Lead-paint cases sprouted around the country after Rhode Island pioneered the litigation, for example, even though the legal theory behind them struck many as a dangerous extension of nuisance law to hold manufacturers responsible for a product that they sold legally decades earlier.

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" By the early 20th century Sherwin was making paint with lead-based pigment, even after the company published an article in 1904 warning that "white lead is poisonous in a large degree, both for the workmen and for the inhabitants of a house painted with white lead colors.

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When it was finally unveiled at a press event Winterkorn was furious after discovering a tiny paint flaw on one of the media test-drive cars, according to one colleague.

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Shares of Akzo Nobel climbed by 3% to 42.60 euros on Wednesday after the Dutch paint maker announced that it had agreed to become Wal-Mart Stores' main supplier of interior and exterior paints at more than 3, 500 outlets in the United States.

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In the criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, prosecutors paint a picture of hedge-fund managers in a panic after reading the Journal article the evening of Nov. 19, 2010, which disclosed for the first time the insider-trading probe.

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The paint maker pulled back over the past two days after rallying to new, 52-week highs, and has been trading in bull market territory since mid-October.

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In the 1980s polar bears became "the poster child" for anti-zoo movement after being kept in cramped concrete pits whose only attempt at recreating the bear's eco-system was white paint.

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