News Makers

Swiss discoverer of LSD dies, aged 102

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died aged 102, the organization that republished his book on the mind-altering substance said.

Hofmann, who advocated the medicinal properties of the drug he termed his "problem child", died from a heart attack at his home in Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday, the California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) said on its website.

Born Jan 11, 1906, Hofmann discovered LSD - which later became the favored drug of the 1960s counter-culture - when a tiny quantity leaked on to his hand during a laboratory experiment in 1943. He noted a "remarkable restlessness, combined with slight dizziness" that made him stop his work.

"At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxication-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination," Hofmann said of the experience.

"In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight too unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors," Hofmann wrote in his book "LSD - My Problem Child."

"After some two hours this condition faded away."

DNA frees Texas man jailed for 27 years

A man walked out of a Dallas court on Tuesday after DNA testing overturned his conviction over 27 years ago for the murder and rape of his girlfriend, local media reported.

James Woodward, 55, spent more time in prison than any other wrongfully convicted inmate in US history who was subsequently freed by DNA testing, local media reported.

He was also the eighteenth person freed in Dallas County based on a post-conviction DNA analysis, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in righting grave miscarriages of justice.

That is more than any other US county, highlighting problems in the local justice system that include what critics have said is a history of racism and racial profiling.

Woodward is a black male - the typical profile of those wrongfully sent to prison in Dallas and elsewhere in the United States.

"We've reached a tipping point on wrongful convictions in Texas. Nobody can seriously doubt that there's a problem," the Innocence project quoted Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis as saying on Tuesday.

Ellis said on Tuesday a summit would be held in the state capital of Austin on May 8 to determine the causes of wrongful convictions in Texas and identify reforms that can prevent them.

Ex-president cleared over 2001 killings

An Argentine court dropped charges on Tuesday against former President Fernando de la Rua over the killing of five protesters in demonstrations that forced him from office in late 2001.

De la Rua fled the country's pink presidential palace by helicopter after demonstrators and police clashed in the streets of Buenos Aires at the height of a 2001-2002 economic and political crisis.

A judge accused him last year of "not using the tools" available to him as president to prevent the bloodshed. But a federal court reversed an indictment against him and said he would no longer be investigated.

Thousands of people flooded the streets to demand De la Rua's resignation after the government froze bank accounts to stem a run on deposits, angering middle-class Argentines who feared losing their savings.

The country was suffering a sharp recession as a one-to-one currency peg to the dollar became unsustainable, and jobless and poverty rates began to soar.

Argentina defaulted on some $100 billion in sovereign debt after De la Rua left office and devalued its currency, in the country's biggest-ever economic meltdown.

Agencies

(China Daily 05/01/2008 page6)