As announced earlier this week, Apple today began selling the new iPad in twelve new countries: Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, South Korea, Saint Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Apple today officially announced two more rounds of launches for the new iPad, with the first round coming on Friday, April 20 and including twelve markets led by South Korea. The second round comes on Friday, April 27 and includes nine more countries.

In the wake of yesterday's announcement that the U.S. Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and a number of book publishers over alleged price fixing, CNET notes that the government may have a hard time winning its case against Apple

Rob Schmitz of public radio show Marketplace played a key role in debunking a number of Mike Daisey's claims about his trip to China to see working conditions at Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn. As part of his investigation, Schmitz tracked down Daisey's translator and learned that a number of the experiences Daisey related as part of his "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" theater monologue never happened. Foxconn workers assembling iPads (Rob Schmitz/Marketplace) Following his exposure of Daisey's fabrications, Schmitz has been given access to Foxconn's plants, and he has been filing some reports about what he has seen in those facilities

The Wall Street Journal reports that the four major U.S. wireless carriers have reached an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission to work toward a centralized database to track and disable stolen mobile phones.

Apple has updated its marketing for the new iPad in Australia after regulators in that country criticized the company over "misleading" marketing claims related to the iPad's 4G capabilities. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Tuesday that it would pursue injunctions, fines and other remedies. Apple responded by offering full refunds to Australian customers who felt misled about Apple's 4G advertising

As highlighted by SlashGear yesterday, the Wi-Fi + 4G iPad announced by Apple on Wednesday and launching in ten countries next Friday will not be compatible with LTE networks under development in most of the launch countries. Apple's LTE discussion during the media event focused on five carriers in the United States (AT&T and Verizon) and Canada (Bell, Rogers, and Telus), noting that international markets would have other options available for cellular connectivity.

We've received word from several customers in the UK who ordered the new iPad immediately after launch that their orders have been delayed by several days.

While rumors of iPad 3 shipments already being en route having been circulating for some time now, we're now hearing from shipping representatives at other companies who are having a difficult time even getting their products shipped over to the United States from China as Apple's preparations for the iPad 3 launch have significantly squeezed the air freight industry. One shipping representative told MacRumors last week that his freight broker in China has been scrambling to find space for his company's shipments, with shipping rates rising 20% in one week as Apple has snapped up available capacity at premium rates.

Apple has come under increasing scrutiny for its offshoring of product manufacturing in recent years, with a number of observers believing that Apple should be trying to bring more jobs to the United States. But as noted by AllThingsD , Apple has now taken a more public position on its domestic impact by posting a new page on its site highlighting over 500,000 U.S. jobs it claims to be directly or indirectly responsible for