When it emerged that the Tazreen plant had been making clothes for Walmart, the US giant said it had no knowledge of this.

BBC: The dark underworld of Bangladesh's clothes industry

The ABP Food Group, one of Europe's biggest suppliers and processors, stopped work at its Silvercrest Foods plant in Ireland, after the contamination emerged.

BBC: 'No horse or pork DNA' found in Dalepak beef tests

In the fall of 2009, when news emerged that Iran had secretly built a uranium enrichment plant on an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base near Qom, ElBaradei went to Iran, and on Oct. 4 made a statement there that could hardly have been more deferential toward the UN sanctioned and nonproliferation-treaty-violating Iranian regime.

FORBES: Beware the Brokering of Egypt's ElBaradei

General Fonseka an American green-card holder, mendaciously accused by Mr Rajapaksa's supporters of being a foreign plant suffered embarrassment on polling day when it emerged that he was not registered to vote.

ECONOMIST: Sri Lanka's election

This week, though, it emerged that Seagate, an American technology firm, had chosen Malaysia over Thailand for a new plant.

ECONOMIST: Thailand