Ingrid is coming!

Despite a Cyclone warning the 21st Community Smoke-In for Human Rights was a major success yesterday. Darwin punters were joined again by NT Australian of the year, David Gulpilil AM, to continue the campaign against Clare Martin's 'drug war' and to celebrate three years of relentless activism by the NAP crew.

The next Smoke-In will be held at the same time and place on the 14th of May. This is one week after the Global Marijuana March which will see protests in more than 140 cities worldwide.

Now that the Smoke-In has passed, and before Ingrid gets here, we have made a few updates to the site:

We have revamped the front page to reflect the date of the next Smoke-In and to start promotion of the Global Marijuana March.

We have added a lot more information about our activities on our current campaigns page and we have started to upload links to each of our Smoke-In posters on that page. We have also included links to previous Syringe Festivals.

The 2003 Second Darwin International Syringe Festival website, originally hosted on Angelfire, has now been archived on the NAP website for the punters. There may be a few glitches but these will be ironed out shortly.

Our events page has been updated. Take note of new court dates.

Speaking of court cases... we have immortalised the jailer of the parliament invaders, Magistrate Dick Wallace. Check out our court transcripts page.

The links page continues to grow. We have added a lot of Northern Territory links and have added two new sections, 'Australians in peril overseas' and 'NAP members and supporters websites'.

The 'Australians in peril overseas' section will provide links to pages and sites dedicated to Australians who are in jail overseas and face the death penalty for alleged drug offences. We must keep the cases of Nguyen Tuong Van and Schapelle Corby firmly on the agenda.

Our newshawking continues. We have all the latest NT drug news on our site and our volunteers have been working hard archiving relevant media stories and transcripts from the past 5 years.

Thanks to people who have made a small donation over the past few weeks. We are all volunteers and we are all dead broke. Your support helps us to keep the NAP campaign going. Click here to find out how you can support NAP.

We'll sign off for now... for those of us in Darwin, let's hope Ingrid isn't too angry. If your not in Darwin, click here to see the radar image and you can get more information from the NT ABC.

Here is the latest Tropical Cyclone Warning from the Bureau of Meterology:

IDDP0002
BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY
Northern Territory Region
Darwin Regional Forecasting Centre

TOP PRIORITY

TROPICAL CYCLONE WARNING

TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 60
Issued by the BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, DARWIN
at 5:00 pm CST [3:30 pm WST] Sunday 13 March 2005

A CYCLONE WARNING continues for coastal and island communities between DALY
RIVER MOUTH and POINT STUART, including CAPE DON, the TIWI ISLANDS and DARWIN.

A CYCLONE WATCH now extends southwest to KALUMBURU in Western Australia.

The CYCLONE WARNING for coastal and island communities east of CAPE DON and
south to POINT STUART has been cancelled.

At 4 pm CST [2:30 pm WST] SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE INGRID, CATEGORY 4, was
located about 70 kilometres east northeast of SNAKE BAY and 135 kilometres north
northeast of DARWIN, moving west at 15 kilometres per hour.

The VERY DESTRUCTIVE CORE of SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE INGRID, with gusts to 235
kilometres per hour, is currently crossing MELVILLE ISLAND, and is expected to
continue moving west across the TIWI ISLANDS tonight.

GALES with gusts to 120 kilometres per hour are being experienced elsewhere on
the coast from CAPE DON to MELVILLE ISLAND and in the western VAN DIEMEN GULF.
GALES will extend southwest to DARWIN later this evening. GALES may extend
further southwest to DALY RIVER MOUTH on Monday, and then further southwest to
KALUMBURU by Tuesday evening. At this stage, it is expected that only the
southern edge of INGRID will affect DARWIN.

DANGEROUSLY HIGH TIDES could cause EXTENSIVE FLOODING on the coasts of the TIWI
ISLANDS.

HEAVY RAIN may cause localised flooding and significant river and stream rises
in the northwest TOP END.

Details of SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE INGRID at 4 pm CST [2:30 pm WST]:
. Centre located near...... 11.3 degrees South 131.3 degrees East
. Location accuracy........ within 20 kilometres
. Recent movement.......... towards the west at 15 km/h
. Wind gusts near centre... 235 kilometres per hour
. Intensity................ CATEGORY 4
. Central pressure......... 950 hectoPascals

REPEATING: The VERY DESTRUCTIVE CORE of SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE INGRID is
currently crossing MELVILLE ISLAND and is expected to continue moving west
across the TIWI ISLANDS tonight.

The NEXT ADVICE will be issued at 8 pm CST [6:30 pm WST].

This advice is available on telephone NT-1300 659 211 and WA-1300 659 210

DARWIN Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre