The US has a thriving, if dubious, export business in "contract cheating." This is the writing of student papers and course work for money. The UK is a major market for the US. However, this lucrative export trade is under threat from globalization.

UK colleges go to great lengths to detect and punish cheating, employing software to spot outright copying. However, as contract cheats often produce original work, such abuse difficult to detect.

Dr Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke at the UKs Birmingham City University have been following the phenomenon since 2004. They told the Deccan Herald that over a 20-month period between 2004 and 2006, they recorded some 1,000 students cheating worldwide. The majority on IT-related courses, a third in the UK.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) will not verify the result of London’s May elections. Saying, "There is insufficient evidence available to allow independent observers to state reliably whether the results ... are an accurate representation of voters’ intentions."

The elections for the Mayor of London and the 25-member London Assembly are among the most important local elections in the UK. An independent body, London Elects, organizes them.

This year’s elections were the first in London under a new UK law allowing for officially sanctioned, independent observers. ORG was one such group.

In its annual "E-Communications Household Survey", the European Commission highlights trends in telecommunications within the European Union (EU). The report provides a snapshot of a continent in transition, but contains few surprises.

The report, (2.78 MB) released Jun. 27, show some marked differences between the old EU states and the newer members. With the newer states, leapfrogging landline technologies to mobile ones, a pattern often found in developing economies.

The survey of 27,000 households was carried out between Nov. 9 and Dec. 14, 2007.