In her first interview from prison since her 20 year sentence by a Bali court for smuggling 4 kilos of pot, a charge for which she claims she was framed, Austrialian Schapelle Corby says she's not giving up the fight.

[hat tip Heretik.]

Enlightenment from our northern neighbor.

Canada's House of Commons voted today to legalize gay marriage, passing landmark legislation that would grant all same-sex couples in Canada the same legal rights as those in traditional unions between a man and a woman.

The bill passed as expected, despite opposition from Conservatives and religious leaders. The legislation drafted by Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal Party government was also expected to easily pass through the Senate and become federal law by the end of July.

Schapelle Corby has fired her old legal team and assembled a new one.

The coordinator of Schapelle Corby's new legal team, Walter Tonetto, says he is concerned that much of the Corby trial was played out in the media.

Corby yesterday sacked her Indonesian legal team, including the recently hired Jakarta-based lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea. Her decision came after Perth QC Mark Trowell accused her Indonesian defence team of suggesting the appeal judges could be bribed into overturning her 20-year-sentence.

Ties between the Corby family and the Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir have also been cut. Dr Tonetto says he will be meeting with Australian officials soon to discuss the Corby case.

More on the new team is here.

First off, the news today is that Shcapelle has lodged her appeal.

Second, I have received an e-mail from someone close to Schapelle Corby advising that this is now the official site for Schapelle Corby and that the family has placed its trust in Kay Danes, once imprisoned in Laos for a year for allegedly smuggling jewels. Ms. Danes is now working with Schapelle's legal and press team. The family has released this message:

Via CrimProf Blog:

John Jeremie, the AG of Trindad and Tobago, told Parliament this week that he will resume hanging convicts on death row as soon as they exhaust their appeals. Jeremie said the hangings are necessary to fight the recent upswing in crime. "The Government recognises that our people have grown tired of plans, talk and discussions of the problems ...today the Government states in forthright and unambiguous terms that we are at war with each and every criminal in Trinidad and Tobago," said Jeremie.

Jeremie also stated that if the courts intervene, the AG's office will do everything in its power to hang every person on death row.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Court yesterday sentenced 46 year old Australian Mai Cong Thanh, a native of Vietnam, to death for smuggling approximately 2 kilograms of heroin into Vietnam in loudspeakers. He is the second Austrailian to be sentenced to death in a year.

Vietnam, which has vowed to get tougher on drugs, launched a nationwide police crackdown this month on social vices such as prostitution and drugs abuse.

Meanwhile, in Bali, the Bali Nine were taken back to the airport and made to reenact the crime for police. It's a peculiarity of Indonesian law, that in deciding which charges to bring against a suspect, the police can force him or her to reenact the crime.

The Colombian Government says is considering a newly proposed plan to eradicate the country's coca fields:

A group of Colombian scientists believe they've found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for "ecological mischief" is high.

The plan envisions breeding thousands of beige-colored Eloria Noyesi moths in laboratories, packing them into boxes and releasing them into steamy coca-growing regions of Colombia, the world's main supplier of the drug. The moths, about twice the size of a fly, are native only to the Andean region of South America.

The moths would be better than infecting the plants with a fungus (tried in the past):

.... moths would better counter the replanting problem because they would continue to reproduce and attack the plants.

I can't wait to see the movie version.

[link via Huffington Post.]

An Australian baggage handler was arrested today as part of a drug smuggling endeavor, possibly bolstering the "innocent and framed" claim of Schapelle Corby:

NSW Police have arrested a baggage handler at Sydney Airport following an investigation into the transportation of illegal drugs between Sydney and Melbourne on a domestic flight. The man was taken to Mascot police station this morning where he is expected to be charged with hindering a police investigation.

It is understood that the arrest followed an operation at the domestic terminal in February when police intercepted a case allegedly containing cocaine with a street value of $60,000....The incident is not related to the investigation into baggage handlers at the international terminal.

However, it lends credence to claims made by Victorian prison informer John Patrick Ford, who gave evidence at Schapelle Corby's trial in Bali about drugs being transported on domestic flights.

China has declared war on bloggers. It will shut down all weblogs that fail to register with the Government.

The new initiative was announced in a decree issued by the ministry for the information industry (MII) on 20 March, which said all China-based websites - commercial or otherwise - would have to register by 30 June, giving the complete identity of the persons responsible for the sites. According to the authorities, the aim is to control information that "endanger the country."

Reporters Without Borders responds:

I almost threw up my lunch when I saw this.

Not a dime today, not a dollar tomorrow. We'll be boycotting Bali until the Indonesian courts set Schapelle Corby free.

U.S. and Australian officials have warned of terrorist plans to bomb hotels frequented by Westerners in Jakarta:

Australian embassy officials in Jakarta have advised Australian citizens in Indonesia they have intelligence reports suggesting the possibility of imminent terrorist attacks. The warning follows a similar statement from US officials.

...The US embassy issued an advisory informing its citizens that it had learned as of June 1 that extremists had plans to conduct bomb attacks targeting the lobbies of hotels frequented by Westerners in Jakarta. The warning also said the attacks were to occur at noon on an unspecified date but carried no further information.

If the Australian officials try and connect this to Schapelle Corby supporters, as they did the harmless powder-filled letter, they really have a problem.

Update: Political Class Pushes the Envelope

*************
The powder contained in the threatening letter sent to the Indonesian Ambassador for Australia at the Indonesian Embassy was harmless. The letter that accompanied the powder did not mention Schapelle Corby. It was mailed from Melbourne.

So does Australian Prime Minister John Howard back off his public insistence that the mailing is related to the Schapelle Corby case? You decide.

It's hard to escape the belief that there was a connection," he said. "I have no reason to alter that but you shouldn't read anything into that."

Indonesian's draconian drug laws apply to users as well. What do you think of ten years as a penalty for simple possession of less than 2 grams of hashish? Here's what's happening to Australian John Julian Pyle: