One Direction’s Zayn says stressed out, quits tour |
- One Direction’s Zayn says stressed out, quits tour
- Former Australian leader Malcolm Fraser dies at 84
- Man arrested by Japanese cops for threats to US envoy Kennedy
- Hooked on the hookah! Water pipes more harmful than cigarettes?
- How US educational institutions confront social issue (VIDEO)
- As eclipse junkies head to Arctic, pesky polar bear attacks tourist
| One Direction’s Zayn says stressed out, quits tour Posted: 19 Mar 2015 05:53 PM PDT
Malik, 22, is to return home to Britain as the band goes on to play shows from the Philippines to South Africa, through Europe and the United States. "Zayn has been signed off with stress and is flying back to the UK to recuperate," a spokesman for One Direction said. "The band wish him well and will continue with their performances" in the Philippines and Indonesia. The announcement came after pictures of Malik, who is engaged to marry Little Mix pop star Perrie Edwards, were widely shared online showing him close to another woman. One of the pictures showed him holding hands with the blonde, while the two posed with his arm around her stomach in another. Malik spoke out against speculation about their relationship by declaring his love for his fiancée. "I'm 22 years old... I love a girl named Perrie Edwards. And there's a lot of jealous f****s in this world I'm sorry for what it looks like x" Malik wrote in a Tweet to his 14.1 million followers. One of the world's biggest pop music acts, One Direction is to continue its world tour, which has dates through the summer before finishing with a string of sold-out dates in Britain. Malik, who is from Bradford in northern England, was picked to be in One Direction after each of the band's five members auditioned separately to be on reality TV show X Factor in 2010. His fellow band mates have not explicitly addressed the events on social media, though Liam Payne tweeted "What a day". — AFP  |
| Former Australian leader Malcolm Fraser dies at 84 Posted: 19 Mar 2015 05:52 PM PDT
"It is with deep sadness that we inform you that after a brief illness John Malcolm Fraser died peacefully in the early hours of the morning of 20 March 2015," a statement said. "We appreciate that this will be a shock to all who knew and loved him, but ask that the family be left in peace at this difficult time." Fraser, a Liberal, began his term as the country's 22nd leader after the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Sir John Kerr, dismissed Gough Whitlam in November 1975 in a constitutional crisis. Whitlam died last October, aged 98. During his tenure, Fraser pursued goals of reducing spending and responsible fiscal management, and was a strong supporter of human rights. He was succeeded by Labor's Bob Hawke in 1983. In recent years, he had become an outspoken critic of the Liberal Party, while being a prolific user of Twitter to share his opinions. Before becoming prime minister, he spent 10 years as a backbencher in the government of Robert Menzies. He became Minister for the Army in 1966 under Harold Holt, and was also a minister in the governments of John Gorton and William McMahon. — AFP |
| Man arrested by Japanese cops for threats to US envoy Kennedy Posted: 19 Mar 2015 05:50 PM PDT
Kennedy, the last surviving child of the assassinated US president John F Kennedy, took up her post in Tokyo in November 2013 as the first woman US ambassador to the Asian nation. It emerged Wednesday that US and Japanese officials were investigating death threats made against her several weeks ago. "We are working and have been working for several weeks with the Japanese government on these reports, these threats," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. "The Japanese police arrested a 52-year-old individual from Okinawa for making threatening phone calls against the embassy... not just related to the ambassador," Psaki said. The arrest was "a positive step," she said, adding the State Department would stay in close touch with Japanese authorities. According to Japanese media, the caller had also threatened to kill the US consul general in Okinawa, Alfred Magleby. The news of the threats came only weeks after the US ambassador to South Korea, Mark Lippert, was stabbed and injured during a public event in Seoul. Lippert had to have 80 stitches to his face and was hospitalised for five days after being attacked by a knife-wielding nationalist during a breakfast event in the South Korean capital. Psaki stressed there was no connection between the attack on Lippert and the threats against Kennedy. — AFP |
| Hooked on the hookah! Water pipes more harmful than cigarettes? Posted: 19 Mar 2015 05:46 PM PDT
LONDON, March 20 — World health experts warned yesterday that smoking water pipes, long popular in the Middle East and North Africa and with a growing fan base elsewhere, can be more harmful than cigarettes. "A single puff from a water pipe is nearly equal to the volume of smoke inhaled from an entire cigarette," said The Tobacco Atlas launched at the World Conference on Tobacco OR Health in Abu Dhabi. And World Health Organisation tobacco expert Edouard Tursan d'Espaignet said "one session of shisha (water pipe) can be equal to smoking 20 to 30 cigarettes in one go, which can be very dangerous." The water pipe, variously known as a hubbly-bubbly, hookah, shisha or nargileh, has become a major worry for anti-tobacco campaigners as its is popularised across university campuses, overlooked by regulators. In recent years, its use has spread to the United States, Europe and, to a lesser extent, South America. Gemma Vestal of the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative told AFP that while shishas were previously the domain of older males, "younger people between 18- and 24-years old living in cities and educated" are increasingly smoking them. The chairman of pathology and laboratory medicine at the American University of Beirut, Ghazi Zaatari, says aromatic flavourings known as maasal added to the tobacco offer younger smokers a "smoother and more tolerated" alternative to the taste of traditional tobacco. And the "water pipe has an interesting design because it somewhat engages your five senses. You're holding the hose, there's something you're looking at, there is the aroma, there is the sound of the bubbling and there is this kind of sensational thing with the social gathering." In social gatherings that last for an average of an hour, the smoker can quickly get "hooked on it because of the nicotine." Moreover, the smoke from charcoal used to heat the tobacco contains toxins. The WHO said harmful effects include impact on the "respiratory system, cardiovascular system, oral activity and teeth." In addition to the dangers of lung cancer, data also suggest probable associations with oral, oesophageal, gastric, and urinary bladder cancer, as well as chronic bronchitis, cardiovascular disease, stroke as well as other illnesses. Global tobacco companies are increasingly investing in the water pipe business, experts say, while little has been done to curb their use, despite a crackdown on cigarettes. According to The Tobacco Atlas, "water pipes fall into a less heavily or un-regulated group of tobacco products" in most countries. "There has been a gap for a while and now hopefully, with this global effort, they (tobacco regulators) are coming back to emphasise the importance of including the water pipe in all these policies and regulations on tobacco," Zaatari said. Brazil has taken measures to ban flavourings, while Turkey has extended warning labelling from cigarette packets to include the water pipe. And the ruler of the UAE emirate of Sharjah has banned the use of water pipes altogether, earning him an award this week from the WHO. — AFP-Relaxnews |
| How US educational institutions confront social issue (VIDEO) Posted: 19 Mar 2015 05:42 PM PDT NEW YORK, March 20 — St. John's University Sports Management Division Chair Glenn Gerstner discusses social issues facing America's universities with Alix Steel on "Street Smart." — Bloomberg
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| As eclipse junkies head to Arctic, pesky polar bear attacks tourist Posted: 19 Mar 2015 05:35 PM PDT
Jakub Moravec's body was covered with bloody scratches, but he smiled as he explained to Norwegian public television NRK how he woke up under a polar bear that had entered the tent where he was camping with two friends. "We were asleep in the tent and then suddenly the polar bear was inside and attacking me in my sleeping bag," he said from his hospital bed. "We were fighting," recalled Moravec, explaining how the bear was lunging at his head with its powerful jaws. The bear was eventually chased away and later put down. Moravec was part of a group of six Czech tourists on a snowmobile tour who had set up their two tents, including polar bear protections, on the shores of a fjord about 30km northeast of Longyearbyen, the main town in Svalbard. Their destination was Pyramiden, an old Russian mining village that is now a ghost town, where the group was hoping to watch today's total solar eclipse. Svalbard and the Faroe Islands, a Danish autonomous territory in the North Atlantic, are the only places on Earth where the eclipse will be fully visible. The moon is expected to pass between Earth and the sun today at 10.11am in Svalbard, casting a dark shadow for less than three minutes. It is the only total eclipse this year, and some 1,500 to 2,000 tourists from around the world are expected to descend on Svalbard for the chance to observe it. Local authorities have warned eclipse chasers of the dangers posed by polar bears. People leaving Svalbard's inhabited areas are required to be accompanied by an armed local guide or carry a rifle. There have been five fatal polar bear attacks in Svalbard since 1971. The most recent one occurred in 2011, involving a 17-year-old British student on a school trip. Some 3,000 polar bears live in the region, outnumbering the 2,500 inhabitants. Svalbard is a popular destination for nature-lovers seeking out the pristine wildlife, fresh air and wide open spaces. Moravec said it was finally people in the second tent that came to his rescue, after hearing him and his friends screaming. They shot the bear, sending it fleeing. "My mother took the gun and shot three times," Zuzanna Hakova, a friend of Moravec's at his hospital bedside, explained to NRK. Wounded, the bear was put down shortly after by local authorities. "Tracks and traces of blood led to the water and the bear was seen swimming in the fjord. He was then killed," the Svalbard governor's office said in a statement. Moravec was evacuated by helicopter to Longyearbyen with injuries to his face and arm. — AFP |
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