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PeniG Proud children's writer Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Total posts: 2902 Location: San Antonio, Texas Age: 52 Gender: Female |
 Posted: 09-07-2013 14:03 Post subject: |
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| "Self-indulgent nastiness." Such a common, yet such an inexplicable, motivation! |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 20321 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 16-07-2013 23:25 Post subject: |
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Driving test translator jailed over 200 exam cheats
A Chinese translator in Birmingham has been jailed for helping 200 learner drivers cheat on theory exams.
Peter Hui was approved by the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) to translate multiple choice questions in Mandarin for foreign applicants but was also providing answers for a fee.
On Monday at Birmingham Crown Court Hui, from Nash Square in Perry Barr, was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Police believe the illegal practice made him up to £100,000. 
DSA officials became suspicious when the number of prospective drivers choosing to be represented by the 55-year-old interpreter increased rapidly.
An investigation revealed Hui aided more than 200 candidates to pass by agreeing a cheat's code which involved him saying "shi", the Mandarin for "yes", before reading out the answer he believed was correct.
Hui admitted conspiring to defraud the DSA when he was arrested at the Birmingham test centre, in Dale End's McLaren Building, on 21 August 2012.
Police finance investigators are looking to recover illegally-obtained cash and assets from Hui.
Det Con Mark Calvert, from West Midlands Police, said: "This was a serious fraud that potentially put road users and pedestrians at risk by putting people behind the wheel of vehicles when they were not properly qualified or competent enough to drive."
Two candidates who admitted paying Hui, a 25-year-old man from Smethwick and a 45-year-old man from Highgate, admitted a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud and were ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £100 costs.
Their theory test passes were revoked.
The court heard how the younger man hired Hui on 3 February last year having failed his first theory exam attempt and hearing rumours that Hui's methods could guarantee a pass.
They agreed the "shi" cheat's code and a fee of £120 before the test, and audio recordings later showed Hui indicated the right answer on 40 of the 50 questions posed.
The 45-year-old, a chef, was approached by Hui as he left the McLaren Building having failed his theory exam.
He agreed to a fee of £250 for the same system and went on to pass the test, even though Hui's answers were not always correct.
Det Con Calvert added: "He obviously thought it was easy money and that, as the cheat's code was in Mandarin, assumed the DSA and police would be oblivious.
"He was wrong and is now paying the price for his con."
Last week officers from West Midlands Police arrested an Urdu translator suspected of helping bus and lorry drivers cheat on theory tests.
A 39-year-old man from Alum Rock was bailed until September.
DSA's head of fraud and integrity Andy Rice, said: "Anyone who tries to circumvent this process is putting innocent road users at risk."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-23325612 |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 17-07-2013 22:38 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Luka Magnotta case: 'Gore' website owner charged in Canada
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23351991
Luka Magnotta did not resist extradition from Germany
Canadian police have charged the owner of a website that hosted a video said to show the murder and mutilation of a Chinese national in Montreal last year.
Mark Marek was charged with corrupting morals for allegedly uploading the video, knowing it showed a real murder.
The 38-year-old was due to attend a bail hearing in Edmonton on Thursday.
Porn actor Luka Magnotta pleaded not guilty in June last year to murdering 33-year-old student Jun Lin and defiling his corpse.
Mr Marek, who owns the website Best Gore, was arrested on Tuesday night after an investigation that lasted more than a year.
"It is alleged that Marek posted the video online in Edmonton, knowing the video that was sent to him by Luka Magnotta was depicting a real murder," Staff Sgt Bill Clark said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr Marek said the video had been sent to him on 25 May 2012 and published on the site later that day, according to CBC News.
On Tuesday he left a message on his website saying he had been in contact with the police.
"It didn't sound like the detective was looking to have me sent to jail yet, but I can't be sure of anything," Mr Marek wrote.
It is thought that Mr Magnotta had been in a relationship with Lin, who was studying at Concordia University in Montreal.
Severed limbs, confirmed to be the Chinese student's, were sent to political parties in Ottawa - including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party - and to two schools in Vancouver.
Lin's head was later found in a Montreal park.
Mr Magnotta's trial is scheduled to begin in September 2014. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 19-07-2013 23:03 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Four homeless men found in Texas 'dungeon'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23386655
Police investigate a home where it was reported that four elderly men were held against their will in Houston on 19 July 2013
At least one of the men found in the home was a military veteran
Four homeless men have been found in squalor in a house in Houston, Texas, where they were held for up to 10 years, police said.
The men, three locked in a garage and a fourth in the home, were malnourished and "almost invalids", said police.
They told officers they had been lured to the house with promises of beer and cigarettes, then were forced to hand over monthly benefits cheques.
One person was reportedly taken into custody, according to the AP.
Police are investigating whether four women found at the house were also being held captive.
Those four - a grandmother, daughter, granddaughter and another woman - are described as mentally challenged.
'Deplorable'
Three of the rescued men, who range in age from mid-50s to 80 years, have been taken to hospital.
Police were alerted when a concerned neighbour reported the presence of the men at the house.
Steven Murdock, a police sergeant, described the living conditions as "deplorable", saying the space was like a "dungeon".
He added that at least one of the men was a military veteran.
Neighbours in the working-class, residential area of north Houston expressed shock.
Police were seen moving in and out of the house as bystanders watched.
The property was sealed off with police tape. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-07-2013 23:29 Post subject: |
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Images at link.
| Quote: | Wheelchair user blasts Beijing airport, injures himself
http://rt.com/news/beijing-airport-china-explosion-362/
Edited time: July 20, 2013 15:46
Image from twitter user@livein_chinaImage from twitter user@livein_china
A man in a wheelchair was responsible for an explosion that rocked Beijing Capital International Airport, Chinese media said. He allegedly attempted to blow himself up to protest a brutal police beating that left him disabled, Twitter reports claimed.
The suspect behind the blast in the arrivals hall of terminal three of the Beijing airport has been identified as 34-year-old Ji Zhongxing from Shangdong, CCTVNews reported. The Sina Weibo microblog of state broadcaster China Central Television said a man detonated a package of black gunpowder used to make firecrackers just outside the international arrivals exit.
Local media quoted by the South China Morning Post said the man was rushed to hospital. He is being treated for injuries, according to officials.
Photos taken by one of the witnesses at the scene of the incident showed a man in a wheelchair, waving his arms in the air with a white object in one hand. Another photo supposedly taken shortly after the blast showed security staff attending to someone on the ground and an overturned wheelchair lying nearby.
Image from twitter user@alert5 / user@FluffyFoxImage from twitter user@alert5 / user@FluffyFox
Witnesses quoted on Twitter claimed the wheelchair-bound man waved his hands and shouted in an apparent attempt to attract attention before detonating the device.
Xinhua also cited witnesses as saying the man was handing out leaflets with unspecified complaints before the blast.
Chinese activists and rights lawyers later posted online what they say is a petition by Zhongxing suggesting the bomber was protesting the brutal beating he allegedly received at the hands of police in Guangdong province’s manufacturing hub of Dongguan in 2005.
Twitter user Yifan Zhang also posted an extremely graphic photo which he claims shows Zhongxing after the beating that left him paralyzed. The Twitter user also linked what he said was the crippled man's blog, quoting his last entry as saying, “almost without hope, petition road endless.”
No flights were affected and order has been restored at the airport. |
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| skinny Roaring Fortean
Great Old One Joined: 30 May 2010 Total posts: 169 Location: Adelaide Age: 42 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 21-07-2013 01:30 Post subject: |
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| It says the terminal filled with smoke, but it is a bit hard to tell the difference between the Beijing smog and bombsmoke. Look at the before and after pics. No wonder people appear rather unmoved by it all. |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 20321 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 22-07-2013 08:56 Post subject: |
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This seems strange to me, but then I know very little about mobiles and sim cards!
Flushing woman stole friend's sim card and ran up £400 phone bill
Monday 22nd July 2013 in Falmouth/Penryn .
A woman who took a friend's sim card and put it into her own phone made calls to her mother and boyfriend and ran up a bill of more than £400, Truro magistrates heard.
When she was asked why she took it she told the police: “I don't actually have a reason.”
Before the court was Nakhara Fawn Jacques, aged 19, of Kersey Close, Flushing, who pleaded guilty to fraud with a mobile phone between December and January at Penryn.
Alison May, for the CPS, said the owner of the phone was used to paying £15 a month for it and when he discovered the Sim card was missing checked his bill and found it was £429.
He recognised some of the calls made to Jacques' mother's number as he knew her. Jacques was a friend of the family and had visited his home.
She later told the police: “I did nick it….I was in a mood. I had no credit.”
Graham Calderwood, her solicitor, said she was a vulnerable person on quite strong medication for depression, and was anorexic.
She had been feeling low when the Sim card was taken although she did not know why she took it.
Jacques was given a conditional discharge for a year and told to pay compensation of £429.89 and £35 costs and surcharge.
http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fpfalmouth/10560110.Flushing_woman_stole_friend_s_sim_card_and_ran_up___400_phone_bill/
Last edited by rynner2 on 25-07-2013 06:55; edited 1 time in total |
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| sherbetbizarre Great Old One Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Total posts: 1344 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-07-2013 00:30 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Man Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail for Collecting Rain Water
Harrington, of Eagle Point, Oregon, has been fighting for his right to do what he wishes with water since 2002. Now more than a decade after he first defended himself over allegations that the man-made ponds on his 170 acres of land violated local law, Harrington has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars and fined over $1,500.
Authorities say that Harrington broke the law by collecting natural rain water and snow runoff that landed on his property. Officials with the Medford Water Commission contested that the water on Harrington’s property, whether or not it came from the sky, was considered a tributary of nearby Crowfoot Creek and thus subject to a 1925 law that gives the MWC full ownership and rights. Therefore prosecutors were able to argue in court — successfully — that three homemade fishing and boating ponds in Harrington’s backyard violated the law.
For filling “three illegal reservoirs” on his property with runoff water, Harrington has been convicted on nine misdemeanor charges in Circuit Court. He says he will attempt to appeal, but as long as the conviction stands to serve 30 days of imprisonment. He has also been sentenced to an additional three years of probation.
Thirty days in jail for catching rainwater?” Harrington tells the Mail Tribune. “We live in an extreme wildfire area and here the government is going to open the valves and really waste all the water right now, at the start of peak fire season.”
“When it comes to the point where a rural landowner can’t catch rainwater that falls on his land to protect his property, it’s gone too far,” he adds to the Associated Press. “This should serve as a dire warning to all pond owners.” |
http://www.naturalcuresnotmedicine.com/2013/07/man-sentenced-to-30-days-in-jail-for.html |
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| Ronson8 Things can only get better.
Great Old One Joined: 31 Jul 2001 Total posts: 5970 Location: MK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-07-2013 09:00 Post subject: |
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That is bizarre, but of course it is America.  |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 8820 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 25-07-2013 19:25 Post subject: |
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They're punishing him for not using water that has the special chemicals in it.  |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 26-07-2013 12:36 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Chinese toddler critically wounded in Beijing parking row
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-23449958
A Chinese toddler is in a critical condition in a Beijing hospital after being hurt during a row between her mother and a man over a parking space.
State media quoted a witness who said the man pulled the two-year-old out of her pram and threw her to the ground.
Her mother, who was attending to her daughter, had refused to make way for him to park his car by a bus stop.
The driver and one of his passengers also beat the woman up, reports said. Police have arrested the driver.
The owner of a street stall who saw the attack said the driver appeared to be in his 40s.
He got out of his Hyundai Sonata and hit the woman before removing her daughter from her pram and throwing her forcefully to the ground, said the stall owner, who gave his name as Zhou.
"The baby made no noises after being dropped, not even a cry of pain," the Beijing Times quoted him as saying.
Reports say the child is being kept alive on a respirator and stopped breathing at one point.
The driver was later arrested at a bath house in the capital, the Legal Daily reported.
If she dies he could be tried for murder, which carries a death sentence |
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| Spudrick68 Great Old One Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Total posts: 1096 Location: sunny Morecambe Age: 45 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 26-07-2013 23:12 Post subject: |
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| WTF is wrong with Chinese people? Why are they so inhumane? |
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| PeniG Proud children's writer Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Total posts: 2902 Location: San Antonio, Texas Age: 52 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 27-07-2013 04:56 Post subject: |
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| Because they're human beings and in any large concentration of human beings a certain percentage of them are nasty. That story could have happened anywhere, not just in China. |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 8820 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 27-07-2013 08:28 Post subject: |
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| PeniG wrote: | | Because they're human beings and in any large concentration of human beings a certain percentage of them are nasty. That story could have happened anywhere, not just in China. |
Yes, that kind of behaviour is not unique to the Chinese. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17657 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 27-07-2013 12:10 Post subject: |
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| Mythopoeika wrote: | | PeniG wrote: | | Because they're human beings and in any large concentration of human beings a certain percentage of them are nasty. That story could have happened anywhere, not just in China. |
Yes, that kind of behaviour is not unique to the Chinese. |
Indeed, its the exact circumstances of the behaviour which made it newsworthy. |
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