SHANCHONG, China - China has made your iPhone, your Nikes and, chances are, the lights on your Christmas tree. Now, it wants to grow your cannabis. Two of China's 34 regions are quietly leading a boom in cultivating cannabis to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, the nonintoxicating compound that has become a consumer health and beauty craze in the United States and beyond. They are doing so even though cannabidiol has not been authorized for consumption in China, a country with some of the strictest drug-enforcement policies in the world. [continues 1187 words]
KALININGRAD, Russia, July 14 - As the cafes and clubs began to course with night life one recent evening, Andrei V. Bykovsky and Yuliya B. Sokolova cruised around in a white van, patrolling the newest front of Russia's AIDS epidemic. They stopped first near the Mother of Russia statue, then along Moskovski Prospect, then beneath the Cosmonauts Memorial. They easily found what they were looking for: young women, many in their teens, most racked by drugs or desperation, selling themselves on the street for a trifle - less than $7. [continues 967 words]
CARTAGENA, Colombia -- Secretary of Defense William Cohen and Colombia's new president, Andres Pastrana, announced steps Monday to intensify military cooperation in the war on drug trafficking, including a pledge to increase Pentagon training of Colombia's armed forces and to share more aerial and satellite intelligence data. The United States and Colombia have worked closely together to stanch the flow of drugs for decades, but the new steps underscored the deepening of American diplomatic and military engagement after the election of Pastrana, a reformist who replaced Ernesto Samper. [continues 607 words]
CARTAGENA, Colombia. Nov. 30, 1998 -- Secretary of Defense William Cohen and Colombia's new president, Andres Pastrana, announced steps Monday to intensify military cooperation in the war on drug trafficking, including a pledge to increase Pentagon training of Colombia's armed forces and to share more aerial and satellite intelligence data. The United States and Colombia have worked closely together to stanch the flow of drugs for decades, but the new steps underscored the deepening of American diplomatic and military engagement after the election of Pastrana, a reformist who replaced Ernesto Samper. [continues 607 words]
CARTAGENA, Colombia -- The United States has begun talks with several countries to find new bases of operation in Central and South America for the American military forces that must soon leave Panama, American officials said today. The discussions, while preliminary, have taken on new urgency because the United States has to close its principal airfield in Panama by May 1 as part of its agreement to relinquish control of the Panama Canal entirely by the end of 1999. The airfield, Howard Air Force Base, supports the bulk of the aircraft and other forces involved in American-led efforts to stop the flow of cocaine and other drugs from South America to the United States. Without new bases by that deadline, American commanders fear there could be an interruption in the interdiction flights. [continues 634 words]
By STEVEN LEE MYERS W ASHINGTON Reversing a policy enacted two decades ago because of human rights concerns, the Clinton administration announced Friday that it would lift the ban on sales of the most advanced weapons, like fighter jets and tanks, to countries in Latin America. President Carter imposed the ban in 1978, determined to deny advanced weaponry to the military dictatorships that then ruled most of Central and South America. In recent years, though, the Pentagon and the nation's military contractors have pressed the White House to allow some sales, arguing that most of the countries, with the exception of Cuba, are now moving toward democracy. [continues 770 words]
