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    • Scandal in Canada: Toronto Mayor Denies Crack Cocaine Reports

      He’s made headlines for confronting a reporter with his fists up, calling 911 on a comedian approaching him in his driveway, flipping off a mother and her daughter who saw him talking on his cell phone while driving, and appearing drunk and being belligerent to other fans at a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game.

      Yet the latest allegations against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford may be the biggest bombshell. Ford is alleged to have smoked crack cocaine. The purported evidence? A grainy cell phone video reporters said they viewed but which hasn't been seen by the public.

      A week after the allegations surfaced, Ford called a press conference to categorically deny it all.

      “The only evidence we have right now is from Gawker and two Toronto Star reporters who’ve said they’ve seen the video and they’ve described it in detail,” said Don Peat, city hall bureau chief at the Toronto Sun, in an interview with Christiane Amanpour. “That’s all the evidence we have to go on because the video has not been made

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    • Global Fine Wine Market: Follow the Money to China

      Mike Veseth remembers well the tasting note of the very first Chinese wine he drank about 10 years ago.

      “It was a cabernet sauvignon,” said Veseth, editor-in-chief of the blog “The Wine Economist.” “And the tasting note was ashtray, coffee grounds and urinal crust. It was exactly that.”

      Since that pungent experience, Veseth said the quality of Chinese wines has increased dramatically in just a few years. China has not only become a substantial wine consumer and producer but a major player in the international fine wine market, eclipsing the traditional strongholds of Western Europe. The center of gravity in the wine world has shifted.

      “Most of the wines that are being collected are the classified Bordeaux or the Gran Cru Burgundy wines,” said Veseth, author of “Wine Wars” and the forthcoming “Extreme Wine,” and a professor of international political economy at the University of Puget Sound. “But if we’re looking at the auctions, it’s not where the wines are, it’s where the money is.

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    • South Africa Grapples With Nelson Mandela’s Legacy

      Although he was imprisoned for nearly three decades, including 18 years on desolate Robben Island, it was not retribution and revenge that Nelson Mandela sought when he became president of the newly democratic South Africa in 1994, but reconciliation.

      And now, nearly 20 years after the end of a brutal and racist apartheid regime, Mandela’s legacy as an icon of freedom and democracy is being tested, as the leaders and citizens of his native country decide how to carry forward his ideals amid a host of problems.

      “Forget about what happened pre-1994, the issue is what happens now,” said Xolani Gwala, a radio host and journalist at the South African Broadcasting Corp., in an interview with ABC News correspondent Rob Nelson in Johannesburg.

      “Mandela will remain a towering figure and an amazing influence across South Africa,” said Gwala. “Mandela and others were about reconciliation and nation-building. The legacy is still there, but how do you make sure it continues into the future to

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