An Irish student has warned her fellow J1 travelers (those on summer working visas) to beware of a rental scam in the US that cost her and her friends almost $5,000. Leah Hughes (21), from Clonskeagh in Dublin, had been planning the trip of a lifetime - a summer in Los Angeles with four of her friends. The group wired $4,750 to a man claiming to own a property in Santa Monica on a reputable rental website, but he pocketed the money and left them with nothing. Leah, a journalism student from Dublin Business School, said: "Half of our accommodation money is gone. We've lost 750 euro each, which is half of what we were able to spend so we've decided we don't want to go to LA. I don't want to even think that I'm living in the same area as this guy who did this. “But we still want to go because we've paid for our flights and for our J1 visa but we're going to go to San Francisco instead. We don't have a house yet to stay in because we haven't been able to find anywhere that we can afford." Unfortunately, this kind of scam which cost Leah and her friends is common in the US. Celine Kennelly of the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Center in San Francisco said, "Our advice is, if someone asks you to wire money ahead of arriving here, don't do it. We've had this situation before and many students get scammed this way every year. We want to get the message out there to people that wiring money over to someone you don't know just isn't safe." Instead, students are urged to find a cheap hostel for the first few nights in their city of choice and use that as a base to look for accommodation when they arrive.
Isabella Amber on 20 Apr 12Apr. 20th, 2012 at 10:00 AM newscentershghhttp://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/oft-tested-routine-for-nuclear-reactor-vips Oft-tested routine for nuclear reactor VIPs KORI, SOUTH Korea // Visitors to the construction site of Korea's latest model in nuclear reactor technology are first treated to a video about its many safety advantages. As the film about the APR-1400 reactors ends in the darkened room, automated shades draw back from floor-to-ceiling windows to reveal the immense concrete domes and construction cranes at the edge of the blue sea. Steam floats from a boiler undergoing tests, and workers in blue hard-hats confer at the base of the reactor buildings that seem as vast as a mall in Abu Dhabi.The design of Shin-Kori 3 and 4, as the reactors are called, is to be nearly identical to the four a South Korean consortium is building in the UAE. Adjustments for the Gulf's climate, from larger pumps to more air-conditioning units, are undergoing review, along with the rest of the design, by the UAE regulator. On a recent day at Kori, visitors representing some of the highest levels of the nuclear industry, from Japan to the Czech Republic, crowded towards the irresistible view. South Korea has a well-rehearsed routine for international visitors to the world's newest nuclear exporter, from photo ops to specialearphones for listening to engineers in the noisy interior of functioning plants nearby. The first reactor is scheduled to come online next year, five years after the first spadefuls of earth were dug from this spot on Korea's south-east coast. The second reactor is due to follow in 2014. Another four are planned at the same site. "The construction schedule is going well," said Lee Young-il, a vice president at Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the company hosting the visit. ayee@thenational.ae
Bethany Rawlins on 05 May 12http://www.thenational.ae/business/energy/oft-tested-routine-for-nuclear-reactor-vips Oft-tested routine for nuclear reactor VIPs KORI, SOUTH Korea // Visitors to the construction site of Korea's latest model in nuclear reactor technology are first treated to a video about its many safety advantages.
