Police: Serial Car Thief Just Wanted GasMyanmar -— A serial car thief who stole
11 vehicles in six months was after only the fuel, which is severely rationed
in the military-run former Burma, a police source said. Police caught Maung Myo Win red-handed last month as he was trying to
climb into a minivan in downtown Yangon, the Myanmar Crime Journal reported. Under questioning, it appeared that he had been involved in at least 10
other vehicle thefts where the cars were left in another part of the capital
with empty fuel tanks. ‘As far as I know, he just stole the petrol,’ said a policeman, who requested
anonymity. Private car owners in Myanmar, who have been under military rule for 45
years, are allowed to buy 60 gallons of fuel a month at 1,500 kyat (US$1.22)
per gallon from state-owned filling stations. If they need more, they have to resort to the black market, where petrol
is currently selling at about 4,200 kyat a gallon. (Source: www.cnn.com)
Serial Killer SpreeSouth Africa — There have been 80 recorded cases of serial murder in South Africa
since 1931. As of now, investigators are actively hunting the Caledon
Square serial killer, who murdered six homeless people during the 1980s; the
Cape Town serial killer, who is responsible for the murders of 19 sex workers
from 1992 to 1995; the ‘Station Strangler’ who has killed 22 children since
the mid 90s; the ‘Skiereiland Nagmerrie’ serial killer who murdered at least three people
in 1997; the ‘Doringdraad’ serial killer,
who murdered 16 people in 1998; the ‘Riverman Killer’, who has raped and murdered
13 women between 1999 and 2001; the Eastern Cape serial killer, who murdered
five teenage sex workers in 2001; the Fosaville serial killer, who has murdered
at least 13 women between 1999 and 2003; and the Stellenbosch child murders,
in which three children were murdered between 2001 and 2003. South Africa
is currently ranked number three for having the most serial killers in the world. The
United States takes the number one spot, with Russia coming in a close second.
(Source: www.crimelibrary.com)
Malaysia Plans to Pour 196,000 Beers
Down the DrainKuala Lumpur — Malaysian customs officials plan to send more than 196,000
cans of smuggled beer gurgling down the drain after confiscating them from a
gang that specialised in reselling duty free drinks to pubs and grocers. Officials cannot
auction off the beer, worth about 287,000 ringgit (NZD$115,400) with one million
ringgit owed in unpaid duty and sales tax, because the sale would affect the
domestic market, the Star newspaper said. The smugglers
worked with freight forwarders and haulers over six months to obtain duty-free
beers meant for shops in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, customs officials
told the paper. Each of the 8,178
seized cartons was to be sold for 30 ringgit, or about a third of the market
price, customs official Madrina Alwi said. But the plan
went flat after customs officers raided an industrial estate where the beer
was stored and caught two Myanmar nationals, the paper said. (Source: www.nzherald.co.nz)
Wife For Sale Ad Gets AxedBrazil — The government has ordered an internet auction site to
remove an advertisement in which a Brazilian man offered to sell his wife for
100 reals. The Secretariat of Public Policies for Women announced
that it had ordered Mercado Livre, partially owned by eBay Inc, to remove the
ad and warned it was violating a law, banning the offer or sale of ‘human organs,
people, blood, bones or skin’. The advertisement is no longer visible on the site.
It was posted by a man who gave his name as Breno
who said: ‘I sell my wife for reasons I prefer to keep short ... I really need
the money.’ He described his wife’s physical attributes and
listed her as a homemaker and companion. He reportedly said she was 35 years
old and ‘worth her weight in gold’. The Estado news agency said it wasn’t clear if the
ad was meant as a joke. It said the ad hadn’t been noticed earlier because of
the large number of products offered on the site - nearly one million. (Source: www.news24.com)