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smoking rate-Seoulites

Yonhap News AgencyMay 20, 2013 22:00

SEOUL, May 21 (Yonhap) -- The overall number of smokers in Seoul has fallen significantly over the past nine years amid growing public awareness of health and the government's anti-smoking drive, but the smoking rate among women has risen, data showed Tuesday. According to the data analyzed by the Seoul Institute, some 23 percent of Seoul citizens aged 20 or older smoked as of 2012, down by 5.6 percentage points from 2003, with the amount of daily consumption falling from 15.2 cigarettes to 14.6.

Emirates to debut shisha smoking lounge onboard aircraft

Agence France-PresseMay 20, 2013 22:00

Premium passengers traveling on Dubai-based airline Emirates will be exempt from the no-smoking policy starting next month, when the carrier debuts a shisha lounge on select jumbo jets. The new service is set to debut on the carrier’s fleet of Airbus A380 aircraft and will be offered to Emirates’ business and first-class passengers. Passengers can pre-order a shisha -- also known as a waterpipe, hubble-bubble, hookah or narghile -- from the onboard menu and retire to the lounge for a post-meal smoke beginning in June.

Emirates to debut shisha smoking lounge onboard aircraft

Agence France-PresseMay 20, 2013 21:47

Vermont becomes third US state to legalize assisted suicide

Agence France-PresseMay 20, 2013 17:30

Vermont became on Monday the third US state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Peter Shumlin, the Democratic Governor of the small progressive-leaning state, signed into law a bill that lawmakers adopted last week. Vermont follows the states of Oregon and Washington in legalizing the practice. "Vermonters facing terminal illness at the end of their lives now have control over their own destinies," Shumlin said, at a ceremony at the Capitol in Montpelier.

UN-NK human rights

Yonhap News AgencyMay 20, 2013 03:32

SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- An independent U.N. body's investigation into North Korea's human rights abuses will provide the first look into problems in a country during peacetime, rather than during conflict, a senior South Korean diplomat said Sunday. Choi Seok-young, South Korean ambassador to Geneva, said the Commission of Inquiry (COI) by the U.N. Human Rights Council will investigate "grave, organized and systematic human rights violations" and will hold the leadership in the violating country accountable for such abuses.

Hashimoto's remarks draw flak from rights activists at U.N. meeting

Kyodo News InternationalMay 17, 2013 21:00

Japanese rights activists on Friday criticized Japan Restoration Party co-leader Toru Hashimoto's recent remarks supporting wartime sexual services for soldiers, urging a United Nations rights panel to take up the issue when it opens a review on Japan next week. Activists including those from the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace and Amnesty International expressed their views at a meeting with experts from the Committee against Torture mandated under a U.N. human rights convention.

Evidence of torture by regime in Syria's Raqa: HRW

Agence France-PresseMay 17, 2013 01:45

Documents and torture equipment found in Syrian security buildings in rebel-held Raqa show detainees were tortured when President Bashar al-Assad's regime held sway over the city, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. A team of researchers working for HRW toured Raqa in northern Syria in April, a month after the city fell into rebel hands, and found the incriminating evidence, the New York-based watchdog said in a statement.

Hundreds rally in Winnipeg against homophobia, for gay student groups

The Canadian PressMay 16, 2013 21:01

WINNIPEG - A rally to mark the annual International Day Against Homophobia took a political turn in Manitoba on Thursday, as hundreds chanted in favour of the province's controversial anti-bullying bill. The crowd outside the legislature cheered as NDP Education Minister Nancy Allan promoted Bill 18 — a proposed law that would require schools to accommodate gay-straight alliance groups. Allan lashed out at critics who say the idea violates the religious freedom of faith-based schools.

Jury convicts 5 people of selling worthless stock in Kansas City company to enrich themselves

The Canadian PressMay 16, 2013 01:46

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A jury on Wednesday convicted the founder of a Kansas City company and four associates of cheating investors by selling them millions of dollars of worthless stock and spending the money on themselves. Petro America Corp. founder Isreal Owen and his associates were accused of illegally selling unregistered stock in Petro America from 2008 through 2010, much of it to poor investors. Prosecutors said investors were told the company had $284 billion in assets and that they'd be rich once it went public.

Amnesty International cites Canadian foot-dragging on UN torture concerns

The Canadian PressMay 15, 2013 17:37

OTTAWA - Canada is obstructing efforts to compensate three men who suffered torture in Syria — effectively ignoring a key recommendation from the United Nations Committee against Torture, says Amnesty International. In a brief to the UN committee, the human rights group says it is "profoundly concerned" that Canada has not heeded the committee's call to provide redress to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin. The three Arab-Canadians were brutalized in Syrian prisons, in part due to lapses by Canadian agencies documented by a federal inquiry in 2008.