Mohamad Tahir and Beny, both 19, told the Northern Territory Supreme Court they came from poor families and were struggling to find work when they were offered 560 dollars (512 US) each to bring the boat to Australia.

Five asylum seekers died and dozens more were injured when the fishing boat carrying 49 people exploded at Ashmore Reef, northwest of Australia, on April 16.

Police said a fire on the boat was lit deliberately in a bid to force Australian officials to rescue those on board. A coroner’s inquiry into the deaths continues.

Jonathan Pilbrow, of the welfare group Northern Territory Council of Social Services, said beggars already struggle to pay their bills with their welfare checks, which they receive every two weeks.

“Even if they can find the money to meet the fine, it means they’re going to be less well off the next fortnight (two weeks) and probably more likely to beg again,” Pilbrow said.

The Alice Springs town council agreed at a meeting on Thursday night to seek public feedback on its plan to give rangers power to issue fines for begging.

“That’s up to them to figure out how to pay it,” council official Craig Catchlove said of the beggars.

Another diplomatic incident threatens to taint U.S.-Israeli relations: The American government has recently demanded Israel clarify how five U.S.-made helicopters sold to Israel in the mid-70s found their way into the hands of a Columbian drug cartel.

Relations Tainted
New confidence crisis with U.S. / Hanan Greenberg
U.S. halts supply of electro-optical equipment to IDF after Israel did not report loss of hundreds of night vision devices defined as ’strategic weapons’
Full Story
An U.S. embassy official met with an Israeli foreign ministry official in Jerusalem several days ago, where he informed him that the American Foreign Ministry has requested the embassy to launch an investigation into the matter.

According to American sources, the military copters currently serve the drug mafia in the South American country.

Top diplomatic sources fear that this incident will once again heat-up tensions between Israel and the U.S. and cloud the strategic dialogue between the two countries, which is scheduled to renew in November, after talks were suspended for more than a year-and-a-half.

Of that figure, $1.3 billion went into the Alberta Lottery Fund, which used the money to fund thousands of volunteer and community-based initiatives and programs across the province, said Lynn Hutchings-Mah of the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

“It goes into things like environmental issues. I’ve seen it used for funding field trips, purchasing playground equipment and funding things like libraries, book fairs, festivities to world seniors curling. Every community in Alberta benefits,” she said.

The study, released by the Canadian Gaming Association, looked at the economic impact of Canada’s gaming industry. It found that the industry’s total revenues across Canada hit $15.3 billion in 2006 from $6.4 billion in 1995.

Of the $15.3 billion, governments and charities received almost $8.7 billion. The remaining $6.6 billion went to sustain gambling operations.

An Ontario problem gambling researcher slammed the gaming association study as a “public relations move” designed to downplay the dark side of gambling.

From the windows of his bullet-proof Mercedes, Robert Gabriel Mugabe must see that he has led his people down the road to hell.

Built to connect his city palaces with his country home, the highway is a place of poverty, despair and death.

Once dotted with thriving enterprises where tourists sipped sundowners and marvelled at the abundant wildlife, children in rags now jostle to hawk rotting vegetables.