From the AP (via Yahoo News): The world’s most comprehensive legalized heroin program became permanent Sunday with overwhelming approval from Swiss voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana. The heroin program, started in 1994, is offered in 23 centers across Switzerland. It has helped eliminate scenes of large groups of drug users shooting up openly in [...]

A leader of a gang of pirates in the waters of Somalia claims that conditions of poverty will always motivate the pirates. From CNN: Somalis are so desperate to survive that attacks on merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean will not stop, a pirate leader promises. “The pirates are living between life and [...]

The Washington Post has an investigative series into the world of Online Poker. Read the series here.

A report by the Brookings Institution has found that the US led War on drugs has failed. From the LA Times: The United States’ war on drugs has failed and will continue to do so as long as it emphasizes law enforcement and neglects the problem of consumption, a Washington think tank says in a report co-chaired [...]

A UN forum is calling for child sex tourists to be prosecuted in their home countries. From the AP (via Google News): Tourists who go abroad to abuse children should face the prospect of prosecution in their home countries if they are caught having sex with kids in nations with lax penalties, participants at a U.N.-backed conference [...]

Mexico President Felipe Calderon is continuing to promise that he will clean up his own government after several high profile officials were found to have been taking money from drug cartels. From the AP (via Google News): Calderon’s sweeping crackdown on powerful drug cartels has in recent weeks been shaken by a nationwide corruption scandal. The government revealed [...]

The former Drug Czar in Mexico was arrested on suspicion that he accepted $450,000 a month from drug smugglers. From CNN: Mexican authorities have detained the country’s former drug czar on suspicion that he may have accepted $450,000 a month in bribes from drug traffickers, Mexico’s attorney general said Friday. Noe Ramirez Mandujano was in charge from 2006 [...]

The largest every crackdown on wildlife smugglers in Africa arrested 57 people. From the BBC: More than one tonne of ivory products has been seized in Africa’s largest-ever international crackdown on wildlife crime. The operation, co-ordinated by Interpol and the Kenya Wildlife Service, led to the arrest of 57 illegal traders across five African nations. The haul also included [...]

White extremists groups are upset over the election of Barack Obama as US President. From the LA Times: Barely three weeks since America elected its first black president, noose hangings, racist graffiti and death threats have struck dozens of towns across the country. More than 200 such incidents — including cross burnings, assassination betting pools and effigies of [...]

The New York Times writes about the killing of an Israeli Mobster last week. From the NY Times: The Alperon hit had dominated the news for days. A narrow strip of a country, Israel has a limited pool of celebrities. So when Mr. Alperon, referred to by many as Israel’s Tony Soprano, was killed at 54, the [...]