Against the backdrop of budget deficits across the Golden State, the Californian city of Oakland votes yes to a proposal to tax the sale of medical marijuana. Nearly 80 percent of Oakland voters endorsed the idea to make the city the first in the United States to impose taxes on medical marijuana proceeds. To celebrate the approval, supporters hand-rolled marijuana cigarettes at Oaksterdam University where some students train to work in the marijuana industry. Cannabis is California's biggest cash crop. It is valued at $14 billion annually.....The new measure places a 1.8 percent gross receipts tax on the four licensed medical cannabis dispensaries in Oakland. The endorsement comes after Democrat Tom Ammiano earlier this year introduced a bill that if approved, would allow the recreational use of marijuana in the state of California. Under the bill, people of over 21 years of age would be able to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis.

California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ruffled feathers this week by posting a video on Twitter, in which he brandishes a large knife while talking about the state's recent budget cuts. Schwarzenegger announced a major plan Monday to eliminate California's $26 billion deficit. Schwarzenegger announced a major plan Monday to eliminate California's $26 billion deficit, with state agencies looking at billions of dollars in cuts as part of the plan. On Tuesday, the Hollywood actor turned governor posted a video, in which he handles a 2-foot-long knife before thanking Californians for providing him with creative ideas for slashing the budget. By Wednesday, critics had emerged, some wondering how Schwarzenegger could post a lighthearted video about a proposed budget plan that could slash services for needy people. Watch the governor wield his knife.

A simple saliva test can identify expectant mothers at an increased risk of going into premature labor, a new study finds. Premature labor, which occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy, may place the newborn at risk for health problems particularly cerebral and other neurological complications, as well as breathing and digestive problems. Development delay along with learning difficulties in school is also common in these babies. According to the study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, women going into labor before 34 weeks of gestation have low progesterone levels in their saliva. Progesterone is believed to have anti-inflammatory properties; low levels of the hormone, therefore, may lead to bacterial infection, a known cause of preterm birth.

As more enterprises deploy wall-to-wall Wi-Fi, they're finding end users voting with their network interface cards: given a choice, they go with wireless rather than wired access. In pervasive wireless LANs (WLAN), depending on the industry segment, ever-more IT departments are finding 50% to as much as 90% of edge switch ports sitting idle.....One well-known Northeast college is starting to evaluate 802.11n as an upgrade to its campus-wide 802.11abg WLAN, based on Aruba Networks gear. Parts of the network are saturated with lots of users and heavy traffic because, despite plenty of Ethernet ports, students use wireless almost exclusively. "We think 11n will reduce but not totally eliminate wired ports," says the campus networking director, who requested anonymity.

President Obama yesterday vowed that the US would meet its scheduled goal of withdrawing all of its troops from Iraq by 2011. He also supported the Baghdad government's efforts to persuade the United Nations to cancel the $25bn (£15bn) it owes Kuwait under reparations imposed after the 1991 Gulf war. Speaking alongside the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki at the White House yesterday, Mr Obama said that while a reparations deal could only be done through the UN and that Iraq "should not continue to be burdened with the sins of a deposed dictator". Under existing sanctions, Iraq must set aside 5 per cent of its oil revenues for reparations, most of which go to Kuwait, the direct victim of Saddam Hussein's invasion 18 years ago. But Iraq was now a democracy and no longer a threat to the international community, Mr Maliki declared at a joint press conference in the Rose Garden. Earlier, he made the same argument in private talks in New York with representatives of Britain, France, the US, Russia and China, the five permanent members of the Security Council. The sanctions, he told reporters, "were not needed anymore".

About 30 people, including some New Jersey mayors and several rabbis, were arrested Thursday in a federal investigation of public corruption, the U.S. attorney's office in Newark, New Jersey, said. Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III is among those arrested in the public corruption probe. The probe also involves a "high-volume, international money-laundering conspiracy," according to a statement from the office. Among those arrested in the public corruption portion of the investigation are Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, New Jersey Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt and Leona Beldini, a Jersey City deputy mayor. Several rabbis in New York and New Jersey also were arrested in connection with the money-laundering portion of the investigation.

At the invitation of the American House of Representatives, a delegation of Venezuela's opposition leaders arrived in Washington on Monday. Republican representatives, against US President Barack Obama's recent overtures towards Caracas, sympathized with the group who included several provincial governors. ...."We want the US congress to know that they are freedom fighters...that they are the people speaking out on behalf of democracy and human rights," the House's most senior female Republican and ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who had extended the invitation told Press TV's Washington correspondent Ernie Cruise. ....."Chavez...has kicked out the Drug Enforcement Agency and says that they are part of the drug cartel. There is no end to the lunacy of Hugo Chavez' statements," Ros-Lehtinen concluded.

A helicopter used by the NATO-led coalition forces in Afghanistan has crashed in the southern province Kandahar, killing at least 15 people. The Russian-made Mi-8 helicopter crashed while taking off in the volatile province, Interfax news agency reported. Two of the 17 people onboard sustained injuries, according to sources. Last week, a US helicopter was shot down by Taliban insurgents in the southern province of Helmand, killing five people onboard. Taliban insurgents are known to be capable of shooting down helicopters with rockets. More than fifty foreign troops have so far been killed in Afghanistan this month, making July the deadliest month for the US and its allies since the 2001 invasion of the country.

The US senators, who proposed tougher sanction against Iran earlier this year, seem to have taken a softer tone in the new amendment they have presented. Although the amendment still calls for more sanctions against Iran in the event of talks failing, it moves away from allegations that Tehran's civilian nuclear program is gearing up to for militarization. A bipartisan group has introduced the Senate Iran sanctions amendment to the defense authorization bill. The revision is seen as a watered down version of the Iran refined petroleum act of 2009, brought forward by the same group of senators in April. ....Some political analysts in Washington say targeting Iran's financial institutions through an amendment that includes less hostile language is a policy the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC has been pushing on Capitol Hill for a long time. ....While it has yet to be seen if the new amendment proposed by the bipartisan group of senators was prepared by the lobby, the AIPAC website encourages its supporters to pressure their elected officials on the Iran legislation. If the amendment garners enough support on Capitol Hill it will be inserted in the defense authorization bill, giving President Obama the option to impose tougher sanction on Iran if the P5+1 talks fail to produce Washington's desired results by the end of September

Jeanne Augier has run the Hotel Negresco for more than 50 years. The luxurious Hotel Negresco in Nice, a holiday destination of choice for millionaires and royalty, dedicates its profit to the homeless and animals. Built in France in 1912 and registered as a National Historic Monument in 1974, the Hotel Negresco is one of the few remaining privately owned palaces still existing in the world, the Independent reported. Jeanne Augier, owner and chairman of the hotel, who is in her 80s, has just rewritten her will. Her new will suggests the hotel's profit will be handed over to a charity to help homeless people and rescue unwanted animals. Augier has also wiledl the rest of her property in Paris, Nice and Grasse, which are worth more than $150 million, to the Mesange-Augier-Negresco Foundation.

ran says the semi-submersible drilling rig called Iran-Alborz is the largest in the Middle East. Forty-six oil exploration fields have been identified in the Caspian Sea, says Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari. According to Nozari, eight of the fields are presently ready for exploitation. Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, has given priority to exploring its northern territorial waters in the Caspian Sea. The largest enclosed body of water on the planet is estimated to have oil reserves of 17 billion to 44 billion barrels. The maritime and seabed boundaries of the Caspian have yet to be demarcate among Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and Turkmenistan -- the five countries bordering the Sea.

Moscow and Seoul agree on future military cooperation aimed at refurbishing South Korea's stockpiles of weaponry among other things. The two sides agreed to ink "a program on military-technical cooperation, including the repair of weapons supplied to South Korea earlier," Interfax quoted Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying on Tuesday. ...Pyongyang's second nuclear test earlier in the year caused the United Nations Security Council to vote in favor of toughening the sanctions it had imposed on the North after its first nuclear test in 2006.....Serdyukov and Sang-Hee shared 'similar' concern over the tests. "We believe the Korean Peninsula must have a nuclear-free status," said the Russian minister.

France summons the Israeli ambassador in Paris to demand a halt to 'illegal' expansion of Jewish settlements in east al-Quds (Jerusalem). The move on Tuesday came as Russia lent its voice to the mounting international outcry against the planned construction of 20 apartments in Sheikh Jarrah, a week after the United States summoned Israel's top envoy to Washington. ...President Nicolas Sarkozy also highlighted "the need for a complete freeze" of settlement activity in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, during a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak in Paris. President Barack Obama's administration reportedly summoned Israel's ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, last week to convey their objections to the plans. Kouchner said this betrayed a "clear division" between the US and Israel over "colonization in a precise district of east Jerusalem." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls to halt what the international community has slammed as 'illegal' settlements on occupied Palestrina territory. He claims Israel's sovereignty over al-Quds is "non-negotiable" as "unified Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the state of Israel," .... President Barack Obama's administration reportedly summoned Israel's ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, last week to convey their objections to the plans. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls to halt what the international community has slammed as 'illegal' settlements on occupied Palestrina territory.