NZ police hunt couple after 10 mln NZ dollar banking error

WELLINGTON, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand police were hunting a couple who were thought to have fled with millions of dollars after a banking error, New Zealand media reported on Thursday.

The couple, who ran a service station in the North Island city of Rotorua, are understood to have applied to Westpac Bank for a 10,000 NZ dollar (6,000 U.S. dollars) overdraft and mistakenly had10 million NZ dollars paid into their account.

Police said that some of the money had been withdrawn.

The bank account owners had since disappeared and the Interpol had been called in to help find them.

Police were currently conducting an investigation into the individuals that may have been involved in the withdrawal of that sum of money.

The service station has since closed its doors after going intoreceivership.

The Westpac said court action had begun to recover the money but refused to comment further.

Woman kept her mother's body to collect benefits

BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhuanet) -- A Florida woman kept
her dead mother's body in a bedroom for six years in order to receive more than
200,000 U.S. dollars in pension benefits, according to U.S. prosecutors.

Penelope Jordan, 61, was indicted by a grand jury
last week and formally charged in a federal court Thursday with Social Security
fraud and theft of U.S. funds, officials with the Department of Justice said.

Police found the decaying body of her mother, Timmie
Jordan, on a bed in a spare bedroom at the mother's home in late March, when
they were called to investigate a report of nuisance cats.

Penelope Jordan told police her mother had died in
2003.

Jordan collected 61,415 dollars from Social Security
and 176,461 dollars from the military pension during the six years, prosecutors
said.

She could face up to 15 years in prison.

(Agencies)

Australian gov't to subsidize breast, bowel and kidney cancer

CANBERRA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Australian federal government said on Sunday it
will allocate 600 million Australian dollars (432 million U.S. dollars) in the
upcoming budget to subsidize expensive bowel, breast and kidney cancer drugs.

"I think it's a sign that while we are in tough economic times, we still
are determined to do the things that are needed to help people in very
vulnerable circumstances," Health Minister Nicola Roxon told local media Ten
Network.

Roxon said that from July, the bowel cancer drug Avastin will be subsidized
under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which will cost the government about
311 million Aust dollars (223.9 million U.S. dollars) over the next four years.

"These drugs are expensive. We've made room for them to be able to be
funded. Sutent, Avastin and Herceptin deal with some of the most severe forms of
cancer ... bowel cancer and breast cancer," Roxon said.

Listing the drugs will mean new patients suffering advanced bowel cancer
will pay about 33 Aust dollars (23.75 U.S. dollars) for Avastin instead of more
than 2,000 Aust dollars (1440 U.S. dollars).

Sufferers of metastatic breast cancer will also receive a boost with the
free Herceptin program at a cost of 166 million Aust dollars (119.5 million U.S.
dollars).

With the free Herceptin program, patients will save about 60,000 Aust
dollars (43,200 U.S. dollars) a year.

Man swindles as Mr. Right to 56-year-old woman in love

BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A Nigerian
undergraduate was sentenced to 19 years in jail for swindling 47,000 U.S.
dollars over Internet from a 56-year-old Australian woman.

The convict, Lawal Adekunle Nurudeen, obtained the
money by convincing his victim that he was a 57-years-old white man and madly in
love with her.

The woman said online that she wanted a husband, but
she was not satisfied with any of those men she had met.

The convict immediately sent a photo of a white man
to the woman, sayinghe washer Mr. Right.

He told the woman he was an engineer working in
Lagos, and his wife and only child had been killed in a car accident, according
to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria's
anti-corruption police.

The woman in love then sent Nurudeen money for medical treatment and travel costs to visit Australia. But her virtual lover spent it on two plots of land and a Honda
Prelude car.

The EFCC said the convict was ordered to pay about
10,000 dollars immediately and a further 250 dollars a month to his victim until
the full amount stolen was returned. She would also receive the proceedsof
the sale of his land and car.