BRUSSELS, Mar 1 (IPS) - A growing number of people are getting addicted to tranquillisers and other prescription drugs, and this abuse is set to exceed illicit drug abuse, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) warns in a report published Thursday. In the United States, abuse of prescription medicines has gone beyond the abuse levels of practically all illicit drugs, with the exception of cannabis. In 2003, 15 million North Americans abused prescription drugs, says the report.

Washington D.C., November 21, 2006 - Mexican authorities released a groundbreaking report over the weekend on the government's use of violent repression to crush its opponents during the 1960s-80s. The full report has now been posted here on the Web site of the National Security Archive.

Washington D.C., December 12, 2006 - As Chile prepared to bury General Augusto Pinochet, the National Security Archive today posted a selection of declassified U.S. documents that illuminate the former dictator's record of repression. The documents include CIA records on Pinochet's role in the Washington D.C.

Yahoo...journalists...freedom of expression...Do these words prompt any recollections?

Governments in the region should stop wasting time and resources cracking down on bloggers and should focus more on the benefits they can gain from blogging. Blogs can give indications of trends and public opinion regarding pressing issues in every country, and leaders and officials should learn to be more open to criticism: They should realize that being in the public eye does not give them some kind of immunity. On the contrary, it is the other way around.

Do not pity or jeer Washington alone, for every single player in this tale - the United States, Hizbullah, the Lebanese government, Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia - wriggles uncomfortably in the mess they collectively created through their shortsighted policies of recent years.

The Hollywood blockbuster, The Departed, which was adapted from the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, captured four awards at this year's Oscars, including Best Picture. It was an opportunity to acknowledge the achievements of Hong Kong filmmakers before a global viewing audience of a billion people, but because of a mistake, credit was given to the Japanese instead.

Stretching over more than 4,000 kilometres, the Niger is West Africa's longest river, and greatly threatened in the country of the same name by environmental degradation that is causing the water course to silt up.

An open letter demanding "an immediate halt to the deforestation of the Amazon jungle" has been released by Brazilian television stars taking part in the Globo Network series " Amazónia, de Galvez a Chico Mendes" (Amazonia, from Galvez to Chico Mendes).

But the team, known as the "Baghdad brains trust" and ensconced in the heavily fortified Green Zone around the US embassy, is struggling to overcome a range of entrenched problems in what has become a race against time, said a former senior administration official familiar with their deliberations. "They know they are operating under a clock. They know they are going to hear a lot more talk in Washington about 'Plan B' by the autumn - meaning withdrawal.