At an earlier hearing, 22-year-old Michael Wright from Swindon admitted trying to sell his own sister, who had learning difficulties, into a marriage with a Chinese immigrant.

Wright was arrested by our officers from the South East region immigration crime team on 20 August 2009 as he arrived with his sister at Reading register office for the ‘ceremony’ with would-be groom Ligang Qiao, 29.

Li Fan, 33, and her boyfriend Bing Liu, 30, were arrested at their home on Erleigh Road in Reading on the same day, as part of an operation led by Thames Valley Police officers seconded to us.

Wright had met the other three members of the gang when they all worked at the same Berkshire burger bar. In 2008, he married Fan in another sham marriage, for which he was paid £4,000.

He then plotted with the other three to allow Qiao to marry his sister in exchange for £8,000, in an attempt to aid Qiao’s application to stay in the UK once his visa ran out.

Their plan was foiled when a registrar raised doubts about the proposed wedding and reported it to us.

At a hearing in November, Wright pleaded guilty to two counts of assisting unlawful entry into the UK and two counts of perjury, while Ligang Qiao admitted two counts of perjury.

Li Fan also admitted two counts of perjury and obtaining leave to remain in the UK by deception, while Bing Liu pleaded guilty to attempting to assist illegal immigration into the UK.

Wright was jailed for four years, while Qiao was given a 15-month sentence. Fan and Liu received 18 months and two years respectively. The three Chinese nationals were also recommended for deportation at the end of their sentences.

Detective Inspector Andy Cummins of the UK Border Agency’s London and South East region immigration crime team said:

‘This was a despicable crime. Michael Wright attempted to exploit a member of his own family for his own financial gain. His motive was purely greed.

‘The other members of the gang also sought to take advantage of a vulnerable woman for their own benefit.

‘The sentences handed down today show how seriously we, and the courts, take these kinds of attempts to undermine our immigration laws.

‘My officers and I are determined to track down and stop this kind of abuse, and we hope today’s sentences send out a message that anyone who tries to enter into or organise a sham marriage faces arrest, prosecution and a long time in prison.

‘Foreign nationals who commit this type of crime will also face deportation.’

All allegations regarding any type of sham marriage – including marriage for cash, bigamy and marriage to relatives – are investigated. Where evidence can be obtained, appropriate action is taken.

UK Border Agency area director Gareth Redmond said:

‘I’m pleased with today’s sentences, and it shows once again the success the UK Border Agency is having in stopping this sort of abuse.

‘We now have specialist teams of immigration officers and police working side by side to investigate and prosecute these kinds of cases.

‘This case shows there are now heavy penalties for those who try and abuse the marriage route.’

Via

Traditionally, an unmarried woman who became pregnant could have her head shaved and smeared with lime as punishment in Vietnam’s traditional rural societies.

But increasingly, young Vietnamese who move to the cities and away from traditional strictures are finding it easier to simply move in together, or to have a sexual relationship without settling down.

Vietnam’s rapid economic development also means that its surging population of young people—who now account for more than half the country’s total population of 87 million—can often afford apartments and homes of their own.

They can also discuss relationships and chat online.

A 2008 study conducted by the Health Ministry found that 66.7 percent of men believe having sex before marriage is “acceptable.”

Currently, the average reported age at which Vietnamese youth have sex for the first time is 19.6 years.

But many couples who cohabit in larger cities still keep quiet about it, especially to their families, despite signs that social attitudes to sex are relaxing.

Premarital sex, according to Hanoi-based lawyer Nguyen Viet Son, remains illegal under regulations set forth by the ruling Communist Party.

“People reject the concept that people who are not married can live together as husband and wife,” Son said.

“For example, if the police checked residency status and found out that people of two different genders were living with each other without a marriage certificate, they would receive an administrative fine,” Son said.

But he added: “Socially some say it’s bad, but others say it’s not.”

Morality, or chastity?

“When falling in love, almost every man wants to have sex with his girlfriend,” said a Hanoi-based man identified as Phuoc, 21.

But he added that traditional attitudes still linger, even among young men. “Somehow we men want to marry women who are still virgins,” he said.

One young man, identified by his nickname “Crazy,” said he sees no problem with premarital sex.

“I’m definitely not concerned about this. If all men didn’t care about this issue, it would be great,” he said.

“Girls wouldn’t suffer a loss.”

Ho Chi Minh City resident Nguyen Thuy Phuong, 34, said morality on the part of men is just as important as chastity for women.

“Sometimes a woman loses her virginity because she met a Don Juan, for example,” she said.

“They think of having sex with women the way they think about eating cakes.”

Gender politics

Instead, Phuong said, the problem lies with the perceived dominance of men in Vietnamese society.

“They think they can have sex with many women but their wives should be virgins,” she said.

“Sometimes I joke if that’s what you think, you should go to a child-care center to find a wife.”

Hanoi-based lawyer Son said he doesn’t oppose sex before marriage, though he believes chastity is better for both genders.

“In my opinion, sex is showing love. When someone is in love, sex is inevitable,” he said.

“We can’t say that when someone has sex before marriage he or she is bad, but we can say he or she loves the other person very much.”

Middle-aged women who grew up in harsher times appear to have a more open attitude to sexuality among the young.

Canada-based former Hanoi resident Nguyen Thi Lan, 45, said each case should be treated as a different situation.

Women’s risk ’still greater’

“Sometimes they love each other very much and they don’t wait, and as a result, the woman is the one to bear a loss,” Lan said.

She said she wouldn’t discourage her own 19-year-old daughter from following general social trends.

“If my daughter follows what people are doing in the society, I can’t stop her,” she said.

“If she loves someone, she has the choice.”

But she added: “If she has a child before getting married, it would be hard for her.”

Original reporting and translation by Hạnh Seide. Vietnamese service director: Khanh Nguyen. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Copyright

China’s state organs have set up a unique matchmaking website for single civil servants working in central ministries and commissions. The web address is www.ywqq.gov.cn . This platform is named Yang Wu Que Qiao 央务鹊桥, one of the key parts in “Sunny Government” project. The website provides “safe and reliable matchmaking service” for those single civil servants in Beijing.

In order to join this platform, the annual fee is 100 yuan for those single civil servants, as for the relatives of staff in state organs, the service charge is 500 yuan per year. For applicants who have no connection with state organs, they need to have a decent job in Beijing and hold a bachelor degree. After been checked and qualified, the annual fee for the first year is 800 yuan, and 500 yuan from the second year.

Civil servants are well paid and widely respected in China, their jobs are extremely stable as well. Considering the current economic downturn, those young single civil servants are high profile assets in the matchmaking market today.

http://www.nianduhanzi.com/ ( 年度汉字 )

“The Character of the year” first started in Japan in 1995 (named The Kanji of the year – 今年の漢字 Kotoshi no Kanji ). This year the game attracted great interest of Chinese netizens. Some featured Chinese characters they’ve chosen are:

墙: Wall. China once was a physically walled country and is famous for the Great Wall. Now the Internet censorship has established a virtual wall between Chinese people and the outside world, China has become a walled country again.

推: Push. The homophone of “Twitter” in Chinese. Some people believe that the revolution of instant communication and large, decentralized online communities will eventually lead to better governance and Civil Society.

囧:Embarrassed. The character 囧 symbolizes an embarrassed smile. The charset GB2312 contains 6763 characters, many of them are hardly used in daily life, Chinese netizens convert those characters to express their vivid emotions. Most people don’t know the right pronunciation of these characters, but the structures explain everything: 烎, 囧, 槑, 玊, 奣, 嘦, 勥, 巭, 嫑, 恏, 兲, 氼, 忈, 炛 …

29th, November, more than one million people took the national civil service exam to compete for 15000 jobs, the admission ratio approaches to 69:1. Exam results will be published on the official websites of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the State Administration of Civil Service in mid-January, and those who passed will be interviewed. Considering the world economic crisis, corporate layoffs and pay cuts, it appears that only civil servants hold solid position and decent wage.

Some people claimed that China had been ruled by poets for over a thousand years, as the civil service exam is a tradition deeply rooted in Chinese culture. The order of social classes in Chinese feudal society is “士农工学商” (civil servant, farmer, worker, student, businessman). Today civil servants are still highly respected and well paid. Recent years China has deployed a so called “Sunshine Wage System” to eliminate the inefficiency and enhance financial transparency of bureaucratic system. In a changing society like China, people show great preference of risk avoidance to hedge the uncertainty and ambiguity of health care system, educational system and social insurance system. The civil service exam system also stimulates social mobility, which is very important to China today.

Government officials were on site when self-immolation took place, the demolition was done by over 300 people including policemen, firefighters and unidentified men wearing camouflage clothes. The house has been demolished already.

The incident was first reported by HNCNN.com (新湘报)

The table below shows major mine accidents happened in recent years.

Source:163.com