Gaddafi Doctors to Be Trained by NHS as Row over Britain’s Relations with Libya Intensifies
MAIL ONLINE: Libyan doctors are to be trained by the NHS following an agreement signed by a Cabinet minister with Colonel Gaddafi's regime weeks before the release of the Lockerbie bomber, it emerged today.

The agreement is the latest in a series of moves to normalise relations between Britain and the north African state, which was an international pariah for years after being blamed for the 1988 bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people.

But the Department of Health dismissed as "nonsense" suggestions that the agreement had any link with the recent release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi or trade deals with the oil-rich regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by former Health Secretary Alan Johnson in spring 2008, Libyan medical staff will be able to get a year's instruction in Britain.

Training opportunities will be available in the UK for Libyan medical staff in areas such as intensive care, anaesthetics and endoscopy, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, the Evening Standard reported.

Links have also been formed between London's Moorfields Eye Hospital and the main eye hospital in Libyan capital Tripoli.

The agreement was later discussed in a visit to Libya by then health minister Dawn Primarolo and was raised again when Mr Johnson's successor Andy Burnham met health minister Mohamed Hijazi during a trip to the country on constituency business earlier this year, said the Department. >>> | Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Cigarettes to Be Sold 'Under the Counter'
Image courtesy of The Telegraph
Naturally, it is a good thing for smoking in society to be reduced. This government, however, seems to have a ‘thing’ about smokers: Government ministers pursue them with fervour. If only these same government ministers were to pursue the case of the growth of Islam in the United Kingdom with the same fervour as they do smokers. – ©Mark

THE TELEGRAPH: Cigarettes will have to be 'sold under the counter' in moves to be announced by the Department of Health today.

Tobacco products will be barred from display in shops despite fears it could hit small stores during the economic downturn.

The new restrictions come after an extensive consultation on measures to reduce the number of children who take up smoking and helping those already addicted to quit.

But ministers will not go as far as recommending all cigarette packaging be plain with only the brand name and health warnings printed on them.

Sales from vending machines will also be restricted as research has shown children can buy cigarettes from them easily even though they are supposed to be in places where shops owners and pub landlords can supervise them.

Experts are keen to build on the success of the ban on smoking in public places, introduced in England in July 2007, and the increase in the legal age to buy tobacco to 18. >>> By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor and Andrew Porter, Political Editor | December 8, 2008

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