The lucrative illicit market in “B.C. Bud”

The lucrative illicit market in “B.C. Bud” — by far the province’s largest agricultural crop — is controlled largely by Asian and biker gangs. Grow operations have led to gang warfare in what were once peaceful Fraser Valley farm towns. “The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight,” wrote the former B.C. AG’s, “massive profits for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal cannabis for our youth, reduced community safety and significant and escalating costs to taxpayers.” Four former Vancouver mayors signed a similar letter recently, which was endorsed by the city’s current Mayor Gregor Robertson. Prominent law enforcement figures, including Mandigo and ex-U.S. Attorney John McKay, are backing I-502 on this side of the border.

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Ebola outbreak vastly underestimated

The death toll from the world's worst outbreak of Ebola stood on Wednesday at 1,069 from 1,975 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, the agency said. The majority were in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, while four people have died in Nigeria. The agency's apparent acknowledgement the situation is worse than previously thought could spur governments and aid organisations to take stronger measures against the virus. "Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak," the organisation said. "WHO is coordinating a massive scaling up of the international response, marshalling support from individual countries, disease control agencies, agencies within the United Nations system, and others." International agencies are looking into emergency food drops and truck convoys to reach hungry people in Liberia and Sierra Leone cordoned off from the outside world to halt the sprea...

Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state

Four of the last reporters and photographers willing to cover crime stories have been slain in less than a week in violence-torn Veracruz state, where two Mexican drug cartels are warring over control of smuggling routes and targeting sources of independent information. The brutal campaign is bleeding the media and threatening to turn Veracruz into the latest state in Mexico where fear snuffs out reporting on the drug war. Three photojournalists who worked the perilous crime beat in the port city of Veracruz were found dismembered and dumped in plastic bags in a canal Thursday, less than a week after a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine was beaten and strangled in her home in the state capital of Xalapa. Press freedom groups said all three photographers had temporarily fled the state after receiving threats last year. The organizations called for immediate government action to halt a wave of attacks that has killed at least seven current and former reporters and photographer...

Former British and European champion boxer Jamie Moore has been shot in Marbella

Former British and European champion boxer Jamie Moore has been shot in Marbella - apparently in both legs. Moore, the former European light-middleweight champion, was in Spain working at a gym owned by boxer, Matthew Macklin, who he is training. It is understood the 35-year-old Moore, from Walkden, Greater Manchester, has now left hospital after treatment. Moore, highly regarded in the sport, was on the verge of a WBC title shot, in 2009, but decided to quit the sport in 2010 on medical grounds. Moore is a former two-time British light-middleweight champion and Commonwealth champion. A source told the Manchester Evening News : "It would appear he was out and about, not at the gym, when he was shot." A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed that a British national had been shot over the weekend. Moore was helping prepare Mackin for a fight in Dublin later this month against Argentinian, Jorge Sebastian-Heiland for the WBC international midldeweight title. As well as a wo...

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