Cameron Dick says he's willing to discuss Cancer Council Queensland's concept of a generational smoking ban

Queensland's health minister says he's open to the idea of a generational smoking ban but not just yet. Cameron Dick says he wants to see how the state's new anti-smoking legislation plays out first.

Cancer Council Queensland has suggested a complete ban on smoking for all children born after 2001 to gradually stop smoking altogether. Dick said the state has gone from 30% of adults smoking daily to 15% in 15 years and was confident the new laws would decrease that further.

"Clearly smoking is becoming socially unacceptable in Queensland," Dick said. But Dick said he was willing to discuss Cancer Council Queensland's idea, despite obvious barriers, including the difficulties surrounding enforcement.

While some lawmakers want to require drug screening and testing for welfare and other assistance program applicants, this idea has inspired one US congresswoman to call for the rich to be drug tested if they wish to take advantage of tax deductions.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker put a lot of time and energy into passing legislation that has given Wisconsin the right to drug test participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). He is not alone either. At least 15 states now require drug testing for public assistance applicants.

Representative Gwen Moore (D-Wisconsin) describes these stipulations as "the criminalization of poverty," the Guardian reported. In response, she has announced her intention to introduce a bill called the Top 1% Accountability Act that would force taxpayers with itemized deductions exceeding $150,000 to submit a clear drug test to the IRS. Based on the IRS' 2011 tax data, the only homes that would qualify would be those with a yearly federal adjusted gross income of over $1 million, the Guardian reported.

A Japanese man who stabbed his father to death with a chopstick was arrested on Thursday (Jun 16), police said.

Michikazu Ikeuchi, 51, admitted that he stabbed his 80-year-old father in the throat with a 30cm-long wooden cooking chopstick on Wednesday night after a quarrel at their home in Osaka, western Japan, according to police.

"Ikeuchi told us he had tried to stop his parents from arguing and he did not intend to kill his father," an Osaka police official said.

"He said in his anger he waved the chopstick in front of his father but before he knew it, it got stuck in him," the officer said.

Ikeuchi, who lives with his parents and his brother's family, called emergency services for an ambulance after stabbing his father.

A man suspected of plotting an attack on Russian and American tourists has been arrested by French authorities, media reported.

A man arrested in the French city of Carcasonne is suspected of planning terrorist attacks on Russian and American tourists, a judicial official told the AP on Thursday. The man is currently being questioned by the authorities. He was planning to attack tourists first and then go after police, the source added.

The 22-year-old man from the southern district of Lunnel was arrested by the General Directorate for Internal Security at a station in Carcassonne on Monday night, according to Le Parisien. He was reportedly armed with a knife and a hammer. An air pistol was also found at his home, BFM TV reports.

The man, initially placed in custody in the city of Toulouse, has a history of psychiatric disorders and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a source close to the investigation told La Dépêche du Midi. He was transferred to the northwestern city of Levallois-Perret on Wednesday, according to BFM TV. The 22-year-old, who reportedly converted to Islam in 2014, remained in custody for 96 hours as provided for by French law.

There is a long history of social critics and progressive thinkers offering critiques of human society. Among those who are better known, Karl Marx offered a critique of capitalism, anarchists have critiqued the state, Mohandas K. Gandhi offered a critique of industrial society, Sigmund Freud and Herbert Marcuse offered critiques of civilization, and feminists have critiqued patriarchy. In addition, critiques of colonial/industrial society by indigenous people, critiques of white society by people of color, critiques of modern industrial society by environmentalists and cultural historians as well as critiques of technocratic society by a succession of scholars have been presented.

While these and other critiques have much to offer, if we want to trace the origin of the dysfunctional and violent human behaviours that now threaten human extinction, I believe it is necessary to examine what has been happening since the Neolithic (agricultural) revolution some 12,000 years ago.

From the evolution of homo sapiens until the Neolithic revolution, human beings lived as hunter-gatherers following the seasonal round. During this long period, virtually all activities from hunting and gathering food to a multiplicity of social and cultural activities were simply manifestations of a felt desire to do something functional, meaningful and enjoyable. While some aspects of socialization during this period were undoubtedly designed to control individual behaviour towards what was seen as beneficial for the group, the damage from this was limited for society as a whole (if not for the individual).

However, with the discovery that seeds could be collected, stored, transported, planted and nurtured, settlement became possible. And activities of a different nature, which we now call 'farming', emerged. In many ways, of course, farming activities of this nature were still functional, meaningful and enjoyable. And there was probably a higher level of security in some contexts, at least, although there was also a decrease in security from a new range of threats including diminishing soil fertility (requiring effort to replenish it).

So my central questions are these? Is there a point at which a human activity ceases to be volitional - 'functional, meaningful and enjoyable' - and becomes something that is socially controlled, what we might now call 'work'? And what are the implications of this transition?

As NATO steps up military maneuvers near Russia's borders and congressmen fume about "Russian aggression," a delegation of Americans including former U.S. officials is looking for face-to-face ways to encourage peace, writes Ann Wright.

I just flew across 11 times zones — from Tokyo, Japan to Moscow, Russia. Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, nearly twice as large as the United States and has extensive mineral and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world. Russia has the world's ninth largest population with over 146.6 million people. The population of the U.S of 321.4 million is more than twice as large as Russia's.

I haven't been back to Russia since the early 1990s when the Soviet Union dissolved itself and allowed 14 new countries to be created from it. At the time I was a U.S. diplomat and wanted to be a part of the historic opening of U.S. Embassies in one of the newly formed countries. I asked to be sent to a new country in Central Asia and soon found myself in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Since the new embassies were being logistically supported out of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, I was fortunate to make frequent trips to Moscow in the short three months I was in Uzbekistan until the permanent Embassy staff was assigned. Several years later in 1994, I returned to Central Asia for a two-year tour in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and again made trips to Moscow.

Boys who view online pornography believe it's a realistic depiction of sex, according to a study of British high school students by Middlesex University.

The research, which was commissioned by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), found that out of 1,000 pupils aged 11-16, 53 percent said they had viewed online pornography. While some searched for it, many were likely to have come across it accidentally, often through pop-up ads.

Indeed, 53 percent of boys who had viewed pornography said they thought it depicted a realistic impression of sex, while 39 percent of girls thought the images were realistic.

Some 41 percent of boys and girls who viewed porn for the first time felt 'curious,' while 27 percent said they were 'shocked', 27 percent 'confused,' and 24 percent said they were 'disgusted.'

The transition to an intelligent electricity grid in Europe can take place without smart meters, according to industry players who spoke at the annual Eurelectric conference in Vilnius this week.

Euractiv reports that the news will embarrass the European Commission, which pushed a Europe-wide plan to roll out smart meters years ago.

More efficient means include quicker integration of renewables, the development of energy storage and energy demand response solutions, said the industry representatives.

The actual benefits of smart meters were also questioned at the conference, as several member states have done previously. Germany, for instance, has decided not to have a national roll-out plan at all, running counter to requirements laid out in EU legislation.

EU member states are required to implement smart meters under the 2009 Third Energy Package wherever it is cost-effective to do so, with the goal to replace 80% of electricity meters with smart meters by 2020.The 80% target applies to both households and commercial buildings, a Commission spokesperson confirmed. The EU executive will publish in the next one to two years a report on smart meters "in the context of our regular monitoring exercise of the progress of members states," the spokesperson said.

Progress had been sluggish across the bloc in installation of the equipment. And the countries that do have a commitment to smart meters, such as the UK, have run into hurdles in completing its roll-out because some meters would cease to work if a consumer decided to change energy supplier. Markus Merkel, a senior advisor to the management board of German distribution system operator (DSO) EWE, told the Eurelectric conference that "there isn't a positive business case" for smart meters in Germany.

Member states are expected to conduct their own cost-benefit analyses for their national smart meters roll-out plans, the official said.

Court in country where same-sex relations are a crime dismisses argument that exam is torture and degrading treatmentA Kenyan court has upheld the use of anal examinations to determine a suspect's sexual orientation, dismissing the argument that the procedure amounts to torture and degrading treatment.

There was no violation of rights or the law, Mombasa high court judge Mathew Emukule said on Thursday. "I find no violation of human dignity, right to privacy and right to freedom of the petitioners," he said.

Two men had sought a court ruling to stop enforced anal examinations and HIV tests of men accused of being gay after they were subjected to the procedures.

The two were arrested in a bar near Ukunda, a town along Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, in February 2015 on suspicion of engaging in homosexual sex, a criminal offence in Kenya. They still face the charges and, if convicted, could be jailed for 14 years.

Most Europeans see Russia as a "minor" threat compared to Islamic State (IS), the refugee crisis or other issues, a survey suggests.

Roughly seven out of 10 people in the EU named IS, the jihadist group which recently carried out attacks in Paris and Brussels, as a "major" menace in a new study by US think tank Pew, out on Tuesday (14 June).

More than half of Europeans said climate change, economic instability and cyber-attacks were "dire" threats. A little less than half also named the number of refugees coming from Iraq and Syria as a "major" challenge.

But just one in three EU nationals put "tensions with Russia" in the same category.

Pew interviewed 11,494 people in April and May from France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US.

The 10 European countries account for 80 percent of the EU population and 82 percent of its combined GDP.