By Makayla Muscat for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 08:26 EDT, March 19, 2024 | Updated: 09:10 EDT, March 19, 2024

By Olivia Day for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 8:14 PM EST, February 21, 2024 | Updated: 10:40 PM EST, February 21, 2024

Anderson has so far taken a total of 695 wickets in the 184 matches he has played for his national side at an average of 26.34, conceding runs at an economy of 2.78 with 32 disposals with four wickets and 32 five-wicket hauls.

New Delhi: England veteran speedster James Anderson is just five wickets away from 700 Test scalps as he prepares for the third Test of the ongoing five-match Test series against India at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot.

Anderson has so far taken a total of 695 wickets in the 184 matches he has played for his national side at an average of 26.34, conceding runs at an economy of 2.78 with 32 disposals with four wickets and 32 five-wicket hauls.

If he completes the milestone, he will become the first seamer to do so and third overall, after legendary spinners Muttiah Murlidharan (800) and Shane Warne (708).

Anderson has taken five wickets in one Test match played in Visakhapatnam, with best figures of 3/47.

England Cricket Board (ECB) on Wednesday named the playing XI for the third Test match against India in Rajkot as pacer Mark Wood replaced Shoaib Bashir in the playing squad. The series is currently tied at 1-1.

“The Three Lions have made one change, with Mark Wood replacing Shoaib Bashir,” the ECB statement said.

Captain Ben Stokes will play his 100th Test match for England at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

“Captain Ben Stokes will make his 100th Test appearance in Rajkot,” it added.

The third Test will begin on February 15 in Rajkot, while the fourth Test will start on February 23 in Ranchi. The fifth and final Test of the series will be played in Dharamsala from March 7.

England play eleven: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson.

North Korean despot Kim Jong-Un has spent £122,000 on luxury women's underwear in a year as his population suffers from poverty, data shows.

Trade figures show that the Hermit Kingdom has a shipment of bras, girdles, corsets, suspenders, suspenders and garters in 2022, the most recent year of data available.

Of 60 percent of the population estimated to live in absolute poverty, racy lingerie is likely destined for the wardrobe of the country's small elite and so-called A 'Pleasure Squad' of 2,000 women and girls is said to have been hired to provide entertainment for officials and guests.

The elusive upper echelons also enjoyed some £2,675,000 worth of spirits and liqueurs, mainly from key trading partner China. And North Koreans could gain access to £12.6 million worth of tobacco products imported in 2022, including cigars, cigarettes and cigarillos.

Champagne, however, was reserved for a small minority, with sparkling wine imports worth just £15,000, combined with just under £38,000 worth of Chinese cheese.

And at the end of a long day, senior officials can relax with a game of pinball, with the country importing around £203,000 worth of video game consoles and board games – as ordinary citizens do. report food is so scarce that their neighbors are starving.

Yet the £122,000 spent on underwear is small, compared to the £2.7 million dropped in 2016.

North Korea is said to have imported a huge amount of pants from China, doubling the 2015 record for the Kippumjo, or “Pleasure Squad.”

Defectors have spoken candidly about the gruesome reality of the collectives “maintained” by generations of North Korean leaders, who are expected to provide sexual entertainment to senior party officials and their families, as well as foreign guests.

Some claim that the girls are even plucked from classrooms – some as young as 13 – and subjected to medical tests to check if they are virgins before being forced into a life of sexual servitude.

Defectors have spoken of attending drunken sex parties where women would have their pubic hair shaved as a forfeit if they lost matches.

Trade data shows that North Korean elites still have a small amount of luxury goods, while the broader population survives on average wages as low as £4.40 per day.

Sweet-toothed North Koreans imported £2.1m worth of chocolate in 2022 – a rebound to pre-pandemic peaks after falling to just £738,000 in 2020 and £566,000 in 2021. Belgium and Germany once shared small amounts of cocoa products, the data shows, but North Korea is now completely dependent on China.

Beer is also making a comeback, with the £113,000 spent in 2021 dwarfed by a paltry £7,000, but that's a far cry from the £10.8 million spent in 2019.

It was not clear what was happening in North Korea as the population spent just £80,000 on imported toilet paper in 2022, after £675,000 in 2020 and £1.13 million in 2019. Data for 2021 was not available.

Looking at the cuisine, the figures suggest that North Koreans may have dabbled in foreign cuisines by 2022, importing £521,000 worth of pasta. Italy itself imported £90 million in the same year.

Pineapple on pizza was likely out of the question in both countries, as North Korea recorded no imports of pineapple, avocados or mangoes in 2022. Brazil previously shared small amounts of fruit.

Surprisingly, North Korea also appeared to give up the melon trade in 2022 and record no imports – down from £73,000 in 2020, £2.66 million in 2019 and £2.77 million in 2018.

There was also little room for entertainment in the North Korean economy. Around £2,000 was spent on festival/carnival entertainment including magic tricks and novelty pranks – down from £61,000 in 2019.

Possibly related, the country stopped importing German sausages in 2022 after finding a small market worth £9,000 in 2018.

Confectionery also proved unpopular, accounting for just £86,000 of imports.

However, North Korea did import some games and spent £203,000 on foreign video game consoles/board games (such as pinball machines) in 2022.

Children could use some of the imported modeling paste worth £14,000, which was used for children's entertainment and dentistry.

Musical virtuosos were lost and could only import £4,000 worth of stringed instruments (guitars, violins etc), compared to £201,000 in 2018.

Readers also didn't feel like doing anything. Data showed that North Korea bought an estimated £1,000 worth of Polish newspapers and magazines in 2019 – and never imported anything again.

China provided the country's elite with perfume worth around £46,000 but has stopped exporting luxury foreign wristwatches, data shows. In 2018, the country sold North Korea to watches worth just £31,000 – worth less than some top Swiss watches – and subsequently stopped registering any trade.

North Korea imported £729,871,000 worth of products from China in 2022 – 98.1 percent of the value of all items.

That figure was higher than 2021 (£188,000,000) and 2020 (£382,000,000), but well below 2018 figures (£1.66 billion).

Britain's total product imports in 2022 were calculated at £665,635,859,000.

These figures do not include trade in services.

Most products purchased from foreign suppliers came from China, followed by the US, Germany, Norway, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Britain exported £432,570,855,000 worth of products in the same year, the data shows.

These mainly went to the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, China, Switzerland and France.

In contrast, North Korea exported around £253,995,000 worth of goods in 2022, mainly to China, Senegal and Aruba in the Caribbean Sea.

Data on North Korea collected by Trading card is based on bilateral trade flows reported by the country's trading partners.

By Aisling Brennan for Nca Newswire

Published: 07:51 EST, February 3, 2024 | Updated: 07:56 EST, February 3, 2024

A former elite Australian Navy diver who lost his arm and leg in a horrific shark attack has found a new career as a conservationist dedicated to protecting the world's top predators.

Paul de Gelder, 45, was swimming on his back 'from point A to point B' as part of a Navy counter-terrorism exercise in Sydney's iconic harbor in 2009 when the shark attacked and he narrowly escaped with his life.

“One minute I was swimming… the next minute my right leg was wedged in the jaws of a three-metre bull shark,” Mr De Gelder said.

He initially assumed his fellow soldiers had gotten too close in their boat and nudged him – feeling a “blow” but no pain – until he looked down and two black eyes stared back at him.

Having grown up close to the ocean in Melbourne and having been an avid swimmer all his life, Mr De Gelder said this was a moment he had dreaded since childhood.

'As every schoolboy knows, if you're attacked by a shark, hit it in the eye. “That was the only option I was denied because my right hand was stuck with its teeth to my own leg,” he said.

'I tried to counter-attack with my left hand and it started shaking me like a rag doll. In folklore, the Great White may be the most feared denizen of the deep, but there is nothing more terrifyingly aggressive than a bull shark.”

Shark attacks are extremely rare. Millions of people in Australia take to the water every year and there are an average of three fatal shark attacks.

But that fact would have offered little comfort to Mr De Gelder.

As the shark clamped down again with its multiple rows of razor-sharp, inch-long teeth, he said the initial shock and confusion gave way to a wave of excruciating pain.

“All the fight went out of me and I started choking on the bloody water… I was sure I was going to die,” he said.

'I'll never know why he let me go. Perhaps it had tasted enough of my flesh to know that I was not the usual meal. Whatever the reason, he loosened his grip and ducked away to seek more familiar prey.'

But Mr De Gelder's ordeal was not over: a 'thick layer of blood' had collected on the surface of the water and was growing larger by the second.

'Fortunately, I was in Sydney Harbor as a member of the Royal Australian Navy's specialist diving unit, taking part in a counter-terrorism exercise swimming around the warships at HMS Kuttabul Naval Base.'

“I had the presence of mind to hold my torn arm out of the water and above my heart to slow the bleeding as I made my way to the safety boat.”

“I saw the look of horror on my teammates' faces when they brought me in, so I did what soldiers do and made a joke. Then I closed my eyes and prepared to bleed to death.

“I owe my survival to the courage and quick thinking of one of the boys who stuck his hand in my leg and held my severed artery closed with his fingers until I could be handed over to a battalion of doctors, nurses, soldiers and soldiers. blood donors who together saved my life.

'Several operations later I woke up to find I was missing half an arm and a leg.'

More surgeries followed, including a difficult decision to amputate the damaged limbs, as well as months of rehabilitation.

Fast forward to January 2024 and Mr. de Gelder has just wrapped filming off the coast of Mexico for a new round of specials for Shark Week, the long-running and highly popular programming block on Discovery Channel.

Despite his ordeal, Mr De Gelder has become one of the leading advocates for the protection of sharks, which are slaughtered by the millions every year by the fishing industry.

The strange shift came after a producer asked him to take part in a documentary in which he confronted his fears and went swimming with bull sharks off the coast of Fiji.

He described the experience as mind-blowing with more than 150 sharks in the water around him, but none attacking him. It sent him on a journey to soak up all the information he could about them.

In 2014, shortly after he left the Navy when he realized he would never be able to return to active duty, Discovery Channel approached him and asked him to host a program about Great Whites. His relationship with the network grew from there.

He has also written three books – No Time for Fear, Uncaged and Shark – with the aim of shedding light on his experiences, how he recovered from setbacks and what can be done to help the little-understood marine wonders.

In addition to his books and documentary work, he is also a motivational speaker, was a guest trainer on The Biggest Loser and guided Hollywood A-Lister Will Smith and UFC star Ronda Rousey while swimming with sharks.

He now lives with his wife in Marina del Rey, California.

About the fishing sector, De Gelder said: 'If you were to do to wild animals on land what we do to sharks, you would end up in prison.'

'Because it is invisible, there in the deep blue sea, it is not noticed. Spend time with sharks and you will realize this is barbarism and not at all sustainable,” he told the Observer.

According to some research estimates, shark populations have declined by as much as 71 percent since 1970 due to overfishing.

“I don't want you to stay out of the water. But if the choice in a particular hotspot is killing sharks or surfing more, I'll spare the sharks' lives every time.

'Shark attacks are rare and we should regard them as accidents rather than murders.

'With the exception of shipwreck survivors, almost all victims of a shark attack are in the water because the ocean is a magical place that they love.

“Sharks are part of that magic and we must always remember that we are guests in their home.”

Jamie Gao was tall, handsome and just 20 years old when his dreams of making it big in the underworld led to him being shot dead and dumped in the ocean.

Gao was a young man with a bright future after graduating from the selective Caringbah High School in Sydney’s south and being accepted into a business degree at UTS.

But, after a friend gave him a taste of the big money and high life the drug game had to offer, he ditched university believing he could build a similar business with bigger profits and lower risk.

That fateful decision ultimately brought him to a storage unit at Padstow in Sydney’s south west in May 2014, where he was murdered by two former NSW police detectives during a drug deal gone wrong.

Roger ‘The Dodger’ Rogerson and Glen McNamara were found guilty of Gao’s murder and both received life sentences.

They stole 2.78kg of methamphetamine with a street value of up to $19million from Gao after wrapping his body in a tarpaulin and dumping it at sea.

Rogerson, Australia’s most notorious corrupt cop, was also one of the NSW police force’s most decorated, having received more than a dozen rewards for bravery.

He died on Sunday in Sydney’s Prince of Wales hospital at the age of 83 after suffering a brain aneurysm at the Long Bay prison.

McNamara, now 64, worked as a private investigator and claimed that Gao was his informant for a true crime book he was writing on the Hong Kong Triads in Sydney.

Both men maintained their innocence and fought their sentences but ultimately lost separate appeals in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.

Their shocking crime has been detailed in a new book titled Roger Rogerson: From Decorated Policeman to Convicted Criminal – The Inside Story, by Duncan McNab.  An extract is published below.

THE NEW FACE OF CRIME

The criminals that Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara had faced in their police careers were mainly of the old school.

With a few exceptions, they were male, from poor or working-class backgrounds, had a basic education but not the opportunity for university or even six years of high school.

Many came from families who’d been involved in crime for generations. They were shoplifters, housebreakers, car thieves, armed robbers and safebreakers, who learned their trade through mentoring.

Their jobs were risky, the money was sometimes dismal, and the chance of being caught was high.

Prison was a paid holiday and a chance to network and get some professional development. The irony of getting it from someone who’d been convicted escaped them.

The contemporary breed of criminals is very different. They’re enticed into a business dominated by drugs like ice and cocaine, where the profits are staggering and the risk low.

Most finish high school and many have gone on to university – finance or law degree are great sales tools if you’re looking at entering a life of crime rather than the ‘straight’ world.

Unlike the older crims, they don’t factor in getting caught, and many don’t quite understand the dangers and brutality of the world they’re entering.

Jamie Gao was one of these young men.

As he’d find out in 2014, a life of crime wasn’t like the one he’d seen so often in the Hong Kong action films he and his mates loved.

Jamie’s family was well-to-do middle class, originally from Hong Kong. He’d grown up with his mother and grandmother in their large family home in a quiet street in Hurstville.

It wasn’t a flash home, but it was obvious the Gaos weren’t short of a quid.

Jamie went to Caringbah High School, one of the state’s selective schools that, according to the NSW Department of Education, ‘cater for gifted and talented students who have superior to very superior academic ability which is matched by exceptionally high classroom performance’.

Jamie was a tall, handsome lithe young man with long black hair that swept over his face. He was charismatic, funny and had an edge that made him stand out from his studious mates.

As Sydney crime writer and former detective P.M. (Pam) Newton wrote of Jamie in The Drum on 28 May 2014, ‘It’s the face that stays with you. The photo of the bright, beautiful boy, with the funky haircut, the shiny smile.’

And as Newton observed, ‘Sydney’s underworld isn’t glamorous – it’s cruel.’

Jamie didn’t have Newton’s insight, nor does it seem he did any research on the two older men he’d encounter just after his twentieth birthday.

At school Jamie had a close group of mates, and following the HSC they went on to university and stayed close.

For Jamie, his higher education was a business degree at UTS, located near Sydney’s Chinatown.

One of Jamie’s friends, Bing-Jie (known as BJ) Wang, was Jamie’s ticket into the underworld. Around late 2011, Wang was working as a drug dealer, pulling in big money and living the life that Jamie wanted.

BJ and his cohorts, the Lam brothers, ran a drug ring that was likely to be affiliated with one of the Hong Kong Triads, but they were clumsy.

They talked openly of their business on mobile phones and handled the packages of drugs without the sense to use gloves, thus leaving fingerprints and DNA evidence.

Their stupidity resulted in them being arrested in May 2012 for drug trafficking, but the arrest of his friends didn’t deter Jamie Gao.

Instead of learning that crime was a dangerous business – by being arrested and also risking offending brutal gangs such as the Triad – he went the other way, believing that he was smarter and could build a similar business with greater profit potential and less risk of being caught.

It’s likely Gao’s relationship with Wang also put him on police radar.

The Daily Telegraph of 31 May 2014 reported the AFP had been interested in him from around late 2011 because of his connection to drug importations.

One legal source told me Jamie had also come to police attention because of a few deals he’d done with large numbers of cheap mobile phones used for pay-as-you-go customers – popular in the drug trafficking business for single use then discarded, thus making electronic surveillance difficult.

Police also confirmed they were looking at links between Jamie and casino high roller Peter Hoang who was shot dead at Croydon Park on 7 September 2014, and the former Bakers Delight franchise holder Paul Nguyen, who went missing on 1 May 2014.

Police were suspicious the three were involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.

In early 2014, Jamie met Misaki Takebayashi who was from Japan and studying at UTS. Misaki had rudimentary English and even less Cantonese and Mandarin, but the two fell fast for each other.

However, while she knew her boyfriend had interests other than study and her, she had no idea of his growing involvement with drug trafficking.

Jamie had his first direct brush with police when he was arrested for unlawfully detaining 19-year-old student Jaiwei Yu, and assaulting him causing actual bodily harm.

Gao and two other young men went to Yu’s home unit in Sydney’s Carlton, allegedly to sort out one of Yu’s flatmates, Alex Li, over his bust-up with a girlfriend.

Yu said the girl had wanted revenge and Jamie had taken on the job as standover man and punisher.

Unfortunately for Yu, Alex wasn’t home at the time, so Gao decided Yu would do.

The three men took the slightly built man out to their car, manhandled him into the boot, took him for a brisk drive around, and finally stopped at a park where he was unloaded, and taken into the park where Jamie punched him in the mouth.

The three left him.

Unfortunately for Jamie and his crew, Yu and Li weren’t intimidated and went to the police. Gao was arrested on 22 March and faced his first time in court on a criminal charge at Kogarah court on 15 April 2014.

The case was later adjourned to 10 July and then withdrawn, because by then Jamie was dead.

Another lawyer source told me the incident with Yu wasn’t Jamie’s only standover venture, telling me he’d kidnapped and assaulted a Sydney businessman over a debt.

The police had also visited Jamie’s home in early 2014 with a search warrant looking for drugs, but the visit hadn’t resulted in charges.

His mother Katherine said in a statement, ‘Since the drug search with the police I would talk to Jamie about drugs and he told me he wouldn’t do that. He was cranky that he was involved in this and kept saying that the police always have eyes on him and that he hasn’t done anything wrong.’

In late February Jamie flew to Hong Kong where he caught up with a mix of Sydney and Hong Kong friends and relatives, and allegedly with Triad connections made probably through BJ and the Lams.

It was on this trip Jamie was likely to have started work on the deal that would eventually lead to his murder. T

The original deal he put to the alleged Triad heavies was 10 kilograms of ice on credit, with payment in full as soon as it was sold.

Jamie, by that stage well entrenched with the Rogerson/McNamara team, had a tantalising opportunity for the Triads – access to the outlaw bikers and their distribution networks.

The bikers didn’t mind where the product came from so long as it was of good quality, and for the Hong Kong criminals, traditionally insular in who they dealt with, it was an opportunity to plug into Australia’s most successful distributors.

It was a win for everyone – in theory.

However, the Triad heavies had generations of experience behind them and decided that while they’d risk a shipment to a new network, the risk would only be three kilograms.

If that deal worked to their satisfaction, then the amount would increase. Jamie didn’t have a choice and readily agreed.

The Hong Kong connection would arrange for the drugs to be couriered to Sydney from their sources in mainland China and delivered to Jamie.

Two trusted Triad henchmen would be sent to Australia to keep an eye on Jamie and the deal. Gao’s likely involvement in organised crime was why the NSW Police Robbery and Serious Crime Squad became involved when his disappearance was finally reported.

Roger Rogerson: From Decorated Policeman to Convicted Criminal – The Inside Story, by Duncan McNab, is available now from Hachette online: RRP $22.99 in paperback and $11.99 in e-book