Worldwide Hippies News Briefs Saturday

South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela hospitalized
JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela was hospitalized Saturday with a stomach ailment, the country’s office of the presidency said in a statement.
President Jacob Zuma said that Mandela had had “a long-standing abdominal complaint and doctors feel it needs proper specialist medical attention.”
The statement was published on the website for South Africa’s office of the presidency.
Mac Maharaj, Zuma’s spokesman, said he could not elaborate but that he would be issuing regular updates.
Mandela’s family members told NBC News that he was taken to a military hospital in Pretoria. More…

Supreme Court to hear corporate human rights case
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court will weigh next week whether corporations can be sued in the United States for suspected complicity in human rights abuses abroad, in a case being closely watched by businesses concerned about long and costly litigation.
The high court on Tuesday will consider the reach of a 1789 U.S. law that had been largely dormant until 1980, when human rights lawyers started using it, at first to sue foreign government officials. Then, over the next 20 years, the lawyers used the law to target multinational corporations.
The case before the court pits the Obama administration and human rights advocates against large companies and foreign governments over allegations that Royal Dutch Shell Plc helped Nigeria crush oil exploration protests in the 1990s.
Administration attorneys and lawyers for the plaintiffs contend corporations can be held accountable in U.S. courts for committing or assisting foreign governments in torture, executions or other human rights abuses. More…

Plans to drug test welfare recipients get momentum
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Conservatives who say welfare recipients should have to pass a drug test to receive government assistance have momentum on their side.
The issue has come up in the Republican presidential campaign, with front-runner Mitt Romney saying it’s an “excellent idea.”
Nearly two dozen states are considering plans this session that would make drug testing mandatory for welfare recipients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. And Wyoming lawmakers advanced such a proposal this week.
Driving the measures is a perception that people on public assistance are misusing the funds and that cutting off their benefits would save money for tight state budgets — even as statistics have largely proved both notions untrue.
“The idea, from Joe Taxpayer is, ‘I don’t mind helping you out, but you need to show that you’re looking for work, or better yet that you’re employed, and that you’re drug and alcohol free,’” said Wyoming Republican House Speaker Ed Buchanan on Friday.
Supporters are pushing the measures despite warnings from opponents that courts have struck down similar programs, ruling that the plans amount to an unconstitutional search of people who have done nothing more than seek help.
More…