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Yahoo Nearing $1.1B Acquisition Of Tumblr

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:52:56 GMT

Yahoo is on the verge of buying Tumblr in an attempt to attract more traffic and advertisers to the Internet company's website and mobile applications.

Tumblr would be the biggest acquisition during the 10-month reign of CEO Marissa Mayer.

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company's board of directors will meet Sunday evening to consider approving a $1.1 billion acquisition of online content-sharing site Tumblr in a deal Mayer negotiated, according to the technology news site All Things D. The story posted late Friday cited anonymous sources.

If Yahoo Inc.'s board signs off, the deal could be announced Monday.

In an invitation sent Friday, Yahoo promised to unveil "something special" Monday evening in New York. The event is being held in a Times Squares lounge located about two miles from Tumblr's headquarters.

Yahoo has only said that Mayer will be on hand to unveil something related to a product. A company spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the potential Tumblr acquisition.

Buying Tumblr would fulfill Mayer's goal of reaching a wider audience on smartphones and tablet computers.

Tumblr serves up a constantly changing collage of stories, photos and other digital content served up by users who are increasingly connecting to the service through its mobile applications. The service is also one of the hottest sites among teens and young adults, a demographic that Mayer, 37, thinks Yahoo needs to do a better job of reaching.

If it's completed, the Tumblr deal would be Mayer's biggest coup — and, at the same time, the biggest risk — since she ended her 13-year career as a key executive at Google Inc. to try to snap Yahoo out of a prolonged malaise that had demoralized employees and investors alike.

Since her arrival, Mayer has been focused on redesigning several Yahoo services and bringing in more mobile engineering talent, primarily by buying a series of small startups.

None of those previous acquisitions have required Yahoo to dip too deeply into its bank account. Late last year, Yahoo paid a total of $7 million for two startups called OnTheAir and Stamped. In the first three months of this year, Yahoo snapped up three more startups for a total of $10 million, according to the company's regulatory filings.

Tumblr, founded in 2007 by its CEO David Karp, presumably would become a pivotal part of Mayer's effort to sell more advertising.

Mayer has been winning back investors, even though the company's revenue is still lagging the overall growth of the booming Internet and mobile advertising market. Yahoo's stock price has risen 69 percent under Mayer's leadership.

Yahoo shares fell 6 cents Friday to close at $26.52.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

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Orb Loses Preakness, Triple Crown Hope

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:45:37 GMT

Oxbow won the Preakness on Saturday ruining Orb's bid, as the favorite, to capture the Triple Crown.

Thoroughbred racing will have to wait at least another year for its first Triple Crown champion since Affirmed in 1978.

Oxbow led from start to finish. It was the sixth Preakness victory for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and 15th Triple Crown win, the most in horse racing history.

"I get paid to spoil dreams," Wane Lukas said to NBC immediately after the race.

"It's so special," Oxbow's Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens said after the race. "We were flying under the radar after the derby and didn't get a lot of respect even with the great performance...We came in here with a lot of confidence."

Oxbow ran the 1 3/16th miles Preakness in 1:57:54 and had 15 to 1 odds of winning the race. Oxbow was sixth in the Kentucky Derby. He went off as a 15-1 underdog and paid $32.80, $12 and $8.80.

Orb, and his Dominican jockey Joel Rosario, finished fourth. The Kentucky Derby winner was a 3-5 favorite in Saturday's race, but he became another casualty of starting on the rail in the Preakness. Since 1950, only two horses have won the middle jewel of the Triple Crown from the No. 1 post position.

"I thought we were in a good position, the pace was slower than I really anticipated," Orb's owner Stuart Janney said. "I'm disappointed and I'll probably be more disappointed tomorrow than I am today."

Orb's five-race winning streak ended on an overcast, windy day at Pimlico Race Course. The brown colt had not lost since Nov. 24.Orb extended his winning streak to five with a thrilling victory in the Derby two weeks ago, when jockey Rosario patiently guided the colt from 17th to first in the final half mile over a sloppy track.

Rosario had said he didn't think the inside start on the rail "would be a problem" for Orb.

"Thought we were going to be fine," Rosario said after the race. "Once I passed half a mile he had a hard time to keep going. When I passed the half mile, I worried a little about it."

As for the Triple Crown? Eleven horses have done it, 19 failed and three others did not run in the Belmont.

Itsmyluckyday finished second and paid $7.80 and $5. Mylute paid $5.20 to show. Mylute, with Rosie Napravnik in the saddle, came in fifth in the Kentucky Derby. Racing at the track where she earned her first career victory, Napravnik was attempting to become the first female jockey to win the Preakness.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Murder: Missing Army Vet's Body Found

Sat, 18 May 2013 19:32:51 GMT

Autopsy results have confirmed that a body found in the wilderness near a California canyon is that of missing army veteran Maribel Ramos, police announced Friday, and her roommate has been arrested for murder.

Ramos, 36, was set to graduate from Cal State Fullerton University later this month, and was last seen on surveillance video dropping off her rent check about 8:30 p.m. May 2 in Orange, Orange police Lt. Dave Hill said.

Ramos's body was discovered at Modjeska Canyon on Thursday afternoon.

The murder suspect is Ramos's former 54 year-old roommate Kwang Chol "KC" Joy.

Joy was taken in for questioning by Orange P.D. early Friday, and later arrested, suspected in her murder.

A motive remains unclear.

Ramos served in the Army for eight years, including two tours of duty in Iraq and South Korea, before she was honorably discharged in 2008. She was majoring in criminal justice.

Maribel, who served 2 tours of duty in Iraq, was last seen at her apartment in Orange on May 2nd.

Her family reported her missing the next day when she didn't show up for a scheduled veterans event and a softball game. Right before she disappeared, the family says Maribel had asked her roommate to move out.

Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

Based on reporting by Myfoxla.com.

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Abductor Messed With The Wrong Mom

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:07:42 GMT

A New Mexico woman said Friday she was just following her motherly instincts when she chased down the man suspected of abducting her 4-year-old girl and crashed her vehicle into his car.

Melissa Torrez didn't even think when teenagers in her apartment complex said a man had just grabbed her 4-year-old girl and drove away.

She jumped in her car and began chasing the brown Buick through traffic, zigzagging on Interstate 40 at high speeds and staying with the car even as it bluffed trying to exit in an attempt to lose her.

Many called Torrez a hero after her story came out Wednesday.

"My mind went black. I grabbed my keys," said the 27-year-old mother of three. "I just got in my car and I ... went looking for her."

Torrez said she remained only focused on getting her daughter back and quickly drove around the complex as teenagers chased the suspected abductor, later identified by police as 31-year-old David Hernandez. The teenagers pointed out his whereabouts, she said.

Torrez said she eventually found a man in a brown Buick who led her on a high-speed chase throughout Albuquerque.

"I felt like I was flying ... as if I didn't have my soul or something," she said.

The frantic mom was able to corner the man in the Buick at an apartment complex with no exit. She said as she drove toward his vehicle, she lost control of her car and struck his car.

"I wasn't trying to hit it because I thought my daughter was inside," Torrez said.

Torrez said the man got out of the car and raised his hands but took off running when police arrived. She then ran toward the car to search for her daughter but the vehicle was empty. An empty infant car seat was the only thing left.

According to a police report, Hernandez pushed the 4-year-old out of the car at the Saint Anthony's Plaza Apartment complex shortly after the abduction "presumably once he noticed Torrez had been notified and was following him."

Authorities said the child was uninjured.

Torrez said she found out that her daughter was safe when neighbors called her.

Police arrested Hernandez the next day following a massive manhunt that involved Homeland Security Investigations and the newly created multiagency called Sexual Predator and Exploitation Enforcement Detail, or SPEED, a task force aimed at finding missing and abducted children.

Hernandez was charged with kidnapping and child abuse. He told reporters Thursday he was innocent.

It was unclear if he had an attorney.

Police were also investigating a possible connection to the abduction and sexual assault of a 6-year-old from the same apartment complex last week. The suspect in that case was described as a male in a silver or gray vehicle.

Gilbert Hernandez, 25, a resident at the St. Anthony's, said he found the 6-year-old last week and was the one who contacted police.

"This place isn't safe. People always let their kids run around here," Hernandez said. "We are all on the lookout now."

Torrez said the ordeal has left her on edge. "I'm overprotective, but I'm even more overprotective now," she said. "That's my baby."

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

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Military Checkpoints, Frisks Hit Venezuela

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:22:36 GMT

Since Monday, in the socialist government's latest attempt to control Venezuela's pandemic of violence, President Nicolás Maduro has sent the military into slums to frisk local residents and man dozens of military checkpoints.

Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas.

Flashlights in his face, the driver steps out and places his hands on the roof while the soldiers frisk him for drugs and weapons.

He's clean, and a hand gesture from the commanding officer sends him off into the maze of ramshackle homes that is Petare, one of the most dangerous parts of Venezuela's notoriously crime-infested capital. This scene is playing out day and night at dozens of military checkpoints.

Critics dismiss the "Secure Homeland" initiative as a political charade that risks degenerating into human rights abuses while having no lasting impact on crime. But to many residents, weary of being terrorized by armed gangs, seeing troops on the streets is a welcome projection of government power.

"You have to act forcefully so that people feel the force of the state," said 47-year-old Irving Garcia, an unemployed former Army reservist, who like many Caracas residents has firsthand experience of violent crime. Garcia said he was shot in the chest when he unknowingly walked into a restaurant robbery. The bullet shattered his sternum, he said, inviting a reporter to feel a piece of protruding bone through his shirt.

With some 15,000 killings a year, Venezuela's homicide rate is the fifth highest in the world, according to U.N. statistics. The murder rate doubled during the 14-year-rule of the late President Hugo Chávez as cheap access to guns and an ineffective justice system fed a culture of violence in slums like Petare, parts of which have become no-go zones for outsiders, including police.

Chávez banned gun sales, expanded a new national police force and stepped up policing and other programs in high-crime areas. Now, his hand-picked successor, Maduro, is adding military muscle by deploying 3,000 troops on the streets. The initiative started in the Caracas area on Monday and will be expanded to the states of Zulia, Lara and Carabobo next week.

Human rights activists worry that sending soldiers trained for warfare on policing missions will only make things worse for the residents they are meant to protect.

"It's going to aggravate the situation, unfortunately, because the army isn't prepared to deal with issues of public safety," said Liliana Ortega, director of the COFAVIC human rights group. "We have various emblematic cases in which the use of the armed forces resulted in disproportional force."

She said they include the 1989 street riots known as the "Caracazo," when 300 people were killed, and a 1992 prison riot in Caracas in which 63 prisoners died.

The soldiers, who work together with the National Guard and national police force, have the power to make arrests but are supposed to hand over the detainees to civilian authorities. Any human rights abuses would be tried by civilian courts, according to the constitution.

In deeply divided Venezuela, there are also concerns over the initiative's political undertones. Maduro narrowly won an April 14 presidential election that the opposition claims he stole through fraud, voter intimidation and abuse of government powers. Some of the first military units were deployed in areas under the political control of the opposition.

Petare, for example, lies in Miranda state, which is governed by Henrique Capriles, Maduro's challenger in the presidential election. The mayor overseeing Petare also is from the opposition.

On Tuesday night, the military commander in charge of the troops in Petare, Gen. Antonio Benavides, led a motorcycle-borne unit roaring up deserted, winding streets, with a gaggle of journalists in tow. They stopped for a meeting with grass-roots Chavistas in the hilltop Bombilla neighborhood.

"How often does the mayor come here? How often does the governor come here?" Benavides asked the crowd of about 40 people. "Never," they replied, unanimously.

A Capriles poster on a staircase above the outdoor gathering indicated not everyone here supports the government.

David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the University of Georgia, said that for Maduro, the security initiative was both "an effort to fight crime and an effort to maintain or recover support in places where it has been declining because of crime and violence, among other issues."

Though the idea of using military force against criminals resonates among Venezuelans, Smilde said, it would probably amount to little more than setting up road blocks and trying to project a presence on street corners. "But of course that just means that crime takes place a block away," he said.

Some in Petare said the success of the initiative would depend not only on the soldiers' ability to hunt down criminals and delinquents, but to win the trust of its law-abiding residents.

"What matters is how they are integrating with society, what they teach our young," said Carmen Aponte, 47.

At one checkpoint, on a potholed street where stray dogs rummaged through foul-smelling litter from a daytime food market, irritated taxi drivers complained that the stop-and-search was bad for business.

"They make it hard for us," said Jorge Torres, 50. "We can't stop anywhere we want to and people don't know where we can pick them up."

He conceded the area was safer, for now, but predicted the military presence would be short lived. The government has said the soldiers will stay in the streets for a few months until regular law enforcement units can be boosted by new recruits.

"Once they leave, everything changes," Torres said.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

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MX: 'Missing People' Police Force Coming

Sat, 18 May 2013 14:30:13 GMT

There are at least 26,121 people who went missing in the past six years in Mexico, according to President Enrique Peña Nieto's government, and now they are going to do something about it.

Mexico's government says it will create a special investigative unit to search for the missing, heeding a request by relatives of the disappeared who have been on a hunger strike for nine days.

Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam made the announcement Friday after meeting with a group of parents who have been on a hunger strike and living in tents outside his office.

Murillo Karam says the special unit will guarantee that the same investigators and forensic experts remain on the cases until they are completed.

He said more details about the new unit will be made public in a week.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

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'American Idol' Finale Hits Record Low

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:56:20 GMT

Ratings for the "American Idol" finale plunged to a record low for the 12-year-old show.

According to Nielsen Co. figures Friday, Candice Glover's victory over Kree Harrison was watched by 14.3 million viewers. That's a 33 percent drop from the year before, when 21.5 million viewers saw Phillip Phillips claim the "Idol" crown. That represented the show's previous record low finale audience.

"American Idol" saw an even steeper 44 percent drop among advertiser-coveted young adults for Thursday's finale.

The lack of interest in the winner of this year's contest parallels the show's declining ratings for the season. Fox is scrambling to revive the singing contest that once dominated TV, revamping the judges' panel and making yet-to-be detailed format changes.

Original judge Randy Jackson has already announced his exit.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

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IRS Scandal To Hurt Health Care Law?

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:05:04 GMT

Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage.

The Internal Revenue Service has a major role in carrying out President Barack Obama's health care law, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will take down the Affordable Care Act.

There is a link, but it may only be coincidence. No one appears to have connected the dots factually, and it's unclear whether they will.

The IRS is highly involved in the health care law because financial assistance to help the uninsured afford coverage will be funneled through the tax system. At the same time, the IRS is also responsible for penalties on individuals and employers who fail to comply with the law's requirements.

But the really tantalizing connection is that a former head of the office that subjected tea-party groups seeking tax exemptions to tougher scrutiny is now running the tax agency's division in charge of implementing the health care law.

That official apparently switched roles before internal alarm bells went off about the problem. But feed all that into today's frenzied world of online speculation, and red-meat associations are irresistible.

In Saturday's weekly GOP radio and Internet address, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris tried to make the connection.

"If we've learned anything this week, it's that the IRS needs less power, not more," Harris said. "As matter of fact, it turns out that the IRS official who oversaw the operation that's under scrutiny for targeting conservatives is now in charge of the IRS's Obamacare office. You can't make this stuff up."

Earlier in the week, debating the latest GOP bill to try to repeal the health care law, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., also reached for a link. Citing the IRS role in administering the law, she said: "Under Obamacare, the average American will pay more, they'll get less, and now they have to worry that their government may punish them because of their beliefs."

Nonsense, says Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees the IRS.

"There really isn't a tie," said Levin. "This is another effort by the Republicans to essentially try to score political points."

The head of the IRS health care office, Sarah Hall Ingram, was in charge of the tax exempt division when agents first started improperly targeting conservative groups over their applications for tax-exempt status. The fallout has already led to the ouster of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, followed by the announcement that the current head of the division will retire.

But the IRS said Ingram was re-assigned to help the agency implement the health care law in December 2010, about six months before a Treasury inspector general's report said her subordinate, the director of exempt organizations, learned about the targeting.

"There isn't any evidence that Sarah Ingram had any inkling of the problems," said Levin. In contrast, Levin continued, ousted commissioner Miller failed to adequately inform Congress after he learned.

At a congressional hearing on the IRS scandal Friday, Miller was grilled by Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, about Ingram's shift to running the IRS health care office.

Tiberi: "Why would you promote somebody to that position who was in charge of the exempt organization division, which certainly has had some controversy over the last couple years, under an investigation?

Miller: "Because she's a superb civil servant, sir."

Tiberi: "So she had nothing to do with this?"

Miller: "I wouldn't imagine so."

GOP lawmakers are smart to be looking for a connection, said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, but must be careful not to overplay their hand.

The health care law "is 50-50 with the public on a good day," said Davis. "You put that together with the IRS and it's combustible. For Republicans, I think they need to go a little slower and get some facts in."

"I don't think it's just a couple of underlings, but they don't have any smoking gun yet," he added.

Though it plays a crucial role in carrying out the health care law, the IRS is part of the back-office operation. IRS agents won't be setting up health insurance markets, and they won't have a say in which health plans people get to pick or what doctors they see.

However, agency officials will determine who is eligible for financial assistance under the law — and who must pay penalties.

The reason the IRS is involved in what's essentially a social program is that lawmakers crafted the financial subsidies available under the health law as tax credits. The agency already administers another major social program, the earned income tax credit, which long ago surpassed welfare as the main source of government assistance for low-income families.

The IRS handles four major components of the health care law. The most important one is determining if individual Americans are entitled to new tax credits to help pay private insurance premiums. It's a complex calculation.

Keyed to income on a sliding scale, the credits are available starting in 2014 to households making up to four times the federal poverty level, or about $94,000 for a family of four. Individuals or families are eligible if they don't have affordable coverage on the job. But if you understate your income to get a bigger credit, you'll owe more taxes next year.

The agency is also in charge of assessing penalties on people who ignore the law's requirement to carry health insurance, which applies to virtually all Americans starting next year.

On the employer side, the IRS administers a tax credit to help small businesses with low-wage employees afford coverage, and it's also in charge of imposing penalties on companies with 50 or more employees that don't offer coverage.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

Cuba's LGBT Community Celebrates

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:52:57 GMT

Gays were persecuted for decades after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, sometimes sent to grueling rural work camps along with others considered socially suspect by the Communist government.

But there has been a gradual shift away from macho attitudes, and Fidel Castro himself has publicly regretted the mistreatment of people seen as different.

This week, drag shows, colorful marches and social and cultural events in Havana culminated Friday with celebrations of the International Day Against Homophobia in a sign of perhaps growing shifts in attitudes towards the island's gay community.

Hundreds of activists have taken part in the activities organized by a sex education center headed by first daughter Mariela Castro.

"Join (us) to educate families about their great social responsibility to ensure that there is no discrimination of any kind," Castro said.

The schedule included a gala bash at the capital's cavernous Karl Marx theater, with drag performers on stage with the popular musical group Los Van Van. Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel attended.

Six years ago, Cuba's health care system began providing gender reassignment surgery free of charge, and a proposal to legalize same-sex civil unions is being studied.

But Mariela Castro, Fidel's niece and the daughter of current president Raul Castro, says more must be done to raise awareness about lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

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Trend-Setting Tejano Singer Immortalized

Victor Garcia — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:35:36 GMT

Tejano music legend Lydia Mendoza is being recognized, immortalized and given the respect many feels she deserves for her contributions to the American musical scene.

The United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating "The Lark Of The Border," her nickname, whose minimalist Tejano sound was compared to a Spanish-language version of the blues.

"The Postal Service is proud to introduce its new Music Icons stamp series with the issuance of this Forever Stamp honoring the first lady of Tejano music, Lydia Mendoza," said Marie Therese Dominguez, Vice-President of Government Relations and Public Policy for the postal service.

"Mendoza was a true American pioneer, whose unique voice and style of singing, paved the way for a whole new generation of Latino performers," Dominguez added. "Her impact on music guarantees her place in American music history, and today her legacy continues on 30 million postage stamps."

The Music Icons Series isn't some obscure list. Some of the other icons to be released as part of this stamp series include renowned crooners such as Johnny Cash and Ray Charles.

Mendoza performed the Spanish-language music of the Texas-Mexico borderlands, singing to and about the poor and working-class people on both sides of the Rio Grande.

Mendoza was soulful and usually accompanied only by her 12-string guitar.

She recorded more than a thousand songs in a career that lasted seven decades.

Her first hit was "Mal Hombre" in 1934 and her career included many major highlights such as singing at Jimmy Carter's inaugural celebration in 1977, receiving a National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and being awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Clinton in 1999.

Mendoza retired in 1988 after suffering a stroke. She died in San Antonio in 2007 at 91.

Mendoza's stamp features the singer at her peak, wearing a traditional Mexican-styled dress and holding her guitar with the Texas flag superimposed in color over her.

Mendoza isn't the only Latino musician to be immortalized by the U.S. Postal Service.

Ritchie Valens was put on a stamp in 1993 and in 2011 the postal service released a Latin Music Legends series, which featured Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Carmen Miranda, Carlos Gardel and Selena.

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Millions Of U.S. Expatriates, Study Says

Fri, 17 May 2013 20:33:22 GMT

Millions of Americans live outside the United States, though as a group they remain an enigma, according to a new report.

Between 2.2 million to 6.8 million Americans live in another country, either on a temporary basis or permanently, said a report called "Counting the Uncountable: Overseas Americans," published on the Migration Policy Institute website.

Americans are the most broadly dispersed people in the world, living in at least 100 countries. Mexico and Canada, however, are home to the largest population of U.S. citizens.

"Americans leave the United States for a variety of reasons, most commonly for marriage or partnership, study or research, or employment," the report said. "Many originally intended to return to the United States after a limited period overseas, but prolonged their stay when an employment contract was extended, when they met and remained with a partner, or stumbled upon an unexpected work opportunity."

The report was authored by Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels of the University of Kent at Brussels and Joe Costanzo of George Mason University.

American expatriates are involved in a variety of jobs and activities overseas. About one-fifth of nearly 900 Americans the authors surveyed for their report were working in education, many of them teaching English. Another fifth were working in IT or communications.

Others are veterans of the U.S. armed services, the report said, "who have remained overseas after retirement, or after the conclusion of a conflict or a tour of duty, often marrying local residents."

The authors conceded that coming up with a number of Americans overseas "is a significant challenge."

"Unlike many countries, the United States does not require its citizens to register a place of residence, either in the United States or abroad," the report said. "Further, there is no longer a central database against which to calculate U.S. citizen departures. Nevertheless most estimates do show an upward trend over time."

Estimates of how many Americans become expatriates each year varies widely, with ranges from 18,000 to 45,000, the report said.

"The United States is not the only country to struggle with counting its population living abroad," the report noted. "Most countries do not enumerate those leaving as carefully as they do those arriving; the United States is no exception."

But countries should track how many of their citizens live in other countries, the report said, because their residence elsewhere has an impact in both their adopted homeland as well as the one they left behind.

Expatriates, for instance, often remain involved in their homeland's politics.

"One reason for the interest in knowing how many citizens live overseas is the role of external citizens in home-country elections," the report said. "Their impact, in countries across the globe, has grown in recent years."

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OAS Report Eyes Pot Decriminalization

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:27:59 GMT

A new Organization of American States study commissioned in response to calls by some Latin American leaders for rethinking the drug war discusses possible decriminalization of consumption of marijuana as part of a public health approach.

The $2.2 million study makes no firm recommendations, instead suggesting several possible ways to stem the illicit drug trade, which has fueled violent crime and corruption and even destabilized governments.

The study emphasizes drug abuse as primarily a public health issue. That echoes the approach of the U.S. government. But the U.S. has strongly opposed decriminalization even though voters in two states have legalized marijuana.

The OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said nations must take a multifaceted, flexible, approach that takes into account differences, and the countries of the regions must be united in their diversity.

In the Americas, Insulza said, "approximately 45 percent of all the cocaine users in the world are found, approximately half of the heroin users and a quarter of the total marijuana users. The consumption of cocaine paste, crack, inhalants, amphetamines and the abuse of legal drugs has increased."

He also said that this consumption "generates some 151 billion dollars in drug retail alone" in the hemisphere.

The report was presented Friday by Insulza in Bogota to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

"We have tried not to silence or hide anything," he said in his speech Friday. In order to "show the problem just as it is."

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.

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