently working on boosting its capacity of the product to more than 1.3 million tonnes a year.

Sappi produces chemical cellulose from its own woods for conversion into raw materials for clothing, plastics, food and pharmaceutical products.

LONDON (Reuters) - Robert Redford said on Wednesday that the future of London's Sundance film and music festival was by no means certain, as he launched the British version of an event that aims to boost interest in independent film.

Last year was the first time that the U.S. actor-director had ventured outside the United States with a version of the Sundance Film Festival, the world's leading independent film festival, that he set up in Park City, Utah, 35 years ago.

Redford said last year was "a toe-in-the-water experiment" and had been successful enough to repeat, with this year's line-up including the U.S. rock band the Eagles and the Canadian musician and performance artist Peaches.

But he was noncommittal on its future.

"It is hard to declare a length of commitment until you let it play out and see how it goes," Redford told a news conference before the festival at London's O2 venue from April 25-28.

Last year he told reporters that he hoped Sundance London would prove a success with audiences and allow him to expand the festival to other parts of the world as a counterweight to the Hollywood blockbusters that dominate cinemas globally.

When asked on Wednesday if he still planned to take Sundance to other countries, he replied with a curt "No".

Redford, 75, set up the Sundance Institute in 1981, which led to the film festival, to encourage emerging and aspiring filmmakers working outside Hollywood's major studios. But he said the sector continued its uphill battle.

"Independent film has always had to struggle for a place in the universe ... overall mostly due to the economy it is difficult," he said.

A slate of 119 films from 32 countries were shown at Sundance in January, and 21 U.S. and British films were selected for London as well as musical performances by Peaches and indie rock band British Sea Power. The Eagles are not performing.

This year's films include nine documentaries, which focus on a variety of themes ranging from a struggling British dairy farmer in "The Moo Man", the ill-fated 2008 K2 climb in "The Summit", and the "History of The Eagles Part One".

Others British premieres include Michael Winterbottom's "Look of Love", in which Steve Coogan plays porn king Paul Raymond; Lynn Shelton's comedy "Touchy Feely" about a massage therapist; and Barbara Kopple's documentary "Running From Crazy" about Mariel Hemingway.

Redford said he was particularly fond of documentaries and proud of the advances made in this genre in recent years, which he attributed to encouragement by the independent film sector.

"We kept pushing documentaries forward so that now in our festivals they take up pretty much the same space as others films do," he said.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)

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In separate incidents in 1999 and 2001, soldiers in Nigeria shelled villages, opened fire on residents and tortured civilians. While the military has denied abuse allegations surrounding the recent killings in Baga, the West African nation has a history of security forces indiscriminately killing civilians since it became an uneasy democracy after years of military rule.

And as officials hope to woo extremists into possible peace talks, the deaths of civilians and harassment by soldiers could likely betray its efforts. The government often claims its force is used only to combat the extremists, or criminals.

"You and I know nowadays the 'Boko Haram syndrome:' Anybody put in the public space as allegedly being killed in the course of fire as suspected Boko Haram persons, most members of the public will not fear it much," said Kemi Okenyodo, the executive director of the CLEEN Foundation, which monitors police and security forces in Nigeria. "Any crime that the public is strongly against it, it is easy to be used as a fluke for extrajudicial killings."

Government officials could not offer a breakdown of civilian, soldier and extremist deaths from Friday's fighting. Many of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition in fires that razed whole sections of the town, residents said. Those killed were buried as soon as possible, following local Muslim tradition.

Authorities also provide contradictory explanations about what really happened, as the military bans access for outside observers to an area officials want to describe as an insurgent stronghold.

Boko Haram members used heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the assault, which Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye said began after soldiers surrounded a mosque they believed was housing Boko Haram members. Extremists earlier had killed a military officer, officials said.

The fighting lasted for hours and the military said extremists used civilians as human shields implying that soldiers opened fire in neighborhoods where they knew civilians lived. However, local residents who spoke to an Associated Press journalist who accompanied the state officials said soldiers purposefully set the fires during the attack.

Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a military spokesman, on Tuesday declined to immediately answer other questions about the military's conduct and other issues surrounding the killings.

By the time Borno state officials could reach the city Sunday, a local government official said at least 185 people were killed, something not disputed by Edokpaye who accompanied officials on the visit. A spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross said Monday that at least 187 people had been killed, while another 77 were receiving medical treatment.

A statement issued Tuesday by Edokpaye said only six civilians died in the fighting Friday, as well as one soldier and some 30 extremists. The brigadier general also claimed extremist fighters used "anti-aircraft guns" in the attack, arms never seen used before in the three-year-old insurgency. The statement also said the fighting occurred on April 16 three days before the violence actually happened.

Nigeria's presidency has said the death toll "may be grossly exaggerated," but federal lawmakers have started their own investigations into the killings.

While Nigerian forces have served as peacekeepers in other African conflicts, many in the country remain fearful of soldiers. Nigerian media regularly reports on incidents where soldiers beat civilians in traffic or fight police officers in their own country.

"Fighting in a built-up area is a very difficult operation, but that notwithstanding, there must be standard rules of engagement," Senate President David Mark said Tuesday. "Those rules of engagement would not include mass killings, or extrajudicial killings, in any form."

But extrajudicial killings routinely occur in Nigeria, with police routinely shooting dead suspected "armed robbers," human rights activists say. That same mentality, a hangover from the military era when soldiers would routinely shoot dead prisoners on the then-swampy beaches of Victoria Island in Lagos, persists today.

Speaking Wednesday, President Goodluck Jonathan promised any soldier or security force member found committing such crimes would be "cautioned and treated in line with our own laws and regulations." But the nation's courts routinely drag out cases and such prosecutions remain rarer still.

"The problem of extrajudicial executions in Nigeria is closely linked to the remarkable inadequacies of almost all levels of the Nigerian criminal justice system," a United Nations report in 2006 on the killings said. The same report described how soldiers often operate without any rules of engagement when facing a civilian population.

There are several major cases in Nigeria's recent history of soldier abuses. In 2001, the military attacked some seven villages in Benue state following ethnic Tiv militants killing soldiers there. Witnesses said some 200 people died in the fighting that saw soldiers ransack villages, shell houses and gun down residents indiscriminately. In 1999, ethnic Ijaw activists claimed more than 200 civilians were killed by the military in Odi in Bayelsa state following the killings of police officers there.

A military raid in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state in 2010 against militants there killed some 150 people, activists said, though soldiers blocked AP journalists from reaching the area at the time. And in October 2012, when extremists killed a military officer in Maiduguri, soldiers killed at least 30 civilians and set fires across a neighborhood in retaliation. The military later denied committing the abuses.

"In such incidents it is assumed by officials that the armed forces acted in 'self-defense' or were otherwise justified in carrying out retaliatory executions of civilians," the 2006 U.N. report reads. "Thus, although the intentional killing of unarmed civilians, whether in situations of armed conflict or otherwise, is a clear violation of both international and Nigerian law, impunity is the reality."

And despite Nigeria's presidency promising an investigation into the Baga killings, the same may continue to happen today.

"There is a consistent pattern in responding to these incidents," the U.N. said. "Major human rights violations are alleged; the authorities announce an inquiry; and either the resulting reports are not published, or the recommendations are ignored."

___

Associated Press writer Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, and Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

The aid community believes that tens of thousands of people died needlessly because the international community was slow to respond to early signs of approaching hunger in East Africa in late 2010 and early 2011.

The toll was also exacerbated by extremist militants from al-Shabab who banned food aid deliveries to the areas of south-central Somalia that they controlled. Those same militants have also made the task of figuring out an accurate death toll extremely difficult.

A Western official briefed on the new report the most authoritative to date told AP that it says 260,000 people died, and that half the victims were 5 and under. Two other international officials briefed on the report confirmed that the toll was in the quarter-million range. All three insisted they not be identified because they were not authorized to share the report's contents before it is officially released.

The report is being made public Thursday by FEWSNET, a famine early warning system funded by the U.S. government's aid arm USAID, and by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit - Somalia, which is funded by the U.S. and Britain.

A previous estimate by the U.K. government said between 50,000 and 100,000 people died in the famine. The new report used research conducted by specialists experienced in estimating death tolls in emergencies and disasters. Those researchers relied on food and mortality data compiled by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit.

Because of the imprecise nature of the data available, the toll remains only an estimate.

When asked about the report, Somalia Health Minister Maryan Qasim Ahmed said she didn't want to comment until she read it because of questions she had about the accuracy of the figures.

Sikander Khan, the head of UNICEF in Somalia, also said he needed to look at the report's methodology before commenting specifically. But he said generally that the response to the famine was problematic because it depended on political dynamics. He said the international community needs to change the way it classifies famines.

"You lose children by the time people realize it's met the established definition of famine," he said.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - TransCanada Corp, Canada's No. 2 pipeline company, said on Friday the long wait for U.S. government approval of its controversial Keystone XL project will further delay completion of the pipeline and push its cost above the company's $5.3 billion estimate.

TransCanada, which reported a 27 percent rise in first-quarter profit on Friday, is waiting for the Obama administration to issue a presidential permit for construction of the line, which is designed to carry 830,000 barrels a day of Canadian and U.S. crude oil to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

That permit, pending now for more than four years, may face further delays after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency condemned the State Department's draft environmental review of the project earlier this week, saying it didn't properly address a host of issues ranging from increases in carbon emissions to the pipeline's social impact.

TransCanada, which had maintained that the line could be in service in late 2014 or early 2015, said on Friday the wrangling in Washington will delay its completion until the second half of 2015.

"Due to ongoing delays in the issuance of a presidential permit for Keystone XL, we now expect the pipeline to be in service in the second half of 2015 and, based on our pipeline construction experience, the $5.3 billion cost estimate will increase depending on the timing of the permit," the company said in a release.

Environmental groups have exerted considerable pressure on the White House to block the pipeline, saying it will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, pollute land and water, and plow through the habitats of endangered species.

TransCanada said it has invested $1.8 billion so far in the project.

Despite the delay, the company said its customers still support the line and none of the contracted shippers have backed out of the project.

"Our shippers continue to support this pipeline. They have right from the beginning ... and I expect they will continue to support the pipeline" Russ Girling, TransCanada's chief executive, told reporters.

TransCanada has already started construction on Keystone XL's $2.6 billion southern leg, a 700,000 bpd project that will take crude from the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub as far as Houston. Work on the Cushing to Port Arthur, Texas, part of the line is 70 percent complete and is expected to open by year's end.

Construction of the 76-kilometer (47 mile) Port Arthur to Houston portion of the line begins later this year and will be in service by mid-2014.

While it awaits a decision from the Obama administration, the company is proposing a new line that could carry as much as 850,000 bpd from Alberta to Canada's Atlantic coast.

The company launched a process to gauge demand for the line earlier this month. That process runs until June 17 and TransCanada says the line could be in service by late 2017.

In reporting on its quarterly results, the company said net income attributable to common shares rose to C$446 million ($437 million), or 63 Canadian cents a share, from C$352 million, or 50 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.

Comparable earnings, which exclude most one-time items, were C$370 million, or 52 Canadian cents a share.

Revenue rose 16 percent to C$2.25 billion.

TransCanada shares fell 63 Canadian cents to C$49.14 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.

($1=$1.02 Canadian)

(Editing by Peter Galloway)

They were wrong on the first count, and partly right on the second.

The FAA has no choice but to cut $637 million as its share of $85 billion in automatic, government-wide spending cuts that must be achieved by the end of the federal budget year on Sept. 30.

The cuts are required under a law enacted two years ago as the government was approaching its debt limit. Democrats were in favor of raising the debt limit without strings attached so as not to provoke an economic crisis, but Republicans insisted on substantial cuts in exchange. The compromise was to require that every government "program, project and activity" with some exceptions, like Medicare be cut equally.

"It was intentionally designed to provide no discretion whatsoever," said Stan Collender, a former House and Senate budget committee staffer, and author of "The Guide to the Federal Budget."

At the time, it was thought the prospects of the cuts would be so dreadful that it would force both sides to negotiate a more sensible plan to resolve the government's budget woes. But that didn't happen, and the first of the cuts kicked in on March 1.

As a result, the FAA has reduced the work schedules of nearly all of its 47,000 employees by one day every two weeks, including 15,000 air traffic controllers, as well as thousands of air traffic supervisors, managers and technicians who keep airport towers and radar facility equipment working. That's a 10 percent cut in hours and pay.

The House voted overwhelmingly Friday to allow the FAA to shift money among budget accounts to avoid controller furloughs, following quick approval Thursday in the Senate. The White House has said President Barack Obama would go along with the move.

Republicans and the airline industry insist the FAA could find other places to cut in its nearly $16 billion annual budget. Two airline trade associations have filed a lawsuit trying to halt the furloughs.

"They (the White House) want to cause the most pain to the American people out there so they will put pressure on Congress to back away from sequestration (spending cuts)," said Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. "This should be laid right at the president's feet."

But the budget law doesn't allow steeper cuts in one program in order to offset cuts in another. Air traffic control is part of the FAA's operations account, 70 percent of which goes toward employee salaries. The FAA plans to cut $485 million from operations, about $220 million of which will come from furloughs, said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.

Shuster points to contracts, consultants and travel as other expenditures that could be cut instead. But that's not as simple as it may sound.

Travel already has been reduced, mainly to trips to keep the air traffic system functioning, like sending a technician to a facility to resolve an equipment problem, Huerta said. Overtime is being preserved for emergencies.

The largest of the agency's operations contracts is to provide and maintain a communications system for air traffic operations. The second-largest contract is for provision of weather, information on flight restrictions and other services to pilots. And the third-largest pays companies to provide controllers for towers at small airports. The FAA's proposal to save money by shutting down 149 of the towers already has drawn complaints from lawmakers in both parties who don't want airports in their states and districts to lose towers.

"I would have to take the administration's position on this," said Bill Hoagland, a former Republican Senate Budget Committee aide who helped write a 1985 budget law that was the model for the current budget-cutting law. "They are administering the law as written."

The budget law is specifically worded so that cuts are spread evenly across programs, making it difficult for the FAA to use money for contracts, for example, to make up for payroll cuts even through both are in the same budget "account," he said.

At a news conference Thursday, congressional Republicans said if the FAA had to furlough controllers, it should have furloughed more of them in places like Waterloo, Iowa, instead of at big hub airports.

The FAA decided against doing that because it would mean picking winners and losers among airlines and regions of the country, Huerta said. Also, the air traffic system is by its nature interconnected small airports are needed to feed passengers to the bigger hubs, he said.

Lawmakers also have complained that the FAA didn't warn them air traffic disruptions were coming.

"How come you didn't tell us about this beforehand, the sequester, impact on the layoffs, the furloughs? Not a word. Not a breath," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., angrily demanded of Huerta at a hearing this week.

Airline and airport officials say they didn't receive specific information from the FAA about how the furloughs might affect air travel until a meeting called by the agency on April 16, six days before the furloughs took effect. Airport officials said they weren't invited and had to push the FAA to allow them to come to the meeting.

In fact, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA officials have been warning Congress and airlines since February that the furloughs were coming and that they could cause major delays. LaHood even held a news conference at the White House. Administration officials also discussed the impending furloughs at congressional hearings in March and earlier this month.

But lawmakers and industry officials also have a point. In none of those hearings did FAA or Transportation Department officials go out of their way to disclose to Congress the extent of the anticipated flight delay mess, even though they had that information in hand at three hearings last week. Nor did they solicit help from Congress to avoid the furloughs. Rather, officials emphasized that safety would be maintained.

"We offered our apologies to them for the fact that we had not kept them informed about all of the things that we had been discussing," LaHood told reporters after a meeting Wednesday with Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the senior Republican member of the committee, to discuss possible legislation to resolve the situation.

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

EDITOR'S NOTE _ An occasional look at claims by political figures and how well they adhere to the facts.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- The genetic testing instrument business Affymetrix Inc. expects first-quarter revenue below Wall Street expectations.

The Santa Clara, Calif., company said Tuesday it expects total revenue of about $78 million for the quarter that ended March 31. That includes about $19 million from its eBioscience segment. Affymetrix will report full results April 30 after markets close.

Analysts expect, on average, revenue of $83.3 million, according to FactSet.

The company also said Tuesday it expects to report cash on hand of at least $38 million as of March 31.

Affymetrix technology helps analyze biological systems at the cell, protein and gene levels. For instance, it provides kits for molecular biology applications like DNA sequencing and protein analysis.

Its shares finished at $4.66 on Monday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $2.96 to $5.50.

Hemisphere will be serving traditional derby cocktails, as well as their signature drinks such as the Southside Fizz, Spiced Martinez, and French 75.

Hemisphere is the perfect location to watch the horse races, as it boasts an intimate space with contemporary décor. Aside from the comfortable environment, guests are encouraged to come dressed in their best derby garb; bright colored clothing, large hats and accessories. There will be a best-dressed contest for both ladies and gentlemen dressed in traditional derby attire.

Aside from the derby, Hemisphere has additional entertainment planned. A 50/50 raffle allows guests an opportunity to take home a cash prize, with the other half going to charity. There will also be an Ample Gamble; guests can pick the top three finishers to win the pot. Hemisphere also has surprises planned for guests throughout the afternoon.

After the derby, live music will entertain guests. Reservations are recommended.

About the Company:

With the soulful sounds of live jazz and blues filling the restaurant, Hemisphere is a new sophisticated supper and jazz club with a New York City lounge restaurant vibe. The ever-changing list of musical talent, creative cocktails, and outstanding cuisine makes Hemisphere a stimulating place to dine again and again. Please visitfor more information about Hemisphere's fine dining experience.

Christopher CoxHemisphere631-647-8526

Wailing, angry relatives fought with police who held them back from the wrecked, eight-story Rana Plaza building, as search-and-rescue operations went on more than two days after the structure crumbled.

Amid the cries for help and the smell of decaying bodies, the rescue of 18-year-old Mussamat Anna came at a high cost: Emergency crews cut off the garment worker's mangled right hand to pull her free from the debris Thursday night.

"First a machine fell over my hand, and I was crushed under the debris. ... Then the roof collapsed over me," she told an Associated Press cameraman from a hospital bed Friday.

More than 40 survivors were found late Friday evening on some floors of the Rana Plaza, said fire service inspector Shafiqul Islam, who searched the building. Through holes in the structure, he gave them water and juice packs to combat dehydration in the stifling heat and humidity.

"They are alive, they are trapped, but most of them are safe. We need to cut through debris and walls to bring them out," Islam said.

By Friday night, more than 80 survivors had been rescued, according to officials at a command center.

But more dead were also discovered. Shamim Islam, a volunteer who entered the collapsed building along with rescue workers, said he saw "many bodies inside."

"I threw some water bottles through a hole, as there were some survivors, too," he said.

The search will continue into Saturday, officials said, with crews cautiously using hammers, shovels and their bare hands. Many of the trapped workers were so badly hurt and weakened that they needed to be removed within a few hours, the rescuers said.

There were fears that even if unhurt, the survivors could be dehydrated, with daytime temperatures soaring to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and about 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight.

Hundreds of rescuers crawled through the rubble amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers' relatives gathered outside the building, which housed numerous garment factories and a handful of other companies.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing rescue operations, said before the evening rescues that 2,200 people have been pulled out alive. A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed Wednesday in Savar, a suburb of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.

Military spokesman Shahin Islam told reporters that 304 bodies had been recovered so far.

An AP cameraman who accompanied a rescue crew Thursday heard the anguished cries for help from two men one half-buried under a slab beside two corpses, the other entombed deep in the rubble. The first man later died and the second had not been heard from for hours and is presumed dead, rescuers said.

Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy told reporters that search-and-rescue operations would continue until at least Saturday, because "we know a human being can survive for up to 72 hours in this situation."

Forty people had been trapped on the fourth floor of the building until rescuers reached them Thursday evening. Twelve were soon freed, and crews worked to get the rest out safely, Shikder said. Crowds burst into applause as survivors were brought out.

Police cordoned off the site, pushing back thousands of bystanders and relatives after rescue workers complained the crowds were hampering their work.

Clashes broke out between the relatives and police, who used batons to disperse them. Police said 50 people were injured in the skirmishes.

"We want to go inside the building and find our people now. They will die if we don't find them soon," said Shahinur Rahman, whose mother was missing.

Thousands of workers from the hundreds of garment factories across the Savar industrial zone and other nearby areas marched elsewhere to protest the poor safety standards in Bangladesh. Local news reports said demonstrators smashed dozens of cars Friday, although most of the protests were largely peaceful.

Police say cracks in the Rana Plaza had led them to order an evacuation Tuesday, but the factories ignored the order and were operating when the building collapsed the next day. Video before the collapse shows cracks in walls, with apparent attempts at repair. It also shows columns missing chunks of concrete and police talking to building operators.

Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.

Abdul Halim, an official with Savar's engineering department, said the owner of Rana Plaza was allowed to erect a five-story building but had added another three stories illegally.

Mahbubul Haque Shakil, a spokesman for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said she had ordered police to arrest the building's owner as well as the owners of the garment factories in "the shortest possible time."

Police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed negligence cases against the building owner, identified as Mohammed Sohel Rana.

Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of Dhaka district, said Rana was a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.

Two of Rana's relatives were detained for questioning, police officer Mohammad Kawser said.

The disaster is the worst ever for the country's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. Since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country's minimum wage is now the equivalent of about $38 a month.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.

Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the collapse underscored the urgency for Bangladesh's government, as well as the factory owners, buyers and labor groups, to improve working conditions in the country.

Human Rights Watch says Bangladesh's Ministry of Labor has only 18 inspectors to monitor thousands of garment factories in the Dhaka district, where much of the nation's garment industry is located.

John Sifton, the group's Asia advocacy director, also noted that none of the factories in the Rana Plaza were unionized, and that had they been, workers would have been in a better position to refuse to enter the building Wednesday.

___

AP writers Muneeza Naqvi and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi, Stephen Wright in Bangkok, Kay Johnson in Mumbai, Matthew Pennington in Washington and AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.