US EX-BOSSES PAY DEALS UNDER FIRE !

Bosses have been well paid even as their firms posted large losses. Two former bosses and one head of a US finance firm will have to justify vast pay packets, awarded despite their companies' poor performances.
Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, Stanley O'Neal, ex-head of Merrill Lynch and Charles Prince, the former boss of Citigroup all face questioning.
The men are set to testify before Congress at 1500 GMT.
The firms have been hit by the effects of the slowdown in the US housing market and the following credit crunch.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that will question the men is chaired by Democrat Henry Waxman.
The committee says Mr Mozilo was paid $250m (£124m) in compensation even as his firm, the largest mortgage company in the US, recorded a $1.2bn loss in the third quarter followed by a $422m loss in the final quarter of 2007.
Mr O'Neal received a retirement package of $161m, of which $131m was in shares and options.
That was awarded shortly after the company declared an $18bn loss related to investments backed by US mortgages.
Mr Prince was paid a bonus of $10.4m for 2007 as well as $28m in stock and stock options.
Both Mr O'Neal and Mr Prince were allowed to retire, rather than having their contracts terminated.
If their contracts had been terminated for breach of contract, they would have forfeited significant compensation in the form of stocks and options.
The committee has already conducted a number of hearings on executive pay in recent months.
Republicans on the committee say those hearings fall outside the committee's remit which is to focus on waste and fraud.

BBC NEWS REPORT.