UK websites flooded with 800 million pounds of fake goods

July 30th, 2009 BAE loses 70 million pounds in H1LONDON — BAE Systems PLC, Europe's largest defense contractor, posted a loss for the first half of the year, as demand fell for land vehicles and the company wrote off the value of some assets. However, the company said Thursday it expects "good growth" for the full year amid an increase in military spending as it also benefits from continued weakness of the British pound against the U.S.

July 29th, 2009 UK lending growth slows in JuneLONDON — Net lending to individuals in the United Kingdom rose by 400 million pounds ($655 million), a drop of 100 million pounds from the six-month average, the Bank of England said Wednesday. Net mortgage lending rose by 300 million pounds, the same as in May but only a third of the April gain and consumer credit rose by 100 million pounds.

June 30th, 2009 LONDON - An annual account of the Royal Household's expenditure has revealed that Queen will run out of funds by 2012, her Diamond Jubilee year, unless the government increases the Civil List. The Civil List, which pays for the running of the Royal Household, has not increased in the last 20 years, and at the moment any request for an increase in funds would be difficult to tackle, as UK is suffering from the global economic crisis- the worst since the Second World War.

June 16th, 2009 LONDON - Men will splash out a whopping 4.2 billion pounds this year pounds on sleazy fun behind their partner's backs, according to a new UK survey. The OnePoll.com site found that men will spend 1.6 billion pounds on strippers, hundreds of millions on adult websites and saucy phone downloads.

June 15th, 2009 LONDON - Hackers have taken over hundreds of government, school and university websites in Britain, which direct users to pornographic websites, revealed a new research. The researchers pointed out more than 30 school and university websites' domain names, which have been infected with content that could direct children to illicit content on the net.

June 10th, 2009 LONDON - Japan is witnessing the emergence of a new trend-hiring of "fake friends" or "work colleagues" or even "fake relatives" to attend ones wedding. Japanese company, Office Agents, which is based in Tokyo, rents out these people to fill up the guest list, and one can hire an agent to attend the wedding as a guest at the price of 127 pounds.

May 14th, 2009 LONDON - Former Spice girl Victoria Beckham's Hermess Birkin bag collection is said to be worth 1.5 million pounds. Victoria reportedly owns 100 bags of the classic design, which retail at an astonishing $6,000 (about 4,000 pounds) to $7,000 (about 4,700 pounds) each, reported femalefirst.co.uk.

May 8th, 2009 What British lawmakers boughtSome of the items claimed on expenses by British lawmakers, according to the Daily Telegraph: Horse manure for garden, 10 pounds ($15.06) Yucca plant, 9.99 pounds ($15.04) Two cans of chicken and turkey cat food, 78 pence ($1.18) Chocolate Santa, 59 pence ($0.89) Two elephant-shaped lamps, 134.30 pounds ($202.24) Potato peeler, 4.50 pounds ($6.79) Eyeliner, 2.50 pounds ($3.76) Wine rack, 14.99 pounds ($22.57) Reusable plastic bag, Ikea, 5 pence ($0.07) Ice cube tray, 1.50 pounds ($2.26) Visits by mole catcher, 35 pounds ($52.82) per quarter, 140 pounds ($210.81) per year Piano tuning, 40 pounds ($60.23) Footstool, 199 pounds ($299.64) Visit by pool maintenance man, 98.63 pounds ($148.51) Visits by rat catcher, 199 pounds ($299.67) per quarter, 796 per year ($1,200) Pizza cutter, 3 pounds ($4.53)

April 26th, 2009 LONDON - Indian origin steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal lost as much as 23.5 billion pounds in the last one year due to the ongoing financial crisis world over. The economic crisis has wiped 155 billion pounds from the fortunes of Britain's wealthiest individuals and has almost halved the number of the nation's billionaires.

March 20th, 2009 GHAZIABAD - The Ghaziabad police Thursday busted a factory manufacturing fake wrappers and packing materials of leading, branded consumer items, recovering a large quantity of the counterfeit material. Acting on a tip-off by a private detective agency - Pinkerton Consultants & Investigating (India) Private Limited - the police raided the Noble Packaging Factory at plot 30 of the Rajendra Nagar Industrial Area.

February 12th, 2009 LONDON - Former Spice Girls singer Victoria Beckham and husband David have made a whopping 2.2 million pounds from their brand firm. The couple raked in the cash from their firm Beckham Brand Limited, set up to 'exploit the brand of David and Victoria Beckham' with TV interviews and websites.

January 30th, 2009 LONDON - British pop star Robbie Williams has rewarded himself with a pay packet of 5.5 million pounds. Thesun.co.uk reports that Williams has paid himself for not doing anything the past year.

January 4th, 2009 TORONTO - Counterfeiting of currency notes is increasing in Canada and fake $20 and $100 notes worth $5 million were estimated to be in circulation by the third quarter of last year, says a Canadian Press report. Quoting a Bank of Canada internal document, the report said counterfeit currency has almost doubled since 2007.

December 30th, 2008 LONDON - Tax filings for Madonna's charitable Ray of Light Foundation have revealed that the pop diva donated over two million pounds to religious groups in one year alone. The filings show that a total of 1.75 million pounds were given to the Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles alone, reports Dailymail.co.uk.

December 28th, 2008 JALANDHAR - Two teenaged schoolboys who wanted to become rich hit upon the idea of printing fake currency notes. However, they were caught when trying to palm off fake Rs.500 notes and handed over to police.