In brief: N. Korea nuclear envoy to visit U.S.
SEOUL, South Korea – In another sign of warming relations between two wartime foes, a senior North Korean nuclear negotiator will attend a security conference in the United States, a U.S. official confirmed Thursday.
Word of Ri Yong Ho’s visit to the forum held by Syracuse University comes on the heels of a breakthrough agreement that will provide much-needed U.S. food aid to North Korea in exchange for a rollback of its nuclear programs.
Iran parliament elections begin
TEHRAN, Iran – Polls opened in Iran’s parliamentary elections today, the country’s first major voting since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 and the mass protests and crackdowns that followed.
The balloting for the 290-member parliament is unlikely to change Iran’s course over major policies – including its nuclear standoff with the West – regardless of who wins, but it may shape the political landscape for a successor to Ahmadinejad in 2013.
Dispensaries must grow pot on site
LOS ANGELES – California cities may not ban medical marijuana dispensaries, but the operations may sell only marijuana that is grown on site, an appeals court ruled in an Orange County case.
The unanimous decision by a three-judge Court of Appeal panel in Santa Ana was the first in the state to prohibit cities from enacting zoning restrictions that effectively ban all marijuana dispensaries. The court was also the first to rule that dispensaries must grow the marijuana they sell, a requirement that would force most of them out of business.
The ruling, issued late Wednesday, struck down a zoning law in the city of Lake Forest that the judges said amounted to “a total bar contradicting state law.”
“A local government cannot ban as a nuisance exactly what the Legislature contemplated would occur at cooperative and collective medical marijuana cultivation sites,” Justice Richard M. Aronson wrote.
Police say man fired rifle at school
WILLCOX, Ariz. – A man fired a rifle indiscriminately at a southeastern Arizona high school Thursday afternoon, wounding a 17-year-old boy, police said.
Arthur J. Tineo, 40, was arrested shortly after the shooting at Willcox High School, and the weapon he is accused of using was recovered about a block away.
Authorities don’t yet know the motive. It happened shortly after 3 p.m., after classes were done for the day.
The student suffered minor cuts from flying glass when the car he was riding in was shot at.