I’ve been to Mexico recently and can testify to the headlines that the border towns have become a dangerous place with over 2,000 dead in one town alone. Attempting to smuggle the current Mrs. Hanson over the border on Boxing Day following a misunderstanding over what to do with a burrito still makes me break into a sweat (thinking about it, I wonder if she made it…).  Its drugs that are forcing the decapitations and gun-slinging, and if there was ever a testament to the scale of the problem, the answer is in the 2009 Forbes Rich List! Mexico’s most wanted man Joaquín Guzmán – also known as El Chapo – has a $5m bounty on his head from the US government.  Trouble is the escaped convict is now worth considerably more than that and his $1bn fortune has given him the 701st spot on the illustrious list. Those who have met El Chapo say he has extraordinary charisma and intelligence. They neglect to mention his is just 5ft tall and married to an 18 year-old while he’s clocked up 57 years. Sounds charming! Forbes estimates that last year Mexican and Colombian traffickers made between $18bn and $39bn. And El Chapo has some way to go to catch up with my old pal Pablo Escobar, the Columbian drug runner who in 1989 was ranked the 7th richest man in the world, with $25bn (£18bn) to his name. Underlay! Underlay!

Have you ever used Pirate Bay? No, neither have I. The website carries links to copies of music, films and TV programmes, and such file sharing has led it to be taken to court in Sweden by Sony and Warner Bros. The young owners, who face jail and a fine of £100K, say that they cannot be prosecuted for copyright theft because none of the content is hosted on their computer servers. Sneaky. So the boys have been accused of “promoting other people’s infringements of copyright laws”, a bit like aiding and abetting a murder. Representatives of the movie, music and video games industry are seeking about 115 million kronor (10.6 million euros) in damages and interest for losses incurred from tens of millions of illegal downloads facilitated by the site. They really are pirates: Swedish police raided the company’s offices and seized nearly 200 servers in 2006, temporarily closing the site. But it re-opened a few days later with servers hosted in different countries. Yarrr! The trial will last three weeks – and if they get away with it, the implications could be huge.

A ”Citizen Journalist” on CNN website mistakenly claims boss Steve Jobs has a heart attack and sends Apple’s shares crashing… With another ill-informed BBC business Blog by dyed-hair scribbler Robert Peston accused of terrifying traders and wiping £17bn off the share price of UK banks… American lawyer Michael Kelly “forgot” to submit his client’s bond release request leaving the accused in a cell for two years, patiently assuming his lawyer was working on his behalf… And Environmental groups accused Starbucks of wasting water by leaving taps on all day to clean spoons and utensils in each store’s dipper well…

Brush up on employment law, and you’re set for life: Research by our friends  at KPMG have found that 27% of firms are planning to use the credit crunch as an excuse to lay off staff – but this means a harvest time for the lawyers. Often companies try to speed things up and bypass the very stringent rules for making someone redundant, and if they do that, the legal claims that come back at them often cost more to fix than keeping all the staff on!  According to wigs Haworth & Nuttall, last year there were more than 130,000 employment tribunals - 530 per working day. And an average payout costs an employer nearly £8k plus those delicious legal costs.

KPMG: they resigned the fated XL account in 2006 citing dangerous accounting irregularities – er…BDO Stoy Hayward took over the account… Aberystwyth freshers: after it is named as UK’s favourite university town, new students have been housed in hotels as record numbers turn up for the new term… Online advertising: Four out of five advertisers have increased their online ad spend and predict it will continue to grow in the next two years… The West Virginian law student who is suing his college, after they refused his demands for 4 days instead of 2 in order to complete his law exam because he has trouble concentrating…