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corruption

Italian newspaper claims referees in Korea-Japan World Cup were paid to make bad calls

The 2002 FIFA World Cup was a landmark event for soccer (or football for the majority of the world). It was the first World Cup to be held in Asia, and also the only one to be jointly held by two countries: South Korea and Japan.

Unfortunately it was also a standout event for several suspicious, South Korea-favoring, referee calls that were made. The scandal has lain dormant for over a decade, but is now resurfacing following the recent arrest of several FIFA officials, at least one of whom has been linked back to the dubious referee decisions made in the 2002 tournament.

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South Korean ferry disaster: Rescue ship was fitted with salmon-fishing sonar

Criticism of South Korean naval authorities has intensified as it is revealed that the country’s only salvage and rescue ship was equipped with a fish-finding sonar instead of military-grade equipment.

ATS-II Tongyeong, a naval rescue vessel, was completed in 2012 at a cost of 159 billion won (US $150.7 million). But when the Sewol ferry sank on April 16 this year, Tongyeong was back in the construction yard, unable to be deployed to the rescue mission.

Now, defence suppliers face allegations that in the weeks following the ferry disaster, they knowingly attached a commercial sonar only suitable for salmon-fishing to Tongyeong, and tried to pass it off to the navy.

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Chinese city questions $32,000 budget for cops getting three haircuts a month

How many times a month does a police officer need to get their hair cut? That is the debate going on in the southern Chinese city of Shenzen after authorities found out that local cops there had budgeted nearly two million RMB (US$32,000) over a two-year period to have each of its more than 2,000 police officers have three haircuts a month.

While city authorities are questioning the necessity of the cops’ excessive visits to the barber, local citizens are outraged and are demanding a more “reasonable” haircut budget from their police force.

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What A Disgrace! Was This Olympic Boxing Match Fixed? Referee Expelled

In my career as a journalist, never have I seen such a debacle. The match in question was a bantamweight match, between Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidovand Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu. On five occasions in one round, Shimizu knocked down Abdulhamidov, who also received a two-point penalty. The judges ended up awarding victory by judgment to his opponent, who was the one who spent more time on the canvas, and the referee didn’t stop the match as he would reasonably expected to during one of these downs, nor did he even start counting down a single knockdown. What exactly is going on with refereeing in the London Olympics? Read More