BBC News | Friday, June 29, 2007

A legal challenge to the government’s smoking ban in England has been launched at the High Court.

Freedom To Choose says the change in the law from 1 July contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.

A judge will now decide whether they have a case raising genuine issues of law that should go to a full trial.

The government said it would vigorously fight any challenge to the ban, which applies to almost all enclosed public places and workplaces.

‘Test case’

Freedom To Choose lodged a petition for a judicial review of the legislation at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The group cites Article One of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights which assures the right to the peaceful enjoyment of possessions. It also points to Article Eight which covers the right to respect for privacy.

“This will be a legal test case with significant wider public interest,” says the group, which is spearheaded by pub landlord Robert Feal-Martinez.

“We want the government to realise a total ban is not necessary,” said Mr Feal-Martinez, who argues that ventilation systems can reduce the harmful impact of second-hand smoke.

The group’s legal case has been funded entirely by public donations, gathered through its website and public events.

Somewhat confusingly, there is another anti-smoking campaign called Freedom2Choose, started by the managing director of Blackpool-based tobacco vending machine supplier Duckworth.

They are not involved with the current legal action.

The smoking ban in England follows similar moves in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

BBC News | Friday, June 29, 2007

Soldiers have fired on Palestinian protesters in Lebanon, killing at least three people and injuring about 40, witnesses and medics say.

The Palestinians were trying to break through a checkpoint to get back to their homes in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

The camp has been the scene of weeks of clashes between the army and Islamists.

Fighting at the camp and associated unrest has left 200 people dead since 20 May.

This makes it Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

Tension

Witnesses said soldiers fired in the air above the heads of at least 100 demonstrators.

When the crowd did not disperse, the troops fired automatic rifles at the protesters.

One witness said the demonstrators did not provoke the soldiers.

The army issued a statement saying its troops had to respond after the protesters blocked the main road with burning tyres and attacked soldiers with sticks and sharp objects.

An unnamed army spokesman was earlier quoted by the AFP as saying that soldiers only fired warning shots.

It is the first time since the fighting started that trouble has erupted between the Lebanese army and the Palestinian refugees, the BBC’s Kim Ghattas in Beirut says.

Weeks of clashes between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants at the camp have also caused tensions between Palestinians and Lebanese, our correspondent says.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement, deploring the fact that the army did not have the necessary non-lethal means to disperse the crowd.

It also called for an independent investigation into the incident.

Stand-off continues

Some 20,000 Palestinian refugees had fled the Nahr al-Bared camp since the fighting began.

Most of them have been sheltered since then in the overcrowded Baddawi camp, about 5km (three miles) away from Nahr al-Bared.

Although the stand-off between the army and the militants is continuing, the refugees have been demanding to be allowed to return home.

Lebanon has 12 refugee camps housing more than 350,000 Palestinians. They are people who fled or were forced to leave their homes when Israel was created in 1948, or their descendants.

Associated Press | Thursday, June 28, 2007
By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — The American Medical Association on Wednesday backed off calling excessive video-game playing a formal psychiatric addiction, saying instead that more research is needed.

A report prepared for the AMA’s annual policy meeting had sought to strongly encourage that video-game addiction be included in a widely used diagnostic manual of psychiatric illnesses.

AMA delegates instead adopted a watered-down measure declaring that while overuse of video games and online games can be a problem for children and adults, calling it a formal addiction would be premature.

“While more study is needed on the addictive potential of video games, the AMA remains concerned about the behavioral, health and societal effects of video game and Internet overuse,” said Dr. Ronald Davis, AMA’s president. “We urge parents to closely monitor children’s use of video games and the Internet.”

Despite a lack of scientific proof, Jacob Schulist, 14, of Hales Corners, Wis., says he’s certain he was addicted to video games - and that the AMA’s vote was misguided.

Until about two months ago, when he discovered a support group called On-Line Gamers Anonymous, Jacob said he played online fantasy video games for 10 hours straight some days.

He said his habit got so severe that he quit spending time with family and friends.

“My grades were horrible, I failed the entire first semester” this past school year because of excessive video-game playing, he said. “It’s like they’re your life.”

Delegates voted to have the AMA encourage more research on the issue, including seeking studies on what amount of video-game playing and other “screen time” is appropriate for children.

Under the new policy, the AMA also will send the revised video-game measure to the American Psychiatric Association, asking it to consider the full report in its diagnostic manual; the next edition is to be completed in 2012.

Dr. Louis Kraus, a psychiatric association spokesman, said the report will be a helpful resource.

The AMA’s report says up to 90 percent of American youngsters play video games and that up to 15 percent of them - more than 5 million kids - might be addicted.

The report, prepared by the AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health, also says “dependence-like behaviors are more likely in children who start playing video games at younger ages.”

Internet role-playing games involving multiple players, which can suck kids into an online fantasy world, are the most problematic, the report says. That’s the kind of game Schulist says hooked him.

Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Chicago’s Rush Medical Center, said behavior that looks like addiction in video-game players may be a symptom of social anxiety, depression or another psychiatric problem.

He praised the AMA report for recommending more research.

“They’re trying very hard not to make a premature diagnosis,” Kraus said.

In other action on the final day of the AMA’s annual policy meeting, delegates:

- Voted to have the AMA support government policies requiring fast-food restaurant chains to provide menus detailing nutritional information including calories, fat and sodium content. A key way to fighting the obesity epidemic “is that people know what they’re eating,” Davis said.

- Recommended more research on a potential link between high fructose corn syrup and obesity. A measure had sought to have the AMA seek government restrictions on the popular sweetener and food labels declaring that excessive consumption of it may lead to obesity.

- Rejected a move to lobby for limits on the noise levels of in-ear headphones used with iPods and other music-playing devices. A resolution supporting limits said devices with in-ear headphones can generate sound well above 100 decibels - more noise than a chain saw makes and levels that have been linked with permanent hearing loss. AMA delegates voted instead to seek more research on the issue.

Ian Sample, science correspondent
The London Guardian
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Toxic, radioactive dust released from armour-piercing depleted uranium shells lingers for decades in the environment and contaminates land far from where it is used, according to British scientists.

The finding raises fears that communities living in or returning to war zones may be forced to live on contaminated ground, in danger of inhaling the substance or consuming it in food or water supplies.

Hundreds of tonnes of tank-busting depleted uranium rounds have been fired by British and American forces in the Balkans and Iraq. On impact the rounds fragment into a shower of fine particles, which have been linked to medical conditions including cancer and birth defects.

Scientists initially suspected that even fine particles of the heavy dust would only cause contamination over a confined area. But research conducted by a team at Leicester University found that it can spread nearly 6km and persists in soils for more than 25 years.

The team took soil samples from open ground and residential gardens in a suburban area near Colonie in New York State. During the 1960s and 1970s, the town was home to a depleted uranium manufacturing plant, which released an estimated five tonnes of the material into the air.

The team detected traces of uranium down to 35cm beneath the ground.

Nicholas Lloyd, a geologist on the team, said: “One of the issues was the realisation that we really didn’t understand what was going to happen to this material when it gets into the environment.

“What we’ve shown is that even though this is a very dense material that you’d expect to fall out of the air quickly, we can detect it far from the site and it’s surviving more than a quarter of a century later.”

Previous studies have suggested inhaling particles of depleted uranium, which is weakly radioactive, might increase the risk of lung cancer. The substance has also been linked to kidney damage.

In February the Ministry of Defence published medical tests carried out on more than 400 veterans of the Balkans conflict and the first Gulf war, which found none was contaminated with depleted uranium. Scientific advisers to the veterans claimed the tests were either conducted too late, or that the uranium particles were still lodged inside them.

“This work shows that depleted uranium may not leach out of soils with rain and get washed away. It means we can’t expect that depleted uranium in contaminated areas of Iraq will just disappear, it’s going to persist and that means it could be re-suspended and breathed in,” said Professor Brian Spratt of Imperial College, London, who chaired a working group on depleted uranium for the Royal Society.

BBC News | June 27, 2007

Worldwide opinion is increasingly wary of major powers and their leaders, a new global study suggests.

Anti-Americanism remains extensive, according to the global survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington.

At the same time, the image of China has slipped and confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin has declined sharply, the 47-nation study indicates.

Though he is popular within Russia, Mr Putin inspires worldwide concern almost on a par with the US leader, it says.

“Global distrust of American leadership is reflected in increasing disapproval of the cornerstones of US foreign policy,” the annual Pew Global Attitudes Survey states.

‘Abysmal image’

It says there is worldwide support for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, as well as “considerable opposition to US and Nato operations in Afghanistan”.

In 25 of the 47 countries surveyed, majorities expressed positive views of the US, the study found.

However, it adds, the image of the US has declined in most parts of the world.

This image “remains abysmal” in most Muslim countries, including some US allies, according to the authors.

They say favourable views of the US have sunk to 9% in Turkey and 15% in Pakistan.

At the same time, the report contends, “China’s expanding economic and military power is triggering considerable anxiety”.

Favourable views of China have dropped sharply in Spain, Germany and France - to 39%, 34%, and 47% respectively - the survey says.

China’s image is said to be generally positive in Asia, but to have grown more negative in India.

In Japan, unfavourable opinions about China outnumber positive ones by more than two-to-one (67-29%), the survey suggests.

It also points to negative opinions about Russia and President Putin in many countries.

“Criticism of that nation and its leader are sharpest in Western Europe where many citizens worry about overdependence on the Russian energy supply,” the report states.

“For instance, despite sharp declines in favourable views of the US and Germany since 2002, Russia’s image in those countries is no better.”

Green worries

Confidence in Mr Putin’s leadership, however, is strong in Russia itself (84%).

Just 45% of Americans say the same about President George W Bush.

The survey also finds a general increase in concern about environmental problems.

It says worries have risen sharply in Latin America, Europe, Japan and India.

“Many blame the United States - and to a lesser extent China - for these problems and look to Washington to do something about them,” the report states.

The survey was conducted among more than 45,000 people in 46 countries, plus the Palestinian territories.

The margin of sampling error ranged from two percentage points to four percentage points, depending on the sample size.

New York Times | June 25, 2007
RICHARD SIKLOS and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

The News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, and advisers for Dow Jones and its controlling Bancroft family were close last night to agreeing on terms designed to protect The Wall Street Journal’s newsroom independence if the company accepts a takeover bid from Mr. Murdoch, according to several people briefed on the talks.

However, these people cautioned that a deal between Mr. Murdoch and the Bancrofts’ advisers did not mean that either the Dow Jones board or the family, which controls 64 percent of the shareholder votes, would approve the arrangement.

If an agreement on newsroom independence were to be made by the Dow Jones board, the News Corporation and the Bancroft family, the only barrier standing in the way of Mr. Murdoch’s control of The Wall Street Journal would be the selling price.

Mr. Murdoch has offered $60 a share for Dow Jones, which he has long wanted to add to his global media empire, and promises that he will not meddle in the news pages. But the Bancroft family, which has controlled the company for more than 100 years, is wary of his reputation for sensationalism and for interfering in the news operations of his media companies for his own political or financial ends.

Over the weekend, Mr. Murdoch responded to a proposal of editorial assurances the Bancrofts sent him on Friday, which his advisers described as wholly unacceptable and virtually identical to what the Bancrofts had proposed three weeks ago. Mr. Murdoch’s counterproposal closely mirrored Mr. Murdoch’s initial proposal, said one person with knowledge of the offer who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Under the proposal, the News Corporation would maintain a 16-member board of directors at Dow Jones and five of those directors would form a special committee charged with preserving editorial independence. The committee’s members would be mutually agreed on by News Corporation and the Bancrofts and would oversee the hiring of the managing editor and editorial page editor. Unlike the Bancroft’s proposal which Mr. Murdoch rejected, the committee would not also oversee budgets and the appointment of publisher.

The News Corporation proposal also offers a seat on its board to a Bancroft family member of its choosing, rather than two members of the family’s choosing as they had proposed. Whereas the Bancroft proposal entrusted the committee with oversight of Dow Jones brands, Mr. Murdoch’s counter-proposal does not. However, it does give the managing editor approval over any deal to use the Journal brand with any business not owned by News Corporation.

That plan resembles one put in place at The Times of London, which he bought in 1981. Some critics and former employees of The Times have accused Mr. Murdoch of reneging on his promises to not interfere in The Times’s news pages, though other editors have said he has maintained the paper’s independence.

Before agreeing to meet Mr. Murdoch on June 4, the Bancrofts had said they had “reached consensus that the mission of Dow Jones may be better accomplished in combination or collaboration with another organization, which may include News Corporation.”

However, since making that statement, no other strong competing bids have emerged. Without one, it is difficult to know how far Dow Jones can push Mr. Murdoch on price. The News Corporation is offering a premium of 67 percent over what Dow Jones shares were trading at when the offer first became public.

AFP | Monday, June 25, 2007

In the strictly controlled media world of communist China, “citizen journalism” is beating a way through censorship, breaking taboos and offering a pressure valve for social tensions.

In one striking example this month, the Internet was largely responsible for breaking open a slave scandal in two Chinese provinces that some local authorities had been complicit in.

A letter posted on the Internet by 400 parents of children working as slaves in brickyards was the trigger for the national press to finally report on the scandal that some rights groups say had been going on for years.

The parents’ Internet posting was part of a growing phenomenon for marginalised people in China who can not otherwise have their complaints addressed by the traditional, government-controlled press.

“The phenomenon of ‘citizen journalism’ suddenly arrived several years ago,” said Beijing-based dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was one of the student leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.

“Since the appearance of blogs in particular, every blog is a new platform for the spread of information.”

He cited the example of a couple in the southwestern city of Chongqing who became known as the “Stubborn Nails” in April because they refused to leave their home until they received adequate compensation from the property developer who wanted them out.

They quickly became household names in China — and symbols of resistance against greedy land developers and corrupt local authorities — mainly thanks to Internet postings.

“That case was first revealed through blogs,” Liu said.

Also in Chongqing, parts of the city were this month set on fire following the beating of flower sellers by the “chengguan”, city police charged with “cleaning up” the city’s roads.

Witnesses to the beatings had appealed to local television journalists, but nothing was broadcast.

The incident only became known outside the city thanks to photos and stories published on the Internet, sparking anger among China’s netizens.

“It’s fascism,” said one, while another mocked: “The inhabitants of Chongqing are truly naive, the Chinese media is all controlled by the Communist Party, they decide what people know.”

Several days later, another blunder by the “chengguan” — this time in Zhengzhou in central Henan province, again targeted at a street seller — provoked further riots.

The image of protesters surrounding a police car, captured by a mobile phone, made its way round the world, after being posted on Chinese movie sharing site Tudou, then reposted on YouTube.

Elsewhere across China, protesters often seek to post photos or videos of unrest on the Internet to counter the versions from the state-run press and local authorities, who usually downplay or deny the events.

Recognising the threat of China’s growing online community, Chinese President Hu Jintao called in January for the Internet to be “purified”, and the government has since launched a number of online crackdowns.

“The department of propaganda has sent out regulations to try and control the opinions being spread on the Internet, but every citizen has the right to criticise or to take part in public affairs on the Internet,” said Zhu Dake, a professor at Shanghai Tongji University.

“The government has to accept the criticisms of the people, it can no longer react crudely like in the past.”

Julien Pain, who monitors Internet freedom issues for Reporters Without Borders, is less optimistic.

“One cannot truly say that the Internet in China is becoming more and more free, because at the same time as the development of citizen journalists, the government finds ways of blocking or censoring content,” Pain said.

Reporters Without Borders, which labels the Chinese government an “enemy of the Internet,” says about 50 cyber dissidents are currently behind bars in China.

Children are developing diseases because adults light up in front of them

Denis Campbell, health correspondent
The Observer
Sunday, June 24, 2007

Children are contracting serious illnesses because of their parents smoking at home, says the government’s chief medical officer, who has warned adults not to light up in front of their sons and daughters.

In an interview with The Observer, Sir Liam Donaldson, Britain’s most senior doctor, pledged that there would be a further sustained crackdown on smoking after the ban comes into force in England next Sunday.

He promised renewed public health advertising campaigns to try to educate parents who smoke. ‘We will strengthen and make regular the message to parents about the risks to their children of smoking. This is something we will need to constantly remind them about.

‘The dangers of parents smoking in front of their children are increased risk of respiratory diseases, bronchitis, middle ear infections, asthma attacks in children that are prone to asthma and increased risk to babies if there is a pregnant person in the household.

‘While the number of parents who smoke is falling, children’s exposure to parental smoke remains “a problem area”, he said.

Future plans to restrict smoking include

· Removing cigarettes from public display;

· Putting graphic picture warnings on cigarette packets showing the health effects of smoking, including blocked arteries, rotten teeth and gangrene;

· Outlawing the sale of packets of 10 cigarettes to deter consumption, especially among children;

· Reducing the number of cigarettes that Britons can bring into the country from inside the EU from 3,200 to 200.

The number of Britons who smoke has fallen to 24 per cent and ministers hope going smoke-free will over time bring about another 4 or 5 per cent drop. ‘But if we want to go further we have got to reinforce all these other tobacco measures and denormalise smoking completely,’ said Donaldson.

‘The first of July is not when action stops; it’s a launchpad from which we can make further massive strides. I hope people will be behind some of the slightly controversial measures.’

He wants cigarettes to be hidden away in shops. ‘If you walk into the average supermarket one of the things that confronts you straight away is a wall of cigarettes. That’s unhelpful. I’d like to see them remove the wall of cigarettes and keep them under the counter,’ said Donaldson.

‘Some people would resent the idea of cigarettes being kept under the counter like magazines that you wouldn’t want displayed. But I think that these are all part of the denormalisation process. Supermarkets are big, responsible organisations which already try to help on things like obesity. Wouldn’t they like to strike another blow for health and play their part on a disease that still kills over 100,000 a year?’

Health campaigners last night welcomed Donaldson’s pledges. Professor John Britton, a consultant in respiratory medicine and chair of the Royal College of Physicians’ tobacco advisory group, said: ‘If you take care of your child and do the things responsible parents do, such as making sure your child is safe in the car, to then smoke in the same building as them is irrational and irresponsible. To do that is a serious assault on the children’s health and wellbeing.’

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, said ensuring cigarettes became an under-the-counter product would help reduce smoking among children. ‘We know that there’s a potent link between children recognising cigarette packets, for example through their colours, and starting to smoke,’ she said. ‘So the less they see, the less they will recognise and the less likely they will be to see tobacco as an aspirational product.’

Simon Clark, director of smokers’ rights group Forest, criticised the proposals. ‘It’s wrong to draw an automatic correlation between children seeing parents smoke and then assuming that they will take up smoking. There’s a generation of people today who grew up in an era when a lot of adults smoked yet many of them are non-smokers. It’s incredibly hypocritical of government to try to denormalise smoking and vilify smoking and imply that it’s an anti-social activity given the enormous amount of tax the government makes from tobacco.’

BBC | Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The UK presence in Afghanistan will need to last three decades to help the country combat poverty and terrorism, the new British ambassador has said.

The embassy in Kabul headed by Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles is likely to become the UK’s biggest anywhere, says BBC world affairs editor John Simpson.

He says there is Foreign Office concern a Gordon Brown government will “take a short-term view of Afghanistan”.

Extra diplomatic staff are being deployed to the country this year.

The BBC learned in January that the government planned to send up to 35 extra diplomatic staff to Afghanistan.

Whitehall sources said the move was an attempt to prevent the country suffering the same level of chaos and violence as Iraq.

The priorities would be to combat corruption, help build government institutions in the south and to tackle the production of opium, the Foreign Office said.

Determination

John Simpson said the embassy could become bigger than the one maintained in the US capital, Washington.

“It’s a huge commitment,” he said.

“The fact that Sir Sherard is here as ambassador is itself a sign of the Foreign Office’s determination to upgrade its whole representation in Afghanistan.

“He’s a big hitter in the diplomatic service.”

But our world affairs editor added: “There is real concern in the Foreign Office in London that the new government of Gordon Brown will take a short-term view of Afghanistan, rather than the long-term view that the Foreign Office thinks is needed.”

UK troop numbers in Afghanistan are to be increased to about 7,700 this year.

They are mainly based in the volatile province of Helmand, where they have been fighting the Taleban.

London Independent
June 17, 2007

Schools are to get the go-ahead to fingerprint pupils as young as five, in new measures to be approved by the Government.

Ministers will issue guidance telling schools they have the right to collect biometric data and install fingerprint scanners.

But the decision has angered opposition MPs who say collecting fingerprints from children will be a gift to identity thieves.

The guidance will say that personal data, including fingerprints and eyeball scans, can be collected from pupils and used to monitor attendance, so long as schools consult parents first and do not share the data with outside bodies.

Schools will be able to place fingerprint scanners at the entrances to classrooms, the school gates and even in cafeterias.

Fingerprint and eyeball scans would make it easy for schools to track children during the day, and tell if they are playing truant, or even what they have eaten for lunch.

MPs fear that school computers are not secure enough to hold biometric data safely and will be unable to erase the information from systems when students have left school.

Civil liberties campaigners accused the Government of wanting to barcode children and questioned whether the data would be kept from other government agencies and the police.

Nearly 900,000 children aged 10 to 17 have their genetic information stored on the police’s national DNA database, along with 108 under the age of 10. The guidance, to be approved by ministers this week, will say that schools can benefit from using biometrics at entry points to schools and classrooms as well as to take out library books.

It will warn schools not to give out the sensitive information, telling them it is governed by the same data-protection laws as children’s addresses and birthdays. But it is understood that schools will not have to gain written permission from each parent before their child’s fingerprints are taken. The guidance, written by Becta, which advises the Government on the use of technology in education, will go out to schools and further education colleges.

The civil rights group Liberty said: “We have some serious concerns that this biometric data is being collected from children simply for administrative convenience. We want to know what happens to the data after the children leave. The police have the right to get into any database, private or public.”

About 200 schools are thought to use fingerprint scans already, but most have been waiting for the Government to give the go-ahead. Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said she was concerned that hackers could access sensitive data and steal children’s identities. She questioned whether schools would be able to erase the data when children left school.

“We wanted a guarantee that nobody can get hold of this information and an absolute guarantee that the data would be destroyed,” she said. “The temptation for schools to reveal this sensitive information to the police will be enormous.”

Jim Knight, the schools minister, said he wanted “parents to be fully engaged with every aspect of their children’s education - this will be at the heart of our guidance.

“I back every headteacher’s right to choose technology to improve their day-to-day running - but it’s plain common sense for them to talk to parents about this and all other issues relating to their pupils. Schools need to collect pupil personal information… But we are clear that they have to comply with data protection laws. This means that no outside organisation can access any information.”