Assange seeks political asylum

On Tuesday night WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange applied for political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London after failing in his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex crime allegations. The 40-year-old Australian is currently inside the building in Knightsbridge, having gone there on Tuesday afternoon to request asylum under the United Nations Human Rights Declaration. The country's foreign minister Ricardo Patino told a press conference in the South American country that it was considering his request. In a short statement last night, Mr Assange said: "I can confirm that today I arrived at the Ecuadorian Embassy and sought diplomatic sanctuary and political asylum. This application has been passed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital Quito. I am grateful to the Ecuadorian ambassador and the government of Ecuador for considering my application." The computer expert, who was on £200,000 bail after failing in several attempts to halt extradition, attracted several high-profile supporters including Ken Loach and socialite and charity fundraiser Jemima Khan, who each offered £20,000 as surety. Other supporters included Bianca Jagger and veteran left-winger Tony Benn. The Swedish authorities want him to answer accusations of raping a woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August 2010 while on a visit to give a lecture. Assange, whose WikiLeaks website has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables that embarrassed several governments and international businesses, says the sex was consensual and the allegations against him are politically motivated. The Supreme Court last month ruled in favour of a High Court ruling that his extradition was legal. Last week the Supreme Court refused an attempt by him to reopen his appeal against extradition, saying it was "without merit". He had until June 28 to ask European judges in Strasbourg to consider his case and postpone extradition on the basis that he has not had a fair hearing from the UK courts. A statement issued on behalf of the Ecuadorian Embassy said Mr Assange would remain at the embassy while his request was considered.

Mexican Mafia Fugitive Caught in Tijuana

A fugitive from Los Angeles, who is a known member of the Mexican Mafia gang, was apprehended in Tijuana this week. 52 year old José Luis Montellano was wanted with arrests warrants for armed robbery, bank robbery, and probation violations. Municipal police worked with the international department of the state police, as well as the U.S. Marshals, to apprehend the suspect. Montellano was found in the colonia Salvatierra, which is on the southwest side of Tijuana. He had been hiding in Mexico since at least January of this year. A Baja state police unit dedicated to capturing international criminals has been very effective in working with U.S. authorities. Multiple criminals have been captured in recent months. The Mexican Mafia is a dangerous gang that originates in U.S. prisons. Many sureño street gangs in Southern California and in the prison system work in coordination under the Mexican Mafia. The gang has been active in California since the late 1950’s. Montellano will be sent to the U.S. immediately to face prosecution.

online pharmacy pioneer arrested in U.S.

Andrew Strempler facing charges in Florida

Andrew Strempler, the founder of Mediplan Pharmacy, appeared in a federal court in Miami on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported. (Fred Greenslade/Winnipeg Free Press/Canadian Press)

Andrew Strempler, a Manitoba man who was one of the first entrepreneurs in the cross-border online pharmacy industry, has been arrested in Florida and is facing charges related to the sale of foreign and counterfeit medicines, CBC News has confirmed.

The founder of Mediplan Pharmacy — also known as RxNorth.com — appeared in a federal court in Miami on Thursday. Strempler, 38, is expected to be arraigned next week on charges tied to an online pharmacy business, the paper said.

Strempler faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the charges against him, U.S. authorities are also going after $95-million dollars of what they allege are proceeds of crime.

The current charges relate to a 2005 seizure of drugs being shipped by Mediplan. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration claimed many of the drugs promoted as Canadian actually came from other countries. An FDA investigation was launched in 2006 after the agency advised consumers against purchasing several prescription drugs from Mediplan.

At that time, Strempler called the FDA warning a tactic designed to prevent uninsured Americans from getting drugs from outside the U.S.

He also said his company regularly tested the drugs and declared them safe and reliable.

Strempler later sold the company to CanadaDrugs.com, another Winnipeg-based online pharmacy group that is currently being investigated by the FDA in connection with two more cases of counterfeit cancer drugs found in the U.S. earlier this year.

"It's somewhat unfortunate because when some of these infractions occurred, the business, in my opinion, was 100 per cent legitimate, at least that was the intention," David MacKay, the former executive director of the Canadian Internet Pharmacy Association, said after he heard of the charges.

MacKay, who has known Strempler for years, said he believed Strempler had "every intention of conducting an ethical and professional business" aimed at helping U.S. patients keep drug costs down.

MacKay said that because trade was "spreading worldwide and the product was being sourced from outside of Canada, the chances increased for any pharmacy to be penetrated by counterfeit product."

FDA looking at other online pharmacies

The current charges come two years after Strempler agreed to have his name removed from the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association registry. That move came after disciplinary hearings in which the association alleged Strempler's company sold drugs from overseas locations that weren't approved by Health Canada.

Strempler started operating in a free-trade zone in Curacao, a tiny nation in the Caribbean, shortly after.

Andrew Strempler was deported from Panama and flown to Miami, according to Barry Golden, with the U.S. Marshals Department in Miami.

He said Strempler was taken into custody by waiting U.S. Marshals and Customs and Border Protection officials.

"Clearly the FDA was looking for him and had interest in arresting him for some time and unfortunately he stepped foot in the country," MacKay said.

An FDA spokesperson would not comment specifically on the arrests, but urged customers to be careful when making online drug purchases.

"Many of these websites are operating outside of the United States. However, the internet's broad reach allows these websites to reach U.S. consumers," Sarah Clark-Lynn said in an email statement.

"[The] FDA cannot assure the safety and efficacy of products that are purchased outside of legitimate channels. This also means that we or the consumer cannot be sure that the products received are what the seller is claiming them to be, even if the seller says the products are 'approved drugs.'"

The FDA is also looking at other cases linked to online pharmacies.

CBC News has obtained a U.S. grand jury subpoena sent to American oncologists earlier this year in connection with an investigation into counterfeit versions of the cancer drugs, Avastin and Altuzan. RxNorth is named in the subpoena, as well as several other Canadian entrepreneurs and companies.

New England drug investigation leads to 4 arrests

Four men have been arrested in what authorities say was an investigation of a major marijuana distribution ring in Connecticut. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says it seized more than 20 pounds of dried marijuana, 130 plants, 10 guns and $350,000 in cash from homes in Danbury and New Fairfield. Alexander Lappin of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Matt Michelsen of Danbury; and Nicholas Calamaras and Sean Salasevicius of New Fairfield are charged with conspiring to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Authorities say another arrest is possible.

A pregnant woman from Birmingham has appeared in court in Pakistan after being arrested last month with heroin worth £3.2m in several suitcases.

Khadija Shah, 25, has been held in custody with her daughter, aged four, and her five-year-old son.

She says she had been on holiday in Pakistan with relatives and had no idea what was in the cases.

The BBC's Orla Guerin said if Miss Shah was convicted she could face the death penalty.

Miss Shah, who has not been formally charged, said some men asked her to take the bags to the UK as a favour.

Miss Shah was accused, at the court in Rawalpindi, of trying to smuggle 63 kilos of heroin.

She said if Miss Shah was convicted she could face the death penalty.

Miss Shah is due back in court on 29 June, when she is expected to be formally charged

Miss Shah, who was six months pregnant, was arrested in Islamabad in May as she tried to board a flight back to Birmingham with her children.

Miss Shah told the BBC: "I had no idea what was in them. I wouldn't do that with two young children".

She told our correspondent conditions in prison were absolutely horrific, with stifling heat and overcrowded cells.

The legal charity Reprieve says Miss Shah's children contracted measles in jail, and claims other pregnant women have died in the prison where she is being held.

Reprieve said Miss Shah could not understand the legal proceedings against her as she did not speak Urdu.

She is due back in court on 29 June, when she is expected to be formally charged.

Death Row Inmate Sues to be Executed

 

Gary Haugen

Oregonian Gary Haugen is having trouble making up his mind whether he wants to live or die. The 49-year-old prisoner has been on death row since 2007 for fatally beating and stabbing fellow inmate David Polin in 2003, while Haugen was serving a life sentence without parole for beating his ex-girlfriend’s mother to death in 1981. Both crimes were exceptionally violent: Polin’s skull was crushed and he had been stabbed 84 times.

 

Originally scheduled to die August 16, 2011, Haugen waived his appeals to protest the “arbitrary and vindictive nature of the death penalty,” but the Oregon Supreme Court cancelled his execution because Haugen’s attorneys argued that he was mentally incompetent to waive his appeals. After a hearing found him competent, he was scheduled to die December 6, when Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announced he was granting Haugen a reprieve from execution, and that he would not allow any executions to proceed, at least until the state legislature has a chance to consider and enact reforms. Kitzhaber called Oregon’s death penalty system “compromised and inequitable.”

 

Haugen initially thought Kitzhaber’s action “was a smash, [that] something good was done,” and his attorneys filed papers accepting the Governor’s reprieve. Within a short time, however, Haugen changed his mind, calling the Kitzhaber “a paper cowboy” who “couldn’t pull the trigger.” He was particularly critical of Kitzhaber’s decision to submit possible reforms to the 2013 State Legislature, rather than in 2012; that decision likely flowed from the fact that the legislature meets for only 35 days in even numbered years but for 160 days in odd years.

 

Now Haugen wants the courts to force Kitzhaber to allow his execution. In a lawsuit filed May 24, Haugen’s new attorneys argue that a pardon or reprieve must be accepted by the inmate to be valid, and that Haugen’s prior attorneys did not have his consent to file papers welcoming the reprieve. They also argue that Governor Kitzhaber exceeded his constitutional authority in granting the reprieve, because a reprieve is ordinarily time-limited, rather than open-ended.

 

The lawsuit may face rough going, however, as it relies on two very old cases (from 1918 and 1926) for its “acceptance” argument, and cites only a 43-year-old legal dictionary for the proposition that the Governor can issue only time-limited reprieves. Neither theOregon Constitution nor relevant statutes place any such restrictions on the Governor’s power.

Chinese woman gets death for infant trafficking

A Chinese woman, who headed a group which trafficked 223 infants, has been awarded the death sentence. Jiang Kaizhi, the prime culprit of the infant trafficking ring, organised a group of people to abduct babies in Yunnan province and sell them in Henan province, China Daily reported. Jiang would get about 30,000 yuan (about $4,700) for selling a baby boy while the profit for trafficking a baby girl was over 20,000 yuan, the court said. Thirty-five of her other group members were awarded punishment ranging from life imprisonment to a three-year jail term for abducting, transporting and trafficking infants. A total of 223 infants were sold by the infant trafficking ring. Police caught Jiang in last January during a crackdown on traffickers.

Rodney King dead at 47

Rodney King, whose beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 was caught on camera and sparked riots after the acquittal of the four officers involved, was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday, authorities and his fiancee said. He was 47. Police in Rialto, California, received a 911 call from King's fiancee, Cynthia Kelly, about 5:25 a.m., said Capt. Randy DeAnda. Responding officers found King at the bottom of the pool, removed him and attempted to revive him. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital, DeAnda said. There were no preliminary signs of foul play, he said, and no obvious injuries on King's body. Police are conducting a drowning investigation, DeAnda said, and King's body would be autopsied.