Canada: Marijuana will be legal nationwide in Canada starting on October 17 in a move that should take market share away from organised crime and protect the country's youth, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today. The Senate gave final passage to the bill to legalise cannabis yesterday, legislation that will make Canada only the second country in the world to make pot legal across the country. Trudeau said provincial and territorial governments need the time to prepare for retail sales. "It is our hope as of October 17 there will be a smooth operation of retail cannabis outlets operated by the provinces with an online mail delivery system operated by the provinces that will ensure that this happens in an orderly fashion," Trudeau said. The prime minister said at a news conference that the goal is to take a significant part of the market share away from organised crime. Canada is following the lead of Uruguay in allowing a nationwide, legal marijuana market, although each Canadian province is working up its own rules for pot sales. The federal government and the provinces also still need to publish regulations that will govern the cannabis trade.
Space: A dust storm at Mars is now global, keeping Nasa's Opportunity rover out of touch with Earth. Flight controllers lost contact with the rover more than a week ago. At the time, the dust storm covered one-fourth of Mars. Nasa said today the storm now encircles the red planet, with only tall volcano peaks and the poles exposed to the sun. Without sunlight, the solar-powered Opportunity can only hunker down and wait for the sky to clear. Nasa's nuclear-powered rover Curiosity is unaffected and is studying the extreme weather conditions. Mars hasn't seen a storm like this since 2007.
United States: Heavy rains along the Texas coast have caused flooding in areas that were hit hard by Hurricane Harvey less than a year ago. National Weather Service meteorologist Tyler Castillo said that since yesterday, rain of 13 to 25cm was widespread along the Texas coast from the border to around 200km south of Houston, with up to 35cm in isolated areas. Port Aransas, which was devastated when Harvey hit last August, was among the cities inundated. Port Aransas police Chief Scott Burroughs said that "just about every street in town was flooded at some point" today. He said they also had a few reports of water getting into some residences but no "major incidents."
Belgium: Leaders from a group of European Union countries, led by Germany and France, will meet late on Sunday NZT to thrash out possible solutions to a divisive row over migrants. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose own Government is in crisis over the management of migrant arrivals, is expected to join the leaders of Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands and Spain for "informal talks" at European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said. The UN refugee agency estimates that around 40,000 people have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, around half the number who had entered at this time in 2017.
United States: A Wisconsin game warden was smarter than the average bear. Department of Natural Resources warden Dave Walz was called to an Eagle River home in northern Wisconsin to help rescue a bear cub trapped in a newly built open basement. Walz and the homeowner decided to use a ladder to rescue the crying cub. Video shot by Walz shows the animal climbing the ladder to freedom with some off-camera coaching. The cub's mother was watching from a distance. After scaling the ladder, the cub ran off.
