You are browsing the archives of 2007 November.

Akwesasne, a Mohawk reservation located in northern New York, is one of the busiest locations in the smuggling of cigarettes between the United States and Canada.
From the Associated Press:
A bit smaller than the Bronx, the reservation straddles New York state, Quebec and Ontario and is sliced by the St. Lawrence River. Border crossers here pass [...]

From National Geographic:
Armed with only tractors and farm tools, Chinese peasants recently attacked police who had come to seize dinosaur bones the farmers had found.
The clash called attention to the rise of a new type of dinosaur hunter in China’s fossil-rich countryside: the “peasant paleontologist.”
The rebellion also set in motion the first court test [...]

The US city of Atlanta, Georgia is emerging as a central hub in the child prostitution industry, according to Reuters.
More than 300,000 children are being sexually exploited in the United States, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania.
Many of them end up in Atlanta, which authorities say has become a hub for [...]

Reuters is reporting that major recording company EMI is considering cutting its funding to industry associations such as the RIAA and the IFPI.
British music industry major EMI wants to cut its funding to the industry’s trade bodies, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday, which could deal a blow to the fight [...]

Jeffrey Sheban of the Columbus Dispatch has written an article on the role of Thailand in the global trade in Counterfeit Goods.
Experts consider Thailand, a country of 65 million, to be the primary staging point for counterfeit goods produced in China, where up to 90 percent of the world’s knockoffs are made. Organized gangs with [...]

The Associated Press has reported that 90 percent of the $13 million in settlements recovered by the Business Software Alliance are small businesses.
An analysis by The Associated Press reveals that targeting small businesses is lucrative for the Business Software Alliance, the main copyright-enforcement watchdog for such companies as Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Symantec [...]

France has just announced a new policy of cutting of Internet access for users who do not stop downloading pirated movies and music off of the Internet.
From the BBC:

French web users caught pirating movies or music could soon be thrown offline.
Those illegally sharing files will face the loss of their net access thanks [...]

The Times reports on the corruption and drug trafficking situation in Afghanistan.
The lawmen say they categorise Afghanistan’s 34 provinces as A, B or C states. ‘A’ denotes those with the highest potential profits for drug-running; ‘C’ states are the least remunerative. The bribes to buy a position in an A-grade province can be vast, up [...]

The Los Angeles Times reported this weekend on a robbery that occurred in the Los Angeles region.
The puppies in the window looked secure enough. The pricey pooches were protected by metal bars, two locked doors, alarm sensors and video surveillance cameras.
But for the second time in about two weeks, a pet dealer reported that a [...]

The Economist has an article highlighting the various methods currency traders are using to evade controls placed on the yuan in China.
SINCE a police raid on her firm was broadcast on Chinese state television, To Ling has emerged as one of China’s more intriguing financiers. The 43-year-old Hong Kong resident operated a black-market foreign-exchange business [...]