Three U.S Army soldiers, Dwayne Campell, Llewellyn Stamoulis and Romaine May were arrested with having more than 680 pounds of marijuana and $10,000 in cash during a traffic stop in Phoenix, AZ.

The soldiers have been charged with drug transportation, money laundering and conspiracy.

I’m sure they will also face some reprimand from the Army as well.

Guinea’s former army chief and a few other military leaders are facing drug trafficking charges and will appear in court in a few days, the BBC reports.  Ex General Diarra Camara, and his son, Lt. Amara Camara are among the 20 people charged. In addition, eight Nigerians, a Ghanaian and an Israeli are also facing charges. The arrests come after they were investigated for months by the West African nation’s military officials. Nations in the region have become hot spots for drug trafficking, especially cocaine from Latin America, reports the BBC.  

Ellis L. Staten Jr. says he’s innocent and believes police targeted him unfairly. More here.

Dead body was covered in ice. The man whose feet and ankles were photographed upside down – with the rest of his body covered in ice – died of drug use. Wayne County investigators report that Johnny Redding, a middle-aged Michigan drifter, overdosed on cocaine before he was found frozen in the elevator shaft of an abandoned building. Redding’s Reebok gym shoes and sock-covered ankles were the only visible parts of his body in the thick ice that had formed over him. Homeless people used the building to keep warm, though Redding’s family claims he wasn’t homeless. Investigators still don’t know what Redding was doing at the time of his death that caused him to be found submerged in the ice.

Two asthma drugs are under scrutiny. Two widely used asthma drugs may pose more risks than benefits for both children and adults, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said Thursday. Under scrutiny are GlaxoSmithKline’s Serevent and Foradil, made jointly by Novartis AG and Schering-Plough, HealthDay reported Thursday. The health experts did not say that the use of Serevent and Foradil should be abandoned altogether. Instead, they said the medications’ labeling should be reworded to urge doctors to use the drugs along with an inhaled corticosteroid – as guidelines already recommend. For more on controlling asthma, go to BET.com/Body & Soul.

Recall for infant formula spreads. The finding that laboratory tests have detected traces of contamination in several major brands of infant formula in the United States caused concern and confusion Wednesday, with a national consumer’s group and the Illinois attorney general demanding a Food and Drug Administration recall. But the federal agency says it had released inaccurate information on what chemicals were found in which top selling products. As worried parents called manufacturers looking for guidance about the presence of melamine, which had sickened thousands of Chinese babies this year, the FDA reiterated its position that the baby food is safe and parents should continue feeding it to their babies, contending the extremely low levels of contamination do not present a health danger.
South African lives could have been saved. The South African government would have prevented the premature deaths of 365,000 people earlier this decade if it had provided antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients and widely administered drugs to help prevent pregnant women from infecting their babies, a Harvard researchers says. The policies,  which included rejecting antiretroviral drug help from foreign agencies, grew out of President Thabo Mbeki’s denial of the well-established scientific consensus that the HIV virus was the cause of AIDS and the essential role of antiretroviral drugs in treating it.

Your tax dollars may be paying for unauthorized drugs. Tax dollars paid for $200 million in drugs that were never reviewed by the government for safety and effectiveness, an Associated Press investigation has found. The drugs give people a false sense of security, but they are also responsible for dozens of deaths, health officials say. Even so, millions of private patients who qualify for the low-income health care program are taking such drugs, and the government is picking up the tab, according to AP’s analysis of government data. The medications date back decades, before the Food and Drug Administration tightened its review process for drugs in the early 1960s, AP says. The FDA says it is trying to squeeze them from the market, but conflicting federal laws allow the drugs to the Medicaid health program to pay for them. Medicaid officials acknowledge the problem, but say they need Congress to fix loopholes in the laws that allow the unauthorized drugs to continue to qualify for payment.

Teen HIV rate jumps 45 percent in Central Ohio. The number of Central Ohio teenagers and young adults infected with HIV has mushroomed by 45 percent in three years, according to local figures. Of all the Franklin County women living with HIV, nearly three-quarters are African American. As dozens of countries commemorate World AIDS Day on December 1, Central Ohioans need to be reminded that the epidemic continues right here at home. The Ohio Department of Health reports that HIV infections in Central Ohio match the dramatic increases nationwide, especially in African Americans, youth, and women, local officials say. Between 2003 and 2006, the highest new infection rates in Central Ohio were among youth (ages 13-25), up nearly 45 percent. Infections among individuals ages 25-34 were up about 10 percent, and individuals ages 45-64 were up 13 percent. The number of new HIV infection diagnoses in the African American population jumped 22 percent. African American women are disproportionately affected, making up close to 75 percent of all women diagnosed in Franklin County. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than one million Americans are living with HIV. More than a quarter of them don’t even know they are infected. For more on HIV, what causes it, and whether your perceptions about the disease and people who have it are spot on or a little off, see the BET.com/Body & Soul feature “Are You Positive?”

 Young Black women have higher breast cancer rates. The incidence of breast cancer among African-American women under 40 is higher than for White women of the same age, according to the results of an analysis published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on Friday. The researchers studied more than 300,000 cases of breast cancer based on age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, racial and ethnic categories, and pathologic features of the cancer. They found that although White women had higher incidence rates than Black women after age 40, the reverse was true for younger women. In women under 40, the incidence rate per 100,000 woman-years was approximately 17 for Black women, compared with approximately 15 for white women. The discrepancy was even higher for women under age 30. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women in the United States, with about 180,000 cases diagnosed each year. Problems with early screening, which lead to later diagnoses, and access to care have negatively affected Black women’s survival rates, experts say. While mammogram breast screenings are generally advised for women age 40 and old, if the incidence of breast cancer in younger women continues to trend upward, health officials may have to identify either preventive or better screening approaches, including the identification of early risk factors, in younger women. Experts are also studying whether genetics play a role in the higher rates of breast cancer for younger Black women. For more info on breast cancer go to BET.com/lifestye/Body & Soul. 

Singer El DeBarge has been arrested for at least the second time in two years. The former lead performer of the popular ’80s’ and ’90s’ sibling group DeBarge was recently charged with possession of a controlled substance in Los Angeles – the same location where he was arrested in 2007 on charges including vandalism, drug possession and domestic violence. The singer’s youngest brother Jonathan “Chico” DeBarge served prison time for drug-trafficking before launching a moderately successful solo career in the 1990s.

Tyler Perry says he doesn’t demand “Mr.” You don’t have to call Tyler Perry “Mr.” – and it has nothing to do with the fact that he frequently wears dresses. Through a spokesman, the film director and gender-switching “Madea” actor denies New York Post reports that he won’t respond to employees who address him by his first name. “That’s totally preposterous,” says the spokesman. “I call him Tyler. Some people do call him ‘Mr. Perry,’ but it’s out of respect.”

Ex-NFL player gets knocked by feds.

Former Broncos running back Travis Henry is in federal custody after allegedly attempting to make a drug deal in Montana. Henry, who was released by Denver in June after coach Mike Shanahan questioned his commitment, faces a hearing next week on charges that he and James Mack met with an undercover informant, allegedly planning to buy cocaine, the DEA says. Both men are being held on suspicion and conspiracy charges after agents alleged that the pair had plans to distribute the drug. The informant first agreed to cooperate with the government last month, according to affidavits, when he was stopped in Montana in a vehicle carrying six pounds of weed and three kilos of cocaine. He told authorities he was to be paid $5,000 for delivering the drugs allegedly supplied by Henry and Mack, with another $63,600 in proceeds being returned to Henry. The informant allegedly cooperated with Drug Enforcement agents, in exchange for leniency in his own case, leading to Henry’s and Mack’s arrests.

Three suspects were arrested, and guns, bullet-proof vests and drugs were seized

At least three Colorado men, possibly four, have been arrested with rifles, bullet-proof vest, walkie-talkies and camouflage clothes in an alleged plot to kill Sen. Barack Obama, according to reports from news media and law-enforcement agencies. TV station CBS4 reports that the suspects planned to shoot Obama in Denver during his acceptance speech. One suspect was nabbed in Aurora on Sunday, after being stopped by police for swerving in traffic in a rented pickup truck, reports say. Get more details on the plot at BET.com/News.