Jerusalem: Israeli soldiers suffering from combat stress after tours of duty in the Palestinian territories could soon be treated with cannabis to relieve their symptoms, the newspaper Ma'ariv reported yesterday.
The mental health department of the Medical Corps is set to to begin tests in the next few days on volunteers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after reserve duty, the paper said.
The scientist who will help conduct the experiment, heads a research team which discovered that cannabis helped mice that had suffered physical stress and even reduced the risk of stroke.
Hundreds of Israelis have been treated for combat stress after performing their mandatory national service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. There was no immediate comment on the report from the Israeli military.
London: A British couple booked themselves into a clinic to quit smoking after a vet said it was the only way to save their beloved sick parrot.
Kevin Barclay and Sharon Wood gave up a 50-cigarette-a-day habit to save their Amazon orange-winged parrot JJ, said the vet, Dr Glen Cousquer of the South Beech Veterinary Surgery in Essex.
"One of the key things that we need to get right with parrots generally is air quality," he said. "I think I must have shaken the owners up quite badly, because the next time I saw them they actually had booked themselves into one of these anti-smoking clinics and were determined to stop. They've gone five weeks," he said.
JJ, he added, was also doing well. "It is certainly going to improve his life expectancy."
Orlando: The search for justice knows no bounds in US courts.
An Associated Press photograph from Florida shows defence attorney Mr Jeff Kaufmann (right), in a Tigger costume ... for his final arguments in the trial of Mr Michael Chartrand who is helping him get dressed.
Mr Chartrand, a character employee at Walt Disney World in Orlando, is on trial for battery and lewd and lascivious molestation charges. He is accused of fondling a 13-year-old girl while he was dressed as the character Tigger. He denies the charges.
Davenport: Thieves in this Iowan city of 98,000 were not slow to spy an opportunity when presidential hopefuls George Bush and John Kerry paid a simultaneous visit on Wednesday.
With most police deployed on protection duty, three bank robbers went to work. Police on foot chased down the suspect in the first robbery, which occurred just about when President Bush was stepping off his plane.
The second and third robberies, at different banks, took place while the two candidates were addressing their respective crowds - which was almost certainly factored into the thieves' thinking, said police Lt Don Gano.
"Without actually talking to the bad guys, that's probably what happened." When police answered the first call, it further thinned their ranks, Gano said.
Vancouver: In British Columbia meanwhile, police are on the lookout for a rollerblading criminal who robbed a woman while she waited in her car at a fast food restaurant's drive-through lane.
The woman told investigators in Vancouver that the man rolled up to her car window on in-line skates late on Tuesday, brandished a knife and demanded cash. She complied and the man skated away with the money.
"The female victim clearly remembers that this male smelled strongly of liquor," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also noted in a press release.