A southern Dutch city has incurred the ire of nearby Belgian towns by opting to move seven cannabis-vending coffee shops closer to the border to dilute the nuisance it claims is caused by drug tourism.

THE HAGUE, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Dutch so-called smartshops that sell hallucinogenic mushrooms, due to be banned by the Dutch government within months, say the measure is absurd and they will just move on to different drugs.

'It is ridiculous! I don't understand how a Christian government can ban magic mushrooms that were created by God,' Dutch Martijn, 21, told AFP in one of Amsterdam's legal cannabis cafes after admitting that he prefers marijuana.

WASHINGTON, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Syrups and other anti-flu medicines should not be given to children who are six years old or younger, a independent advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

'The committee expressed concern about the lack of studies that positively demonstrate the benefit of these products for children and they were uncomfortable with the extrapolation of the benefits that have been demonstrated in adults to use these products in children,' Doctor John Jenkins, head of the FDA's division that handles new drugs, told reporters.

MADRID, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Spanish police seized 3.7 tonnes of cocaine on a boat in the Atlantic in an operation in which six Dutch and Ghanaians were detained, police said Friday.

The Panamanian flagged ship 'Opnor' was boarded just after a plane had dropped the drug consignment which was picked up by speed boats, a police statement said.

Spanish police believe the cocaine was from Colombia and was headed for the European market.

BANGKOK, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Two Dutchmen and two Belgians alleged to be part of a global drug trafficking gang have been arrested on Thailand's resort island of Samui, police said Friday.

Ronald Koornwinder, 46, and Paulus Meyer, 44, from the Netherlands, and Koen Van Staay, 30 and Kelly Cautereels, 25, from Belgium, were nabbed at a house Thursday on the island, some 670 kilometres (415 miles) south of Bangkok.

OSLO, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - Norwegian police briefly arrested and then fined British soul singer Amy Winehouse for possessing and using marijuana, a lawyer working with the police in Bergen said Friday.

'She spent a few hours in custody from Thursday evening to early Friday, she got a fine and then she was released,' Lars Lothe told AFP.

'The case is over for us,' he added. Winehouse was fined 500 euros (714 dollars).

The singer was due to perform in Bergen, in the west of Norway, on Friday.

KABUL, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - The top US general in Afghanistan said Thursday he estimated that Afghanistan's rampant opium poppy cultivation was funding up to 40 percent of the Taliban-led insurgency.

General Dan McNeill, head of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), added he had been told by an international expert that this figure was likely low and could reach up to 60 percent.

NEW YORK, Oct 17, 2007 (AFP) - Police raided a chemist in New York where they seized more than seven million dollars of human growth hormone from China, the American media reported Wednesday.

The raid carried out on Tuesday was the second in five months on Lowen's Pharmacy in the suburb of Brooklyn which has been linked to a larger probe of HGH in professional sports.

Officials discovered 90 grams worth 7.2 million dollars worth of raw HGH which was imported from China.

ROME, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Italy's financial police seized 106 kilos (234 pounds) of pure cocaine in a van at Civitavecchia, a port west of Rome considered a key entry point for drug traffickers, the police agency said.

Along with the cocaine, with a street value of 50 million euros (71 million dollars), police said they also arrested the Italian driver of the van that originated in Barcelona.

The cocaine had been wrapped in several layers of aluminium foil and plastic to prevent dogs from sniffing it out, Luca Battella, police commander in Civitavecchia, told AFP.

THE HAGUE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - The Dutch health and justice ministers have agreed to change the drugs laws to ban the sale and cultivation of hallucinogenic mushrooms, a spokeswoman for the health ministry said Friday.

The move comes during an ongoing debate in the Netherlands about the safety of the so-called magic mushrooms after a number of incidents involving tourists who had taken them.