Attempted coup prevented in Guinea-Bissau
On Monday, Dec. 3, Guinea-Bissau’s Minister of the Interior Alamara Nhasse reported that an attempted coup had been prevented.
Accoding to Nhasse, the deputy head of the army, Almami Camara, and the former navy chief of staff, Lamine Mane, attempted to seize power on Sunday, Dec. 2, with the support of the military and paramilitary forces.
No of serious fights have been reported since the incident; instead Alamara Nhasse said that many of the perpetrators have been arrested along with Camara, the leader, and Mane.
Camara was a part of the military regime that controlled the country until 1999, when the current president, Kumba Yalla was elected.
This was event was one in a series of political instabilities that have characterized the country since 1999.
Turkish hunger strike doctors cleared
Eight Turkish doctors have been acquitted of assisting in the suicide of 42 hunger strikers who starved themselves to death over the past year.
The hunger strikers were prison inmates and members of their immediate families. Their efforts were in protest of government attempts to introduce a new kind of prison accommodation that they were convinced would increase the risk of prison authorities abusing prisoners.
Human rights workers and aid agencies have welcomed Tuesday’s acquittal and also expressed concern about the threat of recent legislation that makes refusing to force feed patients a criminal offence.
Usually force feeding takes place intravenously after a patient has lost consciousness. But in order to prolong their protests the Turkish prisoners have been taking vitamin B. This results in them remaining conscious and alert until the moment of death.
The government claims that hunger strikers are pressed to fast by members of extremist political groups in the prisons.
Under the new law, individuals and groups who are considered to have supported someone on hunger strike could face up to four years in prison. If that person dies as a result of their fast the sentence will automatically be increased to 20 years.
Doctors who follow the law will then be faced with the prospect of having to forcibly restrain weak and emaciated patients in order to feed them.
Hatoon Kesser’s husband was released from prison in November after 190 days without food and he has continued his hunger strike from their home. “Whatever the motives for introducing this law, it is likely to result in a hardening of attitudes among the hunger strikers and their supporters,” said Kesser.
U.S. DEA bans hemp food products
After Feb. 6, the Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, will be enacting a new rule that makes the importation and selling of hemp-containing foods illegal.
The foods are being banned for import or sale because they contain traces of THC, the primary active constituent of marijuana. Additionally, “many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana,” according to DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson.
Manufacturers and retailers of consumable hemp products have until Feb. 6 to dispose of their hemp inventory-a situation that retailers believe will ruin their businesses. They claim that poppy seed bagels and fruit juice are just as harmful because they contain trace amounts of controlled substances. Poppy seeds contain trace opiates but are exempted from the Controlled Substances Act and fruit juice has trace amounts of natural alcohol through fermentation but is not subject to liquor laws.
Products on the market that are affected by the action include some beers, cheeses, coffees, corn chips, energy drinks, flours, ice creams, snack bars, salad oils, sodas and veggie burgers. Manufacturers say that there is no measurable THC content in these foods under tests available when Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act. Hemp is used in food products because the seeds are a high-quality source of protein, and the hemp seed oil contains a variety of heart-healthy essential fatty acids not found in other food products.
DEA challengers say Congress never intended to apply bans on hemp products to microscopic traces detectable by modern analytical methods.
KKK leader sentenced to seven years
On Dec. 4, Jeff Berry, the Imperial Wizard of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal confinement with a deadly weapon.
In November 1999, Berry was being interviewed by reporter George Sells IV and camerawoman Heidi Thiel of a Kentucky television station. When Berry found out a former Klan member would be included in the story, he held the news crew at gunpoint until they surrendered the interview tape to him.
Berry is no stranger to the criminal justice system, having been arrested at least five times. In 1997, police dropped three theft charges after Berry’s work as a drug informant led to over 170 arrests. However, he was convicted on a fourth felony theft count and received a three year suspended sentence and three years probation.
