News of the day from across the world, Nov. 5

The Supreme Court voted Wednesday to allow a group of activists to legally grow and smoke marijuana, marking the first loosening of drug prohibitions in Mexico and fueling debate about a crop that is at the center of a decade of violence.

Across Latin America, governments have been rejecting the Washington-driven hard line in the drug war in favor of decriminalization — a recognition that years of violent struggle have failed to stem the flow of narcotics into the U.S.

Palestinian rammed his vehicle into an Israeli police officer in the West Bank on Wednesday, seriously injuring him before he was shot and killed, police said.

In a bid to deter attackers, Israel’s parliament this week passed a law toughening penalties against Palestinians for throwing rocks at civilians and security personnel, a daily occurrence that has caused casualties.

Spanish police say they have detained two members of the notorious Pink Panthers gang of jewel thieves and recovered more than $1.1 million in stolen goods.

The Civil Guard said all the stolen items were taken from a jewelry store on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands archipelago off the west coast of Africa.

A South Korean government commission said Wednesday that the remains of nearly 2,750 people believed to be Koreans who were forced to work in Japan in the World War II era have been found.

Historians in South Korea estimate that at least 1.2 million Koreans were coerced, or sometimes duped, into laboring as part of Japan’s war efforts in Japan, China and elsewhere.