VIENNA (AFP) ― Some 27 million people worldwide are problem drug users, with almost one percent every year dying from narcotics abuse, while cannabis remains the most popular drug, a U.N. report showed Tuesday.“Heroin, cocaine and other drugs continue to kill around 200,000 people a year, shattering families and bringing misery to thousands of other people, insecurity and the spread of HIV,” director Yury Fedotov said as he presented the 2012 World Drug Report of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Cri

An Indian "laughter therapist" said he wants to set a world record by having 25,000 laugh in unison in the same place.Kamlesh Masalawala, who described himself as a full-time "laughter therapist," said he has taught the merits of laughing to more than 700,000 people and he now wants to use his skills to break the record of 10,000 people laughing together in the Netherlands, The Times of India repo

The Brazilian government announced Monday that it would reward inmates who read books with shorter sentences as an effort to reduce prison overcrowding.According to news reports, prisoners would have to read 12 books of literature, philosophy, science and classics for a year. Each book read provides four days off, so prisoners can get a maximum reduction of 48 days each year. After reading, they wrote an essay for each book, and then officials graded them and decided the day off.“A person can le

About 60 people gathered in a Massachusetts city to protest a bylaw allowing police to fine people who use profanities in public.Protest organizer Adam Kokesh, 30, a Marine veteran, led the crowd Monday in repeating curses and flashing their middle fingers to protest the Middleboro bylaw, which was passed 183-50 at a town meeting this month, The (New Bedford) Standard-Times reported Tuesday."I'd l

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan’s lower house voted Tuesday to double the country’s sales tax to 10 percent over three years in a bid to rein in the country’s bulging national deficit.　 But the vote may have weakened Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s grip on power as the measure faced strong opposition within the ruling party led by party elder Ichiro Ozawa that believes the tax hike is premature and will further weaken the economy. Ozawa and his supporters have threatened to bolt the party over the tax issue

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday cautioned against foreign interference in Syria during a rare visit to Israel aimed at burnishing Kremlin’s credentials as a key Middle East power broker.During the trip, which is seen as a Kremlin diplomatic mission as world powers scramble for a solution to the Syria and Iran crises, Putin also said it was “unacceptable to think of mutual destruction.”“From the very beginning of the so-called Arab Spring, Russia has been persuading

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday told the three astronauts aboard a space capsule they had pushed forward China‘s space program, after they carried out the country’s first manual docking.Hu spoke to the crew -- including China‘s first woman in space Liu Yang -- by telephone two days after they carried out the highly technical maneuver, a milestone in an ambitious program to build a space station by the end of the decade.“The smooth completion of the manual docking shows China fully grasps

NEW YORK (AP) ― A final steel beam was lifted Monday atop a new World Trade Center skyscraper ― the first expected to open at the site next year since the twin towers were decimated on 9/11.With gospel superstar BeBe Winans offering a powerful rendition of “God Bless America,” workers raised their hardhats in tribute as the mammoth beam rose slowly into the Manhattan sky, swaying from a steel rope hoisted by a crane.A U.S. flag attached to the bottom of the beam fluttered above several hundred s

Seeks to plead his case on the international stage at this week’s Mercosur trade summitASUNCION (AP) ― Ousted Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo said Monday that he is aiming to return to power and will rally allies at home and abroad after a landslide congressional vote forced him from office in what he called a break with democracy.Lugo has symbolically created a parallel Cabinet, attacking the legitimacy of the government that replaced him, and told reporters he will seek to plead his case on