"Ice-Pick That Killed Trotsky Found in Mexico"

Jo Tuckman, London Guardian

Mexico City — One of the most notorious murder weapons in modern history, the
ice-pick that killed Leon Trotsky, appears to have been found, 65
years after it was apparently stolen from the Mexican police.

The daughter of a former secret service agent claims she has the
steel mountaineering instrument, which is stained with the blood
of the Russian revolutionary.

Exiled by Joseph Stalin, Trotsky lived a relatively settled life
in a suburb of Mexico City until his death in 1940.

Trotsky was always fearful of assassination attempts organised by
Stalin. He was finally caught off guard by Ramon Mercader, who on
August 20, 1940 gained access to him on the pretext of needing
help.

Once in the study, Mercader struck the creator of the Red Army in
the head from behind with the shortened pick he had hidden under
his clothes.

Murderer and ice-pick were taken into custody but the weapon
later disappeared.

Now Ana Alicia Salas says her father, Commander Alfredo Salas,
stole the pick because he wanted to preserve it for posterity.

Trotsky's grandson Seva Volkov, who lived with his grandfather at
the time and still lives in Mexico, is willing to provide samples
for a DNA test against the blood on the handle only if Ms Salas
donates the pick to the museum in the house where the murder took
place.

But she said: "I am looking for some financial benefit. I think
something as historically important at this should be worth
something, no?"

"Writer and Activist Marty Jezer Dies"

Randy Holhut, Brattleboro Reformer

Brattleboro, Vermont — Journalist, political activist and author Marty Jezer died Saturday morning at the age of 64 at his Prospect Street home, after a long fight against testicular cancer.

The writer and activist part of Jezer's life is storied. He was deeply involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s.

His biographies — Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel (1992) and Rachel Carson: Biologist and Author (1988) — and his 1982 history of post-World War II America, The Dark Ages: Life in the United States 1945–1960, are notable works of scholarship.

"Ethiopia Arrests Opposition Members After Clashes"

Katie Nguyen

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) — Ethiopian security forces rounded up some opposition members on Thursday, a day after police and troops fired into crowds killing at least 26 people in an explosion of violence sparked by election protests.

The main opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), which the government accused of inciting the protesters, said 14 members had been arrested since Wednesday's clashes, the worst bloodshed in the capital Addis Ababa in four years.

One CUD leader was also under house arrest, it said.

"Their aim is to destroy any meaningful opposition," CUD deputy chairman Berhanu Nega told Reuters.

With Addis Ababa residents still in shock over Wednesday's violence, troops patrolled deserted streets and most shops remained shut. Blue cabs that usually clog the capital's streets were nowhere to be seen on the second day of a taxi strike.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against Use of Medical Marijuana

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a setback to the
medical marijuana movement, ruling that federal narcotics laws make
it a crime to grow and use the drug even when it never crosses state
lines and is used only to relieve pain or nausea.

The justices today said Congress's power over interstate commerce is
broad enough to let it ban locally grown and used medical marijuana.

The 6-3 ruling, issued in Washington, overturns a lower court
decision that had let two California women use cannabis to treat
pain, nausea and other symptoms.

California and nine other states exempt seriously ill people from
laws banning cultivation and use of marijuana. Today's ruling means
people in those states nonetheless will face the risk of federal
prosecution if they use or distribute marijuana.

The case is Ashcroft v. Raich, 03-1454.