Skunk cannabis may be reclassified
The News Review:
- Skunk cannabis may be reclassified
- Briton’s Tale of Torture Offers View of Saudi Justice
- The other Omaha tycoon Ameritrade founder not as big as Buffett, but…
- Consumer choice in fine wine — salud
- A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian,
Skunk cannabis may be reclassified
Guardian Unlimited – May 19, 2005
The average potency of cannabis consumed in Holland, where there has been an explosion in the homegrown market, has doubled, to about 16% THC. Research by the EU’s drug agency last year suggested that the effective strength of cannabis consumed in Britain has remained unchanged at about 6% THC for 30 years. The study acknowledged that there has been an unknown increase in home-grown cannabis, which can be two to three times more potent, but more than 70% of the British market was taken by imported Moroccan hashish.
Briton’s Tale of Torture Offers View of Saudi Justice
Washington Post – May 19, 2005
Jamal Khashoggi, spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Britain, said torture is illegal in Saudi Arabia and that Mitchell and the others could pursue a legal case in the kingdom if they had evidence of mistreatment. The Saudi government eventually released five Britons, including Mitchell, and two other foreigners convicted of involvement in a series of car bombings five years ago. But Saudi officials continue to insist that the attacks were carried out by foreigners engaged in a turf war over illegal liquor, and not by home-grown Islamic terrorists, though similar attacks continued after Mitchell and his alleged co-conspirators were arrested. Mitchell is pursuing legal action in Britain against the kingdom and has just published a book, “Saudi Babylon,” about his ordeal, written with a British journalist, Mark Hollingsworth. The details of his personal account cannot be independently verified, but human rights groups have long accused the Saudi government of condoning torture. A Scotland Yard detective dispatched to Saudi Arabia to investigate the bombings told an official British inquest in February that he had been given no proof that Mitchell and a fellow prisoner, William Sampson, were involved in the bombings. And a British Foreign Office spokesman, who under government rules could not be identified, said: “We’re not aware of any credible evidence that the men were guilty of what they were charged with.
The other Omaha tycoon Ameritrade founder not as big as Buffett, but…
San Francisco Chronicle – May 19, 2005
The E-Trade bid has brought a spotlight to Ricketts and two of his sons, who hold three of eight seats on the Ameritrade board. The Ricketts family controls about one-third of the firm’s shares. The prospect of a takeover by a New York firm has kept Omaha on edge, worried about the independence of its home-grown company and the security of about 1,500 jobs. Meanwhile, Ricketts, the company founder with the linebacker physique, is described by people who know him as a solid Republican and a churchgoer, plain-spoken and straightforward, a generous but quiet supporter of local arts and education. Both Omaha and Wall Street are trying to guess his next move. “Investors right now are trying to get into the minds of the Rickettses — Joe Ricketts in particular,” said analyst Matt Snowling, with the investment bank Friedman, Billings & Ramsey. The Ricketts sons who are Ameritrade directors are J.
Consumer choice in fine wine — salud
Seattle Times – May 19, 2005
Supreme Court ruling, the fight is not over. The court’s decision, a cheeky 5-4 split with a nice finish, told Michigan and New York they could not allow in-state wineries to ship their products while banning out-of-state wineries from access to the same consumers. In essence, 24 states have to decide if they will halt direct shipments by all wineries or open their home-grown markets to all competitors. The bet here is that a mix of chauvinism and state pride, combined with the growing production of premium wines, will blow right through state legislatures, despite the acknowledged clout of beer and wine wholesalers. Wine drinkers from Maine to Arizona will be able to buy Washington’s finest. Washington and 12 other states have already shown how the broader law would apply.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian,
The Age – May 19, 2005
Nikolai is the mostpoignant character in the book: juvenile in his geriatrichankerings after Valentina’s “superior breasts” and oral sex(because of his “squishy squashy”). He soils his pants when shebeats him up. After Stalin’s famine of 1932, it’s no surprise thathe subsists on “Toshiba apples”, home-grown and cooked in themicrowave, and continues to dream his “Big Ideas”. Nadia discovers different versions of her parents’ story: theywere not heroes, they were survivors; her father never wanted tofight, not for the Ukraine, nor the Soviets. It’s not thatimportant to him whether, after being an Ostarbeiter, he was aneconomic migrant or an asylum seeker; he’s more concerned that atleast one of his 17 patents takes off. Best of all Lewycka is not sentimental. Alongside laugh out-loudscenes are the saddest tragedies told as fairystories: of the campthat was not a circle of tents as the little girl Vera expected buta place where something so terrible happened that still as amiddle-aged woman she can’t talk about it.