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Shisha 'as harmful as cigarettes'

published by You on 24 August, 2009 - 01:02

Smoking a shisha pipe is as bad for people as smoking tobacco, the Department of Health and the Centre for Tobacco Control Research has found.

People who smoke shisha, or herbal tobacco, can suffer from high carbon monoxide levels, its research revealed.

It found one session of smoking shisha resulted in carbon monoxide levels at least four to five times higher than the amount produced by a cigarette.

High levels of carbon monoxide can lead to brain damage and unconsciousness.

Shisha is an Arabic water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose.

Read more @ BBC News

Homecoming for Lockerbie bomber

published by idi on 21 August, 2009 - 19:35

The Libyan man jailed in Scotland for blowing up a US airliner over Lockerbie in 1988 has arrived back in Libya after being set free.

The Scottish government released Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who is 57 and has terminal cancer, on compassionate grounds.

US President Barack Obama said the move was "a mistake", and some relatives of US victims reacted angrily.

read more here

India to import food amid drought

published by You on 21 August, 2009 - 17:42

India will import food to make up for shortages caused by a drought thought to be affecting 700 million people, the finance minister has said.

The minister, Pranab Mukherjee, did not specify what would be imported and when, saying he wanted to avoid speculation on prices.

The drought is affecting almost half of India's districts.

Food prices have risen by 10% after poor monsoon rains hit sowing. Monsoon rains are critical to India's farmers.

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The summer rains are crucial to crops such as rice, soybean, sugarcane and cotton.

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Up to 70% of Indians are dependent on farm incomes, and about 60% of India's farms depend on rains.

Israel fury at Sweden organ claim

published by You on 21 August, 2009 - 16:14

Israel is to lodge an official complaint with Sweden over claims in a newspaper that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to sell their organs.

The article was published in the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet this week.

The Swedish ambassador to Israel condemned the newspaper article as "shocking and appalling".

The government in Stockholm has not issued a similar condemnation, and Israeli foreign ministry officials have reacted furiously.

"It is regrettable that the Swedish foreign ministry does not intervene when it comes to a blood libel against Jews," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"[This] reminds one of Sweden's conduct during World War II, when it also did not intervene."

'It's a pirate's life for me'

published by You on 21 August, 2009 - 15:53

A 25-year-old Somali pirate has told the BBC's Mohamed Olad Hassan by telephone from the notorious den of Harardhere in central Somalia why he became a sea bandit. Dahir Mohamed Hayeysi says he and his big-spending accomplices are seen by many as heroes.

"I used to be a fisherman with a poor family that depended only on fishing.

The first day joining the pirates came into my mind was in 2006.

A group of our villagers, mainly fishermen I knew, were arming themselves.

One of them told me that they wanted to hijack ships, which he said were looting our sea resources...

Read more @ BBC News

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