• Thailand has proposed that it will ban all alcohol advertising, outraging media executives who say the ban would hurt the industry and do little to curb alcohol abuse.

• At least three coal trains owned by the New Zealand government-owned solid energy corporation have been stopped from reaching Lyttelton Port, near Christchurch, by protesters who have locked themselves onto the railway tracks, thus making it impossible for the trains to pass.

They are protesting over Solid Energy's plans for an open-cast coal mine in Happy valley in New Zealand's West Coast. "The coal from this mine will produce massive amounts of carbon dioxide emissions adding to climate change. Yet despite their rhetoric, it seems neither Solid Energy nor the government are willing to do anything when their profits are threatened,' said a protestor.