Oldest marijuana stash found in China

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Press TV
Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:24:57 GMT

Researchers have discovered the world’s oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb near the desert city of Turpan in northwestern China.

According to a research paper published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, the 2,700-year-old cannabis cache was ‘cultivated for psychoactive purposes’.

The dried cannabis was buried with a 45-year-old, light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, who seems to be a shaman of the Gushi culture, The Canadian Press reported.

The dry weather and alkaline soil have preserved the stash, which despite having lost its distinctive odor, still looks green. The cache was found in a leather basket in a wooden bowl, giving rise to the assumption that it was intended for the shaman to use in the afterlife.

[…]

via Press TV – Oldest marijuana stash found in China

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Medvedev pleased US reason prevailed + NATO envoy: Saakashvili to be replaced

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RussiaToday

Dmitry Medvedev has welcomed a decision by the U.S. not to push Georgia and Ukraine into NATO using the alliances so-called membership action plan (MAP). The Russian President said he was glad that common sense prevailed in the end.

Grim news from Mumbai hits home + Terrorists monitored British websites using BlackBerry phones + Taj Mahal erupts in flames

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By Jacob Berkman · November 28, 2008
NEW YORK (JTA)

Until confirmation finally came Friday that the Chabad emissaries in Mumbai were among the more than 140 victims killed in this week’s terrorist attacks in India, Chabad Chasidim and emissaries the world over prayed for the best while fearing for the worst.

But by Friday morning, the hostage standoff at Mumbai’s Chabad House was over. Early Friday, witnesses saw a series of explosions at the Chabad House as Indian special forces stormed the site and battled with the gunmen who had taken over the community center, one of 10 sites attacked Wednesday by terrorist gunmen in Mumbai.

[…]

via Grim news from Mumbai hits home | JTA – Jewish & Israel News

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Mumbai attacks inflame India-Pakistan tensions

By Saeed Shah
McClatchy Newspapers
11/28/2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — India on Friday charged that militants with links to Pakistan were involved in the terrorist attack on major tourist sites in Mumbai, in which more than 160 civilians died. Pakistan denied the allegations but agreed to send an intelligence official to discuss them.

The rapidly rising tensions could scuttle a tentative peace process between the two nuclear-armed countries and even lead to a military confrontation, and some experts said they thought this might’ve been the aim of the terror operation.

[…]

via McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/28/2008 | Mumbai attacks inflame India-Pakistan tensions

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Indian media react angrily to Israeli criticism of Chabad rescue operation

US Army deserter seeks asylum in Germany over Iraq

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by Andreas Buerger, Reuters, 28 November 2008

A U.S. soldier who deserted his unit to avoid returning to Iraq has applied for asylum in Germany, saying the Iraq war was illegal and that he could not support the “heinous acts” taking place.

Andre Shepherd, 31, who served in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 as an Apache helicopter mechanic in the 412th Aviation Support Battalion, has been living in Germany since deserting last year.

“When I read and heard about people being ripped to shreds from machine guns or being blown to bits by the Hellfire missiles I began to feel ashamed about what I was doing,” Shepherd told a Frankfurt news conference Thursday.

“I could not in good conscience continue to serve.”

[…]

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4AQ73C20081127

IJAN condemns Israel’s siege on Gaza

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http://www.ijsn.net

IJAN condemns Israel’s siege on Gaza

and calls for institutions, movements, activists and people committed to justice to demand an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are threatened by a humanitarian crisis created by a two-year-old economic blockade that further exacerbates the effects of 60 years of ruthless colonial oppression. In the past two weeks, the blocking of all food and medical supplies to Gaza raises this humanitarian crisis to a level that rings with the threat of annihilation.

We are outraged but not surprised by this escalation. As predicted by political writers such as Ilan Pappe and Toufic Haddad, Israeli’s unilaterally designed and implemented disengagement from Gaza prepared the terrain. With this withdrawal, Israel maintained control of the borders, air and water space, and completely isolated Gaza practically and politically. This has been accomplished with unconditional support from the United States and its allies and the complicity of the broader international community and Gaza’s neighbors.

via International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

UN General Assembly president calls for boycott of Israel

US Activist Detained in Israeli Jail Condemns Blockade of Gaza

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed: The Hidden Holocaust (2007) + Our Civilizational Crisis

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replaced videos May 14, 2013

planetfrog

1:20:37 – Nov 27, 2007
planetfrog productions – nafeez.mediamonitors.net/archive.html

Nafeez Ahmed Location: London, United Kingdom Political analyst on security, conflict and global crisis. Director of Institute for Policy Research & Development, London. Author of “The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry” (Duckworth, 2006) and “The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism” (Arris, Olive Branch, 2005)

US media covers Chavez victory and calls it a defeat

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TheRealNews

The media and the Venezuelan elections

US media covers Chavez victory and calls it a defeat

Prison labor: Made in USA

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IWantDemocracyNow

Prison labor is every US Corporation’s dream: cheap labor, no sick leave, no time off, no holidays and employees that can be easily replaced. For human rights activists however, it’s a nightmare for the very same reasons – but on the other side of the coin: forced labor, no unions, low pay and no protection for employees. The US has used or currently uses prison labor for anything from holiday coffee for Starbucks, cutting airplane components for Boeing, Game Boys for Nintendo, equipment for the war in Iraq, shrink wrapping mousses for Microsoft, making dentures, down to sewing lingerie for Victoria’s Secrets. It’s a multi-billion dollar business. Today, FSRN brings you an exclusive documentary, Prison Labor, Made in the U.S.A., with reporter Karen Miller.

Victory for Venezuela’s Socialists in Crucial Elections by Prof. James Petras

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by Prof. James Petras
Global Research, November 25, 2008

November 2008 Landslide

The pro-Chavez United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 72% of the governorships in the November 23, 2008 elections and 58% of the popular vote, dumbfounding the predictions of most of the pro-capitalist pollsters and the vast majority of the mass media who favored the opposition.

PSUV candidates defeated incumbent opposition governors in three states (Guaro, Sucre, Aragua) and lost two states (Miranda and Tachira). The opposition retained the governorship in a tourist center (Nueva Esparta) and won in Tachira, a state bordering Colombia, Carabobo and the oil state of Zulia, as well as scoring an upset victory in the populous state of Miranda and taking the mayoralty district of the capital, Caracas. The socialist victory was especially significant because the voter turnout of 65% exceeded all previous non-presidential elections. The prediction by the propaganda pollsters that a high turnout would favor the opposition also reflected wishful thinking.

The significance of the socialist victory is clear if we put it in a comparative historical context: