user: Q: Two men found floating in a giant cooler off the Australian coast want to stay. However, they will be transferred to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. Australia has an immigration detention facility on the island.
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A: Two men found floating in a giant cooler off the Australian coast say they want to stay in Australia and don't want to go home, immigration officials said Friday. The Australian Customs Service found the two men in the Torres Strait on January 17. The men will be transferred to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, where Australia has an immigration detention facility, a spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship told CNN. "The men have both indicated they do not wish to return to their home country," said the spokesman, who asked not to be named. "They will remain in detention on Christmas Island while immigration officials consider any claims to remain in Australia." The spokesman declined to reveal the men's nationality or what claims they have made to remain. Australian media reports have said the men are from Myanmar. The Australian Customs Service spotted the two men January 17 floating in a giant red icebox, or cooler, in the Torres Strait, between the northeastern tip of Australia and Papua New Guinea, a Customs spokesman said. Customs agents had been on a routine mission to identify possible smugglers in the area at the time, the spokesman said. A picture taken by Australian Customs shows the men standing in the floating cooler and waving at authorities. The sides of the box are waist-high. After their rescue by helicopter, the two men spent several days in a hospital, an immigration spokesman said. They were then housed in detention while officials interviewed and processed them, the spokesman said. Australian media reports said the men spent 25 days afloat in the cooler, surviving only by drinking rainwater and eating regurgitated fish dropped by birds. Lee Hollingsworth of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told CNN it was not uncommon for Asian fishermen to use birds such as cormorants to dive down and retrieve fish that are then regurgitated whole.


Q: Report found up to 5.9% of £116billion budget could have broken rules. Auditors demand 'more careful management and control of EU funds' Comes as David Cameron battles with Brussels over £1.7billion demand. EU issued demand on top of the £8billion-a-year the UK already pays. Jean-Claude Junkcer criticises PM's 'behaviour' in challenging bill.
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assistant: The European Union was today accused of misspending up to £7billion, just days after demanding Britain hand over an extra £1.7billion as the price for economic growth. Auditors demanded ‘more careful management and control’ of taxpayers’ money, warning up to 5.9 per cent of the £116billion budget could have been spent in breach of EU rules. Tory MPs condemned the ‘breathtaking hypocrisy’ at a time when David Cameron is refusing to meet the demand for £1.7billion by December 1, on top of the £8billion-a-year it already pays. David Cameron has called for spending restraint from Brussels and refused to pay an extra £1.7billion by December 1, but European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has criticised the Prime Minister's 'behaviour' Of 1,200 sample cases investigated by the auditors, irregularities were found in around 40 per cent. Bungling Brussels officials were found to have paid a Sardinian artichoke grower subsidies not to use damaging pesticides, which he continued to use. Render rules for a German airport contract were broken while Scottish farmers were given EU subsidies while not meeting rules for the notification of movement of livestock. The European Court of Auditors found money was wrongly spent across all of the EU’s 28 member states. In the 1,200 or so sample cases tracked by auditors, they found irregularities of some kind in over 40 percent - including over half of those in the biggest parts of the budget, devoted to the likes of regional infrastructure and farm subsidies. Court of Auditors President Vitor Caldeira said: ‘There has to be more careful management and control of EU funds. ‘If European Union citizens do not have a clear perception of the added value of EU spending, we will not have their trust.’ Tory MP Peter Bone said: “For the EU to demand £1.7 billion from us on December 1 is laughable especially when vast sums – far greater than that – are misspent every year by Brussels. “They need to put their house in order before making these ridiculous demands of the British people. It is breathtaking hypocrisy at a time when they cannot even run their own affairs,’ he told The Telegraph. Britain is locked in intense negotiations with the European Commission about the demand for an extra £1,7billion, which caught Mr Cameron off guard at a summit last month. The European Commission used rules dating back to 1995 and found Britain's economy has grown faster than expected, so must pay a greater share to Brussels. To add insult to injury, France will receive a £790million rebate because its economy is struggling. Bizarrely, Germany is also in line for a rebate while countries like Greece and Italy must pay more. Mr Cameron angrily insisted he will not bow to the demands, declaring: 'I am not paying that bill on December 1. If people think I am, they have got another thing coming. It is not going to happen.' Britain has been told to pay £1.7billion by December 1, on top of the £8billion-a-year it already pays. France, Germany and Denmark are among those told they will get money back from Brussels. Last night Jean-Claude Juncker, the new Commission President, hit out the Prime Minister’s behaviour. Mr Juncker criticised the leaders of Britain and Italy for making critical comments about the EU after both countries were landed with huge cash demands. Matteo Renzi, the Italian premier, was also highly critical of EU civil servants after the meeting. Speaking in the European Parliament yesterday, Mr Juncker said: 'I didn't like the way several prime ministers were behaving after the European Council. 'For a long period of time I've taken notes and I was always comparing what is said in the room and what is said outside the room. And from time to time it happens that the notes are not coinciding.' Mr Cameron tried to block Mr Juncker, a former Luxembourg PM and arch-federalist, from taking the senior EU post. Mr Juncker described the way Mr Cameron was presenting the EU cash demand issue as 'not correct'. 'They are presented in a totally different way in parts of British public opinion,' Mr Juncker said, pointing out that the rules of the EU should be better respected. Mr Renzi had complained that the EU was overtly bureaucratic. At one point he warned that he would make public the cost of EU 'palaces' in a row over Italy's budget projections. Yesterday Mr Juncker responded: 'I have to tell my good friend Matteo Renzi that I am not the chairman of a gang of bureaucrats... I am the president of the European Commission which is a political body.'