100 Countries Have Now Signed UN Tobacco-Control Treaty Geneva/Switzerland | 28.03.2004 | Health & Ethics One hundred countries representing 4.5 billion people have signed the global treaty aimed at curbing tobacco use, which now claims nearly 5 million lives every year and causes an estimated annual net loss of $200 billion in treatment and lost productivity, the United Nations health agency WHO reported March 25. With the signatures of Ecuador and the Republic of Congo, 100 countries and the European Community have now signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The convention, unani
World No Tobacco Day 2004 Geneva/Switzerland | 28.03.2004 | Health & Ethics The Tobacco Free Initiative proposes that World No Tobacco Day 2004 focus on tobacco and poverty. The contribution of tobacco to death and disease is well documented. Less attention is given to the ways in which tobacco increases poverty. Tobacco is the fourth most common risk factor for disease worldwide. The economic costs of tobacco use are equally devastating. In addition to the high public health costs of treating tobacco-caused diseases, tobacco kills people at the height of their pr
Adventist "Hope Channel" on TV in Papua New Guinea Lae, Papua New Guinea | 22.03.2004 | Media Seventh-day Adventist programming is now available through the only cable television provider in Papua New Guinea's second largest city, Lae. The "Hope Channel", an initiative of Adventist Television Network (ATN), is one of 16 channels included in the basic package from Tolec Electronics. "The only cost to us has been the receiver we bought from the company," says Benson ToPatiliu Diave, the satellite ministries coordinator for the church in Papua New Guinea. "Tolec even installed the rec
North America: Adventist Church recognized by slim majority Silver Spring, Maryland, USA | 22.03.2004 | International A majority of North Americans surveyed have heard of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but some of them have the denomination confused with other religious groups. A survey taken over several months last year found that 56 percent of respondents had heard or read about the denomination, according to a new report by the North American Division (NAD) of the Adventist Church. That marks an increase from the most recent survey done by the church, in 1994, when 53 percent of respondents indicated
International Women New York, NY., USA | 16.03.2004 | International Celebrating International Women's Day on March 8, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on all men to assume the responsibilities that would reduce the "terrifying pattern" of HIV/AIDS infection among the world's women. Such responsibilities "would be ensuring education for their daughters; abstaining from sexual behaviour that puts others at risk; forgoing relations with girls and very young women; and understanding that when it comes to violence against women, there are no grou
Adventist Church supports UN plan to promote women's peace in the Pacific Wahroonga, N.S.W., Australia | 15.03.2004 | International Wahroonga, N.S.W., Australia, 15.03.2004/ANN/APD The Seventh-day Adventist Church is supporting a plan by the United Nations (UN) to promote women's peace and security in the Pacific islands. Joy Butler, Rose Howson and Bronwyn Mison, all departmental directors or managers at the Seventh-day Adventist church in the South Pacific's head office, attended a breakfast organised by the UN's Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Sydney on March 8 to raise money for the plan. "I believe it i
Spain: Adventist Church Mourns As Victims Are Identified Madrid, Spain | 15.03.2004 | International Pablo Sánchez Lucas, of the Adventist Church (Unión de Iglesias Cristianas Adventistas del Séptimo Día de España) headquarters in Madrid, asked for prayer for the victims of the apparent terrorist attack on March 11. [img id=78 align=right]Seventh-day Adventist Church members in Spain are mourning the loss of at least two of their fellow believers, who are among the 200 killed in coordinated bomb attacks in and around Madrid on March 11. One member, 27-year-old Nicoleta Diac, had been identif
Haiti: Adventist Facilities Affected by Looting Miami, Florida, USA | 02.03.2004 | International As chaos erupts in the wake of Haiti’s Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s presidential resignation, looting and other violent activities in the capital city of Port-au-Prince have affected Haitian Adventist Hospital and the Adventist university, both minutes from the city’s downtown. According to Pastor Israel Leito, president for the church in Inter-America, who has been in contact with church leaders in Port-au-Prince, there was looting February 29 in the vicinity of the hospital and university. "Th
Spanish Protestants denounce discrimination before European Parliament Madrid, Spain | 01.03.2004 | Religion + State In a letter sent to the European Parliament and to Spanish parliamentary groups, as well as to international institutions, Spanish evangelicals denounced the alarming lack of religious neutrality on the part of the Spanish government. The Federation of Religious Evangelical Entities of Spain (FEREDE) draws attention to the inequality and discrimination that Protestants suffer in the country and calls for international support to lobby parliament and the government that emerges from next Mar
