■ Syria
Border skirmishes increase
A series of clashes in the last year between US and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, the New York Times reported on Saturday. Citing unnamed current and former military and government officials, the newspaper said the firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the clashes with President Bashar al-Assad's forces. It illustrated the dangers facing US troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on Syria.
■ Mexico
Massive strike averted
Unionized workers at Mexico's Social Security Institute late Friday night agreed to a government proposal offering a 6 percent raise and called off a potentially crippling strike scheduled to begin this weekend. An estimated 370,000 workers at the institute, which provides health services for more than 40 million Mexicans, had threatened to walk off the job at midnight yesterday. Instead, union leaders approved a proposal increasing wages by 6 percent and easing restrictions on the hiring of new employees at the institute.
■ Canada
Pot improves mood: study
Canadian researchers have discovered that smoking marijuana could improve a person's memory and mood. A team at the University of Saskatchewan headed by Xia Zhang found that injections of a potent HU210 synthetic substance that mimics the active ingredients in cannabis increases the production of neurons in the hippocampus area of the brain in rats. The region is associated with learning and memory, as well as anxiety and depression. Zhang and his colleagues believe that these negative emotions are caused by a lack of cell growth in this region of the brain.
■ United States
Murder takes decades
It took Jose Colon more than 30 years to die from complications of the gunshot wounds that paralyzed him. On Friday, his assailant was charged with murder for pulling the trigger in the racial dispute that killed Colon decades after the bullets entered his body. The case stems from a medical examiner's ruling that Colon, 47, died from infections related to gunshot wounds suffered at age 15. The shooting had left Colon paralyzed from the neck down. Ralph Alini -- who had already served a three-year prison term for the shooting -- was rearrested on Thursday after a grand jury indicted him on a second-degree murder charge earlier in the week.
RSS