Early research appears promising that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component of marijuana - may protect brain cells during a stroke. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that cannabidiol proved to be a potent antioxidant that protected animal brain cells exposed to the toxic neurochemical that is produced during a stroke, using test tube experiments. Scientists are studying marijuana and its chemical components to see if they have medicinal uses. THC, the active ingredient, has already been studied for various illnesses including strokes. An oral drug, Marinol, which contains THC is sold to fight cancer-related nausea. Earlier tests showed that high doses of cannabidiol had no effect on the brain receptors responsible for marijuana's psychological effects. Scientists are now giving it to rats intravenously, saying the preliminary results are promising.

Indonesia's president has asked his citizens to fast twice a week to save badly needed rice. He made the emergency appeal to the 200 million people on national television before celebrations began marking the birthday of Islam's founder, the Prophet Mohammed. Facing the most critical phase of a yearlong economic crisis in the months ahead, aid workers are warning that millions of people are sinking below the poverty line and cannot afford food. In his speech, he said "If 150 million Indonesians do this, the country can save 3 million tons of rice a year, the same amount the country has to import." Rice harvests were wiped out in 1997 and earlier this year by the worst drought in 50 years. On the same day, neighbor Singapore's Red Cross Society sent two planeloads of food and medicine to Indonesia. The supplies were earmarked for children, elderly, needy families and pregnant or breastfeeding women.

The Phillipines' newly elected 13th president announced he is getting a new office - aboard a yacht. A yacht used in the past by Phillipine presidents for leisure is being refurbished to help fulfill a campaign pledge of reaching out to the people. A popular ex-movie star, Joseph Estrada promised to hold office for three months at a time each year in the central Visayas and southern Mindanao regions. The yacht will dock at several major ports in the provinces the president is visiting. The Phillipines is an archipelago with 7,100 islands and islets.

On trial for corruption and embezzlement, the mayor of Tehran sparred boldly with his judge Saturday, calling his trial a sham and built on false confessions. The sensational trial has gripped Iran since it began a month ago. The mayor rejected all charges against him, reiterating his accusation that authorities had tortured senior municipality officials to extract false confessions against him. "You've set up a group of 70 men, most of whom have little more than a high school education, and put them in charge of this investigation. They take each person into a basement and emerge with a confession. What is the meaning of this?" he asked in court. He exploded when the judge insisted that he either admit or deny that he ordered the $2.7 million payment to a private company without documenting or registering the transaction. He asked to see either a written order or the person whom he supposedly instructed to do this, saying his files had been seized leaving him nothing with which to defend himself. The trial is widely seen as an attempt to topple key officials allied with the moderate Iranian president. The mayor ran the presidents election campaign last year. In court, the mayor read a letter written to him from one of his top deputies who earlier had confessed to corruption and embezzlement and to providing illegal funds for Khatami's campaign. The letter said "when they brought me into court, I had been beaten so badly in prison with whips and clubs that I could hardly walk. They forced me to write and sign lies about myself and other prisoners or persons." The judge adjourned court until Thursday. If convicted, the mayor could be sentenced up to 10 years in jail, fined, and banned from holding public office.

At the request of the Palestinian official for Jerusalem affairs, Turkey will open the Ottoman archives, allowing them to be searched for documents containing disputed land ownership in Jerusalem. Archive officials reportedly welcomed the request to search for evidence that land had been unlawfully sold to Israeli's. The Ottoman Empire controlled the area then called Palestine until World War I, when it was lost to Allied forces. This initiative is said to have stemmed from a recent Israeli move to expand the city borders of Jerusalem. The plan, approved in June by the Israeli Cabinet, would extend municipal services to the Jewish West Bank settlements, and annex Jewish suburbs inside Israel to ensure Jerusalem's 70% Jewish majority.