Mind blowing figures in Australia - A2

The following article shows many big figures and some currency symbols. Let's remind how to read those strange signs.

After reading the article, don't forget to have a look at the interesting video clip embedded on BBC Australia's website and related to this fact.

Australia police seize meth hidden in bras inserts - BBC News

Police in Sydney say they have seized methamphetamine with a street value of more than A$1bn ($700m; £500m), much of it hidden inside gel bra inserts. A Chinese man and three Hong Kong nationals are facing life in prison after the seizure. Authorities said the 720 litres (160 gallons) of liquid methamphetamine was sent from Hong Kong.

http://www.bbc.com

 reading :

 A$ (or AUD$): australian dollar

 $: dollar

 Usually, without anything before the symbol $ you have to understand US dollar or american dollar but this australian article is about australian dollars.

 £: pound sterling or pound.

Most commonly, without anything before the symbol £, you have to understand (british) pound sterling.

bn: this is the short for billion (1,000,000,000)

m: this is the short for million (1,000,000)

1.26 billion: one point twenty six billion

Useful vocabulary :

to seize: to use legal power to take something in a criminal case

a seizure : something seized

a drug bust: a drug seized

value: the price or cost of something

mid-point figures: figures available at mid-point, those figures are not definitive.

upper-range figure: high calculated value to assess something, in this case to estimate the value of illicit drugs.