A Maltese court has ordered the Customs Department to return to an aircraft loader $5,000 he found on a plane.
The loader found the cash on a plane that arrived in Malta from Tripoli in July 2000. He handed it to customs, but asked for it to be returned when no one claimed it. Customs refused, arguing it was illegal to hold foreign currency under a law existing at the time.
A court Monday decided however that the loader, John Fiteni, had a right to the money, the Malta Times newspaper reported Tuesday.
20060525
Fishy discovery leads to drug bust
Australian customs officers thought something was fishy when they inspected a man's luggage and found jars of pickled fish.
Closer inspection found 39 condoms of heroin inside the fish.
Officers at Adelaide airport in South Australia "became suspicious about pickled fish fillets inside jars found in the passenger's luggage" Wednesday, a Customs statement said.
"Closer inspection revealed a number of condoms sewn inside the fish pieces," said the statement Thursday.
A 32-year-old Australian man returning from Cambodia was arrested and will be charged with importing more than two kg (4.4 pounds) of heroin, Customs said.
The charge of importing a commercial quantity of drugs carries a penalty of life imprisonment and/or a fine of up to A$825,000 (US$620,000).
Closer inspection found 39 condoms of heroin inside the fish.
Officers at Adelaide airport in South Australia "became suspicious about pickled fish fillets inside jars found in the passenger's luggage" Wednesday, a Customs statement said.
"Closer inspection revealed a number of condoms sewn inside the fish pieces," said the statement Thursday.
A 32-year-old Australian man returning from Cambodia was arrested and will be charged with importing more than two kg (4.4 pounds) of heroin, Customs said.
The charge of importing a commercial quantity of drugs carries a penalty of life imprisonment and/or a fine of up to A$825,000 (US$620,000).
20060515
Lingering longer in the lingerie
Saudi Arabia has postponed plans to replace male sales assistants in lingerie shops, saying it wants to give outlets more time to prepare for the move which has irritated the influential religious circles.
The government, which wants more women to work as part of its efforts to reduce reliance on foreign labor, took the decision last June and businesses were given a year to prepare for implementation.
"Based on pleas by shop owners ... that they were unable to comply with the deadline, the ministry's decision is postponed until all the required preparations are finalized," state news agency SPA quoted the Labor Ministry as saying.
While women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from mixing with men outside their immediate family in public, they have little alternative to buying their most intimate items of clothing from men.
Many clerics and Islamists in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam which imposes a strict version of Sunni Islam, have opposed the idea as the start of reform process promoted by King Abdullah that they fear will liberalize the stringent system.
A Western diplomat said the move had irritated some of the most influential clerics in kingdom, where women are not allowed to drive and face employment restrictions because of the need to segregate sexes.
"The ministry may very well be honest in its argument (for the postponement). But the facts hint at a setback for the ministry future efforts in integrating Saudi women in the job life," the diplomat said.
Labor Minister Ghazi Algosaibi, who is despised by hardline Islamists as a liberal reformer, said plans to allow women to work in other sectors would go ahead, citing a group of government-backed clerics who have approved the reforms.
The government, which wants more women to work as part of its efforts to reduce reliance on foreign labor, took the decision last June and businesses were given a year to prepare for implementation.
"Based on pleas by shop owners ... that they were unable to comply with the deadline, the ministry's decision is postponed until all the required preparations are finalized," state news agency SPA quoted the Labor Ministry as saying.
While women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from mixing with men outside their immediate family in public, they have little alternative to buying their most intimate items of clothing from men.
Many clerics and Islamists in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam which imposes a strict version of Sunni Islam, have opposed the idea as the start of reform process promoted by King Abdullah that they fear will liberalize the stringent system.
A Western diplomat said the move had irritated some of the most influential clerics in kingdom, where women are not allowed to drive and face employment restrictions because of the need to segregate sexes.
"The ministry may very well be honest in its argument (for the postponement). But the facts hint at a setback for the ministry future efforts in integrating Saudi women in the job life," the diplomat said.
Labor Minister Ghazi Algosaibi, who is despised by hardline Islamists as a liberal reformer, said plans to allow women to work in other sectors would go ahead, citing a group of government-backed clerics who have approved the reforms.
And the world's loneliest Web users are..
Ireland may be enjoying stellar economic growth and seen as one of the best places in the world to live, but its inhabitants are apparently also the globe's loneliest.
Google Trends, which works out how many searches have been done via the Internet search engine on particular terms, showed the word "lonely" was entered most frequently by Internet users in Ireland: http://www.google.com/trends?q=lonely.
The Irish, enjoying new-found wealth and a flood of immigration following more than a century of economic decline, are followed in the misery stakes by residents of Singapore and New Zealand -- although Singaporeans are the most frequent searchers of "happiness."
Google Trends calculates the ratio of searches for a given term coming from each city, region or language divided by total Google searches coming from the same area.
Ireland's capital, Dublin, topped the city list for "lonely" searches, followed by Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.
In 2004, the Economist magazine named Ireland the best place to live in the world in a "quality of life" assessment.
Google Trends, which works out how many searches have been done via the Internet search engine on particular terms, showed the word "lonely" was entered most frequently by Internet users in Ireland: http://www.google.com/trends?q=lonely.
The Irish, enjoying new-found wealth and a flood of immigration following more than a century of economic decline, are followed in the misery stakes by residents of Singapore and New Zealand -- although Singaporeans are the most frequent searchers of "happiness."
Google Trends calculates the ratio of searches for a given term coming from each city, region or language divided by total Google searches coming from the same area.
Ireland's capital, Dublin, topped the city list for "lonely" searches, followed by Melbourne, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.
In 2004, the Economist magazine named Ireland the best place to live in the world in a "quality of life" assessment.
20060509
Man buys fighter jet, wants refund
A Chinese businessman who bought a Russian fighter jet online wants his money back after finding it could not be shipped to China, state media reported on Tuesday.
Zhang Cheng, a Beijing businessman, bid $24,730 and paid a $2,000 deposit for the former Czech air force plane on Chinese-based eBay, Xinhua news agency said.
But legal experts informed Zhang that the MiG-21, located in Idaho in the United States, was "almost impossible to ship back," Xinhua said, quoting the Beijing Times.
Moreover, the seller had clearly confined the destination of the plane to the United States and Canada, Xinhua quoted a member of eBay's public relations staff as saying.
Chinese Web surfers have accused Zhang of trying to gain fame, but others suggest it merely shows the improved living standards of the Chinese, Xinhua said.
The buyer, however, said he was building a collection.
"I like to collect valuable items," he said. "I have the buying power and my company has an empty space where I can display the plane".
Zhang Cheng, a Beijing businessman, bid $24,730 and paid a $2,000 deposit for the former Czech air force plane on Chinese-based eBay, Xinhua news agency said.
But legal experts informed Zhang that the MiG-21, located in Idaho in the United States, was "almost impossible to ship back," Xinhua said, quoting the Beijing Times.
Moreover, the seller had clearly confined the destination of the plane to the United States and Canada, Xinhua quoted a member of eBay's public relations staff as saying.
Chinese Web surfers have accused Zhang of trying to gain fame, but others suggest it merely shows the improved living standards of the Chinese, Xinhua said.
The buyer, however, said he was building a collection.
"I like to collect valuable items," he said. "I have the buying power and my company has an empty space where I can display the plane".
20060503
Study: US mothers deserve $134,121 in salary
A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released Wednesday.
A mother who works outside the home would earn an extra $85,876 annually on top of her actual wages for the work she does at home, according to the study by Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts Salary.com.
To reach the projected pay figures, the survey calculated the earning power of the 10 jobs respondents said most closely comprise a mother's role -- housekeeper, day-care teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive and psychologist.
"You can't put a dollar value on it. It's worth a lot more," said Kristen Krauss, 35, as she hurriedly packed her four children, all aged under 8, into a minivan in New York while searching frantically for her keys. "Just look at me."
Employed mothers reported spending on average 44 hours a week at their outside job and 49.8 hours at their home job, while the stay-at-home mother worked 91.6 hours a week, it showed.
An estimated 5.6 million women in the United States are stay-at-home mothers with children under age 15, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
NOT 'JUST A MOM'
"It's good to acknowledge the job that's being done, and that it's not that these women are settling for 'just a mom,'" said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. "They are actually doing an awful lot."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 26 million women with children under age 18 work in the nation's paid labor force.
Both employed and stay-at-home mothers said the lowest-paying job of housekeeper was their most common role, with employed mothers working 7.2 hours a week as housekeeper and stay-at-home mothers working 22.1 hours in that role.
"Every husband I've ever spoken to said, 'I'm keeping my job. You keep yours.' It's a tough one," said Gillian Forrest, 39, a stay-at-home mother of 22-month-old Alex in New York. "I don't know if you could put a dollar amount on it but it would be nice to get something."
To compile its study, Salary.com surveyed about 400 mothers online over the last two months.
Salary.com offers a Web site (http://www.mom.salary.com) where mothers can calculate what they could be paid, based on how many children they have, where they live and other factors. The site will produce a printable document that looks like a paycheck, Coleman said.
"It's obviously not negotiable," he said.
On average, the mother who works outside the house earns a base pay of $62,798 for a 40-hour at-home work week and $23,078 in overtime; a stay-at-home mother earned a base pay of $45,697 and $88,424 in overtime, it said.
In a Salary.com study conducted last year, stay-at-home mothers earned $131,471. The potential earnings of mothers who work outside the home was not calculated in the previous study.
A mother who works outside the home would earn an extra $85,876 annually on top of her actual wages for the work she does at home, according to the study by Waltham, Massachusetts-based compensation experts Salary.com.
To reach the projected pay figures, the survey calculated the earning power of the 10 jobs respondents said most closely comprise a mother's role -- housekeeper, day-care teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive and psychologist.
"You can't put a dollar value on it. It's worth a lot more," said Kristen Krauss, 35, as she hurriedly packed her four children, all aged under 8, into a minivan in New York while searching frantically for her keys. "Just look at me."
Employed mothers reported spending on average 44 hours a week at their outside job and 49.8 hours at their home job, while the stay-at-home mother worked 91.6 hours a week, it showed.
An estimated 5.6 million women in the United States are stay-at-home mothers with children under age 15, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.
NOT 'JUST A MOM'
"It's good to acknowledge the job that's being done, and that it's not that these women are settling for 'just a mom,'" said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. "They are actually doing an awful lot."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 26 million women with children under age 18 work in the nation's paid labor force.
Both employed and stay-at-home mothers said the lowest-paying job of housekeeper was their most common role, with employed mothers working 7.2 hours a week as housekeeper and stay-at-home mothers working 22.1 hours in that role.
"Every husband I've ever spoken to said, 'I'm keeping my job. You keep yours.' It's a tough one," said Gillian Forrest, 39, a stay-at-home mother of 22-month-old Alex in New York. "I don't know if you could put a dollar amount on it but it would be nice to get something."
To compile its study, Salary.com surveyed about 400 mothers online over the last two months.
Salary.com offers a Web site (http://www.mom.salary.com) where mothers can calculate what they could be paid, based on how many children they have, where they live and other factors. The site will produce a printable document that looks like a paycheck, Coleman said.
"It's obviously not negotiable," he said.
On average, the mother who works outside the house earns a base pay of $62,798 for a 40-hour at-home work week and $23,078 in overtime; a stay-at-home mother earned a base pay of $45,697 and $88,424 in overtime, it said.
In a Salary.com study conducted last year, stay-at-home mothers earned $131,471. The potential earnings of mothers who work outside the home was not calculated in the previous study.
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