Sentenced to 60 years in prison

JOHN BISSET/STUFF Twins James and Richard Koia have now found three shooting medals from 1914 belonging to the late William Joseph Husband. Armed with their trusty metal detectors, Timaru’s treasure-hunting twins spend hours scouring the coastline for lost items – often volunteering their services to reunite people with lost items. Since word of James and Richard Koia’s ability to find things got out, members of the community have been asking them to help find phones, rings and necklaces. “We have had a bit of success finding things for people,” James said. In the two years they have been hunting treasure they have also uncovered a number of historically significant items, spending time to reunite them with their rightful owners. READ MORE: Shooting medal discovered on South Canterbury beach more than 60 years after being lost Medals found in the grass in Whitianga reunited with Wellington man Long lost medal makes its way home to South Canterbury In some … [Read more...] about Treasure-hunting twins strike again, reunite family with long-lost war medals

Paul Paolucci, the top cop for one of the world’s biggest credit card companies, sure had some interesting friends. One made a fortune fronting for pornography websites that needed access to Mastercard’s and Visa’s payment networks. Paolucci, who oversaw Mastercard’s merchant fraud control, was photographed cavorting around the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel with him and a group of women in white corset minidresses. A second was a Lamborghini-driving e-commerce mogul with whom Paolucci used to celebrate family holidays. The mogul ended up in prison for a financial crime he committed, in part, using Mastercard’s network. An executive at a famously corrupt European bank claimed to have dined with Paolucci and gotten his help evading Mastercard’s regulations. It was Paolucci’s job to make sure that the banks and companies using Mastercard’s network were playing by the rules. He bent those rules himself by getting close to the very kinds of high-risk businesses he was supposed to be … [Read more...] about Two-Card Monte: Why Mastercard And Visa Rarely Shut Down Scammers Who Are Ripping Off Consumers

Russia expels 34 French, 27 Spanish, and 24 Italian diplomats in a tit-for-tat move Russian soldier pleads guilty at murder trial in Ukraine Ukrainian and Russian officials say peace negotiations have stagnated EU announces funding to help bloc move away from Russian fossil fuels Finland and Sweden submit NATO membership applications This article was last updated at 12:49 UTC/GMT Russian soldier pleads guilty of murder at Kyiv trial Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old Russian tank commander held in Ukraine, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing an unarmed civilian. After his convoy was hit, Shishimarin and four other fleeing soldiers are alleged to have stole a car from outside the village of Chupakhivka in the early days of the invasion. He is accused of attacking the 62-year-old, who was riding past them on a bicycle, to prevent him from reporting their presence. "One of the military servicemen ordered the accused to kill a civilian so that he would not report … [Read more...] about Ukraine: Russian soldier pleads guilty of murder at Kyiv trial — live updates

By Daniel Davies Published 9 minutes ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing South Wales Police has been asked to re-examine why it treated a man, who supplied diazepam to an MP, differently from the politician himself. Labour's Stephen Doughty admitted last year asking Byron Long for the prescription-only drug on one occasion. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) says it has now partly upheld a complaint given to Mr Long over a caution for supplying the pills. Mr Doughty has not been cautioned. South Wales Police said it could not comment. MP sorry for asking constituent for diazepam In a statement the IOPC said: "We can confirm that we have partly upheld a review over the handling of a complaint by South Wales Police. "We have decided that a further investigation by the force into aspects of the complaint is necessary, including … [Read more...] about Stephen Doughty: Police told to re-examine handling of MP’s diazepam case

Published 2 May 2021 Share close Share page Copy link About sharing A Labour MP has apologised "unreservedly for any error he made" by asking a constituent for prescription-only anxiety drugs. Byron Long claimed to the Mail on Sunday he gave his MP Stephen Doughty up to 140 diazepam pills during up to 20 meetings at a Cardiff coffee shop. Mr Doughty's spokesman categorically denied the paper's report. But he said the MP did ask his "friend" Mr Long for "a few spare diazepam" once in 2019, to take ahead of a flight. The spokesman added: "To the best of his recollection, at the time he was panicking, had been unable to get to a GP for an appointment, and as a friend who he regularly shared confidential personal mental health worries and anxieties with, asked Byron if he had a few spare diazepam, which he had previously been prescribed for such circumstances, and taken without any … [Read more...] about Stephen Doughty: MP sorry for asking constituent for diazepam

Danny Shaw @DannyShawBBC on Twitter Published 22 June 2016 Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Early on a Saturday morning I found myself in the basement of a hotel in the company of 12 strangers. The air conditioning was on at full blast; the atmosphere between us was also rather chilly. This was our "sentence" for committing a minor motoring offence - and none of us wanted to be there. We were on a driver awareness course called What's Driving Us? It was that, or accept a £100 fine and three penalty points. No contest, really. Over the next three hours there were discussions, presentations and role-play. None of us embraced it with any great enthusiasm - we just wanted to "tick the box" and let the weekend begin. My crime? I had jumped a red light driving up the A10 in north London and was spotted by a CCTV camera. The road ahead … [Read more...] about Do driver awareness courses make roads safer?

Moscow has suffered another diplomatic setback in its war with Ukraine as Sweden joined Finland in deciding to seek Nato membership, while Ukraine’s president congratulated soldiers who reportedly pushed Russian forces back near the border. Russian forces pounded targets in the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, and the death toll, already many thousands, kept climbing with the war set to enter its 12th week on Wednesday (local time). The eastern city of Sievierdonetsk came under heavy shelling that killed at least 10 people, said Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region. In the Donetsk region, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook that nine civilians were killed in shelling. READ MORE: Turkey: No to Sweden and Finland joining Nato Why Turkey dissents on Finland and Sweden joining Nato and why it matters McDonald's to leave Russia for good after 30 years Ukraine 'can win this war' against Russia, says Nato chief In … [Read more...] about Russia faces diplomatic and battlefield setbacks on Ukraine

By Sarah Rainsford, BBC News & Malu Cursino Published 3 minutes ago Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Related Topics Russia-Ukraine war A 21-year-old Russian soldier has pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian, in the first war crimes trial in Ukraine since the war started. Vadim Shishimarin admitted shooting a 62-year-old man a few days after the invasion began. He faces life in jail. The prisoner was brought into the tiny Kyiv courtroom in handcuffs, flanked by heavily armed guards. He looked nervous, and kept his head bowed. Just a couple of metres from him, the widow of the man killed was sitting. She wiped tears from her eyes as the soldier entered court, then sat with hands clasped as the prosecutor set out his case, describing the moment Kateryna's husband was shot in the head. "Do you accept your guilt?" the judge asked. "Yes," … [Read more...] about Russian soldier pleads guilty in first war crimes trial of Ukraine conflict

Faisal Islam @faisalislam on Twitter Published 2 hours ago comments Comments Share close Share page Copy link About sharing Today's astronomical rise in inflation is no less shocking, even though it was predicted. UK inflation is simply not supposed to hit levels such as 9%, and the statisticians have had to go back in time to remodel historical data, as inflation has not been this high while the Consumer Prices Index has been in existence. As the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey has said, these sorts of rises hit the poorest the hardest. 9% is an average across the population. The older Retail Prices Index measure is already at 11%. But Mr Bailey's institution has a battle on now to get this under control. The really painful issue is that this rate will sustain and is on course to get higher over the course of this year. And only this week he … [Read more...] about What will it take to get inflation under control?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says his deal to buy Twitter can't move forward unless the company shows public proof that less than 5% of the accounts on the social media platform are fake or spam. Musk made the comment in a reply to another user on Twitter early Tuesday (overnight into Wednesday, NZT). He spent much of the previous day in a back-and-forth with Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who posted a series of tweets explaining his company’s effort to fight bots and how it has consistently estimated that less than 5% of Twitter accounts are fake. In his tweet Tuesday, Musk said that “20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be much higher. My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate.” He added: “Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of 5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.” READ MORE: Elon Musk says he might try to renegotiate Twitter deal for less A look at Elon Musk's ever-expanding business empire Elon Musk … [Read more...] about Elon Musk: Doubt about spam accounts could scuttle Twitter deal