Narcotic Khat Raises Cultural Rift in US

Squads train local authorities, but sometimes things get ugly

(NEWSER) - The war on drugs meets the war on terror: In 2008, George W. Bush started a DEA program called FAST (Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team), meant to investigate Afghanistan drug traffickers linked to the Taliban. The program continued under President Obama, and now includes five military-trained squads of special agents that fight drug cartels in far more places throughout the Western Hemisphere, including Haiti and Honduras. While the US agents can’t make arrests overseas—and some missions are solely focused on training—they can go out on missions with local authorities and may even open fire in certain circumstances, like they reportedly did during a Honduras bust last March that left a Honduran officer wounded and two drug traffickers dead. More»

Obama administration willing to work more closely with Mexico

(NEWSER) - The US has hatched a plan to embed American intelligence agents in Mexican police units for the first time, in an effort to hunt down drug cartel leaders. In the past, the US has hesitated to share intelligence with Mexican police, viewing them as largely corrupt and incompetent. To avoid those pitfalls, the agents will work with recent graduates of the federal police academy, where FBI and DEA advisers now help train recruits, the Washington Post reports. More»

Enforcement doesn't work, but there is hope elsewhere

(NEWSER) - In a chat with new czar Gil Kerlikowske, George Will notes that the war on drugs, as it has been waged, is an utter failure. Harsh drug laws have done nothing to reduce drug-taking, he writes, and incarcerating drug users is looking more and more wasteful to strapped states. “Not many people think the drug war is a success,” Kerlikowske tells Will, and they “want a different conversation.” If enforcement doesn't work, what does? More»

(NEWSER) - President Obama toured the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana today, a shipping-off point for African slaves to America, Reuters reports. He saw the monument as a reminder. “As painful as it is,” the president said, “I think that it helps to teach all of us that we have to do what we can to fight against the kinds of evils that sadly still exist in our world, not just on this continent but in every corner of the globe.” More»

Landmark study tracks modern humanity's origins to area in South Africa

(NEWSER) - The people of Africa have by far the world's most diverse genes, says a new study that sheds light on humanity's origins. Researchers—who traveled deep into remote areas of Africa to study more than a hundred populations—have pinpointed the origin of modern humans to an area near the South Africa-Namibia border, the Washington Post reports. "This is an absolute landmark," said one anthropologist. "It's incredible." More»