Any number of horrendous things can happen to you while you're unconscious on an operating table, but what happened to a 50-year-old man who was having his leg amputated at a Shanghai hospital on Wednesday might be the worst of all. In the operating room next door a fire broke out:

Not long ago, the pot-smoking, hot dog-hating 33 rescued Chilean miners were national heroes. And rightfully so — they spent 69 days underground, not knowing if they'd make it out alive. But on Friday, as the miners inaugurated a museum and attended mass with Chile's president, protesters greeted them with rocks and…

The Netherlands' right-wing coalition government announced yesterday that it will ban tourists from weed-selling coffee shops by the end of the year, effectively giving the finger to backpackers everywhere. And while we generally support liberal drug laws, and have no fondness for Geert Wilders' anti-Muslim Freedom…

Following Louisiana's lead, last week Florida slapped an emergency ban on synthetic drugs that are marketed as "bath salts" because people are losing their minds after snorting and smoking "Vanilla Sky," "White Lightning," and "Ivory Snow." The state's attorney general was pushed to ban the "drug" after some people…

Bhutan has some of the toughest anti-smoking laws in the world, and police can now enter homes if they even smell tobacco. And last week, police arrested the first person under the new law: A Buddhist monk.

You think anti-smoking regulations are tough in the US? Well, at least you don't have to worry about your home being raided by police with a tobacco sniffer dog, or face five years in prison for having too many cigarettes.

A Queens woman claims two NYPD cops beat her last month for not picking up her dog's shit. She said that the pile they saw was "cold" and therefore not her dog's, so they arrested and allegedly beat her. [NYDN]

New York City high school teacher Carlos Garcia was suspended and fined $15,000 for saying "coño" in his class — a Spanish word that can be taken several very different ways. He's suing the city and denies saying it.

Students at Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School like to smoke weed between classes in an outdoor spot called "The Alcove." But an administrator smelled the sweet stench of burning buds through her office window and now the party's over. Stupid kids.

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman can't figure out what to think about immigration reform. But she knows how she feels about her former housekeeper, an undocumented immigrant: Deport her! Well, I guess it'll keep her away from Whitman's sons?

Neighbors of the abandoned Black Lady Theater in Bed-Stuy are trying to evict squatters from an ancient Rastafarian sect, the Nyahbinghi Order, for creating a "drug den." Police in April arrested four people there for drug possession and trespassing.

Police in Billings, Montana, are looking for two young men suspected of attacking medical marijuana dispensaries with molotov cocktails and spray painting "NOT IN OUR TOWN" on the walls. Clinic owners say they won't be intimidated by these thugs. [AP]

Nicolas Chartier sent an email to colleagues, including Academy members, asking them to choose his movie "not the $500-million film," a reference to Avatar. That was deemed against Academy rules on disparaging rival movies, so he's out. [LAT]