The Victory Miracle Centre in south-west Sydney came under fire from Liverpool MP Paul Lynch in State Parliament last week.

He said a number of his constituents, including an elderly man dying of bowel cancer, had become victims of the church, which promised ”multiple blessings” and healthy financial returns in exchange for cash loans.

Three elders of the church are accused of having promised followers they would ”experience miracles” in return for money for property deals in Australia and Fiji that churchgoers claim were never paid back.

Victory Miracle Centre’s congregation is largely ethnic Indians from Fiji.

Mr Lynch named Victory’s pastor George Mani, former Liverpool Council Liberal candidate Neil Lal and Anand Prasad in State Parliament on Tuesday in a stinging attack on their history of persuading followers, many of whom are migrants, to hand over money or equity in their homes.

Mr Mani denies he promised miracles. ”No one was asked to give money to the church. The money they gave was for an investment into properties in Fiji,” he said. ”We never promised a miracle. I only preach the gospel.”

The Sun-Herald has obtained a statement to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission from another churchgoer claiming he was persuaded to hand over $63,000 in superannuation accumulated by him and his elderly mother, which he was told would bring a 10 per cent return from investments in Fiji.

Federal Court documents show that Mr Mani, Mr Lal and Mr Prasad were made bankrupt on July 5. The trio, who are behind the company Ephraim Investments, are the subject of findings against them brought by Rams Home Loans.

Rams is pursuing the trio in relation to a home owned by church member Sam Kumari Prasad (no relation of Anand Prasad). The lender has released Mrs Prasad and the estate of her husband from any obligation under a loan in which the family remortgaged their home for $412,000 and handed the loan to the church. ”They made our lives hell,” Mrs Prasad said.

She and her late husband, Arnuch Prasad, joined the church in 2004, after he was diagnosed with bowel, liver and lung cancer.

By the time Mr Prasad died in 2007, the church directors had borrowed another $80,000 on top of the $412,000, allegedly telling them it would be used to invest into properties through Ephraim.

”It still hurts, and I want to go public because I don’t want other people to go through what I have gone through,” Mrs Prasad said.

Another former church member, Lonesh Govind, told ASIC he and his elderly mother had given the three church directors $70,000 to start up Ephraim Investments.

They were then asked to roll their super, amounting to $63,000, into a self-managed super fund.

When Mr Govind began investigating where his money had gone, he was told by the Australian Taxation Office there was no documentation of the fund ever existing.

”Our life savings have gone and we thought they were godly people, we trusted them,” Mr Govind said.

Mr Lal and Mr Prasad did not respond to requests for a comment.

A Liberal Party spokeswoman confirmed Mr Lal had run for Liverpool Council as an endorsed candidate but would not comment on whether he is still a party member.

via SMH.COM.AU

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Global handset vendors and PC makers including Nokia, LG Electronics and Hewlett-Packard Co are moving into the new category of devices, between traditional PCs and smartphones, taking a cue from Apple.

Dell Inc said last month it was launching its new tablet device, the Dell Streak, to U.S. customers.

“We see huge potential for this kind of product,” YH Lee, head of marketing at Samsung Mobile, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the IFA consumer electronics fair. The Galaxy Tab, with a 7-inch screen, will go on sale in European markets in mid-September. The device, which uses Google’s Android software, offers access to books, films and music.

“Samsung is betting big on the tablet category with this device,” said Ben Wood, research director at CCS Insight, adding the success of Galaxy Tab, which is clearly smaller than iPad, which has a 9.7-inch screen, will depend on pricing.

Samsung’s portfolio management director Thomas Richter said prices would depend on operator packages in different countries, but the device would cost more than high-end smartphones.

In Finland the suggested retail price for Galaxy Tab, without subsidies, would be 949 euros ($1,214), well above the iPad’s price.

Apple’s 32 GB iPad sells for 864 euros on average in Finland.

Samsung said all key European operators selling Samsung phones were set to also offer the Tab to their clients, and several major carriers would sell it in the United States.

Last week research firm iSuppli forecast the iPad would account for nearly three-quarters of worldwide tablet shipments this year, and hold at least 70 percent of the market in 2011 and 62 percent by 2012.

Samsung said the market was far from fixed yet.

“The market opportunity is wide open,” said YH Lee.

MANY MORE ANDROID TABLETS

To seize the opportunity, Toshiba unveiled its Folio 100 tablet, with 10 inch screen, and said it would be available during the fourth quarter in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Toshiba’s tablet will use an Nvidia processor and Google’s Android.

Huawei said its first tablet, a 7-inch screen running Google’s Android software, would reach consumers in Europe in time for the holiday sales season.

“The device would cost 300 euros, or less,” Huawei Devices marketing chief Victor Xu told Reuters in an interview.

Xu said the company’s next tablet would have a 10-inch screen and reach consumers next year.

Xu said the company has decided to focus on using Android software.

“Key for Huawei is that it’s an open standard and not controlled by some dinosaurs,” Xu said.

Recommended reading:
* Samsung Wave to be an iPhone 3GS killerr
* Samsung Bada smartphone

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The Philippines says it will investigate claims that coffins of three of Hong Kong’s eight victims of a bus hijacking were wrongly labelled.

The pledge comes after Hong Kong’s officials said the mix-up was discovered at a morgue after the coffins had been flown from Manila.

Their coach was hijacked by a disgraced ex-policeman, Rolando Mendoza. He was killed as police attempted to rescue the hostages on 23 August.

Mendoza, 55, seized the bus with an assault rifle in an attempt to get back the job he lost in 2009 for extortion and threat-making.

The pledge by the Philippine government comes after Hong Kong’s Security Bureau revealed on Thursday that the bodies of three of the eight victims had been mislabelled.

It said that the mistake was discovered when the families of the victims opened the coffins at the morgue in Hong Kong eight days ago.

The bureau added that it was possible that the blunder was made at a Manila funeral parlour because the victims’ families had identified the bodies before the coffins were flown to Hong Kong.

However, the officials did no reveal which victims were mixed up.

“If there was a mix-up of those names, we apologise,” Philippine Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

“It was really the desire to facilitate and bring the bodies to Hong Kong as quickly as possible, because that will ease the pain of the families,” she added.

In all, 22 Hong Kong tourists were taken hostage along with three Filipinos – a driver, a guide and a photographer.

Nine people were released in early negotiations, but 15 were kept aboard the curtained bus for hours as the hostage drama was played out before live television cameras and broadcast around the world.

Police in the Philippines said on Sunday that the hostages were killed by Mendoza’s gun and not police weapons during their rescue operation.

As the talks failed and Mendoza became increasingly agitated, police made several unsuccessful attempts to board the coach. Shots could be heard fired from inside the curtained bus and no-one knew how many hostages were still alive.

Survivors and experts have criticised the Manila police for being indecisive and slow in their handling of the crisis.

Recommended reading:
* 21 dead in Maguindanao massacre

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Ardi Rizal shocked the world when a video of him drawing heavily on cigarettes appeared on the internet in May and drew attention to Indonesia’s failure to regulate the tobacco industry.

“He has quit smoking and the most important thing is he doesn’t ask for cigarettes any more,” national commission for child protection secretary-general Arist Merdeka Sirait said.

Six months after his father gave him his first cigarette, the overweight boy was smoking two packs a day and threw violent tantrums if his addiction was not satisfied.

Accompanied by his mother, the boy left his village on Sumatra island in July to undergo treatment in the capital.

“He received psychosocial therapy for one month, during which therapists kept him busy with activities and encouraged him to play with kids of the same age,” Sirait said.

“We diverted his addiction from cigarettes to playing.”

Ardi’s case has highlighted the tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing to women and children in developing countries such as Indonesia, where regulations are weak and many people do not know that smoking is dangerous.

Sirait said the government had given financial support to Ardi’s parents, who were ignorant of smoking’s dangers and used cigarettes to keep the toddler happy as they worked long hours at a street market.

“Ardi was very happy when he left Jakarta this morning as he has really missed his father in the village,” Sirait said.

Cigarette consumption in the south-east Asian archipelago of about 240 million people soared 47 per cent in the 1990s, the World Health Organisation said.

Recommended reading:
* 301 million Chinese smokers and counting
* Smokeless e-cigarettes but with the same toxins

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Getting exposure is a goal of many bloggers. They work hard writing and sharing their thoughts on various topics. Once they achieve a certain size however, growth seems to plateau a bit. They need a bigger platform so to speak and some decide to join a blog network.

Blog networks have different meaning for different people. There are networks that are business focused and the members form a more formal alliance. They share revenue for example. There are networks that are more interest based, with the intention of helping the members grow. The network typically is based around a common niche, such as personal finance. When I’m referring to blog networks in this post, I’m referring to the more informal network

Note from Darren: this is what I’ve previously talked about as Blog Alliances.

Join a Network or Start a Network?

However, for some niches it can be hard to join an established network, as current members have established their brand and they add new bloggers slowly. Understandable for sure, but it can be frustrating.

Starting a blog network is an option, but for many newer bloggers it appears to be daunting. So many blogs have come and gone that it can seem hard to keep everyone focused. Is there a way to start a blog network that can help spread the word of member sites quickly and effectively? Can any group of bloggers start a network and get their best material to a larger audience.

I want to share a case study behind the scenes of a blog network that promotes others and has grown rapidly.

Case Study of Building a Network

Financial Samurai had a post back in January about an Alexa Challenge. It was an open invite to personal finance bloggers to help promote one another and improve their Alexa ranks. It started as an informal gathering of hungry bloggers and in less than 9 months it has become a network of around 100 bloggers.

If you’re willing to work hard and have fun, building a (or revitalizing a stagnant) network is possible. In the spirit of Yakezie, I asked members to share their best tips on building a successful network.

Set a Specific Goal

The wonderful part of this network came about was how it was presented as a challenge. Having a specific metric to measure our efforts helped many to work harder. Competition and camaraderie can go hand in hand.

Develop a Pattern of Cross Promotion

One of the big phrases thrown around was ìselflessly promoting othersî. The idea was to get the word out on each other’s sites and learn from one another. I believe a successful blog network is truly collaborative.

It’s certainly one thing to say you’ll promote each other’s best material, but it’s something else to organize and execute that. How bloggers promote each other in the network varies, but there has to be some strategy behind it.

What are some things that you can do to help promote your network?

Mini Carnivals can be a boost: Submitting to carnivals is something encouraged to new bloggers, but lately it seems to have tapered off in the personal finance niche. The Yazkezie holds a network carnival, with different members signing up to run a small and tight carnival promoting other members’ best posts. It’s a great way for members to discover each other’s sites and to promote favorite posts.

Reciprocate when appropriate: You should never feel pressured to link back to any post just because they linked to you. Sharing great content whether it’s your own or someone else’s is vital to the success of the network. Providing useful material to readers is what will help your site and network to grow.

Some Yakezie members are meticulous and use spreadsheets to keep track of bloggers that have helped them by sharing a link. When the time is right, they are gung-ho with returning the favor. It’s a balancing act to be sure, but it’s worthwhile in the long run.

Make search simple: Yakezie has a tool in the form of a special search page that allows users to quickly check to see which topics have been covered. If your network hasn’t done something similar already, I highly recommend doing so.

Be open to guest posts: Sometimes bloggers get overly possessive about their sites. It’s certainly understandable to want to maintain a certain level of quality on your blog. You can, however, broaden out and still keep the spirit of your blog.

Guest posts are a wonderful way for you to expose readers to other viewpoints and topics. Coordination between bloggers in the network has allowed sites to round out their blog’s scope while promoting other bloggers. It’s a win-win situation.

Mentor Newer Members