International
Smuggler who killed 39 in lorry to pay £65,000 to families
Smuggler who killed 39 in lorry to pay £65,000 to families
A smuggler who killed 39 people in the back of a lorry is to pay more than £65,000 (81,735 million dollars) as compensation, bringing the total to more than £280,000.
Romanian Gheorghe Nica, 46, was jailed for 27 years in 2021 for the manslaughter of the Vietnamese nationals, aged between 15 and 44, found in a vehicle in Essex on October 22 2019.
The victims died in sweltering conditions as they were transported in an airtight container from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet.
Nica, of Basildon in Essex, was ordered to pay 65,157.65 pounds sterling to the victims’ families through a confiscation order made at the Old Bailey, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Friday.
Nica was one of five gang members jailed for the manslaughters, with others convicted of people-smuggling.
The confiscation order made against him brings the total ordered by the court to be paid to families of the victims by the gang to 283,802.58, pounds Sterling the CPS said.
A hearing in October heard how Nica made at least 90,000 pounds sterling from people-smuggling.
The court heard how the 39 deaths marked the end of a long-running and profitable operation in which migrants would pay up to 13,000 pounds sterling for what they thought was a “VIP service.’’
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Seven smuggling trips were identified between May 2018 and October 23 2019, although investigators believe there were probably more.
Migrants would board Lorries at a remote location on the continent to be transported to Britain, where they would be picked up by fleet of smaller vehicles organised by Nica to a safe house until payment was received.
On Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC ruled that the total amount by which Nica benefited was 186,587.65 pounds sterling.
After assessing the defendant’s assets, the judge ordered him to pay 65,175.65 pounds sterling within three months.
According to the judge, a failure to pay would result to a further year in prison.
The judge said: “I direct that the confiscation sum be paid as compensation to the families of those killed in this terrible tragedy.’’
Previously, Nica’s partner in crime, haulage boss Ronan Hughes, from Armagh, Northern Ireland, was ordered to pay the victims’ families more than 180,000 pounds sterling after being jailed for 20 years.
The lorry driver, Maurice Robinson, of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, who found the bodies in the back of his trailer and was jailed for 13 years and four months, had to sell his 4×4 vehicle and watch to pay more than 21,000 pounds sterling.
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Romanian Alexandru-Ovidiu Hanga, from Essex, was ordered to pay 3,000 pounds sterling after being jailed for three years after admitting conspiring to assist unlawful immigration.
Another people-smuggler, Valentin Calota, from Birmingham, was ordered to pay more than 1,000 pounds sterling.
Darren Fox from the CPS said, “Nica profited from smuggling people into the country, which ended in 39 people dying in the most horrific circumstances.
“The CPS worked with the police financial investigators to identify Nica’s criminal benefit from this tragedy and what assets he currently holds.
“The confiscation order set by the judge reflects all the assets available to Nica.
“He also made a compensation order for that amount to be paid to the families of the victims.
“ We will continue to ensure that money will be paid by defendants for the proceeds of these awful crimes.”he added.
Smuggler who killed 39 in lorry to pay £65,000 to families
(dpa/NAN)
International
$100m coin collection buried for decades to be auctioned
$100m coin collection buried for decades to be auctioned
A coin collection, much of which remained buried underground for over 50 years, is expected to surpass $100 million at auction, according to experts.
Named the Traveller Collection, this extraordinary assemblage is believed to be the most valuable coin collection ever brought to auction.
The coins will be sold gradually over the next three years, with the first auction set for May 20.
Beyond its immense value, the collection’s origins make for a fascinating tale.
Spanning over 100 territories and encompassing coins from ancient times to the modern era, the collection is being auctioned by Numismatica Ars Classica.
What sets it apart is that most of the coins remained hidden underground for half a century before resurfacing.
According to a press release shared with CNN, the anonymous collector behind the collection began acquiring gold coins after the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Over time, he developed “a taste for coins with great historical interest, beauty and rarity” and eventually amassed approximately 15,000 coins.
During the 1930s, he and his wife traveled extensively across the Americas and Europe, acquiring rare and historically significant coins while meticulously documenting their purchases.
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Despite settling in Europe at a time when Hitler’s Nazi party loomed over the continent, the collector sensed the impending danger. In response, he carefully packed the coins into cigar boxes, which were then placed inside aluminum containers and buried underground, where they remained undisturbed for five decades.
Among the collection is a 50 Toman coin, part of an “exceedingly rare” set minted in Tehran and Isfahan during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
International
AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates
AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates
Bill Gates, a co-founder of Microsoft, has claimed that improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next decade may render humans superfluous for the majority of work.
In a recent interview with comedian Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s The Tonight Show in February, the billionaire philanthropist discussed how AI may take over many facets of life and business.
Gates remarked that expertise is currently “rare”, emphasising the continuous reliance on human specialists in industries such as medicine and education.
For example, we continue to rely on highly trained individuals, such as “a great doctor” or “a great teacher”, whose knowledge cannot be simply replaced by AI.
However, “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates said.
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In other words, Gates believes that the world is entering a new era of “free intelligence”, as he described in a recent interview with Harvard University professor and happiness specialist Arthur Brooks.
According to Gates, this transition will result in rapid breakthroughs in AI-powered technology, making them more accessible and affecting almost every part of our lives.
These breakthroughs will vary from more effective treatments and diagnoses to widely available AI instructors and virtual assistants.
“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary — because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound,” Gates told Brooks.
The discussion of how humans will fit into an AI-powered future continues.
Some analysts suggest that artificial intelligence will improve human productivity rather than completely replacing labour, hence driving economic growth and creating new jobs.
However, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman cautions that technological improvements in the coming years will disrupt the nature of most occupations across nearly all industries, potentially exerting a “hugely destabilising” influence on the workforce.
AI will replace doctors, teachers, others in 10 years – Bill Gates
International
Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum
Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum
Poland has temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in Poland via its border with Belarus to apply for asylum.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it would be happening after the controversial bill, which will allow Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time, was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.
Tusk had said it would be adopted “without a moment’s delay” while Duda said the changes were needed to strengthen security on the country’s borders.
But the law has been criticized by rights groups including Human Rights Watch, which said the EU should take legal action against Poland if it was implemented.
The group urged the country’s parliament last month to reject the bill, saying it “flies in the face of Poland’s international and EU obligations” and could “effectively completely seal off the Poland-Belarus border, where Polish authorities already engage in unlawful and abusive pushbacks”.
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The government said previously the suspension would only be applied temporarily to people who pose a threat to state security, for example large groups of aggressive migrants trying to storm the border.
Exemptions will be made for unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the elderly or unwell, anyone exposed to “real risk of serious harm” by being returned and citizens of countries accused of conducting the instrumentalization of migration – like Belarus
Tusk has dismissed criticism from human rights groups.
“Nobody is talking about violating human rights, the right to asylum, we are talking about not granting applications to people who illegally cross the border in groups organised by Lukashenko,” he said in October.
Since 2021, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland have seen a huge increase in the number of people crossing into their countries illegally from Belarus and Russia.
Polish authorities have sent thousands of troops and border guards to police its border with Belarus and built a 5.5-metre-high steel fence along 186 km of the frontier where at times several thousand migrants have been left stranded.
Rights groups estimate more than one hundred people have died on the borders between Belarus and Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since 2021.
EU eastern flank countries and the European Commission have accused the Belarusian and Russian authorities of weaponising migration to create a new route into the EU to destabilize the bloc.
Poland suspends migrants’ right to apply for asylum
BBC
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