Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the European Union

The European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel committee which argued that the EU had helped transform Europe “from the continent of war to a continent of peace”.

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Adolescent cannabis users risk irreversible IQ loss

A study of around 1,000 people in New Zealand suggests that young people who smoke cannabis for years risk a significant and irreversible reduction in their IQ.

According to the finding of the international team, those who started using cannabis below the age of 18, whose brains were still developing, suffered a drop in IQ.

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Sugar as damaging as alcohol or tobacco, say US experts

Sugar is as damaging and addictive as alcohol or tobacco, and should therefore be regulated, according to a team of health experts from the University of California, San Francisco. (photo from radio-canada.ca)

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, known in his country as the “Dear Leader”, has died of a heart attack on Saturday aboard a train during a trip out of Pyongyang, state media has announced on Monday.

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Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol

Canadian minister of the environment Peter Kent (photo, from radio-canada.ca) has announced that his country will formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change initially adopted in Japan in 1997.

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UN rejects US-backed regulation plan on cluster bombs

A US-backed proposition for new regulations on cluster bombs has been rejected on Friday by UN member states.

The plan aimed at destroying all cluster munitions (photo, from bbcimg.co.uk) made before 1980.

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Israel : Western powers criticize new settlement plans

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (photo, from aljazeera.net) announced on Tuesday that a plan to build 2,000 new housing units for Israelis in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem would be accelerated.

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US cuts Unesco funding after Palestine gets full membership

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) voted to admit Palestine as a full member on Monday during a meeting in Paris (photo, from 20minutes.fr). After the vote the US government announced it cancelled its part in annual funding.

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Girls get equal rights to the British throne

The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries unanimously agreed on Friday to change succession laws, allowing sons and daughters of any future UK monarch to have equal right to the throne, in a historic blow for women’s rights.

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Coffee may prevent women from getting depressed, study says

The findings of a research published last month in Archives of Internal Medicine, suggest that women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day are less likely to get depressed.

The study concluded that “depression risk decreases with increasing caffeinated coffee consumption”.

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