You are browsing the archives of 2008 January.

From the AP:
It’s another public relations debacle for the nation’s museum industry, already tarred by reports that top institutions knowingly dealt in looted Italian artifacts.
Federal agents raided several Southern California museums on Thursday, mostly in search of artifacts allegedly taken from Thailand’s Ban Chiang archeological site, one of the most important prehistoric settlements ever [...]

From the BBC:
The Brazilian government has announced a huge rise in the rate of Amazon deforestation, months after celebrating its success in achieving a reduction.
In the last five months of 2007, 3,235 sq km (1,250 sq miles) were lost.
Gilberto Camara, of INPE, an institute that provides satellite imaging of the area, said [...]

In its campaign against pornographic websites, authorities in China have shut down 44,000 websites and arrested 868 people.
From Reuters:
Chinese authorities shut down 44,000 domestic Web sites and home pages and arrested 868 people while investigating 524 criminal cases during the campaign.
The campaign will continue until September, after the close of the Beijing Olympics.

The article mentions [...]

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released its 2007 figures on global digital sales.  Although sales of digital music increased by 40 percent, the IFPI claims that the increase does not offset the losses sustained from piracy.
From the AP:
Record companies’ revenue from digital music sales rose 40 percent to $2.9 billion over the past year, [...]

The MPAA has admitted to making a mistake on the levels of piracy committed by college students.  In their 2005 landmark study on movie piracy (PDF),  the MPAA stated that piracy committed by college students accounted for 44 percent of all piracy.
Now, due to human error, that figure was found to be wrong.

Hollywood laid much [...]

Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Crime and Drugs, said in an interview that better data needs to be collected in order for the international community to address the issue the human trafficking.
From the Associated Press:
Better data is needed to determine the magnitude of human trafficking so it can be targeted effectively, [...]

Canadian law enforcement officials were stating emphatically that there is no new threat posed from Canada to the United States in the form of methamphetamine-laced ecstasy, contradicting the statements by US Drug Czar John Walters.
From the Associated Press:
Canadian police on Sunday disputed claims by the U.S. drug czar that organized crime rings in Canada are [...]

In an article about the legal strategy of the RIAA, the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the steady numbers of P2p users in 2007.
Music companies complain that file sharing, which violates copyright laws, is cutting into their profits, and they point to falling album sales as evidence. U.S. album sales fell 9.5 percent in 2007 [...]

From the International Herald Tribune:
These days, it is easy to form the impression that a war is going on in Mexico. Thousands of elite troops in battle gear stream toward border towns and snake through the streets in jeeps with 50-caliber machine guns mounted on top, while fighter jets from the Mexican Navy fly [...]

Wildlife trade monitoring organization Traffic has released a report stating that refugees in East Africa are killing wild animals such as buffaloes and zebras due to a lack of food.
From the BBC:
In its 60-page report, Traffic says the refugees are turning to wildlife because agencies supplying food are not providing meat.
“The scale of wild [...]