Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images

Customs officers stand guard as a South Korean company vehicle carrying products made in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea, arrives Saturday, April 27, 2013, at the customs, immigration and quarantine office just south of the demilitarized zone separating North from South Korea in Paju, north of Seoul. 

The South Korean Unification Ministry announced plans Friday to withdraw all 170 remaining workers from the Kaesong industrial complex after failing to persuade the North to restart talks about the normalization of Kaesong's operations.

Full story: Majority of South Koreans in North Korean factory to return

Greg Kahn / Getty Images

Fishermen cast nets for bait fish in the Almendares River before heading out to fish for the day near Havana, Cuba, Nov. 16, 2012. Despite Cuba's fisheries being at critically low levels according to the United Nations, fishermen are still catching enough to make a living.

Greg Kahn / Getty Images

Fishermen haul in a marlin at a dock in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 16.

Greg Kahn / Getty Images

A fisherman repairs his cast net at one of the local fishing docks in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 16.

Greg Kahn / Getty Images

Feral cats crowd a boat in hopes of receiving scraps from fishermen at a dock in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 16.

Greg Kahn / Getty Images

Fishermen help pull a boat into a landing at a local dock in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 16.

Follow @NBCNewsPictures

•Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

Carlos Barria / Reuters

An employee makes plastic Christmas trees at the Zhongsheng Christmas Crafts factory in Yiwu, Zhejiang province on Sept. 13. Christmas comes but once a year, but for Christmas decoration factories and retailers in China, it starts as early as July and ends in late September, when massive orders from around the world arrive in Yiwu, located 185 miles south of Shanghai in the prosperous Zhejiang province. Yiwu is considered a bellwether for China's low-cost exports, especially exports destined for emerging markets. Orders come from places as far away as Europe, the United States and South America. This year, European demand for Christmas goods has dropped sharply, local vendors said. One estimated European orders were down 20 percent from last year, while another said his European orders had fallen by 40 percent.

Carlos Barria / Reuters

A vendor smokes next to an inflatable Santa Claus outside of his Christmas decoration shop in Yiwu, Zhejiang province on Sept. 13.

Reuters -- Shoppers the world over are stressed and forcing retail executives to be both more aggressive and more conservative heading into the year-end holiday period and new year.

U.S. retail executives are not reading too much into a recent uptick in consumer spending growth, while their European counterparts are dealing with shoppers afraid that the region is slipping into recession.

In the face of such prospects, the trick for retailers and consumer brands will be to figure out how to coax shoppers into stores and onto websites without shrinking profit margins through discounting, opening too many new stores or loading up on inventory that could go unsold at Christmas.

Continue reading.

Carlos Barria / Reuters

Natalia Malharoblishvki from Georgia buys Christmas decorations at a commercial area in Yiwu, Zhejiang province on Sept. 13.

Follow @NBCNewsPictures

Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

A fisherman walks with his catch on the banks of the Yangtze River, near the Three Gorges dam, in Yichang, Hubei province, China, Aug. 9, 2012.

Carlos Barria, Reuters — China relocated 1.3 million people during the 17 years it took to complete the Three Gorges dam. Even after finishing the $59 billion project last month, the threat of landslides along the dam's banks will force tens of thousands to move again. The dam is a reminder of the social and environmental challenges that have dogged the world's largest hydroelectric project. While there has been little protest among residents who will be relocated a second time, the environmental fallout over other big investments in China has become a hot-button issue ahead of a leadership transition this year.

Related Articles:

• Thousands being moved from China’s Three Gorges - again
• Three Gorges Dam to create eco-refugees
• Warming has shrunk China’s two biggest rivers

EDITOR’S NOTE: these images were received on Aug. 22.

Ma Tianxin examines the cracked walls of his home after a landslide near Badong, on the bank of the Yangtze River, 62 miles from the Three Gorges dam, in Hubei province, China, Aug. 7.

Ships sail on the Yangtze River near Badong, 62 miles from the Three Gorges dam, in Hubei province, China, Aug. 7.

A woman walks past a building under demolition at a residential area to be relocated, Huangtupo, Badong city, 62 miles from the Three Gorges dam, in Hubei province, China, Aug. 8.

A laborer walks through a construction site where houses will be raised for relocated people in Badong, near the banks of the Yangtze River, 62 miles from the Three Gorges dam in Hubei province, China, Aug. 7.

See more photos from China

A man washes his hands next to a ship, on the banks of the Yangtze River, in Fengjie, 105 miles from the Three Gorges dam, Chongqing province, China, Aug. 7.

A man fishes in the Yangtze River near the Three Gorges dam in Yichang, Hubei province, Aug. 9.

Follow @NBCNewsPictures

•Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

Kevin Zen / Getty Images Contributor

Plastic feet are stored before being attached to sex dolls at the Jiamei Plastic Toy Factory on February 18, 2012 in Ningbo, China. Pictures made available April 16.

Kevin Zen / Getty Images Contributor

Dolls' eyes. According to the company, it sells more than 50,000 sex dolls in the Japanese and Korean markets each year, with an average price of 100RMB ($15.80).

Kevin Zen / Getty Images Contributor

Two women pack finished dolls.

Follow @msnbc_pictures

On the site of a former auto parts plant in the small southwest Georgia town of Americus, a factory is turning the abundant local hardwood trees into chopsticks — for export to China. 

Jae Lee, a US citizen of Korean origin, opened the Georgia Chopsticks factory in May last year, the European Pressphoto Agency reports. Lee says it's the only chopstick factory anywhere in the Americas.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Cut and steamed poplar trees are quickly moved inside at the Georgia Chopsticks factory in Americus, Georgia, on Feb. 7, 2012.

The close proximity of fast-growing soft hardwoods such as poplar and sweet gum makes the factory's location in South Georgia ideal.

The factory employs 108 people and Lee says the company has plans to expand into other product lines. Of the more than four million sets of chopsticks it rolls out each day, 99.7 per cent are exported to customers in Asia.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Esteban Fabela peels away the bark from a steaming log.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Tee Kendrick, left, and Toriano Jenkins roll up chopped wood for further cutting.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Chopsticks are moved on a conveyor belt.

Tatyana Zenkovich / EPA

A woman works at a felt boot factory in Smilovichi, Belarus, on Jan. 16, 2012.

EPA reports:

The Smilovichi Felting Factory was founded in 1928, when Smilovichi was a small Jewish settlement of craftsmen.  Five of those craftsmen organized a small artel, which produced warm boots called ‘valenki’ for cold weather. Later the artel was transformed into the enterprise 'Red Star', which was to supply Germany during the Second World War, when Belarus was occupied by the Nazis.

Tatyana Zenkovich / EPA

Hota Kanapskaya, 73, has been working at the factory for 53 years.

The raw sheep’s wool is imported from Dagestan, Central Asia and Belgium, with only five per cent produced domestically. The production of the factory is exported to Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Baltic States and to the countries of Western Europe. About 800 pairs of felt boots can be produced every day at the factory, which makes about 200,000 pairs of ‘valenki’ per year.

Tatyana Zenkovich / EPA

The boots begin to take shape.

Slideshow: Winter wonderland

Patrick Semansky / AP

Winter has arrived in the Northern hemisphere. Take in the sights from North America, Europe and Asia.

Launch slideshow

Tjahjo Eranius / AFP - Getty Images

Indonesian police clash with striking workers of US gold and copper mining giant company Freeport McMoran in Timika, Papua province on October 10. Police shot and killed one protester and wounded another. Papua police spokesman Wachyono said that police officers fired warning shots into the air after the striking workers, who are protesting over wages, pelted them with stones, injuring seven policemen.

Spedy Paereng / EPA

Striking miners employed by Freeport McMoran march during a protest in Timika, West Papua, on October 10.

The AP reports from TIMIKA, Indonesia:

Indonesian security forces fired on striking workers at the world's biggest gold mine Monday, killing one and injuring more than a dozen other people, officials said.

Two container trucks heading to the mining town from a nearby port were set ablaze by striking employees, angry that mine operator, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoran, was bringing in replacement workers by the busload and moving them into their barracks.

Grasberg, which is the world's largest gold mine and one of the biggest copper mines, has frequently seen protests over wages that workers complain are one tenth of what Freeport pays its miners in other countries. Read the full story.