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How do you spot a fake pound coin

March 20, 2014 / By Armoured Cars / In security

The number of fake £1 coins in circulation now stands at more than 30 million, according to the Royal Mint. How do you know if you’ve been given one?

That £1 coin in your pocket could be worthless.

The number of fake pound coins in circulation has doubled in the past five years and one in every 50 is now counterfeit.

It’s illegal to make or use counterfeited coins and the Royal Mint says people must hand them in if they think they have one. But how can you tell?

It all depends on the quality of the counterfeit, but key signs include a poorly defined ribbed edge, the wrong typeface and an indistinct design or bust of the Queen. A fake can also be slightly different in colour.

President Rousseff shocked by police car death

March 20, 2014 / By Armoured Cars / In security

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has offered her condolences and said the nation was “shocked” after a woman died when dragged by a police car along one of Rio de Janeiro’s busiest roads.

Mother-of-four Claudia da Silva Ferreira, 38, had been hurt in a shoot-out in the shanty-town where she lived.

Policemen threw her into their patrol car’s boot, which opened by accident when it drove off.

Relatives said Ms Ferreira had been “treated like a criminal”.

South Africa expels Rwandan diplomats

March 11, 2014 / By Armoured Cars / In security

South Africa has expelled three Rwandan diplomats in connection with an attack on the home of an exiled Rwandan dissident, diplomatic sources say.

Rwanda responded by ordering out six South African envoys, officials said.

The moves come after armed men raided the Johannesburg home of Kayumba Nyamwasa, a Rwandan former chief of staff, earlier this week.

Lt Gen Nyamwasa, an exiled critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, was not at home.

However, the property was ransacked and a computer and some documents were taken.

The child refugee who built business empire – Ashish Thakkar

March 11, 2014 / By Armoured Cars / In security

While many successful entrepreneurs have come from difficult backgrounds, few have faced the horrors that Ashish Thakkar and his family went through.

Mr Thakkar, who today is the founder and boss of the pan-African Mara Group conglomerate, was 12 years old when he and his parents and sister fled the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

After sheltering with more than 1,200 other terrified people at a hotel in Rwanda’s capital (the one at the centre of the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, the Hollywood movie about the genocide), they were able to get on a flight out of the country.

“Fortunately we came out alive,” says Mr Thakkar, now 32. “But unfortunately my parents lost everything they’d built up between 1972 and 1993.”

China urges Malaysia to intensify search for flight MH370

March 11, 2014 / By Armoured Cars / In security

China has urged Malaysia to “step up its efforts” in the search for the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane that disappeared on Saturday.

Malaysia said it was widening the hunt, after days of searching found no trace of the plane or the 239 people on board – most of whom were Chinese.

Rescue teams from nine countries will now scour areas stretching from the Malacca Strait to the South China Sea.

Beijing-bound flight MH370 vanished shortly after it left Kuala Lumpur.

Relatives of the missing passengers have been told to prepare for the worst.