“Sometimes enough is enough”: Boxer confronts trembling Twitter troll who taunted him online (video)

A trembling Twitter troll had a dramatic change of heart – after the professional boxer he abused turned up on his street.

Former Sheffield United and Hull City footballer, Curtis Woodhouse, from Driffield, East Yorkshire, drove 50 miles to confront the pest who had taunted him on the social networking site.

The fit 32-year-old – who turned pro-boxer in 2006 – scared his tormentor by tweeting a picture of his street and posting: “Right Jimbob I’m here!

“Someone tell me what number he lives at, or must I knock on every door?”

But the cowardly troll – who branded himself the “Keyboard Warrior” – frantically replied: “I’m sorry. It’s getting out of hand.

“I’m in the wrong, I accept that.”

The troll, who stopped tweeting afterwards, had been mocking the fighter for weeks.

His cruel and foul-mouthed comments included: “Retire immediately. Can’t even defend a pathetic title. You are a disgrace #awfulboxer.”

After losing his light-welterweight belt last Friday, the troll goaded: “Haha u lost u silly mug. Fight a 10-year-old next time if u want to win.”

Woodhouse tweeted last night: “Never came out to play so I’m going home! Maybe a bit daft what I did but sometimes enough is enough.”

Source: mirror.co.uk

Crown Casino in ‘Ocean’s 11 sting’ worth $32 Million.

Police are investigating a $32 million sting at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, in an Ocean’s 11 movie-style rip-off.

Drunk driver crashes into petrol station (video)

A drunk driver was more than three times over the legal limit when he crashed his car into a service station in Canberra, Australia last night.

McDonald’s sued after child chews on condom

McDonald’s is being sued by an American woman who claims her child ate a used condom he found in the play area of one of the chain’s restaurants.

The suit was filed on behalf of Anishi Spencer and her two sons, who were 3- and 2-years-old at the time of the alleged incident in Chicago in February 2012.

The mother alleges the 2-year-old coughed up a piece of the condom and that both children required medical treatment.

The suit accuses McDonald’s of failing to remove harmful debris from an area used by children.

McDonald’s said it was investigating. It added in a statement that “providing a safe, clean environment is a top priority.”

The woman’s attorney, Jeffrey Deutschman, said he tried for months to reach a settlement but got no response.

In 2011 an Australia man complained when his toddler ate a condom she had found in a McDonald’s playground.

A McDonald’s spokeswoman later said a group of local schoolgirls admitted they played a prank by planting the condom, filled with ice cream, in the cubby house.

Horror at the circus as acrobat falls 28m

A Kenyan acrobat is in a serious condition after falling 28m during a performance at a Russian circus.

A Kenyan acrobat has fallen through a safety net during a show at a Moscow circus, suffering severe injuries including a fractured vertebra.

An amateur video aired on Russian television showed 22-year-old Karo Christopher Kazungu diving from a height of 26 meters (85 feet), hitting the net and going through it and landing on the arena floor during the show.

Kazungu was at the end of his routine and was due to dismount after the dive.

Edgard Zapashny, director general of the Great Moscow State Circus, told Russian television that the German-made safety net had been rigorously tested before it was used.

Circus employees are speculating on whether someone may have tampered with the net or whether it was faulty. Zapashny said, however, that they did not see any signs of sabotage on first inspection.

The circus said on its website that Kazungu was conscious when he was taken to the hospital.

Russian news agencies quoted the director of the acrobatics show as saying that Kazungu was diagnosed with a fracture of one vertebra and was in intensive care.

Kazungu was one of a dozen Russian and Kenyan performers taking part in a highly complex acrobatics show.

Zapashny told Russian television that the circus had never had any previous incidents of this kind.

Source. stuff.co.nz

Lakeside owners to pay for erosion repair

Homeowners are left with the repair bill to fix the erosion at their Clear Island Waters lakeside homes. Pic: David Clark

THE owners of five properties being swallowed up by Clear Island Waters lake will have to cough up $95,000 to stop their houses from being washed away.

As wild weather lashed the Gold Coast on the Australia Day long weekend, the homeowners were forced to watch on as their backyards gave way.

After weeks of deliberating with the Gold Coast City Council, landlord Ross Pizarro said homeowners were last week told they had seven days to start repairing the damage.

“The house next door to us got within two feet of falling into the lake and I think that made the council panic, so they put out an order that it had to be fixed and had to be started within the next seven days,” he said.

“The quote to fix our home is $18,500 … but for all five homes it’s going to cost about $95,000.

“We’re lucky because our insurance is going to cover it, but the two houses next to us have to pay $25,000 each and they are just going to have to come up with that kind of money.”

Mr Pizarro said work had begun on Friday after residents gave up in their fight against council.

“We had a big meeting with all of the council engineers and their legal department, but we virtually got out of them that they weren’t taking any responsibility,” he said.

“We’ve kind of all given up. You seem to be talking to a blank wall when you talk to council and we can’t just leave it or our houses will fall in.”

A council spokesman last night said the matter was between it and the ratepayers involved.

 “Importantly, any correspondence between the City of Gold Coast and homeowners (on any matter) is a matter of privacy between council and the ratepayer,” he said.

“You would need to ask homeowners if they were willing to divulge information forwarded to them in correspondence from council about this, or any matter.

“City of Gold Coast placed a floating boom as a goodwill gesture to those home owners to minimise any wash from boats passing at slow speed.

“Council also refutes any suggestion that it has undertaken ‘widening work’ of that watercourse.

Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au

Samsung launches new Galaxy smartphone

JK Shin, head of IT and Mobile Communications for Samsung Electronics, presents the new Samsung Galaxy S 4 today. Photo / AP

 

Samsung Electronics is kicking up its competition with Apple with its new Galaxy S 4 smartphone, which has a larger, sharper screen than its predecessor, the best-selling S III.

Samsung trumpeted the much-anticipated phone’s arrival today at an event accompanied by a live orchestra while an audience of thousands watched the onstage theatrics. The Galaxy S 4, which crams a 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) screen into body slightly smaller than the S III’s, will go sale globally in the April to June period.

In the US, it will be sold by all four national carriers Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA as well as by smaller ones US Cellular and Cricket.

Samsung didn’t say what the phone will cost, but it can be expected to start at US$200 (NZD$243) with a two-year contract in the US.

JK Shin, the executive in charge of Samsung’s mobile communications division, promised the money would be well spent for a “life companion” that will “improve the way most people live every day”.

That bold promise set the tone for the kind of flashy presentation associated with the showmanship of Apple, the company that Samsung has been trying to upstage.

 

Apple contends Samsung has been trying to do it by stealing its ideas an allegation has triggered bitter courtroom battles around the world.

In the last two years, Samsung has emerged as Apple’s main competitor in the high-end smartphone market. At the same time, it has sold enough inexpensive low-end phones to edge out Nokia as the world’s largest maker of phones.

The Galaxy line has been Samsung’s chief weapon in the smartphone fight, and it has succeeded in making it a recognizable brand while competitors like Taiwan’s HTC. and South Korean rival LG have stumbled. Samsung has sold 100 million Galaxy S phones since they first came out in 2010. That’s still well below the 268 million iPhones Apple has sold in the same period, but Samsung’s sales rate is catching up.

Research firm Strategy Analytics said the Galaxy S III overtook Apple’s iPhone 4S as the world’s best-selling smartphone for the first time in the third quarter of last year, as Apple fans were holding off for the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 took back the crown in the fourth quarter.

One way Samsung and other makers of Android phone have been one-upping Apple is by increasing the screen size. Every successive generation of the Galaxy line has been bigger than the one before. The S III sported a screen that measures 4.8 inches (12.19 centimeters) on the diagonal, already substantially larger than the iPhone 5’s 4-inch (10.16-centimeter) screen. The S 4’s screen is 56 per cent larger than the iPhone’s.

In a Wednesday interview, Apple Phil Schiller declined to discuss whether Apple is considering enlarging the screen on the next model of the iPhone, which is expected to be released later this year. He said Apple remains confident that the iPhone 5 is the most useful and elegant smartphone available, hailing it as “the most beautiful consumer electronics device ever created.”

Samsung believes the S 4 will set the new standard.

Apart from the larger screen and upgraded processor, the S 4 has a battery that’s 20 per cent larger than that of the S III. Samsung didn’t say if that translates into a longer battery life the added capacity might be gobbled up by the bigger screen or other internal changes.

The S 4 comes with a built-in infra-red diode, so it can control an entertainment center as a universal remote. This is a feature that has showed up in Android tablets before.

The S 4 comes with several new technologies intended to help users interact with the phone. For instance, the screen now senses fingers hovering just above the screen, and some applications react. The Mail application shows the first few lines of an email when a finger hovers above it in the list, and the Gallery application shows an expanded thumbnail.

Users can control some other applications by making gestures in the air above the phone. In the browser, you can command the screen to scroll up by swiping from top to bottom a few inches from the phone.

The Camera application can now use both the front and rear cameras simultaneously, inserting a small picture of the user even as he’s capturing the scene in front of him.

When several S 4s are in close proximity, they can link up to play the same music, simultaneously perfect for headphone dance parties.

– AP

Brutal story ends as kneecapper freed

Violent history: Saleh Jamal.

Some time on Friday Saleh Jamal will walk out of the South Coast Correctional Centre at Nowra as a free man.

Few on the street will recognise his bearded face or his name.

But the police who worked at Lakemba police station in November 1998 will remember, and the news of his release is likely to raise more than a few hackles.

Drive-by: Lakemba Police Station. Photo: Steven Siewart

In 1998 the notorious ”DK’s Boys” gang carried out a drive-by shooting on the Lakemba police station that left the building a mess of shattered glass, and much of Sydney in a state of uproar.

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The shooting had five officers ducking for cover as 16 bullets from semi-automatic pistols passed through the station’s foyer windows. Then police commissioner Peter Ryan pledged to track down those responsible and to make the streets of Sydney safe.

Drive-by: Lakemba Police Station. Photo: Steven Siewart

In May 2009 Jamal became the only person found guilty over the shooting as charges against the other men were dropped or not proven beyond reasonable doubt. He was later sentenced to a maximum of 12 years’ jail for a range of charges including shooting with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Last Friday Jamal was quietly acquitted in the Downing Centre District Court after a 12-day retrial.

”Thank you, your honour, may God bless you and your family,” a jubilant Jamal said.

The acquittal by Judge Steven Norrish coincided with the end of a nine-year jail sentence Jamal was serving for kneecapping a rival drug dealer at Greenacre in October 1998, a month before the Lakemba shooting.

”God willing I will be released next Friday,” he told the court.

Jamal’s release is a remarkable twist in what has been a dramatic and at times brutal and bloody story. For more than a decade the 37-year-old was one of the key members of DK’s Boys, named after their leader Danny Karam, who ultimately perished in a hail of bullets from his own gang mates.

During the 1990s DK’s Boys challenged Sydney’s major players for a slice of the city’s illegal drug market and, briefly, for a piece of the Kings Cross nightclub scene, with a brutal strategy that involved kneecappings and multiple murders.

In 2004, after being arrested and charged over the Lakemba shoot-out, Jamal fled to Lebanon with a false passport while on bail.

There he was subsequently arrested and jailed by the Lebanese government on charges of possessing weapons and explosives, planning acts that endangered state security, and possessing a false passport.

His five-year sentence for these crimes was later cut to two years after a Lebanese court ruled that only the passport conviction could be upheld.

Burnt out: Police inspect the vehicle. Photo: Steven Siewart

In October 2006 he was extradited to Sydney where, in 2008, he was sentenced to nine years’ jail for the 1998 kneecapping of a rival drug dealer at Greenacre.

The gang combusted in a fight with police on a White City tennis court in December 2008.

Last year, Jamal’s conviction was quashed on appeal and a re-trial ordered.

Among the main reasons for the decision by the three-judge panel of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal was that Jamal had not been permitted to accompany the jury when, as part of the trial, it visited the scene of the alleged crime.

In the Downing District Court this month Jamal faced the lesser charge of discharging a firearm in a public place.

He was found not guilty by Judge Norrish, hearing the matter without a jury.

He will hand down his reasons for the decision later this month.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

NSW, Australia keeps close eye on Finks bikie chapter ban

Colours: A High Court ruling may see the Finks outlawed. Photo: Luis Enrique Ascui

The NSW government is taking legal advice on what a High Court decision that green lights the banning of a Queensland motorcycle club means for their similarly proposed legislation here.

The High Court on Thursday unanimously upheld a Queensland law which allows a chapter of the Finks motorcycle club to be declared a criminal organisation.

A company linked to the Gold Coast chapter of the Finks, Pompano Pty Ltd, had challenged Queensland’s Criminal Organisation Act, arguing it was unconstitutional and denied procedural fairness.

Queensland police want the chapter and the company declared criminal organisations on the basis their members associate for the purposes of engaging in or conspiring to engage in serious criminal activity.

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Lawyers for the Finks had previously said the allegations against the club were based on secret criminal intelligence, which cannot be made public or challenged in court.

But the High Court in Canberra upheld the validity of certain provisions of the Criminal Organisation Act. The provisions relate to the use of ‘‘criminal intelligence’’ to support Supreme Court applications by police to declare a group a criminal organisation.

‘‘The High Court held that the provisions were not inconsistent with the institutional integrity of the Supreme Court,’’ its judgment said.

The six High Court judges who heard the challenge held that while the provisions might depart from usual judicial process, the Queensland Supreme Court retained its capacity to act fairly, impartially and independently.

In NSW, the O’Farrell government introduced the Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Amendment Bill 2012 last year, but its passage through Parliament was adjourned pending the outcome of the Queensland decision.

Attorney-General Greg Smith said the government will seek advice from senior counsel on the significance of the Queensland decision for its own bill.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

Tinkler cries ‘cash poor’ in court, but family’s trust is valued at $1.4 Billion

Back in town … Nathan Tinkler. Photo: Nick Moir

The embattled coal baron Nathan Tinkler has declared his family trust is worth $1.4 billion but he concedes he is ”asset rich, cash poor”.

In the year ending 2011, Mr Tinkler paid income tax of just $9834. He expects to pay about the same next time, he revealed on Friday during a liquidator’s examination of his failed private entity, Mulsanne Resources.

Mr Tinkler was being grilled in the Supreme Court in Sydney over Mulsanne’s failure to pay a debt of $28.4 million but this number was left in the shade late in the day when he was asked to detail his personal finances.

The Tinkler Group Family Trust, he said, was worth about $1.4 billion and was controlled by his wife, Rebecca, who could give him money tax-free.

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”Is that what happens?” asked Robert Newlinds, SC, for the liquidator. ”Your wife gives you money from time to time.”

Mr Tinkler, 36, replied: ”I’m very lucky, yes.”

The former mine electrician hit pay dirt when he sold his stake in Macarthur Coal in 2008 for $440 million. The trust had paid $100 million in tax, so money could then be distributed tax-free. Mr Newlinds asked how much Mr Tinkler might draw from the fund at a time. He wasn’t sure. Could he round it to the nearest $100,000? No. The nearest million? No.

He said they had a total of about $250,000 in bank accounts.

The assets in the family trust included Patinack Farm, the horse stud that he valued at $100 million after debts – ”at least”. They also included Hunter Ports, Aston Metals and a major stake in Whitehaven Coal.

The numbers swirling in court clashed at times. Mr Newlinds turned Mr Tinkler’s mention of $1.4 billion for the trust into $1.2 billion at the next mention. He asked Mr Tinkler if that included liabilities. Yes, about $600 million. That left a net worth of about $600 million, Mr Tinkler agreed.

Earlier in the day, Mr Tinkler had put the total debts for the Tinkler Group at ”probably around $500 million”.

The liquidator is examining Mulsanne’s failure to fulfil a contract to pay $28.4 million to acquire a third of the coal explorer Blackwood Corporation.

Mr Tinkler has told the court that, as the global coal price collapsed last year, he could not raise this money from financiers or from his preferred source – by selling his royalty stream from the Middlemount coal mine to the Noble Group. Noble owns 51 per cent of Blackwood.

Mr Tinkler says Noble director Will Randall told him he wanted to buy the royalty stream and that they had done much bigger deals on a verbal exchange. But Mr Newlinds said there was no deal and he interrogated Mr Tinkler on why he kept ”no email, no letter, no note” that recorded his discussions with Noble.

Mr Tinkler said he ”pretty quickly” worked out he had been ”hung out to dry” after Mr Randall ”just went offline” the day before the Blackwood deal was to settle. But why did Mr Tinkler not mention that in correspondence to Mr Randall three months later? ”In my business experience, the best way to ask for help is not by kicking someone in the teeth.”

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

Tweet puts New Zealand paper in spotlight

The photo tweeted by Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson to his 1.5 million followers.

A Northland newspaper with a usual circulation of 4300 can now claim 1.5 million readers thanks to Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson.

The presenter, who was on Ninety Mile Beach on Wednesday to shoot a scene for an upcoming episode of the popular BBC motoring show, sent a photo of the front page of Tuesday’s Northland Age to his 1,466,841 followers on the microblogging site Twitter yesterday. The Age is the Kaitaia-based sister paper of the Advocate.

The photo shows the paper resting on Clarkson’s knees with the headline “Piripi: Is this all bullshit?” as the Top Gear crew drove on a rural New Zealand road. Clarkson’s comment is: “Now that’s what I call a headline. And it’s about Top Gear.“

The Northland Age story relates to a grovelling apology the Far North District Council was forced to make after it forgot to ask four out of five iwi with custodianship over Ninety Mile Beach before agreeing to a partial closure of the beach so Top Gear could film there. The council apparently also forgot it had just signed up to a co-governance board which will see the beach, also known as Te Oneroa a Tohe, jointly managed by iwi, government, DoC, regional and district councils.

The interim chairman of the board is Te Rarawa leader Haami Piripi, who was led to wonder whether all the talk of co-governance and consultation was, as he colourfully put it at a hui with council and BBC representatives, “bullshit”.

Clarkson also tweeted an apology to diehard Top Gear fans and media who had spent all Tuesday waiting on Ninety Mile Beach for a glimpse of the stars when they were in fact on a yacht off the Coromandel Peninsula.

Some fans, like Jovica Mrkela and his 9-year-old son, Filip, drove all the way from Auckland in vain; Kaitaia couple Trinda and Chayne Steen waited three days on the beach in the hope of meeting Clarkson and fellow presenter James May.

“Apologies to people and news crews who had a wasted journey to 90 Mile beach. We were there but only briefly,” Clarkson tweeted.

In the end, the scene was filmed on Wednesday afternoon and involved a humble Toyota Corolla.

The Top Gear host also seized his chance to respond to a comment in Thursday’s Age claiming the crew had a reputation of being “less than friendly”.

“I’d like to correct one report though. The Top Gear crew are not ‘less than friendly’. They are terrifying,” he tweeted.

Clarkson said he was keen to stay in New Zealand but had to be in Spitzbergen, 1000km north of Norway, this weekend.

Age editor Peter Jackson, somewhat tongue in cheek, welcomed Clarkson’s tweets.

“As someone who is hardly in the van of technological change, I am a little bemused, but we are bracing for a rush on our digital subscription offer,” he said.

“We’ve had one phone call so far but it was a wrong number.

“Still, this is obviously a more reliable way of getting Top Gear’s attention than leaving messages all over the place.”

The Age has a readership of about 14,000.

 

Excuses, excuses: Judges let off drink drivers

A drink-driver who is either found guilty or pleads guilty can apply for a discharge without conviction. Photo / Greg Bowker

 

Judges let off around 50 people a year for drink-driving – with reasons ranging from models wanting to work overseas and wannabe police officers and nannies.

Figures released to the Herald show 239 drink-drivers since 2007 have had excuses good enough to escape conviction – but the Ministry of Justice could not give the names of the judges who granted the discharges, or the reasons.

However, Auckland lawyer Stuart Blake, who specialises in drink-driving and traffic law, has provided some of the reasons he advanced in court – and won.

Mr Blake this month obtained a discharge for a trainee pilot whose student debt exceeded $100,000 and who considered a conviction would prevent him getting a job to repay it.

In another case, a West Auckland man was discharged because his business interests required “extensive unimpeded international travel”, while a woman was discharged on the basis that she was an international model who had job prospects in Hong Kong, America and Canada.

 

Mr Blake also obtained discharges for a woman who had “aspirations of becoming an au pair overseas”, a would-be firefighter and a mechanic who wanted to join the police.

Release of the figures follow an outcry over the discharge given to a Gisborne sportswoman, partly so she could pursue her chosen sport overseas. Police are still considering whether to appeal that decision.

Yesterday, Mr Blake said only a “select few” people were able to apply for a discharge.

“In order to ascertain whether an individual has an appropriate case to be considered by the court, I consider the gravity of the offending in comparison to what the consequences will be if convicted.

“The courts rightly place a very high threshold on granting a discharge … In this regard the potential consequences have to be real and appreciable, not just speculative.”

Mr Blake said discharges were not granted just because a person would suffer inconvenience or mere hardship. They were “particularly rare” and only a “fraction” of drink-drivers met the threshold for discharge.

“I absolutely accept and agree that the drink-driving is socially unacceptable and I in no way condone it, but unfortunately until such time as the Government imposes a zero-alcohol level, people are simply going to take a chance by consuming alcohol and driving.”

Students Against Drink Driving chief Anna Braidwood said such cases sent the wrong message, particularly to young people, who were constantly being grilled about getting behind the wheel drunk.

The discharges are different from those given to motorists who beat the system through legal loopholes or errors in the police case. The majority were granted in Wellington, followed by Manukau, Auckland, Christchurch and the North Shore.

Steve Cullen, who also specialises in drink-driving law, said 239 cases in five years was about 0.2 per cent, and highlighted how “very rare” discharges were. “That’s because they need to be able to show that the penalty is disproportionate to their actions,” he said.

The 0.2 per cent of drink-drivers who did get discharges were likely to be people in important jobs or positions that they needed to continue.

Hotel manager accused of $118,000 theft

The Club Bar at the Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, New Zealand. File photo / Herald on Sunday

A manager of one of Auckland’s top hotels has appeared in court accused of stealing more than $118,000.

Jose Enrico Buenaventura, who worked at the Spencer on Byron in Takapuna, appeared at the North Shore District Court today facing two charges of obtaining by deception.

The 35-year-old made a brief appearance before a community magistrate. His lawyer John Munro asked for more time to give legal advice.

According to the police charge sheets, Buenaventura is accused of stealing $118,607.32 from NZ Castle Resorts and Hotels – the Spencer on Byron management company.

It’s understood Buenaventura held a management position at the plush hotel and allegedly used it to siphon funds in a variety of ways over two years.

The 23-storey hotel has 249 rooms spread over 18 floors and has played host to the All Blacks.

The 20th and 21st floors have six penthouses which are not part of the hotel operation and have been at the centre of a longstanding leaky building case which has seen owners sue the now defunct North Shore City Council.

– APNZ

Lil Wayne suffers another seizure attack

Lil Wayne was hospitalized this week in L.A. because of another seizure attack.

Wayne suffered seizures Tuesday night after shooting a music video and was taken to Cedars-Sinai hospital. Weezy was released early Wednesday morning.

It’s not the rapper’s first encounter with seizures. Wayne suffered two seizures on board separate airplanes last October.

He is doing much better now and has been prescribed seizure medication by doctors.

via TMZ

Get well soon Tunechi…

Diddy poses with two naked women

Diddy tweeted an interesting photo of himself posing with two nude models.

With the caption, “I’m an artist. In every sense of the word. Lol”