A NEW highly addictive drug used in Britain by clubbers and gay men is becoming a global problem, according to a United Nations report published today. The huge increase in use of methamphetamine — crystal meth — is being helped by lax restrictions on the chemicals used to manufacture it. People who take it can experience a ten-hour high and increased sexual arousal. Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of a United Nations’ drug control agency, said: “If I want to pick on one major drug problem pandemic today, it is methamphetamine. “It has not yet affected that much of Western European countries and the UK but, as we know, as drug misuse occurs in North America, sooner or later it gets here. “Methamphetamine is today’s problem drug. We think that it is extremely worrying. ... http://www.timesonline.co.uk censor News |
Editor - 21:25:00 02-28-06 |
Protest Over AOL's Pay-to-Send E-mail Plan. So if they charge to send spam, then it’s not SPAM??? |
If politics makes strange bedfellows, "certified e-mail" is making a lot of disparate groups downright kinky. This afternoon, groups from across the political spectrum -- from the Gun Owners of America to MoveOn.org to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) -- will all bed down together to rise up against America Online's (AOL) plan to charge for certain classes of e-mail. "Under AOL's recently announced proposal, large e-mailers willing to pay an 'e-mail tax' can bypass spam filters and get guaranteed access to people's inboxes -- with their messages having a preferential high-priority designation," an EFF statement claims. AOL does not see the proposal as a tax on e-mail users. In early February, AOL said the idea is to guarantee certified bulk mailers a fee for free passage through the company's filters and other anti-spam devices. ... http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3587921
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Editor - 21:00:00 02-28-06 |
Danger zone switches from poppy field to the internet |
CAN the “War on Drugs” ever be won? History is not encouraging — nor is the latest United Nations report on the state of hostilities. The lessons are particularly depressing for Afghanistan and for the role that Britain has shouldered there. The best news is that use of heroin and cocaine is dropping in the US and some other countries. But their place has been taken by pharmaceutical and prescription drugs, made in developed countries, traded over the Internet and delivered by post. The most threatening “pandemic”, warns Hamid Ghodse, President of the International Narcotics Control Board (ICRB), is of “crystal meth”, an addictive drug popular among clubbers and gay men. There are not many success stories in this “war”, as US politicians call it, an expensive assault stretching back over more than 30 years. ... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2063317,00.html
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Editor - 19:50:00 02-28-06 |
Senate Panel Votes to Disclose Trips, Curb Earmarks |
A U.S. Senate panel, under pressure to respond to scandals, approved a measure that would force lawmakers to disclose details about privately funded trips and make it harder for them to insert pet projects into legislation. The Rules Committee unanimously approved the measure -- the Senate's first step toward overhauling lobbying rules -- and the bill will be merged with legislation scheduled for a vote Thursday by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said he will bring the combined legislation to the Senate floor next week. Congress is seeking to rein in lobbyists' influence amid the scandal involving Jack Abramoff and the resignation of Republican Representative Randy Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion in connection with bribes over defense contracts. ... http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aM7vfeE2p__0&refer=home
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Editor - 19:46:00 02-28-06 |
At Least 68 People Killed in Baghdad As Iraq Teeters on the Brink of Sectarian Civil War |
Sunnis and Shiites traded bombings and mortar fire against mainly religious targets in Baghdad well into the night Tuesday, killing at least 68 people a day after authorities lifted a curfew that had briefly calmed a series of sectarian reprisal attacks. At least six of Tuesday's attacks hit clearly religious targets, concluding with a car bombing after sundown at the Shiite Abdel Hadi Chalabi mosque in the Hurriyah neighborhood that killed 23 and wounded 55. A separate suicide bombing killed 23 people at an east Baghdad gas station, where people had lined up to buy kerosine. In addition to those known to have been killed Tue, police found nine more bullet-riddled bodies, including a Sunni Muslim tribal sheik, off a road southeast of Baghdad. It was unclear when they died. The surge of violence deepened the trauma of residents already shaken by fears the country was teetering on the brink of sectarian civil war, threatened talks among Iraqi politicians struggling to form a government... http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1671602&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312
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Editor - 17:11:00 02-28-06 |
U.N. troops in 'heavy fighting' with Congo militia |
Thousands of Congo government soldiers and hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers battled ethnic militia fighters on Tuesday for control of an eastern town, killing some government troops, the United Nations said.U.N. peacekeepers backed up by helicopter gunships and mortar fire fought alongside the national army to retake control of Tchei, 60 kilometers (37 miles) southwest of Bunia in Ituri district, where militia violence has killed 60,000 people since 1999."There is heavy fighting going on," said U.N. military spokesman Major Hans-Jakob Reichen. "The armed groups are trying to break the strangle(hold) that the joint forces have put around them.""Our operation will not stop until the rule of law is established in the Tchei area. We have engaged with attack helicopters and mortars. Men in (armored personnel carriers) and soldiers on the ground are also fighting," he said.... http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/02/28/congo.fighting.reut/index.html?section=cnn_world
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Editor - 16:45:00 02-28-06 |
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