Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he would steer clear of provocative gestures or raising tensions with Venezuela after troops from that country blew up two foot bridges along the border. Venezuelan soldiers yesterday dynamited rope suspension bridges crossing the Tachira River near the Colombian hamlet of Ragonvalia, in the northeastern province of Norte de Santander, according to Colombian Defense Minister Gabriel Silva. Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez said the pedestrian crossings were used to move contraband. “We cannot make gestures of violence toward Venezuela, our brother,” Uribe said in an interview with Colombia’s RCN Radio. “This is Colombia’s great opportunity to show the world its only interest is defeating terrorism.” Chavez last week told his military to prepare to resist an invasion by Colombia, which signed an agreement last month to give U.S. troops access to seven military bases. Colombia’s government has denied any intention of attacking Venezuela and says the U.S. accord will help fight drug trafficking and domestic terrorism. [Note: Let's call this, trying to destabilize Venezuela. Shame on you, Uribe.]

For decades, I've heard that one big reason drug companies charge so much for their products is that they need plenty of money for R&D (research and development). Staying on the pharmaceutical cutting edge, the argument goes, is part of what has given America "the greatest health care system in the world." Yeah, it works just great -- for CEOs, stockholders and wealthy people in general. The difference between what the drug companies are charging and what Americans pay for most other products is astonishing.

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992Drug makers say they have valid business reasons for the price increases. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming years.

Censorship increases as killings become routine. "I don’t want to die young," says one reporter. Like on any other Monday morning, reporter Bladimir Antuna kissed his family goodbye and set off in his Ford SUV to work the crime beat at a local newspaper in Durango city. Hours later his lifeless corpse was found beaten, strangled and dumped outside a public hospital. “This is what happened to me for giving information to the military and writing what I shouldn’t. Take care of your texts before you do your story,” said a message scrawled on cardboard next to the cadaver. Antuna’s brutal murder marks Mexico’s worst year on record for the slaying of its media workers, many who have been killed covering the relentless drug war. The incessant violence and intimidation is leading to many journalists to censor their coverage of the cartels and corresponding police corruption.

A study of internal company documents suggests Pfizer Inc altered or omitted unfavorable study findings to expand its epilepsy drug Neurontin's market, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday, offering a look at how drugmakers influence scientific research. Clinical trials are supposed to answer a specific, predetermined scientific question, but a comparison of Pfizer documents and published studies on Neurontin for conditions other than epilepsy found that eight out of 20 study reports never made it into medical journals. And in eight of the 12 published studies, the primary outcome -- the answer to the main scientific question -- was changed by Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, from the original study design.

Gordon Brown warned the Afghan government today that he will not continue to risk the lives of British troops to defend a corrupt regime. In a clear policy shift, the Prime Minister cautioned President Karzai that unless he quashes endemic corruption he will have “forfeited” his right to international support. As he tried to shore up faltering public opinion at home by claiming that the conflict was a “necessity, not choice”, Mr Brown appeared to open the way for a possible exit strategy. “I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm’s way for a government that does not stand up against corruption,” he said.

Voters in Maine, overwhelmingly decided that patients should have easier access to medical marijuana. Preliminary poll results showed nearly 60 percent of voters approved a ballot initiative that makes Maine only the fifth state to allow dispensaries. Currently, more than 50 percent of Americans live in a state that has some form of recognition of patient rights to cannabis.

"The home secretary faces mass resignations from the government's drug advisory body over his decision to force out its chairman, who accused ministers of distorting scientific evidence on cannabis.~~~~~But the home secretary found himself under fire from members of the scientific community. Lord Winston, the Labour peer and professor of science and society at Imperial College London, said he was "very surprised and disappointed" by Johnson's actions. "I think that if governments appoint expert advice they shouldn't dismiss it so lightly," he said."

Rhode Island is about to 'close the loophole' that left indoor prostitution legal. Some of the women from the 'spas' met with legislators to tell their side of the story. But it's too little, too late. What started as a coalition against trafficking has been transformed into a moral crusade. Beware of good intentions.

Criminalizing cancer and AIDS patients for using a substance that is (a) prescribed by their doctors and (b) legal under the laws of their state has always been abominable. The Obama administration deserves major credit not only for ceasing this practice, but for memorializing it formally in writing. Just as is true for Jim Webb's brave crusade to radically revise the nation's criminal justice and drug laws, there is little political gain -- and some political risk -- in adopting a policy that can be depicted as "soft on drugs" or even "pro-marijuana." It's a change that has concrete benefits for many people who are sick and for those who provide them with treatments that benefit them. So credit where it's due to the Obama DOJ, for fulfilling a long-standing commitment on this issue.

Last week, word that Pres. Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize drove Rush Limbaugh to announce he’d aligned himself with anti-U.S. entities like Iran and the Taliban. The last time Limbaugh got into a snit about the Nobe prize was in 2007 when he nominated himself only to lose to Al Gore. Here’s the story we published about it on Oct. 14, 2007.

According to our friends at NORML, there are now 13 states who are openly resisting federal laws on medical marijuana. And now my home state of California is on the verge of taking it to the next level - full legalization.

We are spreading freedom. The Guatemalan army stole at least 333 children and sold them for adoption in other countries during the Central American nation's 36-year civil war, a government report has concluded. Around 45,000 people are believed to have disappeared during Guatemala's civil war, 5,000 of them children. In some cases, the report said, parents were killed so the children could be taken and given to government-operated agencies to be adopted abroad. In other instances, the children were abducted without physical harm to the parents.

The basic conclusion Greenwald came to was that the world hadn’t caved into hell after drugs were decriminalised, and drug use across most substances had either stayed the same or decreased; in his estimation a resounding success. Therefore it’s worth a look at exactly what Portugal’s policy is.

We heard the fury and the Israeli demand that Sweden retract its incendiary statement and condemn the article which appeared in Sweden's Aftonbladet, a widely circulated daily. The photo shown here appeared in the same newspaper, with others, and was taken by Donald Boldstrom. Al-Ahram, Egypt's most respected newspaper discusses not only the photos taken, but the article by Mr. Boldstrom. The article's title is 'Ours sons are plundered of their organs', where Mr. Bodlstrom describes the instance he viewed the body of a nineteen year old male that has been cut open and sewn back together. This 'scandal' comes on the heels of the arrest of several Israeli and American rabbis in New Jersey on charges of organ trafficking. Though Boldstrom did not give an opinion on the matter, he did indicate that the accusation merits an international investigation.

"As a spectacular wave of drug violence washes over Mexico, the Obama administration, the U.S. Congress and leaders in the Southwest states are spending billions of dollars and massing thousands of agents to keep the chaos from crossing the border. But in order to fight the drug traffickers, federal anti-narcotics agents have brought Mexican cartel members north of the border, to use them to gather intelligence and build cases. That has also led to friction between U.S. law enforcement agencies."

The US is not going to stop the production of drugs in Afghanistan as it covers the costs of their military presence there, says Gen. Mahmut Gareev, a former commander during the USSR's operations in Afghanistan. I don’t make anything up. Americans themselves admit that drugs are often transported out of Afghanistan on American planes. Drug trafficking in Afghanistan brings them about 50 billion dollars a year – which fully covers the expenses tied to keeping their troops there. Essentially, they are not going to interfere and stop the production of drugs. They engage in military action only when they are attacked. They don’t have any planned military action to eliminate the Mujahideen. Rather, they want to make the situation more unstable and help the Taliban to be more active. They even started negotiations with them, trying to direct them to the Central-Asian republics, to destabilize the whole region and set up their bases there.

A popular diet drug is being investigated by American health officials after reports that it could cause serious liver damage. Alli, which went on sale in Britain in April, is the only weight loss drug available without a prescription. The US Food and Drug Administration is looking into 32 reports of liver damage in patients taking Alli and Xenical, the drug's prescription version. The reports, submitted between 1999 and October last year, are mostly from outside America. Twenty-seven patients were admitted to hospital and six suffered liver failure A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline, which sells Alli, said overweight or obese people are predisposed to liver related disorders, and 'there is no evidence that Alli causes liver damage'.

The publication of this piece in Sweden caused an international incident. Israeli officials called this article a new version of the medieval "blood libel," and they have demanded an apology from the Swedish government. Now you can judge for yourself. Journalist Daniel Bostrom personally investigated the charge that the Israeli military illegally harvested organs from killed Palestinian youths, and he backs up that claim with some very persuasive eyewitness testimony. If any other nation were involved, Bostrom's courageous journalism would receive nothing but praise.

Marijuana is not a “gateway” drug that predicts or eventually leads to substance abuse, suggests a 12-year University of Pittsburgh study. Moreover, the study’s findings call into question the long-held belief that has shaped prevention efforts and governmental policy for six decades and caused many a parent to panic upon discovering a bag of pot in their child’s bedroom.