Passive smoking claims 600,000+ lives every year!

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The latest edition of British Medical Journal, The Lancet, says that that passive smoking kills more than 600 thousand people worldwide every year, of whom nearly a third are children. It indicates that deaths among adults were spread evenly in poor and rich nations. Based on 2004 data from 192 countries, the figures show smoking in that year killed almost six million people, either actively or passively by claiming the lives of non-smokers. Researchers maintain that second-hand smoking accounted for one percent of deaths around the world in 2004.

"Exposure to second-hand smoke is still one of the most common indoor pollutants worldwide", says Dr. Annette Pruss-Ustun, with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. On the basis of the proportions of second-hand smoke exposure, as many as 40% of children, 35% of women and 33% of men are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke indoors, added Pruss-Ustun.

According to researchers, children are the group most heavily exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke, and about 165,000 of them die as a result. The study has also demonstrated that poverty exacerbates situations for children. Researchers have recommended applying the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It includes measures such as tobacco tax hikes, advertising bans, and the use of nondescript packaging.

1400+ years ago, Allah s.w.t clearly bound Muslims through Holy Qur'an about the use of intoxicants in general (not just alcohol but intoxicants as a whole!) and this clearly implies that a Muslim is NOT supposed to mess with his body through intoxicants because his body is not his, but in reality it belongs to ALLAH and its HIS belonging that has been temporarily granted to all the human beings at the time of their birth and will be taken back at their death.

O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.
Al-Qur'an - Surah Al-Nisaa - Chapter 5 - Verse 90

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(EOP) India Adds Troops to Chinese Border

(cited from globaltimes.cn and written by Hao Zhou)
China Military News —
Indian Ministry of Defence officials said Monday that two mountain divisions will be deployed in southern Tibet, an area claimed by Beijing, and will be “fully operational” by next year.

Chinese experts dismissed the defiant move, saying it is a misstep on New Delhi’s behalf. India is “fast-tracking new troop formations” in southern Tibet, and the two fresh infantry mountain divisions, with 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers, should be “fully operational with specialized equipment” by next year, according to the Times of India. “The two divisions are now virtually in place, with officers and soldiers already being posted for them.
They are in the process of getting new equipment, which includes armored personnel carriers and light howitzers,” a defense ministry official told the newspaper.
“The first battalion of the Arunachal Scouts will be up and running by May 2011,” the official said, marking a first for the Indian Army in applying the “Arunachal” name to a company.
“Arunachal Pradesh” is the Indian name for the area, over which China claims sovereignty.
In October 2009, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned a visit to the area by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman of the ministry, urged the Indian government to address Beijing’s “serious concerns” and not to trigger a disturbance in the region “so as to facilitate the healthy development of China-India relations,” the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The latest report of Indian battalions came three weeks after Singh invited his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, for an official visit to India to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two sides.
“Since a war with China in 1962, the Indian army has set up a total of 10 mountain divisions in the region,” Wang Dehua, an expert on India at the Shanghai International Studies Center, told the Global Times. “Such a move aims to add chips to the upcoming China-India talks on border disputes.”
It seems that “those hawkish groups in New Delhi are getting above themselves after the US voiced support for India’s bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Wang added.
Sun Shihai, an expert on Asia Pacific studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that New Delhi’s plan to increase troops in the region adds difficulties to the border talks.
“By making such a move, India showed its unwillingness to make a concession during the demarcation talks,” he said.
Separately, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told Xinhua on Sunday that the two sides “should regard each other’s rise as an opportunity, not a challenge.”
“We have had times of difficulty in our relationship. But despite those difficulties, we have managed to raise the level of our dialogue and strengthen our cooperation to create an architecture for dialogue,” Rao said. “That should be the basis for what we do in the future.”
Source: http://www.china-defense-mashup.com/?p=8691&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChinaMilitaryPowerMashup+%28China+Military+Power+Mashup%29

No more drone attacks! - Pakistan's war policy taking a drastic shift

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Alhamdulillah, with continued pressure from Pakistan Army and pro-Pakistan forces in the establishment and tremendous public pressure, a major policy shift is taking place and Pakistan is likely to say ‘NO’ to the USZ over its CIA-operated drone strikes in North Waziristan Agency, thus bringing an end to the policy of former traitor ruler of this motherland General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf. Well-placed sources told on Wednesday that Islamabad has decided in principle to convey Washington that it does not desire unabated drone strikes, and would rather like to tackle terrorism related challenges on its own. When approached, the USZ Embassy spokesman expressed his ignorance about these developments. However, the government and military sources were of the firm opinion that the USZ drone strikes had aggravated the problem.

“The USZ might have achieved tactical gains through the drone strikes, but they too had caused enormous damage to Pakistan’s efforts towards fighting the terrorism”, military chief spokesperson Major General Ather Abbas told the press resources on Wednesday. He was of the view that the Pakistan Army does not support USZ drone strikes, and has always sought to secure the USZ drone technology to effectively tackle the challenge without any collateral damage. However, these efforts, he said, had not borne fruits so far. In a related development, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defense headed by PPP MNA Azra Afzal Wednesday took serious view of the media reports that USZ was seeking to expand drone attacks in Quetta. The committee, which met at the Parliament House, sought a candid clarification from the Interior, Foreign and Defence Ministries by Dec 7.

The committee also directed for a special briefing on ISI role in the war on terror. The committee members, while taking serious notice of reports of USZ intention to expand its drone strikes to Quetta, were furious that Pakistan’s sovereignty and security is continuously being violated in the name of war on terror. They were of the view that the entire nation was united against drone attacks and the government instead of adopting apologetic attitude should adopt a categorical stance that the USZ drone strikes were totally unacceptable to the people of Pakistan.

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