Indonesia Drops Death Sentence for Australian Drug Smuggler

Shear English - Indonesia’s Supreme Court has overturned a death sentence for convicted Australian heroin smuggler Scott Anthony Rush, giving him life imprisonment instead, a defence lawyer said on Wednesday.

The decision on 25-year-old Rush, after a final legal appeal to Indonesia’s courts, was a rare one as drug smugglers normally get capital punishment under Indonesian law.

“Our next move is to seek ways so that (Rush) can serve the rest of his sentence in Australia,” lawyer Frans Hendra Winata said.

Rush was caught in his teens in 2005 with heroin draped around his body in an airport on the resort island of Bali. Rush was one of the “Bali Nine”, a media term for nine Australians arrested in Bali in a botched attempt to smuggle more than eight kg (17.6 pounds) of heroin into Australia.

Sentences for the nine members have varied from 15 years in jail to death. The judges said Rush’s role was only as a courier, and not as the mastermind behind the smuggling, and he therefore should not be given the death sentence, Kompas newspaper reported. 

English - KOMPAS.com

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Somali Pirates Finally Free Indonesian Cargo Ship

Shear English - Somali pirates have freed an Indonesian bulk carrier after the ship’s owner paid a ransom, pirates and a maritime source said on Saturday. 

The Sinar Kindus was captured by pirates on March 16 approximately 320 miles north of east Socotra in the Somali basin, with its crew of 20. Pirates said they released the ship after a ransom payment was airdropped to them.

“We received the cash of $4.5 million early this morning. We have abandoned the ship and it is preparing to sail away,” a pirate who gave his name as Geney told Reuters from El-Dhanane coastal village.

Andrew Mwangura, a Kenya-based former maritime official and now the maritime editor of The Somalia Report confirmed the ship had been freed, adding it had not started to sail away yet.

Pirate gangs are making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms as international navies patrolling the Gulf Of Aden struggle to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean due to the vast distances involved. 

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Canada : School Secretary Outed as Porn Star Strips off Again

Shear English - A porn star school secretary who promised to give up her seedy secret double life has stripped off again after being sacked from her day job. Julie Gagnon, who goes by the stage name Samantha Ardente, made headlines around the world after being outed by a 14-year-old pupil from her school who recognised her in a porn film. The young mother was finally sacked from her job at Etchemins High School near Quebec City last week after news of her starring role in the film Serial Abusers 2 reached school management.

Miss Gagnon, who has starred in five adult movies, had agreed to stop making them in a desperate bid to keep her job, but the school board claimed her film career 'was not compatible' with her position. Despite being hopeful of regaining her school job after launching legal action against her sacking, Miss Gagnon has bared all in a five-page spread in the erotic magazine Summum.

In the May edition of the French-language lads' mag, the former secretary disrobes in a series of provocative poses and explains how she imposed ‘no restrictions’ in her film scenes. She describes how she entertained three men at the same time and tells the publication she would have continued to make porn films had her secret life not be discovered.

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Indonesia Cancels : As Indonesian Elite Force Apparoaches Somalia

Shear English - Indonesia has dispatched an elite military force to Somalia to rescue 20 Indonesian sailors who were hijacked by Somalian pirates together with their ship a month ago. Despite a media blitz in Jakarta, the Indonesian government had actually to cancel the hard option as the Kopassus and the Korp Marinir units were en route to the site where MV Sinar Kudus was held by Somali pirates.

The force dispatched numbers to 401 personnel consisting of a combined unit of Kopassus and Korps Marinir (Marine Corps). The media had apparently been taken by surprise by what had been disclosed by Air Marshall (Rtd.) Djoko Suyanto, the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security. 

This story has not been made public by the government until Friday. There are two considerations that may have become the underlying reasons for Djoko Suyanto, former Indonesian Defense Force (TNI) Commander, to open the fact to public through media.

First, public opinion has cornered the government in the people’s eyes as being weak and slow-moving. Second, the 3.5 million US dollars ransom money has actually been in the process of delivery to the pirates as the condition for the release of the sailors.

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Criminal Hackers : Millions Online Customers Addresses Stolen by Hackers

Shear English - Millions of email addresses belonging to British shoppers have been stolen by criminal hackers. Marks & Spencer yesterday sent warning messages to many online customers who have supplied the store with email addresses. Britons who use Play.com and TripAdvisor have also been sent similar warnings. Victims of the theft risk being targeted in spam and phishing scams. This could result in them logging on to bogus websites set up by criminal gangs.

Once on these websites, it is feared that personal information, including passwords and bank details, could be stolen. There is also a danger that bugs and malicious spy software could be downloaded to victims’ home computers. The alerts raise serious questions about security systems operated by major internet brands and their technology partners. They will also shake consumers’ trust in online shopping – and could encourage shoppers to move back to the High Street.

The M&S security failure relates to a U.S. email company, Epsilon, which has been targeted in what has been called the ‘biggest data breach ever’. Epsilon, one of the largest email marketing companies in the world, sends more than 40billion emails annually on behalf of more than 2,500 clients. The unrelated thefts involving M&S, Play.com and TripAdvisor reflect a growing and lucrative black market in personal email addresses.

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"Cannibal" Slit Housemate's Throat and Drank His Blood. Jailed For Life

Shear English - A self-proclaimed cannibal who slit his housemate’s throat, partially severed his genitals and then drank his blood was found guilty of murder in Australia on Monday and jailed for life. A Supreme Court jury convicted Robert Ian Logan, 23, of killing Ben Huntingford, 22, in their Queensland home in June 2006 and stabbing his pet dog, Butch, in a bloody attack likened by witnesses to an abattoir slaughter. 

Huntingford’s throat was cut from ear to ear and prosecutors told the jury his blood had been used to write obscenities on the walls. His penis was almost severed and Huntingford also had stab wounds to the heart, liver, spleen, kidney and lung, with Logan alleging he was motivated by an unwanted sexual advance from Huntingford.

The jury heard during the trial from a witness who said Logan claimed to have eaten human flesh with New Zealand cannibals as a child. The trial also heard that Logan told police he drank Huntingford’s blood after the killing. Judge Julie Dick told Logan there was "only one sentence I can impose" for such a crime, following the jury verdict.

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