At 26-years-old, Cameron Sinclair was a self-acknowledged CAD monkey, grinding out blueprints for a New York architect. Ten years on, he’s now the design world’s big kid on the block. His thumbprint can seen in more than 104 countries, from Biloxi, Mississippi to far-flung Ugandan villages.

[Editor’s note: Silicon Sweatshops is a five-part investigation of the supply chains that produce many of the world’s most popular technology products, from Apple iPhones, to Nokia cell phones, Dell keyboards and more.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai bowed to international pressure on Tuesday and announced that Afghanistan would hold a runoff election on Nov. 7. The voting, which comes after weeks of mounting allegations of voter fraud, will pit Karzai against the second-place finisher and former foreign secretary, Abdullah Abdullah. Flanked by the cream of the international diplomatic corps and a foreign dignitary or two, the Afghan president beamed as he hailed the decision as a victory for the democratic process.

KABUL — It seemed like such a good idea at the time.    At a staff meeting in 2006, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, who was then commander of Combined Forces Afghanistan, took a sip of bottled water.   Then he looked at the label of one of the Western companies that were being paid millions of dollars a year to ship bottled water by the container load into Afghanistan.   And Eikenberry, who is now the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, said, “There must be a way of producing bottled water in Afghanistan.”