Medvedev pushes to limit jail for execs

Interesting take on anti-money laundering laws. In Russia they are used to extract bribes...hmmmmm...any lessons for us here?

Leader of ETA detained in France

Article from El Pais [in Spanish, of course] on the three men detained and their alleged history in ETA. English accounts beginning to appear: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8541422.stm

Multimillion couterfeit currency gang jailed

It doesnt say who was making the notes. These are the distributors.

The threat level rises from dissident republican groups

Useful piece from Irish Times on the paramilitary groups that have emerged on the Republican side after the peace process. Strong hint that former IRA members are disenchanted and giving technological support to the new organisations

EU privacy watchdog hammers secret anti-piracy talks

the Commission has been up to its old tricks. Secret negotiations without transparency. Will the bureaucrats never learn? Not much chance. There is a proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Governments and multinationals conspiring to bring the Internet under their control. They so hate freedom and initiative and they hate us to have private lives over which they have no surveillance. [Discuss]

Beefed up border control agency to respect rights

Frontex officials to get more training. New Home Affairs Commissioner strong on human rights

Lingerie model runs one of largest drug smuggling gangs according to police

Hmmmm. I wonder who does the coercive side? Woman supposed to have moved from Colombia to Argentina and split with Mexican drug lord.

Middle class girlfriends "prized by gang members"

'Twas ever thus. Report by social policy think tank Race on the Agenda. Studies the impact of youth violence on girls. It includes a study of the use of rape.

Mammoth Backlog prompts European Court of Human Rights Reform

120,000 cases pending, 27,000 from Russia alone. Most relate to Chechnya. 47 members of the Council of Europe now. Someone needs to explain to the Conservative party that membership of the Council of Europe involves accepting the supremacy of the European Court of Human Rights and that the UK joined back in 1951. Ah well. We must obey the great Murdoch and his wishes, just as Blair and Brown did.

La montée des affaires de corruption en Italie embarrasse le gouvernement de Silvio Berlusconi

Le Monde examines corruption in Italy Fascinating!