The movie Traffic is Hollywood's attempt to put the war on drugs on trial. What you aren't likely to see on the silver screen any time soon, however, is the questionable tactics that the White House is using to fight this war.

In case you haven't heard, the U.S. government is hiring private American firms to fight its drug war in South America, a move critics say amounts to hiring mercenaries.

At least four U.S. companies and one Canadian firm are assisting the Colombian military, a force that has come under fire from human rights groups for its role in a brutal civil war.

U.S. authorities are investigating whether suspected terrorists used Nicaragua as a transit point to enter Canada and the United States, a former Nicaraguan diplomat to Canada and press reports from the Central American country say.

During the 1990s, between 400 to 500 nationals of Arab countries were given Nicaraguan citizenship under suspicious circumstances, say media reports from Nicaragua.

According to the newspaper El Nuevo Diaro, one of those who received citizenship was Mohammad Atta.

Trevor Wires* is sprawled on the ground, begging four Vancouver police officers to stop kicking him.

“You got us, please stop!” he yells to the officers who are in the midst of arresting Wires and a friend for auto theft. But instead of stopping, the officers continue to rain “punches and kicks” on the two.

“I begged them to stop,” says Wires. “I was lying face down; I didn’t dare raise my head.

U.S. President George W. Bush is not the brightest kid on the block, but atleast he has a sense of humour.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time," Bush reportedly quippedat a Washington dinner, "and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."