Cocaine from Britain’s largest ever cocaine seizure is displayed by UK Border Agency staff in London August 3, 2011.(Reuters/Stefan Wermuth)British deputy PM Nick Clegg is pushing for an inquiry into drugs law to be opened with a view to possible reform. He called for a new strategy in a war that claims thousands of lives every year, criticizing the “conspiracy of silence” surrounding the debThe leader of the UK’s Liberal Democrat Party has urged Prime Minister David Cameron to be courageous in the fight against drugs in Britain. Earlier in the week Cameron refused a request to open a royal commission into possible drugs reform, arguing that it was unnecessary and current measures were “actually working.”“We are losing the war on drugs on an industrial scale,” Clegg told UK newspaper the Sun. “If you were waging any other war where you have 2,000 fatalities a year, your enemies are making billions in profits, constantly throwing new weapons at you and targeting more young people – you’d have to say you are losing and it’s time to do something different.”Calling the current attitude to drugs in the British government “a conspiracy of silence,” Clegg highlighted the government’s reluctance to broach an all too “controversial” issue.He signaled the more liberal approach to drugs legislation, pioneered in Europe by Amsterdam and Portugal, as well Washington and Colorado in the US, hinting that the UK should perhaps follow suit. A report released by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee entitled “Drugs: Breaking the Cycle” on Monday suggested “alternative ways of tackling the drugs dilemma” based on models introduced in some Latin American countries. Uruguay passed a bill back in November to legalize the possession and production of marijuana. Professor David Nutt, author of “Drug harms the UK: A multi-criteria decision analysis” justified the de-criminalization of drugs, maintaining it would reduce the “rising tide of damage from alcohol.”“There is no doubt that a lot of people drink because it is legal and if there were an opportunity to use cannabis in a coffee shop-like model, they would not drink,” said Nutt to the Affairs Committee.’Anti-drugs, pro reform’Clegg is pushing for a more relaxed stance to drugs legislation, suggesting that a possible decriminalization of possession in conjunction with a crackdown on trafficking could be a viable option. Currently in the UK possession of an illegal drug is punishable with a minimum jail sentence of two years and a fine. “My view is that we’ve been waging the war on drugs for almost 40 years, and I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination it has worked,” stressed Clegg, expressing his belief that being anti-drugs meant ushering in reforms.Previously, Clegg’s party, the Liberal Democrats established a panel to discuss the decriminalization of illicit drugs. Mr Clegg moved quickly to play down his defiance of the Prime Minister Cameron’s refusal to open the enquiry, saying “he did not see this as a thing between myself and the prime minister.” … Read More
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Stunner: Ernie Els wins the British Open when Adam Scott bogeys the last 4 holes.
LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England – Ernie Els felt something special could happen at the British Open, and it did.All because of a collapse by Adam Scott that no one imagined.Four shots ahead with four holes to play — after eight straight holes with nothing worse than par — Scott bogeyed them all and had to fight back tears on the 18th green Sunday as the magnitude of his meltdown began to sink in.Els, who started the final round six shots behind, finished off a flawless back nine with a 15-foot birdie putt for a 2-under 68 that looked as if it would do little more than lock up another runner-up finish at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Instead, he wound up with his second British Open — the other one was 10 years ago at Muirfield — and fourth major championship at a stage in his career when it seemed as though his best golf was behind him.The celebration was muted, unlike his other three majors.”I’m a little numb at the moment,” said Els, who was on the practice green behind the clubhouse when he won. “First of all, I feel for Adam Scott. He’s a great friend of mine. Obviously, we both wanted to win very badly. But you know, that’s the nature of the beast. That’s why we’re out here. You win, you lose.”It was my time for some reason.”The wind finally arrived off the Irish Sea and ushered in pure chaos — a mental blunder by Tiger Woods that led to triple bogey on the sixth hole, a lost ball by Brandt Snedeker that took him out of contention and a topped shot that made former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell look like an amateur.Nothing was more stunning that what happened to Scott.He failed to get up-and-down from a bunker on the 15th. With a wedge in his hand in the 16th fairway, he went 30 feet long and missed a 3-foot par putt. From the fairway on the 17th, he pulled his approach into thick grass left of the green. And on the final hole, he hit 3-wood near the face of a pot bunker.Scott still had a chance to force extra holes with a strong shot into 7 feet on the 18th for par. The putt stayed left the entire way. His chin buckled, and it looked as if he might start crying on the green. He composed himself and mouthed one word: “Wow.”"I had it in my hands with four to go,” Scott said. “I managed to hit a poor shot on each of the closing four holes. Look, I played so beautifully for most of the week. I shouldn’t let this bring me down.”Even so, it added another chapter to Australian heartbreak, most of that belonging to his idol, Greg Norman.Scott was the fourth Australian since the 2007 Masters to lead going into the final round of a major, yet the proud land Down Under remains without a major since Geoff Ogilvy won the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2006.Already in the World Golf Hall of Fame, the 42-year-old Els joined even more elite company. He became only the sixth player to win the U.S. Open and British Open twice … Read More
Russia Stops Nearly 300 Radioactive Japanese Cars At Border
Aftershocks from Japan’s 2011 earthquake continue. Today, Russian customs officials stopped nearly 300 Japanese cars believed to be irradiated from last year’s nuclear meltdown at Fukushima. Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s chief public health officer, has stated radiation controls and a 24-hour monitoring of all imports on the far-eastern border have been implemented. Last May, the Associated Press reported that less than one percent of Japanese cars had been irradiated. It is unclear if that number will be revised, or how any of those cars found their way to the Russian border. (Source: Jalopnik) … Read More
Military helicopter crashes in southeast Turkey; 3 soldiers killed
ANKARA, Turkey – A military helicopter crashed on Sunday in southeast Turkey where troops are fighting Kurdish rebels, killing three soldiers on board, an official said. Four other soldiers were injured.The helicopter crashed in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq, Gov. Orhan Alimoglu told the state-run Anadolu agency.Alimoglu blamed the crash on an unspecified technical fault, but Firat News, an agency that is close to the rebels, claimed the helicopter was downed by rebel fire.State-run TRT television said the helicopter was on a troop rotating mission and crashed shortly after taking off from a military outpost in Hakkari.It was not known if the helicopter was carrying more soldiers than the seven casualties, or what type of aircraft it was.Kurdish rebels have used northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets in their decades-long fight for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast. The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people since 1984. © The Canadian Press, 2012 … Read More
Report: Military helicopter crashes in southeast Turkey; soldiers injured
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s state-run television says a military helicopter has crashed in southeast Turkey where troops are fighting Kurdish rebels.TRT television says some soldiers were injured.It says the Turkish helicopter crashed Sunday shortly after taking off from a military outpost in Hakkari province, near the border with Iraq.Kurdish rebels have used northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets in their decades-long fight for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast. The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people since 1984. © The Canadian Press, 2012 … Read More
China steps up fight against Tibetan separatism
China’s propaganda chief has ordered officials to intensify the fight against separatism in Tibet, a report said, following a series of self-immolations in protest at Beijing’s rule. Li Changchun, ranked fifth in the hierarchy of the ruling Communist Party, called for the campaign… … Read More
