■ CHINA
Graft tackled with feng shui
A court in Shenzhen, tainted by a corruption scandal involving crooked judges, hired a Hong Kong feng shui master to help purge bad luck from the court building, a newspaper reported yesterday. In March, three judges from the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province were prosecuted for taking bribes, local media reported. In recent days, the court had renovated its eastern and western doors under the instruction of a feng shui master "to correct the misfortune of the previous year," the Beijing News said, citing an unnamed source. The eastern side of the court building was facing a factory with an inauspicious smokestack, while the western side's yin was too strong and needed a pair of stone lions to ward off "misfortune," according to the advice given the court's leaders.
■ AUSTRALIA
Scam victims keep paying
Australians lose millions of dollars annually to foreign investment scams and many continue sending money even after being told they have been conned, police said yesterday. Some 134 people from Queensland state lost A$4.4 million (US$3.7 million) last year after being promised the money would be returned as part of windfalls that never materialized, Acting Superintendent Brian Hay said. Hay, who heads an anti-fraud task force, said only 24 percent of those told they were the victims of one particular Nigerian scam believed the authorities, while the rest carried on sending money to the fraudsters.
■ SINGAPORE
Coach fired in online sting
A Singapore basketball coach was fired from schools after teachers identified him in a local newspaper article about men who prey on young girls online, a newspaper said on Sunday. The Sunday Times said the coach was fired from two schools after teachers identified him in the newspaper, despite his face being digitally masked, as one of the men who tried to hook up with a reporter posing as a 13-year-old girl. In the May 6 article headlined, "You're 13? What's your bust size?" the coach was quoted as saying he wanted to meet the reporter "to cuddle a bit" after meeting her in an online chatroom for teenagers.
■ THAILAND
Thaksin's wife pleads
The wife of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, her brother and her secretary pleaded not guilty yesterday to tax evasion charges in a case which could finish off the charismatic billionaire politically. The court postponed the start of the trial to May 25 after the defendants asked for more time to gather evidence to counter charges filed by prosecutors in March, Noppadon said. Potjaman, her brother and secretary, freed on bail of 15 million baht (US$435,000), could face up to 14 years in jail in a case involving the transfer of shares in what is now Shin Corp, the firm Thaksin founded.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Intruder locks himself up
A bumbling intruder broke into an empty police station and accidentally locked himself in a cell, but managed to smash his way out again just before authorities arrived. Sergeant Graham McGurk said yesterday that the person broke into the police station in the town of Matamata on North Island on Saturday night. The intruder went to the cell bloc, and was accidentally locked in when a self-closing door clicked shut. As police rushed to respond to an intruder alarm at the post, the intruder used a chair to smash through a window.
RSS