Smoke free laws lead to less smoking at home

 

Anti-tobacco laws in several European countries prompted many smokers to ban smoking at home and to cut their cigarette consumption, according to a study reported in the journal Tobacco Control on Tuesday.

 

Doctors pored over a survey into smoking habits in France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands, both before and after bans on smoking in the workplace, restaurants and bars took effect in the last decade.

 

The trends in those countries were compared with Britain, which at the time did not have smoke-free legislation.

 

After the laws took effect, the percentage of smokers who banned all smoking at home rose by 17 percent in France, 25 percent in Ireland, 28 percent in the Netherlands and 38 percent in Germany, the study found.

 

The overall number of cigarettes that an individual smoked each day also fell “significantly” in Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, but not in France.

 

The authors, led by Ute Mons of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, say the findings rebut those who claimed banning smoking in public places would simply shift the habit to the home, exposing family members to dangerous second-hand smoke.

 

In fact, the new laws prompted many smokers to ban smoking at home, especially if they had already been mulling an intention to kick the habit, supported smoke-free legislation or had a young child exposed to passive smoke.

 

“Our findings strongly support the premise that smoke-free legislation does not lead to more smoking in smokers  homes,” says the paper.

 

“The data suggest rather that smoke-free legislation may stimulate smokers to establish total smoking bans in their own home.”

 

The research was based on responses from 4,634 smokers in the four countries and 1,080 in Britain. The British results came from across the United Kingdom except Scotland.
 

Canadian festival buys fake snow

 

The usually frigid Canadian city of Winnipeg – often nicknamed Winterpeg – has been so mild and dry this winter that a popular snow-sculpting competition has been forced to truck in 200 loads of fake flakes for this year s annual event.

 

While Europe shivers through a severe cold snap that has killed hundreds of people, Winnipeg has enjoyed its third-mildest January in more than a century, with the average temperature a relatively balmy -10.8 Celsius (12.6 Fahrenheit).

 

It s been the same story across much of Canada. Toronto, the country s biggest city, was forecast to climb well above the freezing mark on Thursday, while Berlin will be at -11 C going into the weekend and Paris and London will hover around -6 C.

 

“People refer to Winnipeg as Winterpeg so they expect it to be really cold, but everyone is really happy about the warm weather,” said Emili Bellefleur, spokeswoman for Festival du Voyageur, which includes snow carvings of wolves, bison and cultural symbols around the city of 700,000.

 

“We re going to take it, you know?”

 

With supplies of natural snow skimpy, the festival is trucking in artificially made snow from a winter recreation area, similar to the machine-made snow used on ski hills.

 

Bellefleur said she knows of only one other year that the 43-year-old festival had to buy artificial snow.

 

Winnipeggers and others in Western Canada can thank a flip-flop in air pressure patterns for the mild winter, which has funneled warmer southwest air across the Prairies, said Natalie Hasell, meteorologist at Environment Canada.
Normally, the La Nina weather phenomenon off the Pacific Coast of North America would leave the Prairies digging out of frigid, snowier than usual conditions.

 

But this winter it s been much milder, and bone dry. Nearly all of the country s main grain-growing region has received below-normal precipitation since November 5.

 

While Winnipeggers have happily put away their snow shovels, a dozen of the Festival du Voyageur s snow sculptors, coming from as far away as Switzerland, the Netherlands and evenMexico have been shocked by the mild weather.

 

Usually, “the worst part for them when they come from Mexico is dealing with the cold itself,” Bellefleur said. “Not necessarily the (lack of) snow.”
 

Afghanistan excited at Pak ODI exposure

 

They have promised to put up their best showing in their first-ever one-day international against in Sharjah on Friday, an official said.

 

The war-torn country has played 18 one-day internationals since gaining status in 2009 but all their matches were against associate and affiliate teams Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, Kenya and Scotland.

 

And the prospect of playing Pakistan, World Cup champions of one-day cricket in 1992, left the Afghanistan players ecstatic.

 

“It s a great opportunity for Afghanistan players and they can t wait for Friday,” team manager Shafiqullah Stanikzai told AFP. “It s a tough challenge for the team but we will show our qualities and fight to the last.”

 

Of their 18 ODIs to date, Afghanistan have won 11 and lost seven and Stanikzai said despite the big challenge his team will not let their fans down.

 

“The Afghanistan team is an entertainment package and we will try to give the best possible fight to Pakistan, who are the form team after beating England 3-0 in Tests and doing well in one-day cricket recently,” said Stanikzai.

 

The cricket relationship between the two countries goes a long way, as the game was made popular in Afghanistan by refugees who spent years living in Pakistan when Soviet troops invaded their country in 1979.

 

In the last three years cricket has progressed in the war-ravaged country by leaps and bounds.

 

Afghanistan finished fifth in the World Cup qualifiers in 2009 to win the right to play one-day cricket and the following year they won the qualifying tournament to earn an opportunity to play in the World Twenty20 held in West Indies.

 

Stanikzai said Afghanistan are progressing fast.

 

“With this opportunity we hope to build our team and next month we will feature in the World Twenty20 qualifiers and hope to win that again to play the main tournament,” said Stanikzai of the World Twenty20 event to be held in Sri Lanka in September-October this year.

 

Afghanistan s team will be led by Nawroz Mangal and has exciting players in Karem Sadiq, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammad Shahzad and fast bowler Hamid Hassan.

 

Pakistan coach Mohsin Khan said his team will not take Afghanistan lightly.

 

“Afghanistan s team is coming up very fast and we will take them very seriously,” said Khan, hoping his team carry on their good work from the 3-0 Test series win over England.

 

“This one-day against Afghanistan will give us an opportunity to switch to the one-day mode before the series against England,” said Khan of his team s four-match series starting from February 13.

 

Pakistan have brought in all-rounders Shahid Afridi and Hammad Azam in the squad for the one-day matches.

 

Organisers in Sharjah hope a large number of Afghan and Pakistan expats will come to support their teams.–AFP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No bullying Syria, Putin warns US, EU

 

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin said this after his envoy returned from talks with President Bashar al-Assad.

 

“Of course, we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.

 

“We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently.”

 

He spoke after his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov declined to say earlier Wednesday whether Moscow had asked the embattled leader to go in his meeting with Assad.

 

“Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians,” Lavrov told reporters.

 

He sidestepped a direct question from a reporter who asked him whether he urged Assad to step down during talks in Damascus Tuesday, conducted as Syrian forces shelled opposition centres in the city of Homs.

 

“Trying in advance to decide the result of national dialogue is basically not the job of the international community,” Lavrov said, adding that both the government and all the opposition forces should sit down for talks.

 

All those who have influence over the Syrian opposition forces should urge them to start negotiations with Assad s government, he added.

 

Some analysts said Lavrov s most recent remarks indicated Moscow had not shifted its stance on Syria.

 

“Judging by Lavrov s statements after his Damascus visit the question of Assad s resignation has not been raised,” said Boris Dolgov, an analyst at the Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Studies.

 

“It would have been strange anyway — why would Russia start talking about his resignation after having vetoed the Syria resolution” in the United Nations.

 

Lavrov quoted Assad as saying he told Vice President Faruq al-Shara “to contact all opposition groups and to organise a national dialogue that will be inclusive and encompass all Syrian political forces.”

 

Lavrov, who was given a hero s welcome in Damascus by pro-Assad demonstrators, also said that recalling envoys from Syria would not help the Arab League s plan.

 

“I do not think that recalling ambassadors helps create conditions that would be favourable to the realisation of the Arab League s plan,” he said after talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar.

 

A day after the United States closed its Damascus embassy, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain joined Britain and Belgium on Tuesday in recalling their ambassadors to Syria for consultations.

 

The six Arab states of the Persian Gulf also said they had decided to expel Syria s envoys and withdraw their own from Damascus in protest at the “mass slaughter” of civilians.

 

Lavrov also criticised a “hasty decision” by the Arab League to freeze the work of its observer mission in Syria.

 

“The presence of foreign observers always plays a restraining role and it was unclear why a number of Gulf states recalled their envoys from this mission and why the mission after that was suspended at the very moment its report was supposed to be heard at the UN Security Council,” he said.

 

After Tuesday s talks Lavrov said Russia would work to end the crisis under a peace plan put forward by the Arab League and that Assad was ready for dialogue with all political forces.

 

But he did not specify whether he was referring to the latest Arab League plan calling for Assad to step down or a November plan that called for an observer mission and an end to violence.

 

Moscow sparked Western anger last week by joining Beijing in using its Security Council veto to block UN action against Assad s regime based on the more recent Arab League plan.

 

Seeking to address Western criticism that Russia missed a chance to end bloodshed, Lavrov Wednesday defended Russia s veto, saying Moscow had prevented wider opposition violence.

 

“We have missed an opportunity to allow the armed units that are fighting against government forces to take control of cities and villages,” Lavrov said sarcastically.

 

“If the authors of the resolution have this goal in mind, then you should directly say that we want the armed units to take control of cities in Syria.”

 

“You need to speak honestly with your partners,” he added. “Half of the truth is worse than a lie.”–AFP

Hina leaves for Russia today

 

Hina is visiting Russia on the invitation of her Russian counterpart Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov.

 

Foreign Minister Khar will hold talks with her Russian counterpart on expanding and diversifying Pakistan-Russia relations. Regional and global issues of mutual interests would be focused during the visit.

 

Khar will also meet Russian parliamentarians and address the Institute of Oriental Studies.
 

Imran postpones March 23 public meeting in Quetta

 

The Public meeting of PTI Chairman Imran Khan scheduled for March 23 in Quetta has been postponed, the party said Monday.

 

PTI sources said Imran Khan had not taken leaders of the nationalists parties into confidence so far.

 

Imran Khan had already given indications that a workable and practicable proposals for resolving the problems facing people of Balochistan would be presented in his public meeting.

 

The PTI sources further said talks between Imran Khan and national leaders were underway and the public meeting would likely to take place on April, 6.
 

Hackers peep into secret agency’s meeting; FBI confirms

WASHINGTON: Hacker group Anonymous, in an embarrassment for law enforcement, released a recording of a conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard discussing operations against the hacking collective.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed the authenticity of the nearly 17-minute recording posted on YouTube and other sites and said it was “intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained.”

“A criminal investigation is under way to identify and hold accountable those responsible,” the FBI said in a statement.

The release of the audio recording was one in a series of attacks Friday by the shadowy loose-knit group of international hackers.

Members of Anonymous also attacked the website of the Greek justice ministry in a protest against the country’s tough fiscal reforms and a site operated by the Boston Police Department.

In addition, members of the hacker group claimed to have briefly knocked Citibank offline and defaced the website of the law firm that defended a US Marine charged in connection with the 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi civilians.

Anonymous, in a statement on the website of the law firm of Puckett and Faraj, also claimed to have published online three gigabytes of private email messages of attorneys Neal Puckett and Haytham Faraj.

Puckett served as a lawyer for Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who faced a court martial last month in connection with the killings in the Iraqi town of Haditha.

Wuterich, 31, admitted one count of negligent dereliction of duty but manslaughter charges were dropped as part of a plea deal with prosecutors and he is not serving any jail time.

Along with the FBI-Scotland Yard recording, Anonymous posted online the email invitation from an FBI agent setting up the call for January 17.

The email invites members of European law enforcement agencies to take part in a call “to discuss the on-going investigations related to Anonymous, Lulzsec, Antisec, and other associated splinter groups.”

The email was sent to law enforcement officials in Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden but the only people who identify themselves on the call are from the FBI and Scotland Yard.

The email includes the number to be called along with the access code.

In a message on Twitter, Anonymous posted links to the recording and said the FBI “might be curious how we’re able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now.”

According to the FBI, no agency computer systems were breached in connection with the incident.

Graham Cluley of computer security firm Sophos said the hackers were apparently able to access the call “because they have compromised a police investigator’s email account.”

“No doubt the police authorities will be appalled to realize that the very people that they are trying to apprehend, could have been tuning in to their internal conversations,” Cluley said in a blog post.

During the call, the British and American participants discuss some of the targets of their operations including Jake Davis and Ryan Cleary, two British teenagers who were arrested last year over hacking.

Other names mentioned during the call are bleeped out.

Davis is charged with hacking into websites, including that of Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, which was out of service for several hours on June 20 after apparently being targeted.

Cleary was detained in connection with a month-long global rampage last year by the Anonymous splinter group Lulz Security.

At one point in the call, a British participant thanks his American counterpart for helping out with an examination of Cleary’s hard drive.

Later, a British participant mentions a hacker from West Midlands who goes by the handle “tehwongz.”

“He’s a 15-year-old who’s basically just doing this all for attention and a bit of an idiot,” he said, going on to describe him as “a pain in the bum.”

Last month, Anonymous briefly knocked the FBI and Justice Department websites offline in retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload.

In late 2010, Anonymous attacked the websites of Amazon, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and others in retaliation for their decisions to stop working with Julian Assange’s anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks. AGENCIES

Nawaz summons CEC meeting on APC

According to sources, the meeting has been summoned following escalating tensions between Pakistan and America.  All major leaders of the party have been asked to attend the meeting, which would also finalise its strategy regarding APC (All Parties Conference).

The sources said that the meeting would also deliberate a consensus over possible resignation of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan from Public Accounts Committee.

Gold price decreases by Rs 700 a tola

According to Sindh Gold Association, bullion price reached Rs 56,300 from Rs 57,000, while 10-gram gold price closed at Rs 48,257 after a decrease of Rs 600.

Police calm London, but riots flare across UK

LONDON: Thousands of extra police officers on the streets kept a nervous London quiet Wednesday after three nights of rioting, but looting flared in Manchester and Birmingham, where a murder probe was opened when three men were killed after being hit by a car.

An eerie calm prevailed in the capital, where hundreds of shops were shuttered or boarded up as a precaution, but unrest spread across England on a fourth night of violence by brazen crowds of young people.

Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings have frightened and outraged Britons just a year before their country is to host next summer’s Olympic Games, bringing demands for a tougher response from law enforcement. Police across the country have made almost 1,200 arrests since the violence broke out over the weekend.

In London, where armored vehicles and convoys of police vans patrolled the streets, authorities said there were 16,000 officers on duty — almost triple the number present Monday night.

The show of force seems to have worked. There were no reports of major trouble in London, although there were scores of arrests. Almost 800 people have been arrested in London since trouble began Saturday.

“What happened in London last night was, when community leaders and the police came together, there were significant arrests,” said police deputy assistant chief constable Stephen Kavanagh. “We used buses to make sure some looters were taken away before they got into doing anything, but it was that joint action that made the difference.”

Outside the capital, some looting erupted, but not on the scale of the violence that hit several areas of London on Monday.

In the northwestern city of Manchester, hundreds of youths rampaged through the city center, hurling bottles and stones at police and vandalizing stores. A women’s clothing store on the city’s main shopping street was set ablaze, along with a disused library in nearby Salford.

Manchester assistant chief constable Garry Shewan said it was simple lawlessness.

“We want to make it absolutely clear — they have nothing to protest against,” he said. “There is nothing in a sense of injustice and there has been no spark that has led to this.”

Britain’s soccer authorities were talking with police to see whether this weekend’s season-opening matches of the Premier League could still go ahead in London. A Wednesday match between England and the Netherlands at London’s Wembley stadium was canceled to free up police officers for riot duty.

Britain’s riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London’s Tottenham neighborhood turned violent. That clash has morphed into a general lawlessness in London and several other cities that police have struggled to halt.

While the rioters have run off with goods every teen wants — new sneakers, bikes, electronics and leather goods — they also have torched stores apparently just for the fun of seeing something burn. They were left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods, and when police did arrive they often were able to flee quickly and regroup.

With police struggling, some residents stood guard to protect their neighborhoods. Outside a Sikh temple in Southall, west London, residents vowed to defend their place of worship if mobs of young rioters appeared. Another group marched through Enfield, in north London, aiming to deter looters.

One far-right group said about 1,000 of its members were taking to the streets to deter rioters.

“We’re going to stop the riots — police obviously can’t handle it,” Stephen Lennon, leader of the far-right English Defense League, told The Associated Press. He warned that he couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be violent clashes with rioting youths.

Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to the bombing and massacre that killed 77 people in Norway last month, has cited the EDL as an inspiration.

In the central England city of Nottingham, police said rioters hurled firebombs though the window of a police station, and set fire to a school and a vehicle but there were no reports of injuries. Some 90 people were arrested.

Some 250 people were arrested after two days of violence in Birmingham — where police launched a murder investigation after the deaths of three men hit by a car — some residents said the men had been patrolling their neighborhood to keep it safe from looters.

Police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of murder in the case.

In the northern city of Liverpool, about 200 youths hurled missiles at police and firefighters in a second night of unrest, and 44 arrests were reported.

There also were minor clashes in the central and western England locations of Leicester, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Bristol, and Gloucester — where police and firefighters tackled a blaze and disturbance in the city’s Brunswick district.

In London, hundreds of stores, offices, pubs and restaurants had closed early Tuesday amid fears of fresh rioting. Normally busy streets were eerily quiet and the smell of plywood filled the air as business owners rushed to secure their shops before nightfall.

In east London’s Bethnal Green district, convenience store owner Adnan Butt, 28, said the situation was still tense.

“People are all at home — they’re scared,” he said.

Prime Minister David Cameron’s government rejected calls by some lawmakers and citizens for strong-arm riot measures that British police generally avoid, such as tear gas and water cannons.

“The public wanted to see tough action. They wanted to see it sooner and there is a degree of frustration,” said Andrew Silke, head of the criminology department at the University of East London.

Cameron recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate on the riots Thursday.

Other politicians visited riot sites Tuesday — but for many residents it was too little, too late. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was booed by crowds who shouted “Go home!” in Birmingham, while London Mayor Boris Johnson was heckled on a shattered shopping street in Clapham, south London.

Johnson said the riots would not stop London from “welcoming the world to our city” for the 2012 Olympics.

So far 770 people have been arrested in London and 167 charged — including an 11-year-old boy — and the capital’s prison cells were overflowing. Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said it had teams of lawyers working 24 hours a day to help police decide whether to charge suspects.

A total of 111 officers and 14 members of the public have been hurt.

The violence was triggered by the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in Tottenham on Thursday under disputed circumstances.

Police said Duggan was shot dead when officers from Operation Trident — the unit that investigates gun crime in the black community — stopped a cab he was riding in. A Saturday protest demanding justice degenerated into a riot, which spread to neighboring parts of London on Sunday and by Monday had spread across the capital.

Duggan’s death resonated because it stirred memories of the 1980s, when many black Londoners felt they were disproportionately stopped and searched by police. Their frustration erupted in violent riots in 1985.

But the rioters who have taken to the streets since Sunday have been extremely diverse — those in central England appeared to be mostly white and working class. AGENCIES

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