Troubled former AFL star Ben Cousins was allegedly carrying drugs inside his body when arrested at an airport in country WA. Cousins, 33, flew back to Perth on Wednesday night after he was released on bail for possession with intent to sell or supply methamphetamine. He had appeared that afternoon in Kalgoorlie Magistrates court via videolink from Esperance, 400km to the south, for breach of bail conditions following his arrest and release. Cousins had tried to leave the coastal town and fly back to Perth in breach of his original bail conditions requiring him to stay in Esperance. He was arrested again but his bail conditions were altered after his court appearance to allow him to be released to an address in Perth. He will appear in Perth Magistrate's Court on Monday, April 2, and is required to report to police three times a week. A confessed methamphetamine addict, Cousins had been attending a drug rehabilitation clinic in Esperance - called Teen Challenge - for the past month. He had flown back to Perth to visit his partner and baby over the weekend, and was returning to Esperance on Tuesday night when two waiting undercover officers arrested and reportedly strip-searched … Continue reading →

AsiaOne Saturday, Apr 07, 2012 SEPANG, Malaysia - Ketamine weighing 12kg hidden in frames of ornamental mirrors were among the drugs worth RM1.83 million (S$752,679)seized by KLIA Customs Department from 3 foreigners in 2 separate cases on Thursday. At 2.30am, an Indian national who arrived at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal from Bangalore with a social visit pass had brought 12 pieces of face mirrors. Scanners revealed suspiciously unidentified objects at the back of the mirrors, which prompted further checks by the Customs enforcement unit. They were twelve 1kg white powder in plastic packs, positively tested to be ketamine worth RM480,000. KLIA Customs Department deputy director Siti Baya Berahan said it was the second time the 26-year-old man from India had entered the country. "He first came to Malaysia last year, in November," she said. The second case involved 2 male tourists from Hong Kong that were found with RM1.43 million of assorted drugs in a raid at a condominium in Kuala Lumpur by the Customs federal narcotic unit and KLIA enforcement unit earlier at 12.30am. "Syabu, ketamine, cannabis with Ecstacy and Eramin-5 pills were found in the unit where the men, aged 56 and 60, stayed," Siti Baya said. … Continue reading →

Enlarge Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Photographer Mick Rock in New York City, 2011 Photographer Mick Rock in New York City, 2011 Mick Rock is really his name though he's Michael to his mother and he is exactly what you might imagine a rock photographer to be: tall and hip with shaggy hair. Shaded Ray-Bans, jean jacket, scarf. Oh, and an English accent to boot so he can drop words like "bloody" and "shag" with allure (though he doesn't shy from the American equivalents, either). "In any other era, dogs wouldn't have pissed on me," he says. "Thank God for Mick and Keith," who helped make lanky, messy Englishmen cool. He's referring to the Rolling Stones, of course. Now in his 60s, Rock remembers the '70s well. Or, parts of them. And it goes without saying that the times have changed. "The world is swamped with media today," he says. "I go to an event and I get photographed. Shoot the bloody photographer? What the hell is that about?" On a recent night in Washington, D.C., for example, the cameras click incessantly (guilty) as Rock gives a few words at the opening of his aptly titled traveling photo show, Rocked. It originated … Continue reading →

SEATTLE U.S. Air Force pilot Patrick Burke's day started in the cockpit of a B-1 bomber near the Persian Gulf and proceeded across nine time zones as he ferried the aircraft home to South Dakota. Every four hours during the 19-hour flight, Burke swallowed a tablet of Dexedrine, the prescribed amphetamine known as "go pills." After landing, he went out for dinner and drinks with a fellow crewman. They were driving back to Ellsworth Air Force Base when Burke began striking his friend in the head. "Jack Bauer told me this was going to happen you guys are trying to kidnap me!" he yelled, as if he were a character in the TV show "24." When the woman giving them a lift pulled the car over, Burke leaped on her and wrestled her to the ground. "Me and my platoon are looking for terrorists," he told her before grabbing her keys, driving away and crashing into a guardrail. Burke was charged with auto theft, drunk driving and two counts of assault. But in October, a court-martial judge found the young lieutenant not guilty "by reason of lack of mental responsibility" the almost unprecedented equivalent, at least in modern-day military courts, … Continue reading →

Courtesy FDA U.S. officials seized Altuzan, a Turkish version of Avastin. The discovery of a second batch of a phony cancer drug in the United States this week has frustrated regulators in California, where the nation's most stringent law to track and trace pharmaceuticals was passed in 2004 but has yet to be implemented. Federal authorities said Tuesday that a counterfeit version of Genentech's best-selling cancer drug Avastin has been found in undisclosed locations - less than two months after another bogus version of the same drug made it to medical offices in Southern California, Texas and Illinois. "It's a situation that really is stunning the medical community right now. Everybody begins to question every drug," said Dan Wood, spokesman for the Medical Board of California, the state agency that regulates physicians. Fake prescription drugs, along with diluted or expired medications, are a growing problem in the United States and around the world. About 11 times as many cases of counterfeit drugs were verified in 2010 as in 2002 - 2,054, up from 196 - according to the Pharmaceutical Security Institute, a nonprofit, industry-backed organization that performs the analysis. The World Health Organization estimates that less than 1 percent of … Continue reading →