In the wake of Michael Jackson’s memorial service, the key question of how the pop superstar died remains unanswered, awaiting an official report from the Los Angeles County coroner.

Michael Jackson, at 25, graced the cover of “Thriller.” The right photo shows him more than two decades later.

But other mysteries abound, particularly related to Jackson’s appearance, which changed dramatically from his early adulthood.

His features changed, and the color of his skin lightened significantly over the last two decades of his life.

When the face of the most recognizable entertainer in the world faded to near alabaster, the transformation struck a sensitive cultural spot. It intrigued and even offended people, spawning numerous articles and blog posts speculating about his metamorphosis.

This week, a source involved with the investigation into Jackson’s death said the singer’s body was “lily white from head to toe.” And another source said Jackson had “paper-white skin. As white as a white T-shirt.”

The singer denied changing his skin color for vanity reasons and repeatedly asserted that he had a disease called vitiligo, in which the immune system attacks cells that produce melanin, the pigment that determines skin color. The condition results in milky white spots.

For some patients, the discolored spots can spread entirely across the body, leaving only freckles of the original skin color, although this is not very common, experts said.

Jackson told Oprah Winfrey in a 1993 interview, “I’m a black American. I am proud to be a black American. I am proud of my race, and I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride and dignity of who I am.

“I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin. It’s something I cannot help. When people make up stories that I don’t like who I am, it hurts me,” Jackson told Winfrey.

Jackson’s claims that he had vitiligo elicited both empathy and skepticism.

Those familiar with the skin condition said vitiligo is commonly misunderstood because of its rarity. It affects approximately 1 percent of the world’s population, according to the American Vitiligo Research Foundation.

“I have to wear sleeves and carry an umbrella,” said Lee Thomas, who wrote a memoir called “Turning White,” which discusses his physical and mental struggles as an African-American man whose skin changes because of vitiligo. “It totally makes sense to me.”

And he even shared a common habit as the King of Pop.

“I got [white spots] on one of my hands, so I used to wear a glove to hold a microphone,” said Thomas, an Emmy-winning TV news broadcaster in Detroit, Michigan. He first noticed white spots on his scalp when he was 25. Then the spots appeared on his hands.

“Before I got this, I thought, ‘What’s up with Michael Jackson?’ ” Thomas said. “Then I get the disease, and it’s like, ‘Holy crap, there really is a disease called vitiligo, and it does what?’ ”

Making assumptions about why or how a person’s skin color changed is “not malicious ignorance, but it is definitely ignorance,” Thomas said.

Vitiligo affects people of all races, but it is more visible in people with darker skin. The cause of the disorder is unknown, although family history plays a role.

Topical ointments such as corticosteroids and oral medicine combined with ultraviolet light therapies are used to restore pigment to the skin. These treatments often have side effects including abnormal hair growth, thinning and over-darkening of the skin.

They can be about 60 to 70 percent successful, said Dr. James Nordlund, a dermatologist who specializes in skin color disorders at Group Health Associates in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“The problem with vitiligo is, you end up with two colors,” said Nordlund, a board member with the National Vitiligo Foundation. “Everyone stares, wonders what’s going on, and people ask if you had a burn. Kids ask what’s wrong with you. It takes a tough soul to deal with that and not be affected.”

He recalled one patient, an African-American woman with vitiligo who had patches across her hands and face. When she shopped in the grocery store, she would be followed, and every bit of produce and item she touched would be thrown away, he said.

If treatment to restore the patient’s natural color fails and the majority of a person’s body is discolored, the next option is to lighten his or her skin to match the spots.

“People want to be their own color,” Nordlund said. “Most of the time, most want to be their own color, but if they can’t, the second best is, ‘Look, I’ll be one color, and I’ll be white.’ ”

Nordlund never treated Jackson but said the singer’s use of the gloves and lipstick was consistent with the patterns of vitiligo, since the spots frequently first appear on the hands and face, including the lips. He said Jackson’s representatives once reached out to several dermatologists, including him, to hold a symposium on vitiligo at the Neverland Ranch, but those plans never materialized.

Despite such statements, the constant changes in his face– as it became narrower and paler — baffled and caused some unease.

Bleaching or lightening one’s skin for cosmetic reasons is much rarer in the United States than in Asian, African and Caribbean nations, dermatologists said. In some countries, people use over-the-counter and bootleg products — some of which contain potentially toxic chemicals — to lighten their skin. The controversial practice has been viewed as the psychological legacy of racism, where light skin was valued over darker skin.

In the United States, lightening ointments are prescribed for spot treatments for scars, acne pits or discolored marks, said Dr. Melissa Piliang, a dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic.

There is no surgery to lighten the skin. In the United States, a powerful medication called Benoquin, also known as monobenzene, can be used to treat extreme cases of vitiligo.

“It’s important to understand that this product actually removes pigment (not just lightens), which is more like being an albino,” wrote Dr. Min-Wei Christine Lee, a cosmetic dermatologic surgeon and director of The East Bay Laser & Skin Care Center in Walnut Creek, California. “Caucasian skin still has pigment even though it’s ‘white’ — skin treated with Benoquin has no pigment.”

The process, though painless, is so tedious and lengthy that most people use Benoquin only on the visible areas of their body, such as their face, neck and arms, Nordlund said. Side effects include irritated, dry or itchy skin, and the results are permanent.

The person applies the medication once a day, and it could take six months to two years to take away the coloring. Nordlund said he has heard of only one or two people who administered the ointment over their entire bodies; those processes took five to eight years.

It leaves the person extremely sensitive to the sun.

It’s a decision that Lee Thomas may have to make one day. None of the treatments to bring back his natural pigment has worked. His face has become about 35 to 40 percent white, and he uses heavy makeup to even out the spots when he appears on television.

“I would have to consider it as an option,” Thomas said of whether he would consider depigmentation if the discolored spots spread. “When it gets to that point, I’ll make that decision. Right now, I’m not there yet.”

“I’m a dark-skinned African-American and am proud of that. It would be really weird not to have any pigment at all.”

It was not surprising that investigators found bottles of prescription drugs in Michael Jackson’s home, the singer’s dermatologist said, as two sources told CNN that Jackson’s sister Janet attempted an intervention two years ago.

Dr. Arnold Klein, who was Michael Jackson’s dermatologist, said he warned the singer about drug use.

“I’m very shocked by it, but I have to tell you it’s not something that would be unheard of,” Dr. Arnold Klein said Wednesday on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” adding that he repeatedly warned Jackson about the danger of such drugs.

Meanwhile, two sources close to the Jackson family said Wednesday that sister Janet, the pop star, was so worried after visiting the emaciated singer in 2007 that she tried to stage an intervention with assistance from her other brothers.

Michael Jackson reportedly ordered his security guards not to let the family members in. He also refused to take calls from his mother, Katherine.

“If you tried to deal with him, he would shut you out,” one source said. “You just wouldn’t hear from him for long periods.”

At the time, the Jackson family released a statement to People magazine about the alleged intervention, denying it. But Janet Jackson was not among the signatories.

Also Wednesday, a source said the Los Angeles County coroner’s office has drawn up a list of doctors who treated Jackson over the years and will talk to them to determine what kind of drugs they may have prescribed the singer in the past.

Among them: Klein and Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson’s cardiologist, whom the Los Angeles police already had interviewed.

The cause of Jackson’s June 25 death is pending a toxicology report. It is also the focus of an investigation by police, the state attorney general’s office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“I knew at one point that he was using Diprivan when he was on tour in Germany,” Klein said, without specifying when. “He was using it to go to sleep at night. I told him he was absolutely insane. I said, ‘You have to quit it. This drug, you can’t repeatedly take.’ ”

Diprivan is a powerful drug administered intravenously to induce or maintain anesthesia or sedation, according to the Food and Drug Administration. It is known by the generic name Propofol.

Klein is the latest in a series of Jackson associates — including doctors, nurses, employees and friends — to tie the singer to drugs in recent days.

Last week, sources close to Jackson said the insomniac singer traveled with an anesthesiologist who would “take him down” at night and “bring him back up” during the “HIStory” world tour in the mid-1990s.

Klein, however, said he had not seen Diprivan or IV poles in the singer’s house.

Asked whether Jackson had track marks on his arms, as one source said, Klein said he had not seen any.

“Michael, at one time, had an addiction. He went to England and withdrew that addiction, where he went off drugs altogether,” the doctor said.

Klein refuted that he had ever given Jackson drugs beyond the doses needed for surgery.

“If you took all the pills I gave him in the last year at once, it wouldn’t do anything to you.”

Klein carefully couched a question about whether he was the biological father of Jackson’s children.

“The most important thing is: The father is who the children want their father to be,” he said.

When King repeatedly pressed Klein, the doctor said: “I still can’t answer it absolutely one way or another.”

He said he donated sperm to a sperm bank, but not to Jackson. He said he is willing to take a DNA test.

“I think, to the best of my knowledge, I’m not the father,” he said. “Can’t we leave this alone? Can’t we leave these children alone?”

Meanwhile, the city of Los Angeles said that Jackson’s memorial service cost $1.4 million.

Spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said the costs included extra police on the streets, trash pickup, other sanitation and traffic control for the Tuesday event.

Three thousand police officers, almost one-third of the force, were on hand to ensure that the Jackson events proceeded smoothly, Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.

The city, which is $530 million in debt, set up a Web page asking Jackson fans for donations to help with the expenses.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of donors contributed more than $17,000 through the site. But then, the high volume of traffic caused the site to crash frequently and for long periods, the mayor’s office said.

So the city couldn’t collect contributions for several hours Tuesday. The site also crashed for 12 hours, beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and again, periodically Wednesday morning, the office said.

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich does not want taxpayers to pay a penny for the service, his spokesman said Wednesday.

“The city attorney does not want something like this happening again, the city paying [the initial costs] for a private event,” spokesman John Franklin said. “That’s especially in a cash-strapped city, where people have been furloughed or even lost jobs.”

Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the 2010 World Cup organizing committee in South Africa, said in a statement on Wednesday that construction remains on schedule for the tournament despite large-scale strikes delaying building work at stadium sites.

The 94,000 Soccer City in Johannesburg is the showpiece stadium of the 2010 World Cup.

About 70,000 workers have downed tools in a pay dispute after negotiations broke down earlier this week, with less than 12 months to go before the finals kick-off.

The workers are reportedly seeking a 13 percent pay rise on their $300 average monthly wage, and there are growing worries that a prolonged strike could jeopardize key projects such as the centerpiece 94,000-seater Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg.

Arenas in Cape Town and Durban are also facing a race against time to be finished by the deadline of December set by FIFA, world football’s governing body, but Jordaan sought to ease concerns.

“The construction workers have been the lifeblood of the 2010 FIFA World Cup project. Their hard work has ensured that we are on track to meet our deadlines and that our stadiums will be among the best in the world next year,” Jordaan said in a press statement.

“It has always been the position of the organizing committee that we respect the right of construction workers on the stadiums to strike if they feel they have legitimate grievances.

“This is a right enshrined in our country’s constitution. We believe that the strike will be resolved as soon as possible and remain confident that the stadiums will be completed on time.”

Six entirely new stadiums are being built for the World Cup, while four are being modernized, along with a host of other infrastructure projects including a high-speed rail link, to help cope with the influx of nearly half a million football fans to South Africa next June.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which represents many of the construction workers who have stopped work, were in confident mood after an attempt by employers to ban the action was rejected by judges.

Bhekani Ngcobo, the NUM’s negotiator, said in a media release: “This strike action is going to continue until an offer that is required comes, even if that comes in 2011, which means we will have the longest strike in history that may qualify to be included in the Guinness Book of Records.

“If they do not offer us 13 percent, we may demand 15 percent next week and 20 percent the following week. So, this matter is urgent,” added Ngcobo.

Despite the scale of the strikes, Danny Jordaan, the chief executive of the 2010 World Cup organizing committee in South Africa, remained confident all construction for the event remained on schedule.

South Africa is the first African country to be awarded the World Cup finals and the main concerns have centered around crime and security as well as the readiness of the stadiums.

But a successful hosting of the Confederations Cup last month, won by Brazil, helped silence critics and local organizers have remained steadfast in their belief that they will stage a successful World Cup.

England’s tailenders frustrated Australia on the second morning of the opening Ashes Test at Cardiff, with the hosts adding 99 runs before being finally dismissed for 435.

Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin watches as Graeme Swann attacks through the off-side.

Graeme Swann led the way with a rollicking unbeaten 47 off 40 deliveries, which featured three successive boundaries off spin rival Nathan Hauritz — the final one a delightful reverse-sweep to bring up England’s 400.

Hauritz had the last laugh, however, when he dismissed last man Monty Panesar for his second wicket of the day, preventing Swann from reaching his second Test half-century.

Australia, in reply, reached a comfortable 39-0 in the eight overs possible before lunch.

Resuming at 336-7 on Thursday, England started strongly as Chris Broad took two boundaries in one over from Peter Siddle, who had struck twice late on the first day to give Australia hope of wrapping up the innings quickly.

Broad fell in the following over from left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson, bowled off his pads and around his legs after making 19 off 20 deliveries.

Swann arrived at the crease to help James Anderson then add a brisk 68 before the nightwatchman was caught by Mike Hussey at mid-on after coming down the track to attack Hauritz. He made a dogged 26 off 40 balls, providing solid support for his batting partners.

Swann continued to play aggressively, but England’s resistance ended when Panesar (4) edged Hauritz to captain Ricky Ponting at second slip to leave the off-spinner with figures of 3-95 from 23.5 overs.

Opening bowler Johnson also ended with three victims, taking 3-87 off 22 overs.

The impressive Phil Hughes then dominated the England bowling as he compiled 28 off 30 deliveries before the interval.

The left-hander, who averages 69.16 after his debut Test series on the recent tour of South Africa, notched four boundaries.

At the other end, Simon Katich scored a more sedate six off 18 deliveries as the duo successfully saw out two overs of spin from Swann.

Mobile data networks are a boon for increasing numbers

There are still significant notspots when it comes to 3G mobile coverage in the UK, regulator Ofcom has revealed.

It has pledged to investigate why some places, particularly in rural areas, are still failing to get any coverage.

It also said it will investigate mobile broadband speeds, which vary tremendously in different areas and at different times of day.

Between February 2008 and February 2009 there were two million new connections to mobile broadband, said Ofcom.

3G (or Third Generation) services allow people to connect to the web via a wireless network, either using a phone, a dongle or datacard which can be plugged into a PC or a laptop.

In the UK such services are offered by operators such as Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and 3.

But there are questions about how reliable these services are and whether they can provide the speeds needed by consumers.

More spectrum

Research from broadband communications firm Epitiro recently found that the average download speed achieved with mobile broadband was just under 1Mbps (megabit per second).

if mobile networks are going to become one of the key routes to the internet for million of users, they’re going to need to build more six-lane highways to replace those B-roads where the traffic keeps getting stuck. Rory Cellan-Jones BBC technology correspondent Read the dot.life blog in full

At 0300 this average rose to 1.8Mbps, illustrating that contention issues - how many people use the service at any given time - plays a big role in limiting speed.

On average mobile broadband users were only getting a quarter of advertised speeds, found Epitiro’s study.

Increasingly consumers are dropping their fixed line phones in favour of mobile. While mobile calls increased by 11 billion minutes during 2008, the number of minutes on fixed lines fell by 8 billion.

Consumers are getting increasingly data-hungry. In 2003, just 1% of revenue per mobile connection came from data but by 2008 that rose to 6%, according to Ofcom.

The Digital Britain report pledged to free up more 3G spectrum, which should improve coverage.

Consumer Focus, an organisation dedicated to campaigning for a fair deal for consumers, welcomed Ofcom’s review of the mobile market.

“Some consumers find themselves excluded from mobile communications due to gaps in 3G coverage or the market’s failure to make new technology accessible to all,” said Audrey Gallacher, telecoms expert at Consumer Focus.

She felt that Ofcom could do more to make it easier for consumers to sign up to mobile broadband.

“Accessing the best deal in a market where mobile operators offer a bewildering array of over 200,000 different tariffs is a real challenge,” she said.

“With mobiles now treated as an essential service rather than a luxury, there is more pressure than ever before on mobile companies to give consumers a fair deal and make mobile services accessible to all,” she added.

Google said the Chrome OS will be free to download and use

Google has announced which hardware firms have pledged to build machines that will run its Chrome OS.

The search giant said it was working with many firms on Chrome OS hardware including Acer, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

The software is designed to work with the web and Google said it was most likely to appear on smaller portable computers known as netbooks.

The browser-based operating system will be released to the public in 2010.

Web futures

In a blog post announcing the hardware partners, Google said that the code for the Chrome OS would be open sourced in late 2009. Google said that the software will be free to download and use.

The first netbooks that can run the software will be ready in late 2010. Since Asus launched the first netbook the cut-down computers have proved hugely popular.

Analyst firm Gartner predicts that 80% more netbooks will be sold in 2009 than sold in 2008. However, so far, the small computers only make up 8% of the total PC market.

The Chrome OS will be designed to work with Intel chips that appear in the vast majority of desktop PCs, laptops and netbooks as well as the Arm chips that power most of the world’s mobile phones. Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, who both build devices based around Arm chips, were also unveiled as partners on the Chrome OS project.

In a blog post announcing some of the hardware partners, Google also said it was working with Adobe on the operating system. This could turn out to be significant because of the wide use of Adobe’s Flash software.

Flash is used to power many multimedia websites but Adobe has been working hard to extend its capabilities via the Air technology and make it more web-centric too. Microsoft is developing its Silverlight technology to do a similar job.

Iranian police have been maintaining their street presence to deter protests

Iranian police have dispersed hundreds of demonstrators who defied government warnings that any fresh attempt at protests would be “smashed”.

The marchers were heading towards Tehran University to commemorate the 10th anniversary of student unrest.

All gatherings have been banned in a crackdown on mass protests that erupted after the disputed election of 12 June.

Meanwhile, another member of a rights group headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has been arrested.

Websites campaign

The demonstration was called to mark the anniversary of protests in 1999 between pro-reform activists and the loyalist Basij militia.

Small student-led groups have commemorated the event every year since then.

IRAN UNREST 12 June Presidential election saw incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected with 63% of vote Main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi called for result to be annulled, alleging poll fraud Mass street protests saw at least 17 people killed and foreign media restricted Q&A: Election aftermath Analysis: Crisis set to rage on

According to AFP news agency, police in the capital fired tear gas as between 200-300 protesters chanted “Death to the dictator”.

A witness told Reuters news agency the marchers had also shouted in favour of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says last month’s vote was rigged.

But the numbers of people involved were a fraction of the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets last month.

Hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the presidential election by a landslide.

Plans for the rally had circulated for days on social media and opposition websites.

There has not been a major protest for nearly two weeks and Tehran Governor Morteza Tamaddon warned earlier no more would be tolerated.

He said: “If some individuals plan to have anti-security move through listening to a call by counter-revolutionary networks, they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people,” reported state news agency Irna.

According to AP news agency in Iran, mobile phone text messaging services were down for a third day on Thursday.

A similar cut-off took place after the election, in a move thought to have been aimed at thwarting protest organisers.

In a separate development, another member of Shirin Ebadi’s Human Rights Defenders’ Centre was reportedly arrested, along with a number of others, in Tehran on Wednesday.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah is said to have provided legal representation for some of the hundreds of people arrested since the election.

Abdolfatah Soltani, another lawyer and member of Ms Ebadi’s organisation, was detained last month.

In our series of weekly viewpoints from African journalists, Elizabeth Ohene, a former government minister in Ghana and former BBC journalist, looks forward to US President Barack Obama’s visit to her country:

We in Ghana are going to have our “Obama Moment” later this week.

Forget that talk about Ghana being the second country in Africa President Obama is visiting. We know better.

Ghana is a truly admirable example of a place where governance is getting stronger, a thriving democracy Barack Obama’s spokesperson Africa texts Obama before visit Africans welcome Obama

That Egypt stopover does not count as a trip to Africa. He did not go there with his wife; he is coming here with Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha.

And he will be going to Cape Coast, which has been given a well-deserved makeover.

He did not sleep in Cairo and it was obvious he was using the city only as a backdrop to make a speech to the Arab world.

True, he is making a big speech here in our parliament aimed at Africa, but this is different.

He is coming to Ghana because, to borrow the words of his spokesperson: “Ghana is a truly admirable example of a place where governance is getting stronger, a thriving democracy.”

Their words, not mine.

Jealous pride

We are the envy of the whole continent and as for our cousins the Nigerians, this is the ultimate humiliation.

I suspect the president will be begging people this week to demonstrate against his government Obama snubs Nigeria?

They will never be able to live this one down.

Then there is Kenya and I ought to tread gently for there might be some raw emotions here, since there are blood claims.

So we sympathise with our Kenyan brothers and sisters, but as the White House sees it, Kenya, like Nigeria simply doesn’t make the good governance grade.

The trip to Ghana is intentional. It is worth quoting The White House on Ghana again:

“An extraordinarily close election, decided ultimately by about 40,000 votes, the country remained peaceful, power was transferred peacefully, and they continue to pursue a development agenda and bolster the rule of law.”

The Americans probably are aware many in Africa have wondered aloud that a sitting government could not find 40,000 votes to stay in power.

With such enthusiastic endorsement, it is not surprising that the government here is over the moon and is milking the Obama magic for all it is worth.

The promotions by the Ministry of Information and the Office of the President seek to portray the new Ghana government as being on the same wavelength as the new United States government, both led incidentally by law professors.

Big party

It is a bit tricky trying to liken the charismatic and erudite 47-year-old wordsmith world leader Mr Obama to the halting 64-year-old John Atta Mills, taunted as “dull” by his mentor, ex-President Jerry Rawlings.

The Clintons were given a huge welcome 11 years ago

We have consequently run into some very odd incidents.

This past week, there was the strange case of the president asking, or maybe, ordering the police to allow a street demonstration by a group that wanted to protest against a litany of things.

The police had gone to court and got an injunction to prevent the demonstration on the grounds, among others, that the police were so busy with the planned Obama visit they would not have the manpower to handle a demonstration.

Nobody here imagines that President Atta Mills intervened so dramatically to ask that a court order be put aside and the group be allowed to protest because he is dying for people to protest against him.

But imagine this: Here is Mr Obama, daily criticising the Iranian government for not allowing its citizens to demonstrate; and here is Ghana, the “admirable example of a thriving democracy” refusing to allow peaceful demonstrations… Obviously that would not do.

Fluffing lines

I suspect therefore that not only will the president be begging people this week to demonstrate against his government; there will be a lull in the frantic denunciations of the former government.

No former officials will be stopped at the airport and prevented from leaving the country and no former minister’s car will be seized by state security officers on the streets of Accra.

My bet is there will be no such drama any more until Mr Obama has been and gone.

I have been trying to dream up the most outrageous thing I could get away with in this thriving democracy during Obama week.

But the truth is all Ghanaians are really chuffed about the visit and if only the Americans would let us, we would put on such a welcome show, the world would be astounded.

After all, this is the country in 1998 that gave Bill Clinton the largest crowd in his life, but then that was in the pre-9/11 world and these days they do not allow American presidents to be exposed to such crowds.

All the same, we guarantee to make the trip memorable for the Obamas.

At the moment, if we have any anxieties it has to be a collective fear that our president will falter in pronouncing President Obama’s name.

He seems to fluff his lines on the big occasions, and there is a wicked rumour making the rounds that President Atta Mills has been practising the name of his host, “Bama Obarack, Marack Omaba, President Omarack”…

We are all willing him on to get it right on the day.

The growth in counterfeit goods has been led by pirate DVDs

Seizures of counterfeit goods being smuggled into the European Union (EU) more than doubled last year, official figures have shown.

Customs authorities across the 27 member states seized 178 million fake items in 2008, up 125% from 79 million in 2007, said the European Commission.

Pirate DVDs and CDs were the most prevalent fake goods, with 79 million disks detained, 44% of all items.

They were followed by cigarettes, 23% of the total, and clothing, at 10%.

Pirate DVDs also posted the biggest single increase in annual seizures, increasing by 2,600% compared with 2007.

Meanwhile, seizures of counterfeit medicines rose 118%, while those of fake cigarettes increased by 54%.

The European Commission said China remained the main source of counterfeit goods coming into the EU, accounting for 54% of the total in 2008.

However, Indonesia was the biggest source of fake food and drink products, while the United Arab Emirates was the main source of counterfeit cigarettes.

Most fake medicines came from India.

Four Rio employees were arrested at the weekend

China says it has evidence proving that a detained executive of Australian miner Rio Tinto stole state secrets.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said that Stern Hu, a Chinese-born Australian, had caused huge losses to China’s economic interests.

Australian media has speculated the arrest was sparked by Rio cancelling a $19.5bn (£12bn) Chinese investment.

But Australia’s foreign minister said there was no basis to suggestions that the arrest was payback for the deal.

Mr Hu, general manager, iron ore sales & marketing at Rio Tinto’s Shanghai office and three of his colleagues have been held for four days now, says BBC China correspondent Chris Hogg.

They are accused of stealing state secrets, an offence that carries a maximum term of life imprisonment, he added.

Australia Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australian officials were now trying to see Mr Hu.

The cancelled deal in question was Rio’s announcement in February that it was to accept a further $19.5bn of investment from China’s state-run aluminium group Chinalco.

The deal would have been a record Chinese investment in a foreign company, but Rio changed its mind last month, cancelling the agreement and instead launching a tie-up with fellow Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton.

Chinalco said at the time that it was “very disappointed”.

Meanwhile, Australian newspapers have also speculated that the Chinese government is unhappy with continuing iron ore price talks that Rio Tinto is leading on behalf of the big global mining firms.

Accusations ’surprising’

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said there was “sufficient evidence to prove that they have stolen state secrets and have caused huge loss to China’s economic interest and security”.

We are not aware of any [spying] evidence that would support such an investigation Rio Tinto

Mr Qin denied the case was connected to Rio’s cancellation of the Chinalco deal, and called on the Australian government not to politicise the case, saying this “would be no good to Australia”.

Mr Smith said Australian officials wanted consular access to Mr Hu “to satisfy ourselves as to his welfare, to satisfy ourselves as to his well-being and to get some indication from him as to how we can be of assistance”.

He added that the spying accusations were “very surprising”.

Rio has said in a statement that it has no evidence of spying.

“We have been advised by the Australian government of this surprising allegation,” it said. “We are not aware of any evidence that would support such an investigation.”

According to reports in China, an oil ore executive from the country’s eighth largest mill has also been arrested.