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SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) – According to a recent study, fatal car crashes involving pot use have tripled in the U.S. “Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana,” Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia, and co-author of the study told HealthDay News. Researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health gathered data from six states – California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and West Virginia – that perform toxicology tests on drivers involved in fatal car accidents. This data included over 23,500 drivers that...

I thought of the more than 55,000,000 lives that have been taken in the U.S. since 1973, and I became overwhelmed at the tragedy. Article Link: I Am Overwhelmed by 55 Million Babies Killed Since Roe v. Wade | LifeNews.com (http://www.lifenews.com/2013/01/22/i-am-overwhelmed-by-55-million-babies-killed-since-roe-v-wade/)

Fourteen people have died after a stampede at a mosque in northern China. The incident happened at the mosque in Guyuan, a city in the Ningxia region, the Xinhua News Agency said, while people were handing out traditional cakes during an event to commemorate a religious figure. …

There is some coverage of this number, which varies quite a bit from year to year.   The number being shown is 33, but that appears to include one accident.  The trend is down, though not as much as the homicide rate in general.   It is clear that the number of citizen owned guns is not linked to the number of police killed with guns.  While the number of guns in the hands of the public has soared, and the number of people legally carrying firearms has skyrocketed, crime is down, homicides are down, and then number of police murdered...

At least 70 journalists were killed on the job around the world in 2013, including 29 who died covering the civil war in Syria and 10 slain in Iraq, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The dead in Syria included a number of citizen journalists working to document combat in their home cities, broadcasters who worked with media outlets affiliated with either the government or the opposition, and a handful of correspondents for the foreign press, including an Al-Jazeera reporter, Mohamed al-Mesalma, who was shot by a sniper. Six journalists died in Egypt. Half of those reporters were killed...

At least 10 people have been killed and 10 others injured in an explosion on a trolleybus in the Russian city of Volgograd, Russian media report. The blast comes a day after 17 people died in a suicide bomb attack at the central station in the city. Security has been tightened at railway stations and airports across Russia. Moscow is concerned militant groups could be ramping up violence in the run-up to the 2014 winter Olympic Games in the city of Sochi. The Olympic venue is close to Russia's volatile north Caucasus region. Volgograd lies about 900km (560 miles) south...

At least 14 people were killed and scores were wounded Sunday by a female suicide bomber at a railway station in southern Russia, officials said, heightening concern about terrorism ahead of February's Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack in Volgograd, but it came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games.

Cabinet spokesman Sherief Shawki blamed the blast on the Muslim Brotherhood group of former Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, and said Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi had officially declared the group a terrorist organization.

Four people were killed and 63 injured when a Metro-North commuter train derailed Sunday morning in the Bronx, officials said. All of the train’s seven cars came off the curved track about 100 feet north of the Spuyten Duyvil station around 7:20 a.m., MTA officials said. One car came to rest feet from the water.

OURAY – A mining accident early Sunday morning at the Revenue-Virginius Mine in Ouray County has killed two miners and sent 20 to the region's hospitals. According to Ouray County authorities at approximately 3:20 p.m. Sunday, the rescue initiated for two miners who remained underground resulted in confirmation of two fatalities at the site by the County Coroner's office; the two men's identities have not been released. Twenty victims were taken to various hospitals in the region, with one victim reportedly in critical condition at Montrose Memorial Hospital. ... The historic Revenue-Virginius Silver Mine is located 6.9 miles south of...

Nearly 600 pets have died and more than 3,600 have been sickened in an ongoing, mysterious outbreak of illnesses tied to jerky treats made in China, federal animal health officials said Tuesday. Most of the cases have been in dogs of all breeds, ages and sizes, although 10 cats have been sickened, too. The pace of the reported illnesses appears to have slowed, but federal Food and Drug Administration officials are now seeking extra help from veterinarians and pet owners in solving the ongoing puzzle.“To date, testing for contaminants in jerky treats has not revealed a cause for the illnesses,” Martine...

Thirty-four people were killed and more than 100 wounded in clashes during protests in Egypt on Sunday, state news agency MENA quoted the health ministry as saying. Fighting began after supporters and opponents of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets to commemorate the "Egyptian victory" in the Yom Kippur War, that broke out on October 6, 1973.

Hong Kong (CNN) -- At least 19 people have been stung to death by hornets -- which may include the world's largest hornet species Vespa mandarinia -- in China's central Shaanxi province in the last three months, according to the city government of Ankang, the apparent epicenter of a recent spate of fatalities and injuries. A total of 583 people in the area have been stung by hornets since July 1, say city officials. Seventy victims are still recovering in hospitals.

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A blast at a Protestant church in northwest Pakistan killed at least 72 people and wounded more than 120, a local hospital said Sunday. The attack took place at the All Saints Church of Pakistan, in the violence-plagued city of Peshawar, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the country's capital, Islamabad. Witnesses told CNN affiliate Geo News that at least one suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar near the church entrance as crowds of worshipers were leaving a Sunday morning service. Some of the victims were children, the witnesses said. The outside of...

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says three of its troops were killed Saturday when a man wearing an Afghan security forces uniform shot them. Afghan officials confirmed the incident, saying the attack took place in the eastern province of Paktia. So-called "insider attacks," when Afghan forces turn their guns on their foreign partners, have killed large numbers of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan.

[drugawareness] TRAZADONE: 13 Dead in Washington DC Naval Yard Shooting FROM Dr. Ann Blake Tracy TO 1 recipient Show Details From Dr. Ann Blake Tracy To drugawareness@yahoogroups.com Aaron Alexis.jpg TRAZADONE: 13 Dead in Washington DC Naval Yard Shooting The New York Times released the fact that over the past month Aaron Alexis has been on the antidepressant, Trazadone, to treat insomnia. ( quotes below.) Of course I am not finished asking questions. I want to know what he was on before this that may have induced his serious problems with insomnia. Was that yet another antidepressant? Was he in withdrawal...

A suicide bomber killed at least 21 people Saturday at the funeral of a member of Iraq's Shabak minority in the northern province of Nineveh, security and medical sources said. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Sunni Islamist militants have in the past targeted Shabaks, who are predominantly Shi'ite, warning them to leave the area. Iraq's delicate sectarian balance has come under acute strain from the war in neighboring Syria, which has pitted mainly Sunni rebels against a leader backed by Shi'ite Iran.

Relating to Syria:Not a blog or article authored by me (see link above), however, it puts into perspective the USA's own 4 year civil war....where experts estimate (and no one really knows, or can know...) 100,000 to 250,000 CIVILIAN DEATHS were caused by the war--the vast majority being in the South. Some historians estimate that as many as 50,000 civilians died of starvation as a result of Sherman's march to the sea alone.

The latest estimate of the number killed is 7,000 higher than that issued by the UN only last month. Mr Ban was speaking at UN headquarters in New York alongside US Secretary of State John Kerry. Both men stressed the urgency of finding a political solution to the conflict. Mr Ban appealed for fresh efforts to convene a peace conference. In the past the UN has said its statistics are an underestimate as it believes many deaths have not been reported. A further 1.7 million Syrians have been forced to seek shelter in neighbouring countries. The UN announcement came as...

Syrian activists close to the country’s opposition claimed hundreds of people were killed in a “poison gas” attack by regime forces outside Damascus Wednesday. There were several differing reports on a death toll. Activists told Al-Arabiya that 635 people were killed in the attack in Eastern Ghouta, while Reuters reported that 213 died. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the toll at dozens, while the Local Coordination Committees said hundreds were killed. …