Crime in England and Wales; Quarterly Update to December 2007

Recorded Crime continues to fall. BCS also shows risk of being a victim of crime lowest since figure first gathered in 1981. Major increase in drug offences, due to new power to issue caution for cannabis. You would never believe this if you were a newspaper reader. Let's panic the elderly!

Still a fear of anti-social behaviour, though, the figures show.

Web Site Unites Pirated Databases

Moscow Times article on US-based website allegedly offering personal data on Russian citizens. Apparently there are pirated disc shops in Moscow selling details details from individual ministries. This "private detective" site does the lot!
Question: are there such shops in the UK, the US and other European countries? Where are our fearless investigative reporters? Too busy finding anti-Gordon Brown stories?

Terror asset freezing "Unlawful"

Process by which UN legislation implemented in UK found unlawful by Court. Blair Government found to have broken the law yet again.

Second extract from Book about Chinese illegal migrants

Deals with the problems of paying debts to the snakeheads. Gives statistics about the size of the pirate DVD trade in the UK. Calculates 10,000 Chinese out there selling, in a business worth £500,000 per annum. Also gives details of the way gangs exploit illegal immigrants in ways other than the sex industry, which gets the headlines.

Kadyrov is the Better of Two Chechen Evils

Surreal article on power in Chechnya. Enjoy, especially after reading the previous post!

There is nothing normal about corruption

Anders Aslund on Corruption in Russia. Article in the Moscow Times. So it cant be all bad! At least it was published!

Net card fraud underestimated

Though important, this post comes with the caveat that it is a puff for a BBC documentary this evening. In other words its not "really" news. It seems to say that "failed" attempts should be included in the figures and then they would be a lot higher. Well..doh!

Lost 400 children may have been trafficked into sex or drugs trade

I remember attending a conference in Brussels some years ago in which the Dutch police made a presentation about a special unit to investigate disappearances of immigrant children arriving on their own. There still isn't enough information exchange among European forces at lower levels.

Report on provision of services to the indigeneous population in Australia

Includes justice delivery along with other public services. Probably worth looking at for the evaluation models used as well as the data.

In Baghdad, Struggle Ties Security to Basic Services

Oh dear. Another sad story of counter-insurgency. Leave the militias to provide services and blow the ones that work to bits.
“He who is able to fix the public utilities holds the keys to the kingdom in terms of winning the support of the Iraqi people and ultimately ending this conflict,” said Sgt. Alex J. Plitsas of the 312th Psychological Operations Company, who met with Sadr City representatives.
Just about sums it up really.