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Legal marijuana takes root in Latin America

After Uruguay first moved to legalize marijuana in 2013, the approach has taken root in Latin America with several other countries now considering a revamp of their own drug laws. "Someone has to start in South America," Uruguayan President Jose Mujica said in late 2013 as he unveiled plans to make cannabis legal in his country. Under Mujica, Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize marijuana all the way from the cannabis field to the joint, setting up a regulated market for cultivation, sales and use. Though marijuana is not yet being sold in pharmacies, the National Drug Council, or JND, already counts 1,300 of the country's 3.3 million inhabitants registered as self-producers.

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NYC public defenders in video advocate killing police, city finds

By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK (Reuters) - Attorneys at a New York City public defenders' office participated in an online video that advocated the killing of police officers, featuring the lyrics "time to start killing these coppers," a city investigation disclosed on Thursday. The video "Hands Up," which shows singers pointing guns at someone portraying a police officer, was released shortly before the deadly ambush on Dec. 20 of two New York City officers by a gunman angry over police killings of unarmed black men. Two attorneys with the Bronx Defenders, a city-funded legal service organization, appear in the anti-police video, some of which was filmed at the Bronx office, according to the New York City Department of Investigation report. The Bronx Defenders posted a message on its website saying it "abhors the use of violence against the police." "The Bronx Defenders never approved the music video 'Hands Up,' and never saw it before it went online," it said.

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Corrected - Hostage in Sydney siege "killed by police bullet ricochet"

(Corrects number of shots, paragraph six) By Jane Wardell and Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - One of the hostages held during a siege at an Australian cafe last month was killed by a ricochet of at least one police bullet that also injured three other hostages, an inquest into the deaths was told on Thursday. Jeremy Gormly, counsel assisting the New South Wales state coroner, said lawyer Katrina Dawson, 38, was hit by six fragments of a police bullet, or bullets, with one striking a major blood vessel. Police stormed the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in central Sydney in the early hours of Dec. 16, ending a 17-hour siege by Man Haron Monis after the gunman shot cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34. Monis, 50, who fired five rounds from a sawn-off pump action shotgun, was killed instantly by several police bullets and bullet fragments to the head and body, Gormly added.

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Northeast U.S. braves 'crippling' blizzard, transit systems shut

By Jonathan Allen and Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK/MAPLEWOOD, N.J. (Reuters) - A massive, wind-whipped blizzard slammed into the U.S. Northeast on Monday, creating havoc for more than 60 million people and forcing New York City to shut down on a scale not seen since Superstorm Sandy devastated the region in 2012. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that the "life-threatening blizzard" could dump a "crippling snowfall" of as much as 3 feet (90 cm) on the region. Coastal flood warnings were issued, with tides in the New York metro area expected to be as much 3 feet higher than normal early Tuesday morning. States of emergency were declared in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire as people were urged to stay home with transit systems, including the New York City subway, suspending services and roadways closed amid white-out conditions.

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Japan trade deficit swells to record in 2014

Japan's trade deficit swelled to a record $109 billion in 2014, data showed Monday, mostly because of huge post-Fukushima energy bills, but analysts said a recent drop in oil prices would shrink the yawning gap. The shortfall of 12.78 trillion yen, Japan's fourth-consecutive annual deficit, was 11.4 percent wider than 2013 and was the worst since records began in 1979, according to the finance ministry. Fuel costs have weighed heavily on Japan as the resource-poor country struggles to plug a huge energy gap after the 2011 atomic crisis forced the shutdown of nuclear reactors that once supplied more than a quarter of its power. In December alone, however, Japan's trade deficit almost halved over the previous year to 660.7 billion yen, largely thanks to falling oil prices.

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Security Council delegation visits Haiti

United Nations Security Council members arrived in Haiti on Friday for a three-day visit aimed at pressing the government to hold long-delayed elections in order to stem a mounting political crisis. Envoys from the 15 member states of the international peace and security body are due to meet with President Michel Martelly and other government officials, as well as local UN representatives, political leaders and civil society. "With this mission, the Security Council looks to ... urge Haiti's political actors to work cooperatively and without further delay to ensure the holding of free, fair, inclusive and transparent legislative, partial senatorial, municipal and local elections," a statement from the UN's MINUSTAH peacekeeping mission said. The UN ambassadors visited MINUSTAH headquarters shortly after their arrival, and are due to tour various projects in the capital and elsewhere in the impoverished Caribbean nation still reeling from a devastating 2010 earthquake.

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U.S. presses Cuba on human rights in talks on restoring ties

By Daniel Trotta and Lesley Wroughton HAVANA (Reuters) - The United States said it pressed Cuba to improve human rights during historic, high-level talks on Thursday, annoying the Cubans after both sides reported making progress toward restoring diplomatic relations. The talks were the first since U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 they would work to restore diplomatic ties, which Washington severed in 1961 two years after Raul's brother Fidel took power and began implementing communist rule. "As a central element of our policy, we pressed the Cuban government for improved human rights conditions, including freedom of expression and assembly," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, the head of the delegation, said in a written statement.

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EBay's breakup plans may open door for e-commerce M&A

By Deepa Seetharaman SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc's plans to break up into three different companies could accommodate would-be suitors, signaling a potential merger fight after the breakup. The company plans to spin off its payments division, PayPal, from its core marketplace division in the second half of the year, making two standalone publicly traded companies that some analysts say could be worth more than the combined entity. On Wednesday, eBay added that it will sell or prepare a public offering of its eBay Enterprise unit, which the company bought for $2.4 billion roughly four years ago. The announced moves are intended to give each business the ability to consider all their alternatives, including a sale, eBay Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe said.

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Tokyo stocks drop ahead of BoJ meeting

Tokyo shares fell on Wednesday despite a broad rally in Asia ahead of key announcements on monetary policy and stimulus from the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank. The dollar lost ground against the euro and the yen on the uncertainty, but was buffeted by expectations the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year as the American economy continues to strengthen. Shares in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index fell 0.51 percent in morning trade, while Seoul stocks dropped 0.39 percent. "Although we are not expecting anything out of the ordinary from the BoJ today, it will be interesting to see if energy prices are raining on their inflation goals," Evan Lucas, a strategist at IG brokers in Melbourne, wrote in a research note, according to Bloomberg News.

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Argentine prosecutor who accused president found dead

An Argentine prosecutor was found dead just hours before giving what was expected to be damning testimony against President Cristina Kirchner, in what appears to have been a suicide, officials said. The body of Alberto Nisman, 51, who had received threats, was found overnight in his 13th-floor apartment in the upscale Puerto Madero waterfront neighborhood of the capital Buenos Aires. "All signs point to suicide," said Public Safety Secretary Sergio Berni, an assertion backed up by initial forensic findings. Federal prosecutor Viviana Fein said Nisman died of "a gunshot wound to the temple" and "there was no role of additional parties (in the death)." However, there was no suicide note or witnesses, Fein added, calling for "caution," while the leader of one opposition party called it "an assassination." Investigators should look at whether Nisman was under pressure from anybody, and to whom the gun belonged, local media reports quoted Fein as saying.

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