In this crowded and muggy speck of Europe perched on Africa’s shoulder, with the Mediterranean to one side and gigantic Morocco to the other, a person might be forgiven for going a little stir crazy. The few aircraft that come to this far-flung Spanish enclave are smallish, noisy prop planes that bank gut-wrenchingly to negotiate a short runway. The drone of propellers over deep blue sea is a throwback to another era of travel, like going somewhere stuck in time. Border crossings are often tense places, but perhaps more so at this loud, dirty and chaotic conduit point between Europe̵ ... Jump to full article >>

The long relationship between tennis and tobacco companies has likely come to an end after the ATP forced Swiss officials to terminate Davidoff’s title sponsorship of the indoor event later this year in Basel. The ATP explained its order by blaming laws in various countries which ban cigarette advertisements. Because of those restrictions, television broadcasts of the tournament in those countries had to drop the name of the sponsor. Instead of going through a similar experience this year, the ATP told Swiss officials they could not extend the sponsorship with Davidoff. As of now, the t ... Jump to full article >>

Tatiana Dyment found her 70-year-old mother sitting in the bathtub, her head leaning sideways and cold water from the showerhead still streaming down her back. “She could have been dead for two to three days, doctors suppose,” said the psychologist, who had rushed back to Moscow from vacation in Croatia after she couldn’t reach her mother by phone. “The windows in her apartment on the sixth floor were wide open and every piece of furniture in the apartment smelled of burning” from the thick white smoke hanging in the air outside. Doctors say her mother, Tatiana Be ... Jump to full article >>

A new federal law intended to make sure mail-order cigarette sellers don’t avoid taxes is frustrating well-meaning people who want to mail smokes, including a Louisville man who can no longer send Marlboro Menthols to his grandson, a Marine serving in Afghanistan. “Why punish a serviceman with this act when he can’t even have a cigarette over there,” Jack Gray said. “That’s not believable.” It’s an unintended consequence of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, or PACT Act as it’s known for short, said a spokeswoman for the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Herbert Kohl, D-Wisc. Be ... Jump to full article >>

The warning “Smoking kills” will appear on the front of all packs of cigarettes sold in Russia as part of a new anti-smoking campaign, the government said. When the new regulations take effect at the start of 2011, the mandatory “Smoking kills” message is to appear in a black-framed box covering nearly a third of the front of each pack of smokes, RIA Novosti reported. An additional warning must cover no less than half the back, The warnings are larger and more prominent than those on cigarettes sold in the United States and some other countries that have required warnin ... Jump to full article >>

Indonesia on Tuesday asked the World Trade Organisation to rule on a dispute with the United States over a ban on sales of Indonesian clove cigarettes. Washington had banned the production and sales of clove cigarettes under a health act that also blocks the sales of other flavoured cigarettes such as grape, coffee or strawberry, in a bid to prevent the young from getting hooked on smoking. But Indonesia argued that the act had not been applied uniformly as it did not cover menthol cigarettes. “Indonesia cannot understand why menthol cigarettes can continue to be sold while clove cigaret ... Jump to full article >>

Seven commercials about the harms of smoking are being screened on television as part of an anti-smoking campaign that has recently been launched targeting Saudi youth. Flyers are also being distributed on the harms of smoking and lectures are being delivered on the subject as part of the campaign. “The idea came to me when I visited a high school in Jeddah and met grade 11 students. I asked them about smoking and realized that 12 out of the 15 I met smoked,” said Kaswara Al-Khatib, managing director of Full Stop Advertising. “I have always been irritated that underage boys a ... Jump to full article >>

A three-year-old has mysteriously picked up an addiction to smoking cigarettes and downing beers after surviving a road crash. Ya Wen has been smoking up to a pack a day since the accident last year when she was hit by a speeding van. Her parents say that her personality has changed since leaving hospital, where she recovered from five days in a coma and severe injuries. Her mother Gao said she has started acting like an adult. ‘She likes drinking,’ she said. ‘Three glasses of beer is no problem to her.’ Her mother, who collects rubbish to sell in Huizhou, China, said s ... Jump to full article >>

Foreign tourists visit India by the hundreds each year to hire surrogate moms to carry their babies for them. It’s a bargain for the would-be parents, costing them around $23,000, or about one fifth of the going rate here in the U.S., according to Time. The surrogate mom typically gets about $7,500 – paid in installments. Now, though, the booming rent-a-womb industry in India, which has become the international capital of outsourced pregnancies, will soon be subject to new restrictions that will make it harder for foreigners to hire a surrogate. India legalized commercial surrogacy in ... Jump to full article >>

Suddenly various sectors of the public at large are intently discussing about cigarette smoking, relegating other matters that are crucial to everyday living of Filipinos to the sidelines. This is all because we have an incoming president – Noynoy Aquino – who is a moderate smoker and, according to his answers to casual conversation with media lately, will not give up the habit in any foreseeable future. And so the topic about smoking continues to dominate in casual talks on family dining table, in coffee shops, sports clubs, Rotary and Lions meetings, in church groups, and even among the ... Jump to full article >>

Rescuers have called off the search for survivors as the death toll from one of Bangladesh’s worst fires rose to 108 after flames ripped through a packed neighbourhood of Dhaka. The blaze raged for three hours, destroying a row of multi-storey apartment buildings and trapping hundreds of residents in Dhaka’s densely populated Kayettuli area, city police chief A.K.M Shahidul Haq said. “At least 108 people have died including those who expired in hospitals. The toll may rise as quite a few are in critical condition,” district administrator Muhibul Haque said. The blaze ... Jump to full article >>