Free Republic

Uruguay's plan to create the world's first national, government-regulated marketplace for legal pot may be going up in smoke. Delays in implementing the plan are putting it at risk as polls point to opposition gains in October's election and say most Uruguayans oppose a legal pot marketplace. SNIP "I am convinced that the current project is never going to be applied," the principal opposition presidential candidate, Luis Lacalle Pou, told The Associated Press. "The entire project is not workable. The pharmacies don't want to sell the drug and nobody is going to register as a user, as the law obliges."...

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton on Monday criticized the timing of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's reported decision to fire the U.N.'s highly regarded electoral chief, just 10 days before critical elections in Iraq. "The U.N.'s role in previous elections has been quite helpful and important to the Iraqi people," Bolton said. "This is a major election ... leading up to the return of full sovereignty to Iraq and I don't think anybody should do things that disrupt that." Bolton criticized the fact that the decision was coming at this time, almost a year after a consulting firm was asked to conduct a...