Full tobacco ban suggested by lawmakers in China

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-08-31

People buy cigarettes at a shop in Hong Kong, Feb. 23, 2011. (File photo/Xinhua)

Chinese lawmakers called for a complete ban on tobacco advertisements when discussing an Advertisement Law bill on Saturday.

Members of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) discussed the draft amendment to the 20-year-old Advertisement Law at the ongoing bi-monthly legislative session.

A number of lawmakers called for the law to ban tobacco advertisements in all forms and venues.

Tobacco companies will still take advantage of loopholes if the law does not clearly impose a complete ban, said He Yicheng, an NPC Standing Committee member, at the panel discussion.

The bill, tabled for its first reading on Monday, proposes banning tobacco advertisements directly or indirectly transmitted via radio, film, television, newspaper, magazines, books, audio and visual products, electronic publications, telecommunication networks and the internet.

It is also more specific on public venues where tobacco ads would be banned, such as libraries, cultural centers, museums, parks, waiting rooms, theaters, meeting halls, sports auditoriums, and the vicinities of hospitals and schools, as well as outdoors.

"We don't need to go to the trouble of listing media and venues that are closed to tobacco ads. It will be clearer to just adopt a complete ban," He said.

In an interview with Xinhua, Wu Yiqun, vice director of Think Tank Research Center for Health Development, a non-governmental anti-smoking group, said there was a major oversight in the bill.

"What about children's palaces [government-funded recreation centers for minors in China]? They are not listed by the bill. Are tobacco ads okay for these venues?" Wu asked.

Also, the bill does not regulate tobacco firms sponsoring sport and other public events as well as smoking scenes in films and TV shows, she said.

As the world's largest tobacco maker and consumer, China has more than 300 million smokers and another 740 million people exposed to second-hand smoke each year.

According to a report released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in May, 6.9% of Chinese junior school students smoke and 48.5% of students between 13 and 15 years old saw a tobacco advertisement in the past month. In a survey conducted among children aged five and six, 85% could identify at least one cigarette brand.

In 2003, China signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It requires signatories to "comprehensively ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship."

In an email reply to Xinhua, Dr. Bernhard Schwartlander, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in China, said the WHO welcomes the strengthening of existing restrictions on tobacco advertising in China and commends both the State Council and the NPC for its attention to and efforts in this field.

"However, the proposed amendments to the Advertising Law still fall short of what is required by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control," he said. "We recommend additional amendments to the Advertising Law to ensure that the final law includes a complete, enforceable ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in China."

Lawmakers also raised questions about junk mails and text messages.

The bill adds a provision forbidding any organization and individual from posting advertisements on citizen's residences and vehicles, as well as transmitting them without consent through land line phones, mobile phones and emails.

Han Xiaowu, another NPC Standing Committee member, said that the provision is too general and abstract.

"Junk mails and text messages have become a headache for many people. We will not only need a ban but also need to know how to impose the ban," he said.

If the amendment does not have enough room for detailed provisions, it should at least require the administration to work out detailed rules, Han said.

Related Article:

WHO calls for ban on e-cigarette sales to minors

Food as Medicine: How One Hospital Is Using Organic Produce to Help Heal Patients

EcoWatch, Coach Mark Smallwood, August 22, 2014

In 431 B.C. Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”

More than 2500 years later, we are inundated with advertisements boasting the latest, greatest cure-all super drug. From a young age, we learn that it doesn’t matter how or what we eat, there is a quick fix around the corner for whatever ails us—whether we’re obese, have high blood pressure or bad cholesterol—just to name a few of the issues plaguing our society.

A sign directs visitors and patients to the St. Luke’s Rodale Institute Organic
Farm, adjacent to the hospital. Photo credit: Bill Noll

It now seems almost revolutionary to think that we can change our health by changing the food we eat.

But, one hospital in Pennsylvania thought just that.

In 2014, Rodale Institute, in partnership with St. Luke’s University Health Network, launched a true farm to hospital food program.

The Anderson Campus at St. Luke’s has more than 300 acres of farmland, much of which had historically been farmed conventionally with crops like corn and soy. The hospital administration recognized the impact that providing fresh, local organic produce could have on patient health and approached Rodale Institute to transition the land to organic and farm vegetables to be used in patient meals as well as in the cafeteria.

The five acre farm at the St. Luke’s Anderson campus in Bethlehem,
PA. Photo credit: Bill Noll

Lynn Trizna, or Farmer Lynn, as she’s known around St. Luke’s, provides food to all six hospitals within the network. This year, she is growing five acres of vegetables with plans expand to ten acres in 2015. She estimates about 44,000 lbs of produce from her farm will be served in the hospital, just this season. She is paid a salary through Rodale Institute and has employed three staff members, all aspiring farmers.

Farmer Lynn Trizna. Photo
credit: Bill Noll

With a three-year plan in place, Rodale Institute and St. Luke’s see the potential for expansion. We envision growing the program to include fifteen to twenty farmers—supporting new farmers who don’t have access to land; greenhouses that allow for year round production of produce; and a small batch cannery, ensuring that we can enjoy the harvest, even in the coldest months of winter.

We have created this model with the belief that it can, and should, be replicated at every hospital throughout the U.S.

So, the next time you’re feeling a bit under the weather, stop—think of us and Hippocrates’ words of wisdom. Maybe you’ll then look to the garden for a cure, instead of the medicine cabinet.

Related Articles:

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'Secret gardens' provide safe food for Chinese officials

Texas to appeal after federal judge strikes down abortion restrictions

Ruling halted closure of a dozen abortion clinics across the state, threatened under restrictive measures passed in 2013

theguardian.com, Joanna Walters in New York, Saturday 30 August 2014

The Hilltop Women’s Reproductive clinic in El Paso, Texas would have been
forced to close. Photograph: Juan Carlos LLorca/AP

Abortion providers across the US this weekend gave muted cheers to a court ruling that blocked a new law that would have caused more than half of the dwindling number of clinics in Texas to close as early as Monday.

The Texas state government immediately announced it would appeal the ruling, which was delivered late on Friday and which halted the closure of a dozen abortion clinics across the state.

“At least for the moment today’s victory is vital in preventing politicians’ scorched-earth assaults on women’s healthcare,” said Nancy Northup, chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights. The CCR filed the lawsuit, claiming the proposed law was unconstitutional.

Federal district judge Lee Yeakel agreed on Friday and declared, in the state capital Austin, in favour of the CCR.

Texas’ new abortion measures were signed into law by Texas governor Rick Perry in 2013 and have since been implemented in stages; the latest law, about surgical standards, was due to come into effect on Monday.

Yeakel also struck down, in part, a law requiring abortion doctors to be listed on the staff of a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic where they worked. He blocked that rule in south and west Texas, around the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso areas.

Stephanie Toti, a senior staff attorney with the CCR, told the Guardian doctors in abortion clinics in those areas had received letters from local hospitals refusing to put them on staff in order to allow them to continue practicing.

“They said it was unrelated to their clinical skills. There is a lot of hostility to abortion providers in those areas,” she said.

If the judge had found against the clinics and the full set of laws had gone into effect in Texas, Toti said, a million people in south and west Texas would not have had an in-state abortion clinic within 150 miles.

The legislation approved by Perry also contained a ruling that abortion clinics would have to upgrade surgical standards to the level of a mini-hospital, and banned abortion after 20 weeks.

Supporters argued that the legislation was designed to improve healthcare standards for women and was not solely an attempt to reduce access to abortion.

Judge Yeakel ruled that the new law placed a burden on women without providing any medical benefits.

“The overall effect of the provisions is to create an impermissible obstacle as applied to all women seeking a pre-viability abortion,” Yeakel wrote in a 21-page ruling.

If the bill signed by Perry had gone into effect, the number of licensed abortion clinics in Texas would have dropped from 19 to seven, with all of those in the largest cities, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Forth Worth and Austin. A little more than two years ago there were 41 abortion clinics in the state. In many areas, women already have to drive hundreds of miles for repeat appointments.

“Texas women still face serious threats to their rights, health and ability to obtain safe, high-quality reproductive healthcare from reputable doctors in their communities,” said Northup.

The American College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians has warned that laws in a number of states shutting down abortion clinics are a threat to women’s health.

“Women will resort to other means to try to terminate a pregnancy, which will put their lives at risk,” said chief executive Hal Lawrence.

Federal judges have recently blocked similar laws to that which was passed in Texas, particularly those requiring doctors already licensed to perform abortions in clinics to be accredited at local hospitals. Such rules have been struck down in Alabama, Kansas, Wisconsin and Mississippi. The last-named state has only one remaining abortion clinic.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion provider in several states, said after the Texas ruling: “We are extremely pleased with Judge Yeakel’s ruling. As he states, requiring every abortion clinic to turn into a surgical centre is excessive and not based on good medicine.”

Some opponents of the law have pointed out that the higher surgical standards are not required of other clinics offering minor procedures unrelated to abortions, such as colonoscopies, which have a similar level of risk.

“This is a great victory for the women of Texas,” Toti told the Guardian. “But the state has already filed an appeal.”

Six executives formally arrested over Shanghai Husi food scandal

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-08-30

The headquarters of Shanghai Husi Food Co. (Photo/CNS)

Six senior executives of the scandal-ridden Shanghai Husi Food Co were formally arrested on Friday over charges of producing and selling counterfeit products, said the municipal procuratorate.

The official arrests were approved by the Second Branch of the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate. The procuratorate said a man named Hu Jun was among those arrested, but refused to provide more details.

OSI China, the parent company of Shanghai Husi, confirmed on its website six employees have been arrested and said it will continue to cooperate fully with authorities.

The food scandal was first exposed after a local TV station reported on July 20 that Shanghai Husi had supplied products tainted with reprocessed, expired meat to a string of fast food chains and restaurants across China.

Chinese food and industry watchdogs immediately launched a probe into the scandal.

Related Articles:

Husi meat scandal just the tip of the iceberg, says exec

McDonald's Japan halts sales of Chinese chicken after meat scandal
China arrests five in expired meat scandal

China shuts meat factory supplying McDonald's, KFC

Food banks in Taiwan launch alliance to share resources

Want China Times, CNA 2014-08-30

Food provided by 1919 Food Bank. (Photo/Kuo Chia-jung)

Six food banks in Taiwan launched an alliance in Taipei Thursday to share their resources and logistics more effectively and to push for legislation that encourages donations to food banks.

The founding of the Cozy Food Bank Alliance in Taiwan is aimed at "saying no to wasting resources," the alliance said in a statement.

Its members include the Taiwan People's Food Bank Association, the 1919 Food Bank, the Andrew Food Bank, the Chinese Youth Peace Corps Food Bank, the Southern Airport's Jen Ji Shiang Food Bank and the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China's Taichung branch, which operates a food bank in the central municipality.

"We hope to send the supplies to people in need in the fastest and most efficient way," Lawrence Liu, president of the Taiwan People's Food Bank Association and the first secretary-general of the alliance, said at a press conference.

Members of the alliance will share resources, information and logistics with each other, and cooperate in disaster relief assistance, community development and care services, Liu said.

They will also push for legislation that gives tax breaks to individuals and companies that donate to food banks, allows food banks or the public to purchase excess farm produce at discounted prices to give to the needy, and better ensure the safety of the food being distributed, Liu said.

He said Taiwan wastes 2.75 million tons of food each year, enough to feed 260,000 low-income households for 20 years.

Anthony Kitchen, manager of network programs with the US-based Global FoodBanking Network, stressed that food banks create a "win-win" situation for all involved.

In addition to helping people in need, food banks benefit businesses and organizations that have a problem with surplus food, which could otherwise cost time and money to deal with, he said at the press conference.

A food bank collects and distributes surplus food to people too impoverished to adequately feed themselves and their families. The first food bank was established in the United States in 1967.

The Taiwan People's Food Bank Association became the 24th member of the Global FoodBanking Network in 2012.

Related Article:

First 'boycott tomatoes' arrive at Dutch food banks

First 'boycott tomatoes' arrive at Dutch food banks

DutchNews.nl, Wednesday 27 August 2014

(NOS)

A consignment of 4,000 kilos of tomatoes have been delivered to Arnhem’s food banks under new rules to stop food waste because of the Russian boycott of Dutch produce.

The economic affairs ministry has brought in temporary rules to allow growers to remove fruit and vegetables destined for Russia from the market.

Brussels has set aside €125m to compensate growers for the loss of trade and the compensation is higher if the produce is sent to food banks, news agency ANP said.

The compensation deal applies to tomatoes, carrots, white cabbage, bell peppers, cauliflower, cucumbers, mushrooms, apples, pears and various soft fruits.

The Dutch food bank association estimates it can distribute 300,000 kilos of fruit and veg a week to low income families.

So far 45 growers have come forward to claim compensation, the Financieele Dagblad said.

Three ways the iceman controls his immune system

NewScience, Alison George, 27 August 2014

The way of the iceman (Image: AP/Press Association)

We can learn to consciously control our immune system – that's the surprising finding from research based on the techniques of the "iceman" Wim Hof, famous for his ability to withstand cold for long periods. The research team, from Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, hopes that Hof's techniques might one day be used to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. For now, the team is trying to establish which of the three components of Hof's technique are responsible for the profound suppression of the immune system that they observed.

Read more: "Can we consciously control our immune system?"

How Hof does it

Meditation

Specifically, third-eye meditation, where you still your thoughts through visualising a third eye on your forehead. Find out more about the science of meditation in "Mind gym: Putting meditation to the test".

Cold exposure

You might not want to try this yourself, but Hof's training regime involves swimming in near-freezing water, climbing mountains in just shorts and lying bare-chested in snow for 20 minutes.

Breathing exercises

One of these involves hyperventilating for 30 breaths, then exhaling and holding the breath for up to 2 or even 3 minutes, followed by a deep inhalation of breath that is held for 10 seconds. Hof's second breathing exercise consists of deep inhalations and exhalations with breath-holding for 10 seconds, while tightening all body muscles.

Related Articles:

Online Story: The Iceman - Wim Hof (Dutch Language)


"The Mysterious Innate" – Aug 31, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... Mining the Akash - The Role of Innate

What I'm going to tell next, we have given you before. However, I wish to explain it better in this communication. Your innate is also a governor of what you personally need. Let me explain: Turn a page with me. We have talked in the past about mining the Akash. So let us open that door for a moment. Is it possible, dear one, that you could go into the vast storehouse of the attributes of your past lives and pick out something that you need today? The answer is yes. It's called mining the Akash, and it is a staple of the Kryon teaching. However, the way it's accomplished by the individual Human is really difficult to describe. It's a personal intuitive process. However, one attribute of it that is often misunderstood is that permission from the innate is needed. This is because the innate smart body knows what you need. It is then the governor, or the filter, giving you permission regarding what can be pulled out of your Akash and used. It will say no to frivolous things and yes to the things that will allow you to cure yourself of disease, live longer, and increase the efficiency of your DNA. It's a smart body regulator.

Innate doesn't care how you look. It cares about your health. If you want to go into your Akash and pull out something that you need for survival, it's right there with you. If you want to make clearer skin, it won't respond. Do you see what I mean? It's the governor for mining the Akash. By the way, the Akash is very ready to be used for this. [Kryon wink]

You have earned what you've lived, dear ones, and it's very available. It lies in a quantum soup of lifetime information that is ready to be used. If you have a disease in your body right now, and perhaps you want to mine the Akash in a way that will create healing, you can. Like all nonlinear things, it requires a new, mature consciousness and practice to work. But the body is ready for you to "go get" the cellular structure of a past life that had no disease. The blueprint for this resides within you since you earned it and lived it. The innate is responsible for spontaneous remission! Science has no idea how a Human does this. The innate can help you "go get" the things within your earned Akash and place them into your cellular structure. That's how smart it is! Imagine clearing disease so completely that there is no sign it was ever there? It happens all the time. Imagine being able to drop a chemical dependency overnight? It's exactly the same principle.

Did you ever sit in a meeting and something is said or a feeling can happen, and you get chills? What are they? You might say, "They are chills of validation." Guess where they came from? The innate! The innate has the ability to signal you the truth. The brain does not. In fact, your brain will often get in the way. It's the brain that contains your box of belief. It's the brain that contains the perception of who you are based on experience and memory. It's your 3D survival instrument. But the brain can't give truth. It can only give you what it perceives as the truth, based on logical, processed, computed, synaptic reasoning and only based on your past experience.

Your brain can tell you not to touch the stove because of what happened once before. But it can't give you chills of validation from information it does not have. The intellect wants you to believe that your brain is supreme. However, the brain is only one part of the body system and not a very intuitive part. It is the innate that knows the truth. The innate is connected to the quantum parts of your DNA and, therefore, also knows of your spirituality and the truth of God inside.

The Next Step

One of the attributes of the future Human Being is to build a bridge between your Human consciousness and your innate. This is one of the three things in the cellular parts of the nine attributes lesson, the Human energies part. This needs to be a bridge of new tools so you no longer have to muscle-test. In fact, you can become your own medical intuitive. Doesn't this make sense? So, when a virus or bacteria invades your body - something your brain can't warn you about - you will know it anyway! This bridge will begin to complete the Human Being's evolution and is a logical next step for longer life. I know this makes sense to you. You should be able to sense these things when they occur rather than going to a doctor for tests. Going to a doctor for tests is not a bad thing, but it should validate what you know is happening and not be the discovery of it. ..."

Japan's 'Golden Bolt': 103-year-old challenges world's fastest man

Yahoo – AFP, Alastair Himmer, 28 Aug 2014

103-year-old Japanese sprinter Hidekichi Miyazaki (C) leaves the start line

 during the men's 100m dash at a competition in Kyoto on August 3, 2014 

(AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)

Kyoto (Japan) (AFP) - Closing in on his 104th birthday, a twinkle-toed Japanese sprinter has thrown down the challenge to the world's fastest man Usain Bolt, telling him: "let's rumble!"

Hidekichi Miyazaki -- who holds the 100 metres world record for centenarians at 29.83 seconds and is dubbed 'Golden Bolt' after the Jamaican flyer -- plans to wait another five years for his dream race and was happy to reveal his secret weapon: his daughter's tangerine jam.

"I'd love to race Bolt," the wispy-haired Miyazaki told AFP in an interview after tottering over the line with a joyful whoop at a recent Japan Masters Athletics competition in Kyoto.

103-year-old Japanese sprinter Hidekichi 

Miyazaki runs during the men's 100m dash

at a competition in Kyoto on August 3, 2014

(AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)

"I'm keeping the dream alive. I try to stay in top shape and stay disciplined and healthy. That's important for everyone -- even Usain Bolt."

Born in 1910 -- the year Japan annexed Korea and when the Titanic was still under construction -- the pint-sized Miyazaki offered some dietary tips to Bolt, whose world record is 9.58 seconds.

"My body is small so I take care of what I eat," said Miyazaki, who stands just 1.53 metres (five feet) tall and weighs in at 42 kilograms (92 pounds).

"When I eat, I chew each mouthful 30 times before swallowing," he added, loosening his Usain Bolt running shoes. "That makes my tummy happy and helps my running. And I eat my tangerine jam every day."

In a country with one of the world's highest life expectancies, Miyazaki is the poster boy for Japan's turbo-charged geriatrics.

Some 6,000 pensioners are registered at the Masters federation which hosts more than 40 track and field meetings every year across the nation.

Serenaded by buzzing cicadas in sweltering heat, Miyazaki fell into the arms of 73-year-old daughter Kiyono after clocking 38.35 -- more than 20 seconds behind race winner Yoshio Kita, a relative spring chicken at 82.

"I'd give myself five out of 10 for that," he said after regaining his breath and copying Bolt's trademark 'lightning' pose. "Before I ran I curled up for a little nap -- big mistake! I felt stiff.

"I'm still young so it's a learning process," joked Miyazaki, grinning from ear to ear as he put on a straw hat. "I can run for another five years."

Late bloomer

Miyazaki, who hails from tea-growing Shizuoka prefecture, about 200 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, was a late bloomer, only taking up running at the age of 92 after watching an old people's sports day broadcast on television.

85-year-old Japanese athlete Mitsue Tsuji (R)

 starts during women's 60m dash at a Japan

 Masters Athletics competition in Kyoto on

August 3, 2014 (AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)

Having become the planet's fastest centenarian in 2010, he now has his sights on another milestone in the unlikely 105-109 age group category.

"That's what I'm training for," said Miyazaki, who loses valuable seconds at the start of races because he can't hear the gun go off.

"It's my birthday next month and that's my next goal."

He need only cross the finish line to set the new world record as no official mark exists in that age class.

As Miyazaki left the track, 85-year-old Mitsue Tsuji tossed a shot put 4.73 metres -- this after she had set a mark of 2.07 metres in the long jump. Not content, she set a meet record of 13.85 in the women's 60 metres sprint.

"I started doing athletics when I was 81," she said. "My husband had passed away and I thought there was no point moping around at home alone."

Tsuji will join Miyazaki at next month's Asia Masters championships in northeast Japan.

"I had a bit of a fall last year and was going to skip it," said Tsuji, who credits power naps for her age-defying stamina.

"But my son told me I might not live much longer so I'll do as I'm told. I'll keep going as long as I'm around."

As the pair tore it up with the other high-fiving grannies and granddads in Kyoto, 78-year-old endurance runner Yoko Nakano pounded the streets in Tokyo, preparing for her latest world record tilt.

'Too stubborn to quit'

78-year-old Japanese endurance runner

 Yoko Nakano jogs on the street in Tokyo on 

July 28, 2014, preparing for her latest world

record tilt (AFP Photo/Toru Yamanaka)

Nakano ran her first full marathon at 70 "for fun" while vacationing in Honolulu -- clocking four hours, four minutes, 44 seconds -- and now holds the world record for 75 to 79-year-olds, as well as those for the 3,000 and 5,000 metres.

"We were on holiday so I thought we might as well run," she smiled, perched on a tree stump in a canary yellow T-shirt and polka dot scarf. Her world marathon mark now stands at 3:53.42.

The bespectacled Nakano, whose has also run marathons in New York and Boston, bounced back from stomach surgery last year, building her post-op fitness by walking up and down the hospital corridors.

"I walked about seven kilometres a day inside the hospital," she said. "I guess I'm too stubborn to quit."

Miyazaki, who is also handy with a shot put, gave an insight into his need for speed.

"I make sure not to use my brain," he said. "I always keep it empty and uncluttered. That's important."

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Indonesian census discovers 157-year-old woman

Indian woman kills leopard with sickle after it attacks her

Kamla Devi, 56, says she battled with the animal for half an hour after it attacked her while she was tending her fields

theguardian.com, Agence France-Presse in Dehradun, Wednesday 27 August 2014

Kamla Devi suffered several injuries after she fought off a leopard. Photograph: Europics

A 56-year-old Indian woman is recovering in hospital after killing a leopard that attacked her, as she tended her fields armed only with a sickle.

The woman told Indian broadcaster CNN-IBN that she battled with the leopard for half an hour on Sunday morning before finally delivering a killer blow with her sickle.

"The leopard lunged at me many times and we fought for a long time," she told the channel from her hospital bed in the northern state of Uttarakhand, her arms bandaged and a big scar across her right cheek.

"I got hold of my sickle and fought with it. That's when the leopard was killed," said the woman, named as Kamla Devi.

Devi, who was widowed a few years ago, told the Hindustan Times she was terrified when the leopard attacked, but was determined not to succumb.

"I gathered my courage to fight back. I promised myself that this is not my last day here," she told the paper.

She told AFP that she grabbed the ear of the attacking leopard with her right hand and kept swinging at the animal with the sickle in her left. Hearing Devi's screams for help, villagers in the Rudraprayag district came running but the leopard was dead by the time they reached her, a witness, Jagdish Singh, said.

Dr Rakesh Rawat said Devi's injuries, which include fractured hands and deep cuts on her body, were not life threatening and she was recovering.

Leopard attacks are relatively common in rural areas of India, although it is rare for the leopard to come off worse. In 2009 a nine-year-old boy in the same state fought off a leopard that had attacked his sister.

The animals are increasingly venturing into populated areas as their habitat becomes depleted. Video footage from Mumbai last year showed a leopard creeping into an apartment block complex and snatching a small dog.

Conservation group WWF called for better management of forests and other habitats for India's leopard population, which numbered 1,150 in a 2011 census.

WHO calls for ban on e-cigarette sales to minors

Yahoo – AFP, Nina Larson, 26 Aug 2014

E-cigarettes have grown in popularity, particularly among youths (AFP

Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)

Geneva (AFP) - The World Health Organization called Tuesday on governments to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, warning they pose a "serious threat" to unborn babies and young people.

The UN health body also said they should be banned from indoor public spaces, in a series of recommendations ahead of a global meeting on control of tobacco use later this year.

"E-cigarettes and similar devices pose threats to public health," said Douglas Bettcher, head of WHO's noncommunicable diseases unit.

Customers try different flavors of electronic

 cigarette vapor at the Vapor Shark store

 on April 24, 2014 in Miami, Florida (AFP

Photo/Joe Raedle)

"Regulation for these products must be given urgent attention," he told reporters in Geneva.

The number of users worldwide is thought to have doubled in the four years to 2012, the WHO said.

The devices -- which are particularly popular among young people -- function by heating flavoured nicotine liquid into a vapour that is inhaled, much like traditional cigarettes, but without the smoke.

They also often come without the regulations imposed on the traditional tobacco industry.

Half WHO members don't regulate

Half of WHO member states do not regulate the devices at all, in many cases allowing advertising and the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

Users in some countries can also "vape" in places where smoking is banned.

But while manufacturers tout them as harmless aids to quit smoking, the WHO said there was little research to back those claims.

"The existing evidence shows that e-cigarette aerosol is not merely water vapour," said Bettcher.

And despite a dearth of research on the health effects of "vaping", the WHO said there was enough evidence "to caution children and adolescents, pregnant women, and women of reproductive age" about e-cigarette use, due to the "potential for foetal and adolescent nicotine exposure (having) long-term consequences for brain development".

A selection of "Nicotine Containing

Products" are displayed during "The

E-Cigarette Summit" at the Royal 

Academy in central London on

November 12, 2013 (AFP Photo/Leon

Neal)

It said retailers should be prohibited from selling e-cigarettes to minors, and called for the scrapping of vending machines in almost all locations.

WHO's recommendations came in a report published ahead of a meeting in Moscow in October of parties to an international convention on tobacco control, where new global e-cigarette guidelines could be agreed.

Soaring sales

Since 2005, the e-cigarette sector has ballooned from a single manufacturer in China to an estimated $3.0-billion global industry, WHO said.

Bettcher voiced particular concern at the growing role of traditional tobacco companies.

"The tobacco industry pretends to be part of the solution to the global health disaster that they have created," he said.

While e-cigarette manufacturers claim they are helping smokers kick their habit, the WHO report said much of the marketing appeared to be targeting non-smokers.

The booming popularity of e-cigarettes could also lead to smoking regaining its lost respectability and help "perpetuate the smoking epidemic", it warned.

Gateway to nicotine addiction

A customer smokes an electronic cigarette

 at the Vapor Shark store on September 6,

2013 in Miami, Florida (AFP Photo/Joe

Raedle)

It said the devices could "serve as a gateway to nicotine addiction" for young people.

The proliferation of e-cigarette flavours -- there are now nearly 8,000, including "strawberry milkshake" and "gummy bear" -- also raises the suspicion that youths are a prominent target, Bettcher said.

WHO said all e-cigarettes with fruit, candy or alcohol flavours should be banned "until it can be proven they are not attractive to children and adolescents".

The UN agency acknowledged that e-cigarettes were "likely to be less toxic" than conventional cigarettes, but said more research was needed.

Until manufacturers provide "convincing supporting scientific evidence," they should be banned from making health claims, including that e-cigarettes can help quit smoking, it said.

Armando Peruga, who heads the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, said most e-cigarette brands contain nicotine, while some also contain cancer-causing formaldehyde and even heavy metals.

Sales of e-cigarettes are expected to

 top $2.0 billion in the United States this

year (AFP Photo/Joe Raedle)

While levels may be lower than in traditional cigarettes, it was unclear whether the health outcome would vary significantly, he warned.

US health authorities revealed Monday that the number of young people there who have tried e-cigarettes tripled from 2011 to 2013.

More than a quarter of a million young people who had never smoked a cigarette used e-cigarettes last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

In the United States, where e-cigarettes are a completely unregulated $2 billion industry, 47 percent of smokers and former smokers said last year they had tried them, with four percent regular users.

In 2012, seven percent of EU citizens over the age of 15 had tried them, although only one percent of the population in the bloc indulged regularly, WHO said.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”