ABRACADABRA

For 11 years impersonated as doctor in Australia

Melbourne: An Indian man in Australia has been accused of impersonating a doctor and working in various hospitals for more than a decade with the immigration minister terming the case as a “big failing of the system”.

Shyam Acharya took the name of another man in India, Sarang Chitale, before he began a new life in Australia, where he registered with the Medical Board of New South Wales (NSW) in 2003, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

He then used the identity of the doctor and pretended to hold a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees and membership as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians to gain employment in the NSW public health system. The authorities have been unable to find saying his whereabouts are unknown and they are trying to track him.

Reacting to the report, Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said, “There’s obviously been a big failing of the system. The case of accused fake doctor…you necessarily want to make sure that you’re getting access to all of the information that whatever government department holds on anyone being investigated by authorities”.

He said, “We live in a very different age to 10 or 20 years ago and it was difficult to predict security threats over the near future.” “So we’ve just got to make sure that we’ve got a modern system that is going to deal with people crossing our borders, sharing intelligence with law enforcement agencies and intel bodies and the rest of it. We’ve got the best people in the world and my sense, my only requirement, is we continue that world’s best practice,” Dutton said.

Acharya first came to Australia on a tourist visa in 2002 and then got a job in NSW health recently acquired Australian citizenship. He worked for NSW Health as a junior doctor from 2003 to May 2014 at four hospitals in Australia and even worked in emergency departments.

In 2013, Acharya worked for international pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, before moving to medical research group Novatech in 2016. Stating that the issue will be taken at a meeting with the state and territory health ministers this month, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said, “Impersonating medical professionals is a serious crime and should be treated as such.” He said, “I will work with all states and territories to ensure there are heavy penalties, including the option of jail terms, for people who falsely claim to be doctors.”

The alleged deception was not detected until November 2016, when the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency began investigating him for “falsely holding himself out as a registered medical practitioner”. If he is convicted, he faces a fine of up to $30,000

915 coins inside a sea turtle

BANGKOK: Tossing coins in a fountain for luck is a popular superstition, but a similar belief brought misery to a sea turtle in Thailand from whom doctors have removed 915 coins.

Veterinarians in Bangkok operated on the female green turtle nicknamed "Bank," whose indigestible diet was a result of many tourists seeking good fortune tossing coins into her pool over many years in the eastern town of Sri Racha.

Mouse on board: British Airways grounded

London: A US-bound British Airways plane was unable to take off from Heathrow Airport here after a mouse was spotted on board. Passengers on the British Airways flight to San Francisco were strapped in and waiting to leave when the "rather unusual occurrence" was announced. The crew told passengers that planes cannot take off with mice on board, and that another flight would be scheduled. The presence of a roaming rodent meant the original aircraft could not be dispatched because mice have been known to gnaw through wiring on planes and wide-ranging checks must be made to ferret out any problems. The plane eventually left after about four hours of delay, BBC reported.

Boy of 6 realised his wish to be a garbage man

Sacramento (US): Ethan Dean has always dreamed of being a garbage man. The 6-year-old lived that fantasy: riding shot gun in a booster seat through Sacramento in a truck labeled "Ethan's Garbage Truck."

Ethan, garbage man for the day, made a series of stops in Sacramento to collect trash and recyclables from places like the fire station and CalEPA, where his father works. It wasn't a chore for Ethan, who has cystic fibrosis. When asked at one stop what his favorite part of the day had been, he said it was "cleaning up garbage."

Throughout his trip, he wore a cape that said "Hero Ethan" and a big smile. When Ethan visited the Make-A-Wish Foundation, he was asked a series of questions. Ethan's dream is being more everyday superhero almost all of his answers were garbage truck-related, said Jennifer Stolo, CEO of the local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He really, really wants to be a garbage man when he grows up. It meant the wish he'd be granted wasn't too mysterious. "We pretty much knew it was going to be about garbage trucks," said Ethan's dad, Ken Dean, laughing.

Want salary increase? Better Pray

Islamabad: The court employees in Pakistan- occupied Kashmir (PoK) will have to offer daily prayers punctually – both in and outside the court- as their annual raises would now hinge on their offering prayers regularly and on the prescribed times, a top Judge has said.

Ibrahim Zia, who took oath as the 12th chief justice of the PoK Supreme Court yesterday, has directed the court employees to ensure punctuality in the court and in their prayer timings, the Express Tribune reported. “The annual salary hikes of court employees would now hinge on their offering prayers regularly and on the prescribed times,” he said, while declaring that offering prayers was now mandatory for all employees of the court. Zia said the move would ensure that employees offer daily prayers regularly and he himself would be leading some prayers. “To make sure employees offer their prayers regularly, Justice Zia said they would be secretly checked by the court,” the paper said. However, it was not clear what mechanism he would use to check employees’ punctuality of prayers outside the office. Five times daily prayers is one of the pillars in the faith of Islam and an obligatory religious duty for Muslims. The Chief Justice also directed court employees to work with dedication, honesty and regularity to ensure speedy justice to the public.  After taking oath, Justice Zia administered oath to officers working in the Supreme Court, a first in the history of the apex court.