Africa is expected to double its tobacco consumption in 12 years if current trends continue. The surge in smoking is seen in young people under the age of 20 that constitute the majority of the continents population. In this installment of our series on smoking in Africa, VOA's Henok Fente reports unless governments enact tobacco control laws, Africans who are smoking and those who live with smokers are in great danger.

Homeless street children are selling cigarettes in the streets of the northern Ethiopian town of Mekele. They display cigarette packs on a wooden framed hard paper board and call out the names of local and international cigarette brands.

Here, it may be difficult to find a pack of condoms, but cigarettes are everywhere. From the streets of Mekele, to the city of Abidjan in the West African nation of Cote D'Ivoire; from south to north, throughout the continent of Africa, smoking is on the rise.

For many, smoking starts at a young age. It starts with peer pressure, being exposed to second hand smoking, having parents and best friends who smoke. And for some, just simply to be cool. Dr Adamson Muula is a senior lecturer of public health at the University of Malawi.

"In much of the areas here, it is between 10 percent for low prevalence countries, to 20-25 percent," Dr. Muula says. "Twenty five percent would be rare for our region. Contrast that with Eastern Europe where sometimes 50 percent, 40 percent or even more adults are smoking."

He says in comparison Africa has the lowest rate of smokers, but smoking in general is on the rise on poor continents like Africa, where more than 60 percent of the population is under 18 years of age.

Each year millions of Africans find themselves between a rock and a hard place — between the difficulty of quitting and the suffering that can result from smoking. The World Health Organization estimates tobacco is the second most important risk factor for disease, following malnutrition. According to this report, the number of smoking-attributed deaths worldwide at the turn of the century was more than the number of AIDS-related deaths. Four-point-nine million people died from smoking-related sicknesses. The death rate is even higher in Africa, where treatment options are absent. Despite the figures, Dr. Adamson Muula says, smoking is not a priority in African public health strategies.

Smoking has Immediate, Adverse Effects on the Body

The World Health Organization calls tobacco the leading cause of preventable death in the world. In December, the WHO launched a campaign against cigarette smoking in Africa, saying a rapidly growing population is creating “larger and more accessible markets” on the continent for tobacco companies.

While the risks of cancer and heart disease are generally well-known, smoking has many other effects on the body.

VOA
The act of lighting a cigarette and taking a puff is simple enough, but it triggers complex physical changes within the body. And Dr. Ana Navas-Acien says those changes begin within seconds of inhaling.

“The respiratory airway is very effective in absorbing tobacco and all the tobacco components. Tobacco has thousands of components, including many toxicants and many carcinogens. And so these components go immediately to the blood stream, to the respiratory tract,” she says.

Carcinogens are substances that can lead to the development of cancer, a well-known risk of smoking. But Navas-Acien, professor of preventive medicine at Johns Hopkins University, says cancer can be a long-term consequence of tobacco smoking. There are much quicker unhealthy effects, such as nicotine addiction.

“The most addictive component in tobacco is nicotine. And so nicotine reaches the brain in less than a second. So it’s like a peak of nicotine and that immediate response to nicotine is where the addictive power of tobacco is,” she says.

The brain actually has receptors for nicotine – structures that receive and bind to specific substances.

President Obama Extends DED for Liberians in US

Anthony Kesselly of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas says his group will now work for permanent resident status for those Liberians on DED
U.S. President Barack Obama has extended for 18 months the special immigration status for about 4,000 Liberians who fled to the United States during Liberia’s civil war.

The renewal of the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) takes effect March 31, 2010.

Although the Liberian civil war officially ended in 2003, President George W. Bush in 2007 deferred the enforced departure of those Liberians who originally were granted Temporary Protected Status.

In a memorandum to the Secretary of Homeland Security, President Obama cited “compelling foreign policy interest” for extending the DED.

Anthony Kesselly, president of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) said his organization is working with other immigration activists to eventually get permanent resident status for those Liberians on the DED.

“All Liberians, both those on DED and those of us who are necessarily on it are very, very happy and we are very grateful to the United States government, particularly President Obama. And we are very thankful to all of our allies who helped us through this process,” he said.

Kesselly said even though Liberia has had a democratically elected government for the past five years, the country is not yet stabled enough to handle Liberians who might be deported from the U.S.

Chinese Media Say Google to Leave China Next Month

Chinese media reports say U.S. Internet giant Google will close its business in China after complaints of censorship and cyber-attacks. The reports say the announcement could come as early as next week, although Google is refusing all comment.

In January, Google unexpectedly said that it is prepared to pull out of China because of cyber-attacks and concerns over government censorship.

On Friday, the China Business News, one of the country's top economic papers, quoted an unnamed official with a Google-affiliated agency as saying he has learned that Google will leave China next month.

Google executives had no comment on the reports. But Courtney Hohne, a spokeswoman for the company, last week said the company remained firm in its resolve not to filter its content, which is required by Chinese law.

"We have been very clear that we are no longer going to self-censor our search results," she said. "We are indeed in active discussions with the Chinese government, but we are not going to engage in a running commentary about those conversations."

Longtime China business analyst Jim McGregor, who is with public relations firm APCO Worldwide, says a pullout would not surprise him.

"Nobody really knows about the timing because this is speculation by a couple of media outlets, but it does seem inevitable that they will pull out with their specially censored Chinese search engine because Google has announced that they're not censoring it anymore and the government here has announced that they cannot accept an uncensored search engine," he said. "So, it's just a matter of when, not if."

McGregor says he believes the Google issue is more ideological than commercial. But he says the high profile of the dispute has drawn attention to what he describes as a "deteriorating business situation" for foreign companies in China.

"There's been a lot of media and a lot of unhappiness demonstrated by foreign biz [business] here in the last few months, and the Chinese government is now paying attention to it," he said. "The Ministry of Commerce is calling in businessmen to talk to them, and you also have [Premier] Wen Jiabao at his press conference saying, 'Hey, I haven't met with foreign businessmen hardly in the last three years. I'm going to start doing it again.'"

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang this week said he hopes that if Google does leave, it will have little effect on overall business sentiment.

Qin called the Google decision the "individual act of one company," and said it will not affect China's investment environment.

He said while many foreign companies make profits in China, they must respect all of the country's laws.

US Companies Feel Increasingly Unwelcome in China

A growing number of American businesspeople feel unwelcome in China because of what they see as discriminatory government policies and inconsistent legal treatment. The findings come in a survey released Monday by the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Amcham-China president Michael Barbalas says a survey of 203 members of his organization shows growing pessimism among American businesses operating in China.

"A question that we had asked before is, 'Are companies increasingly unwelcome to participate and compete in the Chinese market?' which we had in this survey, we had 38 percent saying yes. In 2008, when we asked a similar question, only 23 percent [had that response], so we're up 15 percent in just a little over a year and we thought that was pretty significant," he noted.

He attributes the business community's change in attitude to Chinese government regulations requiring something known as "indigenous innovation." The policy discourages companies - both Chinese and foreign - from using or purchasing foreign technology and instead encourages them to use domestically developed technology.

The Chinese government introduced the policy in 2006, and in December, announced a detailed process for applying for indigenous innovation status.

Analysts say US-Israel Relationship Scarred by Settlements Dispute

Middle East analysts are expressing concern a disagreement between the United States and Israel over Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem will leave scars in the rela

tionship and may raise the risk of Israeli military strikes against Iran's nuclear program.

Some influential Middle East analysts, speaking in Washington, say they are concerned by a growing dispute between the United States and Israel over the construction of Jewish housing in East Jerusalem. Their comments were made at the opening of the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization.

Washington Institute for Near East Policy Executive Director Robert Satloff told thousands of AIPAC delegates the dispute will have consequences. "We are in a very serious moment. I would say it is more five or six on the Richter scale, not eight or nine, in terms of the depth of this crisis. But it is real. When it is resolved and I think it is in the process of being resolved, it will leave scars between the two sides I think at the very highest levels," he said.

Israel's plan to build 1,600 new homes in occupied East Jerusalem was announced during a recent trip to Israel by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. U.S. officials called the timing "insulting," and the move was condemned by diplomats from the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union at a meeting of the international Quartet on Middle East peace.

Analyst Satloff said the disagreement could embolden Iran to accelerate its nuclear program. "I think that the impact of this crisis is to hasten Iranian efforts to achieve a nuclear weapons capability and ultimately, because there are scars now in the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship, perhaps even to hasten the clock on Israeli preventive action against that Iranian nuclear capability," he said.

Iran denies it is trying to build nuclear weapons, but Israel views the program as a threat to its existence.

U.S. Senator Evan Bayh told convention delegates Iran should not be encouraged by the current disagreement over settlements. "I think the Iranians make a miscalculation here if they look at this temporary spat, rhetorical spat, between some aspects in Israel and some elements of the U.S. government, as a lack of resolve on our part, that would be very damaging and so it is incumbent upon all of us, the United States, Israel and others to show that we will simply not stand for the Iranians achieving a nuclear capability," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are scheduled to address the AIPAC convention Monday. The prime minister's office says Mr. Netanyahu will meet Tuesday with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House.

The U.S. envoy on Middle East peace, George Mitchell, is in the region trying to start indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

US House of Representatives Approves Landmark Health Care Legislation

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a sweeping overhaul of the U.S. health care system, with majority Democrats handing President Barack Obama a victory on his top domestic priority.

The House approved a Senate-passed health care bill late Sunday by a vote of 219 to 212. Minority Republicans were unanimous in opposition, and 34 Democrats joined them in voting no. Two-hundred-sixteen votes were needed for passage.

Mr. Obama praised the vote. Speaking at the White House he said it answers the prayers of the uninsured. The legislation is intended to make health insurance available to 32 million Americans who do not have it.

Critics say the changes will drive up health care costs and increase government intrusion into medical decisions.

President Obama said the House bill will not fix everything that ails the U.S. health care system, but moves the country in the right direction.

He secured a majority for the bill by doing a deal with several Democrats who were concerned it would encourage abortions. Mr. Obama satisfied the group by issuing an executive order re-affirming current restrictions on federal funding of the practice.

The House also approved a separate bill of changes to the Senate-passed measure. The changes will be considered by the Senate under rules that require only a simple majority of the 100-seat assembly for passage. Democrats control 59 seats.

President Obama is expected to sign the House-approved health care bill into law in the coming days. The Senate is expected to take a longer period to debate the changes approved by the House in the separate legislation.

Obama to Soon Sign Major Health Care Reform

Health care reform has cleared the U.S. Congress after roughly a year of legislative drama on Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives passed the necessary legislation, on a tight, party-line vote, handing President Barack Obama a crucial victory. Mr. Obama is to soon sign the bill into law.
It was a close victory for President Obama, but a victory nonetheless.

"We pushed back on the undue influences of special interests," he said. "We didn't give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved we are still a people capable of doing big things."

He staked his young presidency on the outcome of this vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a final pitch for the bill, saying the president's economic agenda is at stake.
"The best action we can take on behalf of America's family budget and on behalf of the federal budget is to pass health care reform," she said.

In a country where most people rely on private insurance to help meet their medical costs, Democrats said the goal was to provide access to affordable coverage for as many Americans as possible.

Republicans stood united in opposition to the legislation, claiming it would increase the national debt, and put the government in firm control of the health care system.

US Envoy Urges Israel, Palestinians to Exercise Restraint

US special envoy for Mideast peace, George Mitchell answers journalists' questions prior to a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin, Germany, 19 Mar 2010

U.S. special envoy George Mitchell met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and urged both sides to create the conditions necessary for a new set of negotiations.

"On behalf of the United States and the president, I urge all sides to exercise restraint," said George Mitchell. "What is needed now is a period of calm and quiet in which we can go forward in the effort in which we are engaged."

The region has seen a new wave of violence in recent days, with clashes erupting between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli police in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In the past few days, several Palestinians have been killed in the confrontations.

U.S. efforts to bring both sides back to the table have been further complicated by a diplomatic rift between Israel and Washington, after Israel announced its approval of 1,600 new housing units to be built in East Jerusalem.

At talks with Mitchell in Amman, Mr. Abbas indicated the Palestinians have still not decided whether to return to negotiations.

Mr. Abbas said the Palestinians are waiting for an answer in the coming few days and they hope this answer will include acceptance of a statement by the Quartet of world powers mediating the conflict that urges Israel to freeze all settlement activity.

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned Israel's continued expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

"Our positions are very well clear-cut, defined," said Saeb Erekat. "We need to give proximity talks the chance they deserve, but we want to make sure that the decision of the Israeli government to construct 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem and more to come is really stopped."

Mitchell later met with Jordan's King Abdullah. A palace statement said the monarch told the U.S. envoy that Israel must stop all unilateral measures in the occupied Palestinian territories, and what it described as provocative moves aimed at changing Jerusalem's identity.

The proximity talks mediated by the United States are meant to lay groundwork for future direct negotiations. Both sides suspended talks more than a year ago.

The 5am mystery date that Claudia's friend kept secret ... One year on, a tantalising new clue about the missing chef's last hours

Vivacious: Claudia Lawrencehas been missing for nearly a year

Everything is as it was when she walked out her front door for the last time almost a year ago, with a rucksack containing her chef's whites. Her clothes, mostly with her favourite Next label, hang in the same order in the wardrobe.

Toiletries - 'always from Boots' - are arranged in the bathroom.

The bed is neatly made-up.

Her CDs, featuring local group The Dunwell Brothers, are untouched.

The pillows on her sumptuous white sofa are just so.

A home, and a life, frozen in time, as police strive to answer a haunting question: 'What has become of Claudia Lawrence?'

Nearly 3,000 witness statements, at least 240 properties searched, 1,270 calls to the incident room, appeals for information on the BBC Crimewatch programme, a £10,000 reward, Claudia's face on countless posters, and between 20 and 30 officers still working on one of the most troubling cases of recent times, which began when Claudia, the public school-educated daughter of a Yorkshire solicitor, vanished off the face of the earth last March.

All this - and not a single clue to indicate what may have happened to her, apart from, that is, the firmly held belief that the truth lies somewhere in Claudia Lawrence's 'complex and mysterious' private life; not our words, but those of Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, the man leading the inquiry.

He knows - all his team do - that it is 'extremely rare' for an adult woman to be snatched off the streets by a stranger. The statistical likelihood is Claudia went willingly with someone she already knew.

CCTV footage of Claudia on her way home from work. The chef has not been seen since March 18, 2009 and failed to arrive for work at the University of York the following morning

Some friends have been 'reluctant to be candid'

Could it have been the 'mystery boyfriend' who went on a date with Claudia, a chef at York University, just two days before she went missing? The existence of this man was revealed last week on the first anniversary of Claudia's disappearance.

The potentially crucial lead came from a colleague, who had previously been interviewed but has now remembered a conversation he had with Claudia days before she vanished, when she spoke about being out 'deep into the night, until around 4.30am or 5am' with a male companion the night before.

Asked why the colleague had suddenly disclosed this information, Det Supt Galloway said it was a frustrating feature of the investigation that some (male) friends had been 'reluctant to be candid' with police.

It means, of course, Claudia was involved with at least two men last March. The other man, known to police, was not married but was in a serious relationship and seeing Claudia secretly.

Police search a nature reserve in York shortly after Claudia went missing

Might the 'mystery boyfriend' be in a similar position or could there be a much more sinister reason for his decision not to come forward?

The development, whether it proves to be significant or not, has focused attention once again on the tangled web of relationships and affairs Claudia Lawrence left behind her, which detectives have not managed to unravel.

Old flame: Insurance broker Dan Whitehand dated Claudia for two years

This is not meant to be a criticism of North Yorkshire Police, nor a slur on Claudia's reputation: it's just the way it is, however painful that might be for her family. The irony is that Claudia, who was 35 when she vanished, was in many ways an old-fashioned girl.

She was not computer literate (Claudia did not even own a computer) and wouldn't countenance social networking sites. She paid the mortgage on her two-bedroom £180,000 cottage in the Heworth district of York promptly and had only one credit card, which she paid off each month.

Yet, over the past five years, she'd had 12 lovers of whom detectives are aware, half of whom were either married or had partners.

Though she had close friends, Claudia managed to juggle her suitors without always revealing their existence.

Many, if not all, of her romantic liaisons were forged at the Nag's Head pub, four doors down from her terraced home. Claudia would have a pint of cider and talk about her favourite guilty pleasures on TV (Hollyoaks and, at the time, Mistresses) with her friends.

Lock-ins were not uncommon.

Sometimes the 'party' continued back at Claudia's house.

It was here, about three years ago, that she met scrap metal merchant Lee Horwell, 38, a married father of two.

The affair lasted only a couple of months. It came to light, say locals, when a guilt-racked Mr Horwell confessed to his wife because he couldn't 'live with himself'.

'Lee wasn't alone, she was seeing a couple of other married men too,' said one. Mr Horwell and his wife, who were childhood sweethearts, are now living separately in York.

Very few people knew what she did at home

Before Lee Horwell, there was insurance broker Dan Whitehand, 34, who dated Claudia for two years, and before Whitehand, 46-year-old roofer Paddy McGinty.

Although not married, he too was in a relationship and the father of a young child at the time.

His affair with Claudia was common knowledge. Mr McGinty's long-term partner was also aware of it. It was also at the Nag's Head that Claudia met Steve Sammons about five years ago. They have enjoyed a close friendship ever since.

Mr Sammons, a building site labourer, now lives in Cyprus. It was Mr Sammons, we can now confirm, who sent Claudia the final text message she received at 9.12pm on March 18, 2009, hours before she was reported missing.

Claudia had stayed with Mr Sammons in the past and was planning to do so again shortly before she disappeared.

Speaking from his home in the village of Peyia, near Paphos, yesterday, Mr Sammons, 36, told how he has already been interviewed by detectives who travelled to the Mediterranean island.

Tireless: Peter Lawrence has made constant appeals for information on his missing daughter, Claudia

'They spoke to me for more than three hours,' he said. 'I co-operated with them throughout, from day one. I just want Claudia to be found.'

In fact, police have spoken to Mr Sammons - who denies he was ever romantically involved with Claudia - frequently over the past year. The last time was just a few weeks ago.

'They asked me whether I could think of anything that had occurred to me over the past few months that might help the inquiry as they approached the first anniversary of Claudia's disappearance,' he said.

'One way or another, I just want a resolution to it, just like her family. Either she is out there missing or, the worst case scenario, she's not. I just want closure. We all do.'

The last sighting of Claudia Lawrence, a vivacious, brown-eyed blonde, was on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 18, last year when CCTV cameras recorded her strolling breezily past shops at Melrosegate in York after leaving work.

She is seen pausing to post a letter before heading towards her cottage, no more than three miles away.

That evening she telephoned her parents - who are divorced - chatting idly about her life and arranging to meet her father for a drink later in the week. But that brief footage is the last time anyone saw Claudia Lawrence.

The following morning - Thursday, March 19 - she failed to turn up at York University for her 6am shift.

But it was not until that evening, when she was due to meet her best friend Suzy Cooper in the Nag's Heads, that concerns were raised about her whereabouts.

Suzy rang Claudia's father, Peter. Mr Lawrence then went round to his daughter's home and let himself in with his spare keys.

'Her slippers were inside the front room, her jewellery was in her bedroom and her bank card and passport were there,' he said. 'There was nothing out of place.'

But there was no sign of Claudia nor her chef's whites, her phone or her bag.

Hours later, her phone disconnected from the mobile network. Her bank accounts have remained untouched.

Police still cannot be sure if she went missing on that Wednesday evening, soon after she was captured on CCTV, or sometime on Thursday morning. We just don't know.

'It has been very difficult for us to find out about Claudia's private life,' admitted Det Supt Galloway.

'She "compartmentalised'' sections of her life very effectively, such as work and friends. Very few people knew everything about her. Very few people knew exactly what she did when she went home and closed the doors behind her.

'The curtains were often drawn, which is almost a metaphor for her life.'

'It is really very scary that it is now a year on but we are no closer to finding out what has happened to Claudia,' says her friend Suzy Cooper. 'But the one thing I am sure of is that she would never simply disappear of her own free will.'

The effect this has had on her mother Joan, 66, who is deputy Mayor of Malton, near York, and her father Peter, a prominent Yorkshire solicitor, is impossible to put into words.

But in an interview with her local paper last week, Mrs Lawrence said: 'The pain never goes away, the emptiness inside me. There are reminders all over my flat, presents, notes, cards and photographs.

'Many is the time I come across something by accident and stop and shed a tear.' Mrs Lawrence, of course, has stayed very much in the background. Mr Lawrence, on the other hand, has campaigned tirelessly to keep the case in the public eye.

He has spent most of this very painful week in front of TV cameras both in Leeds and London, but admits he no longer knows what to believe. However, he expressed anger at the apparent lack of cooperation - for whatever reason - by some of those who knew his beautiful daughter.

Asked about the most recent 'lead', he replied: 'It is unbelievable that someone who has been interviewed by police has suddenly remembered a conversation he had with Claudia shortly before she disappeared. I am shocked that it has taken so long for someone to come forward with this information.'

Whether this latest development will lead to the solving of this peculiarly affecting case still remains to be seen.

But one thing is for certain: someone, somewhere, knows exactly where Claudia Lawrence is.