Cigarette plain packaging laws come into force in Australia
Smoking warnings and diseased body parts emblazoned on dull green boxes that are the same for all tobacco brands
Australia's world-first laws on cigarette and tobacco plain packaging have come into force, replacing brand logos and colours with generic drab olive green coverings, gruesome pictures of diseased body parts and depictions of children and babies made ill by their parents' smoking.
Apart from the varying health warnings and images the only difference between the packs, mandatory from Saturday, are the brand names, and these are all printed in identical small font. It is the world's most strict regime for the packaging of tobacco.
Australia's federal government says the aim is to deter young people from smoking by stripping the habit of glamour. It is relying on studies showing that if people have not started smoking by age 26 there is a 99% chance they will never take it up.
"Even from a very early age you can see that kids understand the message that the tobacco company is trying to sell through their branding," said the federal health minister, Tanya Plibersek, citing studies that showed, for example, children linking a crown in a logo with the idea of being a princess.
The price they pay for our cheap t-shirts
How do Bangladesh's textile barons undercut their rivals? By compromising the safety of their exploited workers
Lying on a trolley in a corridor at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where feral cats chase under beds in search of scraps, 20-year-old Yero Akhter Ranu fears she may never be able to walk again. When fire swept through the factory where she earns 48 pence an hour sewing clothes for Western brands a week ago, she rushed to escape by the stairs but was stopped by an official. As the heat and smoke intensified, she ran to the second floor, broke a window and leapt, expecting not to survive. "I thought at least my dead body can be recovered and taken to my parents," she told The Independent, as doctors at the government hospital treated her for spinal injuries.
A week after Bangladesh's worst garment factory fire left at least 112 people dead, Western consumers are being asked to weigh what the true cost of a T-shirt is.
MIDDLE EAST
Israel to build thousands of new settlement homes
Israel has confirmed plans to build 3,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The move came hours after the General Assembly voted to grant the Palestinians non-member status at the United Nations.
Israeli government officials have confirmed the plan, which was first reported by Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper. An unnamed official quoted by the Reuters news agency said the government had also decided to expedite the planning process for thousands of other homes in the so-called E1 area of East Jerusalem, which divides the northern and southern segments of the West Bank.
Until now, Israel had refrained from approving the construction of settlements in this region, as it would effectively divide the West Bank in two. Palestinians and others who oppose the construction of settlements there, argue that doing so would make it much more difficult to create a viable Palestinian state.
The Gates of HellExploring Mexico's Sacred Caves
By Markus Becker in Tulum, Mexico
Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula is dotted with thousands of caves that once housed prehistoric people and later became sacred to the Mayans. German archaeologists and filmmakers are currently involved in a project to explore with modern imaging technology and make a 3-D film of this underwater labyrinth.
A person died here hundreds of years ago. His body fell into the flooded cave and sank into the water. His flesh gradually separated from his bones. Today, he stares at divers out of empty eye sockets. His skull seems to be pushing its way out of the soil, as if he were trying to rise from the dead, to rise up from the sand, shake the tiresome sediment from his bones and escape from the silent darkness.
The others would probably want to follow him, because he isn't alone. The remains of more than 125 people lie in the Las Calaveras cenote. No one knows how and why the bodies got there, whether the people died at the same time or the bodies accumulated over the centuries.
Uganda's anti-gay Bill won't contain death penalty
The lawmaker who originally authored an anti-gay Bill proposing death for some homosexual acts said a new version doesn't contain the death penalty.
The Ugandan lawmaker who originally authored an anti-gay Bill proposing death for some homosexual acts said on Friday that a new version of the proposed legislation doesn't contain the death penalty.
Parliamentarian David Bahati said the Bill, which is expected to be voted on next month, had "moved away from the death penalty after considering all the issues that have been raised".
"There is no death penalty," he told The Associated Press. Bahati said the Bill now focuses on protecting children from gay pornography, banning gay marriage, counselling gays, as well as punishing those who promote gay culture.
1 December 2012 Last updated at 00:24 GMT
Abstract Christmas tree sparks protests in Brussels
Thousands of people have signed a petition against an abstract light installation replacing the traditional Christmas tree in Brussels city centre.
More than 11,000 signatures have been gathered in the online petition and a Facebook page attacking the new feature has been launched.
Critics accuse officials of opting for the installation for fear of offending non-Christians, especially Muslims.
But the mayor's office said it was part of a theme this year of "light".
Traditionally, a 20m (65ft) pine tree taken from the forests of the Ardennes has adorned the city's central square, the Grand Place.
This year, it has been replaced with a 25m (82ft) construction, though smaller real Christmas trees still decorate the square, a spokesman at the mayor's office said.
Semsettin UgurluBelgian Muslim ExecutiveWe know we are living in a country with a Christian culture, we take no offence over a traditional Christmas tree”
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