US waves white flag in disastrous ‘war on drugs’

After 40 years, Washington is quietly giving up on a futile battle that has spread corruption and destroyed thousands of lives Read the full story

CUERNAVACA, Mexico – Two hundred Mexican Navy marines stormed an upscale apartment complex and killed a reputed drug cartel chief in a two-hour gunbattle, one of the biggest victories yet in President Felipe Calderon’s drug war.

Arturo Beltran Leyva, the “boss of bosses,” and six members of his cartel died in the shootout Wednesday in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, according to a navy statement Thursday. Read the full story

Using sophisticated smuggling networks, the traffickers have transported a portion of the pilfered petroleum across the border to sell to U.S. companies, some of which knew that it was stolen, according to court documents and interviews with American officials involved in an expanding investigation of oil services firms in Texas.

The widespread theft of Mexico’s most vital national resource by criminal organizations represents a costly new front in President Felipe Calderón’s war against the drug cartels, and it shows how the traffickers are rapidly evolving from traditional narcotics smuggling to activities as diverse as oil theft, transport and sales. Read the full story

2009 will go down as the beginning of the end of the United States drug war. I have worked at the Drug Policy Alliance promoting alternatives to the war on drugs for 10 years, and I can say without a doubt that there was more debate and movement toward sensible drug policies this year than in the last 9 years combined! Here are 10 stories that contributed to the unprecedented momentum to end America’s longest running war.

1) Three Former Latin American Presidents Call Drug War a Failure (February) Read the full story

PALMVIEW, Texas (CBS/AP) President Barack Obama’s approval rating may be hovering in the 50 percent range, but that doesn’t mean America’s Commander-in-Chief isn’t catching on with new constituents.

There is now a line of Ecstasy pills made in the image of the 44th president of the United States, according to Texas police who have snatched a batch off the streets. Read the full story

The Netherlands were the surprise beneficiary of FIFA’s late decision to abandon the principles of the 2002, 2006 World Cup draw’s seeding formula.

In those cycles, FIFA assigned weights to the two preceding World Cup finishes along with the end-of-year FIFA World Rankings from the last three years.

Today, when announcing the eight seeded teams that will be draw into separate groups for World Cup 2010, FIFA disclosed that the only factor in this year’s seeding was the October 2009 FIFA World Ranking.  The top seven nations from that last will join host nation South Africa as seeds for Friday’s draw. Read the full story

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Adrian Gibbs, the virologist who said in May that swine flu may have escaped from a laboratory, published his findings today, renewing discussion about the origins of the pandemic virus.

The new H1N1 strain, which was discovered in Mexico and the U.S. in April, may be the product of three strains from three continents that swapped genes in a lab or a vaccine-making plant, Gibbs, and fellow Australian scientists wrote in Virology Journal. The authors analyzed the genetic makeup of the virus and found its origin could be more simply explained by human involvement than a coincidence of nature. Read the full story

Though journalists, international affairs professionals, travel lovers, and international businessmen are already well aware that Brazil is the country to watch, there are still many gringos who aren’t tuned in to Brazil’s ascent or don’t quite understand the country’s importance. This list is for those gringos.

10. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s cultural capital (but not the national capital – that’s Brasília) is an excellent urban case study when learning about the developing world. It shares certain characteristics with other developing cities that provides many important lessons and a useful perspective on urban conflicts, like inequality, violent crime, and drug trafficking, as well as positive changes like a growing middle class, increased purchasing power of the average consumer and social movements. Read the full story

MEXICO CITY — Hurricane Rick strengthened into an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast on Saturday and forecasters said it could strike the Baja California Peninsula sometime next week. Read the full story

The Palestinian Authority would not oppose the prosecution of Hamas militants on war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court, Israel Radio on Saturday quoted the PA’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva as saying. Read the full story

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U.S. Closes Mexico Border Crossing After Shootout

Federal agents opened fire Tuesday on three vans carrying at least 70 suspected illegal immigrants when the drivers of the vehicles tried to drive through a California border crossing that is considered the busiest such crossing in the world, officials said. Four people were injured. Read the full story

MEXICO CITY — Gangland violence punctuated Mexico’s Independence Day celebrations in Ciudad Juarez, the troubled city bordering El Paso, with two separate attacks killing at least 15 people.

Gunmen assaulted a drug rehabilitation center on Juarez’s poor west side about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, killing eight patients and two doctors, including the director of the center. Shortly after midnight Wednesday, another group of killers stormed into the Coco Bongo nightclub and mowed down five revelers with assault weapons, police said. Read the full story

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Argentina’s Supreme Court on Tuesday decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, tossing out tough provincial drug laws whose penalties it deemed unconstitutional.

The high court ruling protects “the privacy of adults who are responsible for their own conduct,” according to a court statement.

It said the constitution protected “the private actions of individuals who in no way offend order or public morality, or harm a third party, who answer to God free from a judge’s authority.” Read the full story

Passengers Freed From Hijacked Jet in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — Three hijackers threatened to blow up an Aeromexico Boeing 737 that landed at Mexico City’s airport from Cancun Wednesday afternoon, Transport Minister Juan Molinar told Mexican radio. Read the full story

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — With winds of 135 mph, Hurricane Jimena was approaching Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Sunday as a Category 4 storm, forecasters said.

Read the full story

Under the image is a simple phrase — “Who faster?” Read the full story