Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Police smash huge £65m-a-year crime network after being led to single Manchester trader
manchestereveningnews.co.ukA huge criminal counterfeit goods operation 'worth up to £65m a year' has been smashed. Investigations by Rochdale council trading standards led to the discovery of a trader at the heart of a huge distribution network of counterfeit goods across the UK.
Items seized ranged from illegal cigarettes and tobacco to high-value counterfeit items, such as jewellery, perfumes and cosmetic fillers.
Rochdale council leader Neil Emmott praised the officers for their ‘tremendous efforts’. “They have worked above and beyond their normal daily duties to physically seize counterfeit items worth millions of pounds and disrupted a counterfeit network worth more than £65m per year,” he said.
Coun Emmott says that people may not realise that - as well as often being dangerous and always inferior - counterfeit goods are funding organised crime. READ MORE: Rochdale council to forge ahead with station square revamp despite blow “These traders do not pay taxes, maybe illegally claiming benefits and put genuine local traders who abide by the rules out of business,” he added. “You may think you have bagged a bargain, but by funding organised crime you have assisted crime gangs who are responsible for forced labour, drugs, human trafficking, prostitution and child labour.” Officers carried out inspections across Rochdale borough in January, seizing illegal tobacco, cigarettes and vapes from a number of shops.
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