The House of Lords is finding itself in the middle of a corruption scandal after 4 members are accused of saying that they could influence legislation for a fee.  The 4 lords was caught by an undercover reporter.  The House of Lords is largely irrelevant in making laws, whereas the House of Commons has that power.  However, this unelected and unpaid body can amend and delay laws coming out of the other chamber.

Reporter Henry Chu of the Los Angeles Times had some fun with his opening for this story:

Their robes are red, their fur cuffs are white and now a corruption scandal has Britain’s House of Lords feeling blue.

The WTO ruled against China in a case brought by the United States regarding the billions lost to counterfeit goods in China.  The United States claimed that China was ignoring the piracy of DVDs and that its custom policy was insufficient.  After the ruling, China agreed to step up its enforcement of counterfeit goods.

Read the story at the BBC.

Foreign Ministers of the European Union pledged on Monday to assist the United States and Israel in preventing the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip.  The underground tunnels has continued to be pathways for Hamas as smugglers bring contraband materials into the territory.  The EU will be assisting Israel by providing intelligence, security training, and equipment.

Read the article at Reuters.

Counterfeit goods are gaining popularity with the masses in China as an antiestablishment symbol, according to the Daily Yomimuri. Utilizing the term “shanzhai” to reference goods produced in counterfeit factories, the Chinese population are openly defying the central government and continuing to purchase fake cell phones and other goods.  According to the article, over 100 million counterfeit cell phones are produced each year, costing the central government $2.5 billion in lost taxes.

Read the article “Counterfeit goods find favor in China / Public likens pirated brands manufacturers to bandits of yore” at The Daily Yomimuri.

Isle of Man, a Crown dependency of the United Kingdom, is proposing a new tactic to solve the piracy woes of the recording companies.  The government is proposing that all 80,000 people living on the island be able to download an unlimited number of digital music tracks from the Internet for a fee of 1 Euro paid to the Internet service provider.  The island government is taking the track that with 95 percent of music still pirated after years of enforcement, a new policy is needed. 

Read the article, “Is music’s future on the Isle of Man” at the International Herald Tribune. 

A man arrested in Tijuana, Mexico last week has told law enforcement authorities that he had “dissolved” over 300 bodies for Mexican drug cartels.  The man, Santiago Meza, was on the payroll of the drug cartels to be responsible for dissolving dead bodies in caustic soda so that their remains would disappear. Over the course of 10 years, Mr. Meza was paid $600 a week to perform his task. The cartel that employed him, headed by kingpin Teodoro Garcia Simental, is attempting to control the drug trafficking route through Tijuana. 

Read the article, “Mexico man ‘dissolves 300 bodies’,” at the BBC. 

Despite three weeks of air strikes by the Israeli military, the smuggling tunnels beneath the borders of Gaza and Egypt remain open for business. 

From the Guardian:

Dozens of Gazan smugglers were back on the border with Egypt today openly repairing and restarting tunnels between the two territories after three weeks of intense Israeli air strikes.

There were deep impact craters in the soil just a few hundred yards from the border, but many of the tunnels appeared to be at least partly intact. Several tents covering tunnel entrances were still standing, though most were pockmarked by shrapnel. Bulldozers were clearing away sand as men dug for the wood-reinforced wells that descend around 15 metres from the surface into the tunnels.

The city of El Paso in Texas is considered one of the safest cities in the United States.  Just across the border in Mexico, Ciudad Juárez is one the most violent in the world. 

From the IHT:

El Paso still enjoys its status as one of the safest cities in the United States, while Juárez, a city of 1.5 million that has always been rough, has become a battleground for drug cartels. More than 1,550 people were killed there in drug wars last year.

Worse, other violent crimes — carjacking, extortion, armed robbery — have surged as the beleaguered authorities struggle to respond to daily gun battles.

“It’s strange to be the third-safest city in the United States right next to a war zone,” said Mayor John Cook of El Paso, as he gazed at the ramshackle neighborhoods of Juárez.

The BBC has a report on the high level of corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  

From BBC News:

Dr Kodi, a former lecturer at the University of Zaire (as the country was once known), now based in London, gives some unusual examples of how pervasive and varied corrupt practices can be in DR Congo.

He explains in detail how:

• Army officers claimed the salaries of 300,000 soldiers when in fact there were only 130,000 – and pocketed the difference
• Trade union officials sometimes do not represent the interests of their members – but are bribed by corrupt bosses to keep workers quiet
• A body claiming to audit state firms was paradoxically unaccountable itself – and unknown to the public.

Italian authorities are investigating profiles on Facebook to determine if members of the Italian Mafia are communicating within the site. 

From the New York Times:

In recent weeks, the Italian authorities have begun investigating Facebook discussion groups devoted to convicted Mafiosi, concerned that some members might be more than fans.

At the same time, a campaign calling on Facebook to remove pro-Mafia pages has been gaining momentum, while thousands of Facebook members have joined new anti-Mafia groups.

The debate spilled over from civil society to online society after recent news reports revealed that more than 2,000 people had joined Facebook interest groups hailing Salvatore Riina, the so-called boss of bosses, known as Totò, who was arrested in 1993 after more than two decades on the run; and his successor, Bernardo Provenzano, arrested in 2006 after four decades in hiding. Both are serving multiple life sentences.