An Asian gang brazenly kidnapped a 22-year-old man off of the streets of Chatswood in Sydney’s north-shore earlier this month.
After having his car keys and possessions stolen he was forced into his car and driven to his home. There he was forced to strip naked and was photographed in compromising positions. They blackmailed him with the release of these photos and made him ring his friends to bring them more money. His attackers left in his car seven hours later after he promised to pay $30,000 in three $10,000 installments.
Days later the victim was contacted by his attackers demanding the first payment. They later met at a Chatswood café where the trio consisting of Byron Chung, Xio Jian Zhao and Ming Lau (all in their twenties) were arrested and charged.

SMH

Two updates to previously-posted articles, both strikingly recent:

As posted on the 8th, a Thai mother – Rita Ariyaratnam – killed her two babies and attempted to kill herself but survived her own over-dose. Today she was charged with the murders at a bed-side hearing where she’d recently come off of life-support. The Sunday Times

The cocaine post from just yesterday has been blown out of the picture by news that surfaced today about some Mexicans who imported 144kg of the same white gold with a value of over $30MM. The drugs arrived at an Artarmon address on the 28th of January and then moved to Castle Hill on the 6th of this month, being tracked by the Federal Police since entering the country. Three men were arrested on the 8th. The North Shore Times

46-year-old Ramia Binti Jimson of Malaysia has had her appeal dismissed which argued that her sentence of eight years in gaol was too harsh. She was gaoled in February for importing a marketable quantity of an illicit drug.

Ramia arrived in Brisbane in March 2008 with nearly 2kg of cocaine hidden in a false-bottomed suitcase. The value of the cocaine (1.6kg pure) was valued at over $2MM, according to the court. Ramia is not an Australian national and was put up to the job (which would have paid her $2.552,32) by a Brazilian. Ramia’s drug route was Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, Auckland and finally Brisbane. Ramia took up the drug-running job to get funds to move to Bangladesh with her Bangladeshi husband.

Ramia will have to serve only 4.5 of her 8 years before being eligible for parole.

Brisbane Times

Kok Foo Lim of Tuart Hill, Perth has plead not guilty to 11 counts of unlawful and indecent assault, 15 counts of sexual penetration without consent and 1 charge of wounding. He’s plead guilty to 18 other counts of indecent assault.

Kok’s an illegal (non-registered) taxi driver who targeted young, intoxicated men and got them back to his house or simply alone in his car and then performed sexual acts illegally with them – often filming the crimes. All of the acts were over a four-year period from 2003 to 2007. Most of Kok’s victims would wake up naked in Kok’s house, with the youngest of such victims being 17 years old.

A raid of Kok’s house produced a backpack of recordings which ”showed a number of different men in various states of undress, asleep or unconscious, being indecently assaulted by the person taking the footage.”.

Kok’s trial is set to last for five weeks.

PerthNow

Two seven-month-old babies, Lachlan and Sophie, have been killed in Perth by their Thai mother, a Rita Ariyaratnam. The father of the children, the Sri Lankan Selvin Ariyaratnam, found the dead children when he returned from work on Monday afternoon and called the ambulance. Rita was unconscious on the floor from an apparent drug overdose, potentially the prescribed medication that she was taking for post-natal depression.

SMH

A convenience shop in Pendle Hill was robbed on Saturday at 00:20 by an oriental man bearing two large rocks. He threatened the attended and demanded money and then threw the rocks at him. He grabbed the register and was last seen running across the railway tracks. A search of the area by officers, dogs, as well as a helicopter found nothing.

Police Media Release

At 05:14 on Sunday, a 41-year-old woman hopped into the lift of a block of flats on Queen St in Auburn and a youth “of middle-eastern appearance” demand money from her. He allegedly produced a handgun and held it to her head but the woman ran off once the lift’s doors opened.

Police Media Release

The NSW police urge anyone with information to ring them on 1800 333 000.

Here’s the round-up of alien news for the day:

Two liars from Burma have been granted permanent protection visas in Australia after their unlikely story about how they were rescued of of Thursday island then taken to Christmas Island for processing and welcomed to the mainland now. Ko Ko Oo (23) and Than Thoung Htike (24) claim to be escaping from military dictatorship and were at sea for a month surviving on next to nothing: they drank rain water and ate seaweed and flying fish that happened into their “boat” as well as a feast of six or seven small fish that a sea-bird regurgitated. They were found drifting in an industrial sized refrigeration box that they claimed was from the fishing boat that they were forced to work on which supposedly lost its other 18 crew upon sinking. The Australian

A mum and her daughters have fled an arranged marriage in Iran after hopping from one muslim country to another with a  final goal of Australia. She’s now staying with Paki Muzzies, awaiting a visa to enter Australia for good. She didn’t want to risk the dangers of the illegal route which would have cost around $13,000 to make her way through the orient and enter Australia illegally. “My children are very excited about going. They know they have a chance to get education and (live a life where) no-one creates problems for them. I want to live in a country where there is justice.“. She’s coming to the wrong place as her kind are causing quite a stir here already. The Australian

The incident with the boat “SIEV 36″ (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel) is being investigated as it’s not certain whether it was arson or an accident that led to the explosion that killed some of the illegal immigrants. The investigation is in its early stages but apparently the Indonesians who were ferrying the Afghanis were responsible for the blaze. The self-sabotage theory is not impossible as the racketeers include the price of the boat into the transportation fee because the boat’s are a write-off as the captain and crew will inevitably be held in detention anyway. The boat was being trailed by the navy who would rather have escorted them to an immigrant processing island than take them aboard to the same destination but the fire had the desired effect and they were rescued. The “victims” are now in Australia in detention and processing with the injured in the Royal Perth and Brisbane hospitals. The captain of the boat claims ignorance of its purpose, thinking he was under orders to take passengers and their crew on a  fishing trip to an  island not specified. He was burnt and claims to’ve no recollection of the explosion. The Australian

Welcome to the country that we worked hard to build. Enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Rudd’s seen fit to further weaken Australia’s immigration policies by allowing illegal immigrants to roam freely with no threat of imprisonment or deportation. If an officer happens upon them, they are not allowed to arrest the alien unless they are convicted violent criminals or’ve been instructed to leave previously. Until last week, they’d've been arrested immediately and deported whereas now “We basically have to invite them into the office for a coffee. They can get a couple of weeks or six months, whatever it takes to get them home without detaining them.” an immigration officer said. With the closing of off-shore processing centres Nauru and Manus Island, there’s now no real threat to border-jumpers under Rudd’s plan but he isn’t worried with over 10% of these squatters being Chinese. Many of the illegal residents of Australia are students who’ve stayed beyond their course’s completion and disappeared into the community. “I guess it says people can pretty much do whatever they want now. They’ve been caught, but they can stay and go home when they want.”, the same officer said. Herald Sun

The effects of rampant immigration are being noticed specifically in Brisbane where african and oriental taxi drivers are being allowed behind the wheel too early, even weeks after arrival. Not only their driving skills but also their business practices are under scrutiny with some charging fees for luggage, tools for bridges without them and even charging for the use of sat. nav. devices. Courier Mail