BRUSSELS: The European Union’s executive branch on Wednesday proposed a ban on the sale of flavored heated tobacco products as part of its plan to fight cancer.
The European Commission said its proposal comes in response to a significant increase in the volume of such products sold across the 27-nation bloc.
A recent commission study showed a 10 percent increase in sales of heated tobacco products in more than five member nations, while heated tobacco products exceeded 2.5 percent of total sales of tobacco products overall across the region.
The ban would cover devices using heated tobacco to produce emissions containing nicotine inhaled by users. E-cigarettes may contain nicotine, but not tobacco. With traditional cigarettes, users inhale smoke from burning tobacco.
“With nine out of 10 lung cancers caused by tobacco, we want to make smoking as unattractive as possible to protect the health of our citizens and save lives,” said Stella Kyriakides, the commissioner for health and food safety.
According to EU figures, cancer is the second cause of death in the bloc of 450 million residents. There are about 1.3 million cancer deaths and 3.5 million new cases annually in the EU.
An estimated 40 percent of EU citizens will face cancer at some point in their lives, with the annual economic impact estimated at around 100 billion euros ($120 billion).
The European Commission previously said it wanted to ensure that less than 5 percent of the EU population uses tobacco by 2040.
The proposed ban now goes to member nations and European Parliament lawmakers for review.
EU proposes ban on flavored heated tobacco products
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EU proposes ban on flavored heated tobacco products
- A recent commission study showed a 10% increase in sales of heated tobacco products in more than five member nations
- The ban would cover devices using heated tobacco to produce emissions containing nicotine inhaled by users
Judge says detained Tufts student must be transferred from Louisiana to Vermont
A Tufts University student from Turkiye being held in Louisiana must be returned to New England by May 1 to determine whether she was illegally detained by immigration officials for co-writing an op-ed piece in the student newspaper, a federal judge ruled Friday.
US District Judge William Sessions in Burlington, Vermont, said he would hear Rumeysa Ozturk’s request to be released from detention. Her lawyers had requested that she be released immediately, or at least brought back to Vermont.
“The Court concludes that this case will continue in this court with Ms. Ozturk physically present for the remainder of the proceedings,” the judge wrote. “Ms. Ozturk has presented viable and serious habeas claims which warrant urgent review on the merits. The Court plans to move expeditiously to a bail hearing and final disposition of the habeas petition, as Ms. Ozturk’s claims require no less.”
Immigration officials surrounded the 30-year-old doctoral student as she walked along a street in a Boston suburb March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. An immigration judge denied her request for bond Wednesday, citing “danger and flight risk” as the rationale.
Ozturk is among several people with ties to American universities whose visas were revoked or have been stopped from entering the US after they were accused of attending demonstrations or publicly expressing support for Palestinians. A Louisiana immigration judge has ruled that the US can deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil based on the federal government’s argument that he poses a national security risk.
A lawyer for the Justice Department said her case should be dismissed, saying the immigration court has jurisdiction.
Ozturk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts. Initially, they didn’t know where she was. They said they were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. Ozturk herself said she unsuccessfully made multiple requests to speak to a lawyer.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said last month, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group.
China, Cambodia sign major canal deal
- The canal project, which was previously estimated to cost $1.7 billion — nearly 4 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product — and stretching 180 km, is now valued at $1.16 billion with a length of 151.6 km, the Cambodian government said in a
BEIJING: China and Cambodia have agreed to build safe and stable supply chains and strengthen cooperation in transportation infrastructure, they said in a joint statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday.
The two countries also signed a deal to construct a major canal, which Cambodia hopes will transform its economic fortunes.
The agreements came after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-nation tour of Southeast Asia, which included stops in Vietnam and Malaysia.
The trip was part of Beijing’s effort to consolidate economic and trading ties with close neighbors.
“China supports Cambodia in building the Funan Techo Integrated Water Conservancy Project in accordance with the principles of feasibility and sustainability,” the joint statement said.
The canal project, which was previously estimated to cost $1.7 billion — nearly 4 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product — and stretching 180 km, is now valued at $1.16 billion with a length of 151.6 km, the Cambodian government said in a separate statement.
The statement showed that it will be financed through a public-private partnership, with Cambodian investors holding a 51 percent stake and Chinese investors holding 49 percent.
China also commended Cambodia’s efforts in cracking down on illegal online gambling and telecom fraud in the joint statement, with the two countries agreeing to strengthen law enforcement cooperation further.
Before Xi’s visit, the Cambodian government said it had deported to China several “Chinese criminals,” including people from Taiwan, in a move that angered Taipei and was praised by Beijing.
The two countries also agreed to establish a ministerial dialogue between their foreign and defense ministers to facilitate coordination on major strategic issues.
Three tourists among 4 killed after Italian cable car crashes into a ravine south of Naples
- An Arab woman with Israeli citizenship was the third foreign victim to be identified following Thursday’s accident
- The fourth victim was the Italian driver of the cable car
ROME: Three tourists, including a brother and sister from Britain, were among four people who were killed when a mountain cable car plunged into a ravine south of Naples, an Italian official said Friday.
An Arab woman with Israeli citizenship was the third foreign victim to be identified following Thursday’s accident, said Marco De Rosa, a spokesperson for the mayor of Vico Equense.
The fourth victim was the Italian driver of the cable car. A fifth tourist, said to be the brother of the Israeli victim, is in a stable but critical condition at a Naples hospital, officials said.
Initial reports suggested that a traction cable may have snapped as the cable car ascended Monte Faito, in the town of Castellammare di Stabia. The cable car plunged into a ravine after stopping very close to the station at the top of the peak, at around 1,050 meters (3,400 feet).
Sixteen passengers were helped out of another cable car that was stuck mid-air near the foot of the mountain following the incident.
The accident happened just a week after the cable car, which is popular for its views of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, reopened for the season. It averages around 110,000 visitors each year.
The emergency services, including Italy’s alpine rescue, more than 50 firefighters, police and civil protection personnel, worked into the evening in severe weather conditions, with fog and strong winds making rescue operations difficult.
“The traction cable broke. The emergency brake downstream worked, but evidently not the one on the cabin that was entering the station,” Luigi Vicinanza, the mayor of Castellammare di Stabia, said on Thursday. He added that there had been regular safety checks on the cable car line, which runs 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the town to the top of the mountain.
Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter, which will involve an inspection of the cable stations, the pylons, the two cabins and the cable, officials said Friday.
The company running the service, the EAV public transport firm, said the seasonal cable car had reopened with all the required safety conditions.
“The reopening had taken place a week ago after three months of tests every day, day and night,” said EAV President Umberto De Gregorio. “This is something inexplicable.”
De Gregorio said technical experts believed there was no connection between the severe weather and the cause of the crash. “There is an automatic system. When the wind exceeds a certain level, the cable car stops automatically,” he said.
The Monte Faito cable car opened in 1952. Four people died in 1960 when a pylon broke.
Italy has recorded two similar fatal accidents involving cable cars in recent years.
A cable car crash in May 2021 in northern Italy killed 14 people, including six Israelis, among them a family of four. In 1998, a low-flying US military jet cut through the cable of a ski lift in Cavalese, in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.
Half a million weapons lost or smuggled after Taliban takeover in Afghanistan
- When Taliban swept through Afghanistan, they captured about 1 million pieces of US-funded military equipment
- Many weapons were abandoned by retreating Afghan soldiers or left behind by US forces
LONDON: Around half a million weapons seized by the Taliban after their 2021 takeover of Afghanistan have been lost, sold, or smuggled to militant groups, according to sources who spoke to the BBC.
Some of the missing weapons are believed to be in the hands of Al-Qaeda affiliates, UN officials say.
When the Taliban swept through Afghanistan, they captured about 1 million pieces of US-funded military equipment, including M4 and M16 rifles, according to the report published on Thursday.
Many weapons were abandoned by retreating Afghan soldiers or left behind by US forces, it added.
At a closed-door UN meeting in Doha last year, Taliban officials reportedly admitted that half of this equipment is now “unaccounted for.”
A UN report in February said groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan were accessing Taliban-captured weapons or buying them on the black market.
The Taliban government denies the claims, insisting that all weapons are securely stored.
However, a 2023 UN report said local Taliban commanders were allowed to keep 20 percent of seized US arms, fueling a thriving black market.
Sources described an underground trade where US-made weapons are now sold via messaging apps like WhatsApp.
Oversight of US equipment in Afghanistan has long been criticized, and a US watchdog, Sigar, said tracking efforts were hampered by poor record-keeping across multiple agencies.
US President Donald Trump has vowed to reclaim the lost weaponry, though experts argue the cost of recovery would outweigh its value.
Meanwhile, the Taliban have used captured Humvees, rifles, and other simpler equipment to bolster their military strength, although they struggle to maintain more complex machinery like Black Hawk helicopters.
Concerns remain that the flow of advanced weaponry to militant groups will continue to destabilize the region.
Australian to stand trial in Russian-occupied Ukraine on mercenary charges
- Jenkins came to Ukraine in February 2024 from Melbourne
- Then fought against the Russian army between March and December 2024
MOSCOW: An Australian man will stand trial on mercenary charges in Russian-occupied Lugansk, the eastern region’s Moscow-installed authorities said on Friday, the latest foreign soldier fighting for Ukraine to appear before the court.
“The Prosecutor’s Office of the Lugansk People’s Republic approved the indictment in the criminal case against 33-year-old citizen of the Commonwealth of Australia Oscar Charles Augustus Jenkins,” the authorities said in a statement.
According to the investigators, Jenkins came to Ukraine in February 2024 from Melbourne and then fought against the Russian army between March and December 2024, for which he was paid around $7,000-9,000 a month.
Russia and its eastern Ukraine proxies typically consider foreigners traveling to fight in Ukraine as “mercenaries.”
This enables them to prosecute fighters under its criminal code, rather than treating them as captured prisoners of war with protections and rights under the Geneva Convention.
Most recently British man James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was charged with terrorism after he was caught in the Kursk region fighting on Ukraine’s side.
