MEXICO
Drug possession decriminalized
Having small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs will result in treatment advice, not prosecution
MEXICO CITY — Mexico enacted a controversial law Thursday that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging free government treatment for drug dependency.
The law defines “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamines. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution when the law goes into effect Friday.
Anyone caught with drug amounts less than the personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory — although the law does not specify penalties for noncompliance.
In 2006, the U.S. government publicly criticized a similar bill. Then-President Vicente Fox sent that law — which did not have a mandatory treatment provision — back to Congress for reconsideration.
The maximum amount considered to be for “personal use” under the new law is 5 grams of marijuana — the equivalent of two or three joints — or a half-gram of cocaine. The law’s limit for methamphetamine is 40 milligrams, and 0.015 milligrams of LSD.
The law was approved by Congress before it recessed in late April, and President Felipe Calderon — who is leading a major offensive against drug cartels — waited most of the summer before enacting it.
IRAQ
Baghdad clamps down after day of deadly bombings
Relatives carry the coffin of a victim of Wednesday’s bomb attacks that killed at least 101 people across Baghdad. Reversing an earlier decision, the Iraqi government moved Thursday to increase security at checkpoints near government buildings and markets and keep concrete blast barriers around potential targets. As fear and anger spread a day after the devastating attacks, more bombs struck a restaurant in Baghdad and a bus and a market south of the capital, killing at least seven people.
IRAN
Nuke inspection ban lifted
Iran has lifted a yearlong ban and allowed UN inspectors to visit a nearly completed nuclear reactor as well as granting greater monitoring rights at another atomic site, diplomats said Thursday.
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors visited the nearly finished Arak heavy water reactor last week, the diplomats said. Separately, they said Iran agreed last week to IAEA requests to expand its monitoring of the Natanz uranium enrichment site, which produces material for nuclear fuel that can be further enriched to provide material for warheads.
The agency had been seeking additional cameras and inspections of the Natanz site to keep track of the rapidly expanding enrichment program which — if modified — can make the fissile core of warheads.
COLORADO
4 die in helicopter crash
DENVER — Four soldiers died when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training mission on Colorado’s second-highest mountain, the Army’s Special Operations Command said Thursday.
The helicopter crashed Wednesday afternoon near the summit of 14,421-foot Mt. Massive.
All were male soldiers from Ft. Campbell, Ky., said Lt. Col. John Clearwater, a spokesman for the command at Ft. Bragg, N.C.. Their names haven’t been released.
The crew was training in high-altitude mountainous conditions, “much like the environment they operate in Afghanistan,” Clearwater said, adding that he didn’t know whether the crew had served there.
The helicopter was assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) at Ft. Campbell.
CHINA
Lead poisons 1,300 more
BEIJING — China detained two factory officials after 1,300 children were poisoned by pollution from a manganese processing plant, state media said Thursday, days after emissions from a lead smelter in another province sickened hundreds.
Both cases have sparked unrest and come amid growing anger in China over public safety scandals in which children have been the main victims.
The latest incident involves a smelting plant in central Hunan province that opened in May 2008 without the approval of the local environmental protection bureau and within 500 yards of a primary school, a middle school and a kindergarten.
Some 1,354 children who live near the plant — or nearly 70 percent of those tested — were found to have excessive lead in their blood, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
BERMUDA
Hurricane could gain power
Bermuda was under a hurricane watch Thursday as Hurricane Bill approached, slightly weakened but with winds still near 120 m.p.h., while dangerous waves and riptides were likely along most of the eastern U.S. coast over the weekend.
Bill weakened to a Category 3 storm early Thursday, but forecasters cautioned warm Atlantic waters could feed its growth back to Category 4 by Friday, meaning winds of 131 m.p.h. to 155 m.p.h.
The watch means hurricane winds could strike Bermuda within 36 hours.
The government urged islanders to secure boats and finish other storm preparations by Friday afternoon. Officials put up warning signs at beaches along the south shore.
