Communist Tax Lawyer

China released a two-year human rights action plan on Monday in an effort to reinforce some of the civil liberties that have been neglected in recent times.

Among the policies targeted in the document is the right to a fair trial, the right to question government policies, and a call for measures to discourage torture.

The plan has received praise from many world organizations that see this as a step in the right direction, but maintain that China still has a long road ahead.

“It’s a step forward, I think. It’s also good there are some concrete benchmarks with 2010 as a deadline,” said Roseann Rife of Amnesty International, before also adding, “There are very serious abuses omitted from the plan.”

North Korea confirmed on Saturday that they were holding two American reporters who they apprehended last week near the Chinese-North Korean border.

The two captured journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were doing a report for the U.S. based Current TV on North Korean refugees in China. Two others, reporter Mitch Koss and an unidentified Chinese guide, were also part of the television crew, but managed to escape back to the Chinese border.

The four seemed to have trespassed onto North Korean lands near the Chinese city of Tumen while trying to get closer footage.

According to human rights activists who have visited the area, the border area in question is said to be tough to distinguish; marked by the Tumen River, which is less than 30 yards across here, it is a combination of dry-river bed and ice this time of year.

Regardless, the Chinese-American Ling and Korean-American Lee are currently being held in Pyongyang on charges of “illegally intruding” into North Korea.

Beijing’s Silk Street Market, known for its vast selection of knock-off designer products, is facing increased pressure from domestic lawyers to stop selling counterfeit goods. The market managers have shut down 29 stalls over the last month provoking angry protests from the aggressive vendors.

The recent shut downs are a result of pressure put on the market managers by the Beijing law firm IntellecPro, which specializes in intellectual property rights. The firm represents a collective of Burberry, Gucci, Prada, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton who first filed a trademark violation lawsuit four years ago.

The lawyer representing the vendors claims that his clients are too ignorant to distinguish brand names or real goods from fake. “We don’t read English. We don’t know what the letters mean. We just think it is pretty,” claimed one vender.

The market is an extremely popular tourist attraction in Beijing, reportedly attracting more than 15 million annual visitors – two-thirds of them foreigners.

According to the New York Times, Azerbaijan has begun to enforce a ban on foreign companies from broadcasting on national frequencies, effectively closing its airwaves to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America and the BBC.

From MyFoxKC:

Cuba is suing a Kansas City, Kansas company over its use of the word “Havana” to describe some of its products.

Habanos is run by the Cuban government and says cigar cutter company Xikar is infringing on the government’s trademark of the word “Havana.”

Xikar sells a cigar accessories collection called the “Havana Collection.” According to the suit, Cuba says Xikar “promotes it’s goods by deliberately and falsely associating those goods with Havana, Cuba” even though the items are not made in Havana.