Richard Bilton reports from Brazil on the hard, and sometimes illegal, labour it takes to produce the sugarcane for the country's successful biofuel industry.

EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes tells France and Germany not to start a "subsidy race" to save the car industry

US carmakers are given a deadline to produce a viable recovery plan if they want a $25bn government bail-out.

A US company that supplies equipment to the construction industry announces 130 job losses at its Scottish site.

A Derby man who made and sold pirated copies of audiobooks at a cost of more than £1m to the publishing industry is jailed.

Peru and China are intensifying their economic ties but is the Andean nation relying too much on Chinese economic input, asks the BBC's Dan Collyns in Lima

Facts and graphics about the BBC Box and shipping containers used by the industry today.

A decision that could see a further 250 manufacturing jobs cut is described as a devastating blow.

With Presidend-elect committing to address the issue of online privacy, a newly launched group of privacy experts and advisers are hoping to influence policy and set industry standards.

In the automotive industry, car companies must invest in all potential technologies, or they run the risk being wrong. "And if you're wrong," says GM president Fritz Henderson, "it can threaten your firm."

US politicians are looking for a compromise plan to aid the country's crisis-ridden car industry.

A strike by thousands of workers in India's thriving TV soap entertainment industry is called off.

Scottish fishing industry leaders welcome a deal by EU fisheries ministers to protect cod stocks.

Women with first-hand experience of the sex industry gave the BBC News website contrasting perspectives on the government's clampdown of prostitution.

A leading supplier to the construction industry, SIG, says it will shed 900 jobs and close 65 trading sites.

The government has struck a deal on the cost of drugs which should save the NHS in the UK £400m a year.

The Freedom of Falkirk is awarded to those who kept vital industries going during World War II.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are in trouble, and as a consequence many other firms in Detroit suffer as well.

The bosses of the three biggest US carmakers, Ford, GM and Chrysler ask Congress for a $25bn bail-out.

Amid a series of ship seizures off the Somali coast, BBC News website readers in the maritime industry share their concerns and experiences.