KEY POINTS:
It would take a certain kind of person to get away with using a banana-shaped mobile phone cover. (Source: Buy it from here Cellfoam.com)
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A reader wants the quietness of rural living in the inner city: "I'm living in an apartment around Vincent St in the city, and often annoyed by sirens from firetrucks, ambulance and police cars. I understand that they have to get to their destination as quickly as they can but when there is a clear road ahead and no traffic from sidestreets, do they really need to sound their sirens?"
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Speeding drivers in south China are getting away with it by using machines which switch the numbers on their licence plates. "More than 50 per cent of cars caught on camera for speeding and other offences either cover up their plates or use a fake licence plate," a traffic policeman in the area said. "The price of the remote-control device starts at around 800 yuan ($148), while a more advanced apparatus with the ability to flip over the numbers in less than three seconds costs around double that.
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Police in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro are investigating claims that tourists are being put in danger by tourism operators offering to take them to meet a real armed drug dealer as part of their authentic South American experience. The Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo says a journalist from the paper, posing as a tourist, was introduced to an armed man belonging to the faction that controls the sale of drugs in the area, who explained he had spent nine years in jail. The journalist also met another man armed with a machinegun who told how he worked 12-hour shifts and earned $180 a week. The tour company has been accused of glamorising criminal activity.
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Gina, from Wednesday's Sideswipe, did not need to panic when she saw a man trying to board a train with a chainsaw, writes a reader. "My son is an arborist and it is his tool of trade. He was on his way home from work. As his car had broken down he took the train. He had the chainsaw with him because he was going to help cut up his sister's firewood over the weekend."
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Today's Webpick: A brilliant comedy sketch just in time for Mother's Day. Watch it here. And then send it to Mum.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
