Features

ROME — In a part of Rome few tourists ever reach, the Metropoliz Museum of the Other and the Elsewhere (MAAM) takes the concept of the warehouse gallery into a new dimension.

Located in an abandoned salami factory on the Italian capital's scruffy eastern periphery, the museum is also home to 200 squatters, including 50 children, whose precarious situation is an integral part of a project described by its creator, Giorgio de Finis, as a living, breathing artwork.

"The police could come in tomorrow and throw everybody out," de Finis told AFP. "We have to be prudent. That why we only open to the public on certain days (usually Saturdays) and for special events."

Despite the irregular hours, the museum is becoming increasingly recognised as an innovative element of Rome's otherwise recession-fatigued art scene.

From November 28-December 6, it hosts "Iron and Fire", an exhibition of Paolo Buggiani, a contemporary of Andy Warhol who was part of New York's Pop and Street art scenes in the 1970s and 1980s, and now specialises in incorporating live flames into sculpture-based performance pieces.

On the frontline 

Culturally, physically and socially, MAAM stands on the frontline of Italy's overlapping immigration and housing crises.

Its inhabitants come from all over. Many are Roma, an ethnic group whose herding into squalid, overcrowded camps in Italy has been subject to international criticism. And just down the road lies Tor Sapienza, a rundown neighbourhood where angry residents this month laid violent siege to a refuge for asylum seekers.

De Finis's vision is based on the encounter between artists and residents and their joint creation of an alternative to the broken model of society represented by events in Tor Sapienza.

The concept has become reality with help from hundreds of creatives, ranging from recent graduate Andrea Rinaldi, 27, to established figures like Buggiani, 81, all of them working for free.

 Yoda inspiration 

"As soon as a single euro changed hands, the whole thing would collapse," said de Finis.

An anthropologist and filmmaker with a whimsical passion for outer space, de Finis draws inspiration from Yoda, the Jedi warrior-philosopher of "Star Wars" fame who once advised: "Do or not do: there is no try."

"At the moment it is a story without an ending," de Finis said.

"I can see three possible outcomes: The owners send in the bailiffs and shut the whole thing down; they decide to embrace what we have created and take ownership of it; or it all just falls apart of its own accord," he said.

Hopefully, he argues, the first option is a receding possibility because the authorities would hesitate to destroy a cultural project capable of drawing up to 1,000 members of the Rome art crowd out of the city for special events.

"The art is a way of giving the place a sort of skin that perhaps will protect it from a forced eviction."

Midas touch 

Occupied first in 2009 by BPM, a radical housing campaign group, after it was sold by the relocating salami makers to a construction company, the building that houses MAAM has a crumbly feel to it.

But that fragility has also contributed to the cohesion of the whole space as the artists have patched up rough edges, incorporating remnants of the site's previous function or taking inspiration from it.

A disused elevator has been given a gold veneer by visual artist Michele Welke in a nod to both the transformative, Midas touch of art and the role of money in social elevation.

Cages of the kind once used for livestock also feature: German artist Susanne Kessler has donated an installation originally inspired by Guantanamo prison that she felt could make a different point about the treatment of migrants in the MAAM setting.

Another room, once used for stripping carcasses, is now home to a giant mural by Spanish painters Pablo Mesa Capella and Gonzalo Orquin.

Titled E-MAAMCIPAZIONE, it features a series of pigs strung up but concludes with two joyously scampering to freedom.

"We don't have the money to do a complete architectural renovation of the building so we have to work with what we've got," said De Finis, glancing down at the rubble that litters a still-to-be-renovated residential section of the main building.

The sections completed include a courtyard vegetable garden and a nursery where volunteer teachers provide educational support for the residents' children three afternoons a week.

Resident Mustapha Labiki, originally from Morocco, says the interaction with the artists has been enriching. "This place attracts all kinds of people. There is always something going on, someone to talk to and that helps the older kids stay off the streets."

Sara Bautista, from Peru, says there is another advantage to life in a customised, art-filled squat. "We share recipes and you don't get your neighbours complaining that your cooking is making a disgusting smell!"

LOS ANGELES — "Star Wars" fans got their first glimpse Friday of the space saga's eagerly awaited next instalment, but will have to wait a year before the full film is released.

"There has been an awakening. Have you felt it?" a gravel-voiced narrator intones in a brief online trailer, before a squadron of stormtroopers is seen prepping for action.

Earlier in November, studio giant Disney revealed the name of the new episode, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", saying filming had been completed on the movie, due for release on December 18, 2015.

"The dark side... and the light”, the voiceover continues, as what appears to be a dark Sith Lord displays his new-look lightsaber in a forest, accompanied by composer John Williams' trademark stirring music.

Inevitably, "Star Wars" fans immediately flooded the Internet with comments and observations.

Many seemed split about the practicalities of the design of the lightsaber, which had flaming laser beams coming out the handle in what looked like some sort of handguard.

The seventh movie in the "Star Wars" franchise, which was launched more than 35 years ago, benefits from far superior visual effects than those first films, though the original battle ships are back.

Thus the Millennium Falcon, the famed spaceship of smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his hairy first mate Chewbacca, is seen looping and skimming a planet, preparing for combat with the Empire's TIE fighters.

"Star Wars" has attracted generations of loyal fans ever since the first film arrived in 1977 recounting the adventures of Skywalker, Han Solo and Darth Vader. Filming began in Britain in May on Episode VII.

Original cast members Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker will star in the new film, along with several newcomers including Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o.

Other cast members include veteran actor Max von Sydow, "Girls" star Adam Driver, motion-capture expert Andy Serkis and "Harry Potter" veteran Domhnall Gleeson.

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysians have a passionate love affair with their lip-smacking cuisine — rich curries, succulent fried chicken, buttery breads and creamy drinks — but it is increasingly an unhealthy relationship.

Malaysia is Southeast Asia's fattest country, where a nationwide foodie culture is feeding mounting concern over what its health minister calls "an obesity epidemic".

"We are the most obese nation in Southeast Asia, and Malaysians are becoming more and more obese," Health Minister S. Subramaniam told AFP, warning of a "crisis in unhealthy behaviour".

Nearly 45 per cent of Malaysian men and almost half of women are overweight or obese, according to a 2013 study by UK medical journal Lancet, compared to global rates of around 30 per cent.

A recent report by consultants McKinsey Global Institution found obesity now costs the global economy $2 trillion in healthcare and lost productivity — or 2.8 per cent of global GDP — just $100 billion less than both smoking and armed conflict. The study warned almost half of the world's adult population will be overweight or obese by 2030 and called for a "coordinated response" from governments, retailers and food and drink manufacturers.

In Malaysia, childhood obesity rates also are climbing, from less than 10 per cent a decade ago to nearly 14 per cent in 2008, according to the most recent figures, saddling health systems with a new generation of diabetes, hypertension and other obesity-related illnesses

Already, some 2.6 million adults have diabetes, a figure authorities expect to spike to 4.5 million in 2020. Malaysia has a population of around 29 million.

Civil engineer Kevin Lim is trying to slim down after doctors told him a few years ago that his life was at risk.

Lim, 40, who weighs 173kg, has diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and joint pains from lugging his bulk around.

"All I knew was that eating made me happy. I was a couch potato, watching DVDs, and my weight rose," Lim said as he huffs through his now-regular workouts in a Kuala Lumpur fitness centre.

Malaysia is a victim of its own success, with decades of economic advancement bringing the flip-side health issues that developing countries often encounter when hunger is defeated, incomes rise, and lifestyles become more sedentary.

But a key factor is the national love for Malaysia's delicious but rich fare: spicy curries made with fattening coconut milk, carb-heavy rice dishes, and sugary drinks like teh tarik — a frothy tea with sweetened condensed milk.

The breaking of bread is of vital social and cultural importance in each of multiracial Malaysia's main ethnic groups — Muslim Malays, Chinese and Hindu Indians — and is enthusiastically embraced.

Open-air food stalls are a fixture in every neighbourhood, often open 24 hours and full of late-diners — a major health no-no, according to doctors.

Fast-food giants McDonald's and KFC also do a roaring business, and Malaysians are among the world's top per-capita sugar consumers.

The sweet life 

Compounding the issue, languid, tropical Malaysia has historically lacked a strong tradition of active outdoor leisure pursuits, due in part to the sweltering weather, Islamic modesty, and shortage of public spaces for exercise.

Subramaniam, the health minister, said the problem eventually "will affect productivity and impact our economic development".

Over the past year, the government has ramped up public-awareness campaigns and mass street-exercise activities. Subsidies that kept prices of sugar and cooking oil low have been reduced in recent years, for joint budgetary and health reasons.

Fitness chains, a relatively undeveloped industry in Malaysia, now report growing numbers of health-conscious members.

"At least three out of 10 people who sign up at our gym do it because of illnesses including obesity and heart-related illness," said Elaine Yap, marketing manager with fitness chain Jatomi, which has four outlets.

Experts say far more official action is needed.

Mohamad Ismail Noor, president of the Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity, backs emerging calls to ban 24-hour food outlets, cut sugar content in beverages, further reduce sugar and cooking oil subsidies, and build more parks.

"We need to take stern action. The government has to put its foot down and say 24-hour outlets are not healthy. Obesity is the mother of all diseases," he said.

But old habits diehard.

A study of nearly 1,700 seriously ill diabetics released last week found that more than three out of four shrugged off doctor's advice on changing their lifestyles, Malaysian media reported.

The study also reportedly found that diabetes-related eye complications in such patients increased from 35 per cent in 2008 to 49 per cent in 2013, while kidney complications rose six percentage points to 42 per cent.

Wong Siew Hong, a 170kg diabetic automotive mechanic, is trying.

Barely able to bend down to pick up his tools, he is trying a range of weight loss products but can't kick his love of oily Malaysian noodle dishes and is ready to throw in the towel.

"When I walk, I feel like I am a tank. I am just too heavy," said the father of two.

"At home I just eat and sit on the sofa."

TOKYO — E-cigarettes contain up to 10 times the amount of cancer-causing agents as regular tobacco, Japanese scientists said Thursday, the latest blow to an invention once heralded as less harmful than smoking.

A team of researchers commissioned by Japan's health ministry studied the vapour produced by e-cigarettes for signs of carcinogens, a media report said.

The electronic devices — increasingly popular around the world, particularly among young people — function by heating flavoured liquid, which often contains nicotine, into a vapour that is inhaled, much like traditional cigarettes, but without the smoke.

Researchers found carcinogens such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in vapour produced by several types of e-cigarette liquid, TBS television reported.

Formaldehyde — a substance found in building materials and embalming fluids — was present at levels 10 times those found in the smoke from regular cigarettes, TBS said.

Researcher Naoki Kunugita and his team at the National Institute of Public Health submitted their report to the ministry on Thursday, the broadcaster said.

Neither the scientist nor anyone from the health ministry were immediately available to confirm the report.

In common with many jurisdictions, Japan does not regulate e-cigarettes, which can be bought easily on the Internet. However, unlike in some Western countries, they are not readily available in shops.

In August, the World Health Organisation called on governments to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, warning they pose a "serious threat" to unborn babies and young people.

The UN health body also said they should be banned from indoor public spaces.

Do you sometime lose the e-mails you send or receive? Do they seem to disappear without you being able to tell how, where and why? You are not alone. This is becoming all too frequent and it is not something that is always easy to explain or understand.

Whereas countless aspects of life with IT have been well addressed now and have been removed from the worry list, e-mailing, one critical aspect by any measure, hasn’t yet been perfected.

It is not the process, per se, that everyone today understands and masters, including the very young. It is the complexity of the various subscriptions, of the software applications you use to manage the messages, of the intricate settings and parameters, and last but not least the lack of transparency (that’s a euphemism) of the service providers whenever you encounter difficulty sending or receiving e-mail messages.

You may be using Microsoft’s Outlook for example, or perhaps you check your mail directly on the Web, through one of the many available browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari. You may be using one of the free e-mail services like Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Hotmail. Or perhaps you have your own domain name, be it for business or personal use, operating addresses like for instance [email protected]. Your mailbox could be hosted on a Microsoft-Exchange server or it may be on a cloud service like GoDaddy, Google or Network Solutions, to name only these.

The many different ways lead to difficulty in establishing a clear and quick diagnostic, and therefore getting a solution to the problem, when something goes wrong, typically being unable to send or receive, or not knowing what happened to an e-mail that has simply vanished.

The difficulty lies in the fact that your message travels on a virtual route on the Web that includes several “waypoints”. Generally you only are aware of two of them, your own mailbox from which you send, and your recipient’s address. In fact the message goes through other points of passage that you don’t want to know about and that, normally, you shouldn’t need to know about.

These include your ADSL subscription or WiFi iconnection or 3G. Then come your local service provider, the telecoms, the mail server(s) they have a subscription with, and then you’d find the same chain at the “other” end, the receiving party. It could be more complicated sometimes, but the bottom line is that it is hard to say where exactly your incoming or outgoing message got lost. That is unless all parties cooperate and tell the truth. All you know is that your e-mail message didn’t reach the mailbox it was supposed to reach.

Technicians apply a process they call Traceroute to track messages through all the “waypoints” and find where exactly they were lost or rejected for that matter. The virtual route, from your mailbox to your correspondent’s mailbox may include anything from six to 12 points of passage, anywhere in the world! Whether at home or at work you certainly don’t have the time to apply processes like Traceroute just to find were your message was lost.

Finding exactly what happened is tantamount to a criminal investigation and usually is not worth all the trouble. Resending, doing your e-mailing through a different software application and from another mailbox often is the simplest cure. Which is why most of us run and manage at least a couple of different e-mail addresses.

And you thought e-mailing was a simple matter.

SEOUL — That selfie stick in your hand. A harmless memory maker? Or a potentially chaos-inducing electromagnetic radiation emitter?

In South Korea, it seems, it could be both and anyone selling an unregistered version could face a $27,000 fine or up to three years in prison, the science ministry announced last week.

Regulating the sale of these small, articulated monopods designed for cell phone-wielding photographers won't be easy, given their numbers.

South Koreans have embraced the technology with a passion, turning scenic spots into undulating fields of waving selfie sticks and grinning, upturned faces.

The focus of the ministerial crackdown are those models that come with bluetooth technology, allowing the user to release the smartphone shutter remotely, rather than using a timer.

The problem, the ministry says, is that such units are designated as communications equipment given their use of radio waves to provide a wireless link between separate devices.

As such they have to be tested and certified to ensure they don't pose a disruption to other devices using the same radio frequency.

Ministry officials admit the crackdown is basically motivated by a technicality, given that the weak, short-range signals emitted by bluetooth devices are hardly likely to bring down a plane or interfere with police frequencies.

"It's not going to affect anything in any meaningful way, but it is nonetheless a telecommunication device subject to regulation, and that means we are obligated to crack down on uncertified ones," an official at the ministry's central radio management office told AFP.

Despite the harsh penalty on offer, the "crackdown" appears to have been relatively low-key, with no mass police raids on unsuspecting selfie stick vendors.

"The announcement last Friday was really just to let people know that they need to be careful about what they sell," said the official, who declined to be identified.

"We've had a lot of calls from vendors who think they might have been unknowingly selling uncertified products," he added.

South Korea is, in many ways, a highly regulated society, and people are generally used to a pervasive requirement for registration and certification.

Patrons of the country's many Starbucks outlets, however, protested loudly recently when it emerged that the personal data they must provide to link to the in-store WiFi was not required of foreigners.

Selfie stick vendors in Seoul appeared to be taking the ministry's order in their stride.

"I was told about the new regulation, but the ones I sell are all certified, so I haven't had any problems with the police or anything," said the owner of a small kiosk selling smartphone cases and selfie sticks near a subway station in Seoul's Myeongdong tourist district.

"But I know some of the bigger sellers had to get rid of some of their stock which hadn't been registered," said the owner who identified himself by his surname, Lee.

The thing with the garment industry is that they charge you for the label. What is a label? It is this rectangular sort of tag that is sewn onto any piece of clothing that you buy, usually at the back of a shirt collar or the waistband of the trousers, the two most sensitive places in any individual’s body. 

Why do they do that? In practical terms, it marks the ownership of the product, like granting copyright to the apparel, so to speak. But in actual fact, it is to irritate the buyer. 

It’s almost as if all the fashion houses share a private joke at our expense, literally and figuratively. They make us part with humungous sums of money and then make us wear outfits that constantly keep reminding us of our folly, through these prickly little labels that scratch the back of your neck and waist at regular intervals. 

It is not easy to get rid of them, let me tell you. If you have not observed it before, turn the collar of your shirt and examine it right now. You will notice that the bit of cloth, with one end stitched in while the other hangs free, is made of a thicker material than the rest of it. It is also sewed up with extra strong thread. There is no point pulling it because it never comes off. The buttons, bows and the other embellishments on the blouse might, but the label? Never!

And so, in order to get rid of them, one has to cut it off. And here is the irony.  You pay an exorbitant price for a particular ensemble because of its brand name that is marked on the label but before wearing it, you are compelled to immediately remove the same. If you don’t then there is no accounting for the severe skin rash that might inflict your skin where the harsh label rubs against it, that is. 

So, the first thing I do after purchasing a dress is to detach its price tag. We all do that, no big deal. Who wants to announce the discounted cost of the item one has surreptitiously bought? Immediately after that I start working on removing the label. This is not easy as it sounds because, like I mentioned before, they use extra strong thread to stitch it into the fabric. 

I’ve tried using the pointy end of safety pins and sewing needles to pull out the thread but have ended up twisting them instead. My fingertips have also got bloodied in the process but more often than not, the sturdy labels have held on fast. 

Therefore I bought a pair of tiny clippers especially for this purpose. These are shaped like shears but have extra sharp edges to them. They work like a double-edged sword because if one is not careful while using them, not only the label but also the material around it gets nicked too. And for someone who is incapable of needlework, that spells double trouble. 

Recently I borrowed a blouse from my daughter’s wardrobe. Within minutes of wearing it, the label started
stinging me. 

“Why are you frowning?” asked my husband. 

“I am not frowning, I’m scowling,” I muttered. 

“Such a ferocious scowl?” he repeated. 

“This shirt is biting me,” I confided. 

“Does it bark as well?” he joked.

“With this label on my neck, so do I,” I announced. 

“Get the scissors, fast,” he said, backing off.

NEW DELHI — The three-wheeled rickshaw lurched through New Delhi's commuter-clogged streets with an American scientist and several air pollution monitors in the 

backseat. Car horns blared. A scrappy scooter buzzed by belching black smoke from its tailpipe. One of the monitors spiked.

Joshua Apte has alarming findings for anyone who spends time on or near the roads in this city of 25 million. The numbers are far worse than the ones that have already led the World Health Organisation to rank New Delhi as the world's most polluted city.

Average pollution levels, depending on the pollutant, were up to eight times higher on the road than urban background readings, according to research by Apte and his partners at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi.

"And you have to keep in mind that the concentrations at urban background sites, where these official monitors are, are already very high," he said. The measures "are actually some of the highest levels in air pollution made inside vehicles anywhere in the world".

The point is particularly important for New Delhi residents, about half of whom live within 300 metres of a major road. New Delhi, like most cities, places their air monitors far from primary pollution sources like highways or industrial plants so that no single source can affect ambient readings, which are meant to represent an average pollution exposure from all sources.

"Official air quality monitors tend to be located away from roads, on top of buildings, and that's not where most people spend most of their time," Apte said as The Associated Press joined him on a pollution-monitoring ride-along. "In fact, most people spend a lot of time in traffic in India. Sometimes one, two, three hours a day."

Outdoor air pollution kills millions worldwide every year, according to the WHO, including more than 627,000 in India. One of the biggest culprits in fast-growing India is vehicular traffic: Car ownership in the country of 1.2 billion grew from 20 million in 1991 to 140 million in 2011, and is expected to reach 400 million by 2030.

India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken steps to cut down the popularity of cars running on diesel, one of the dirtiest burning fuels, by pegging its cost to world market prices and scrapping a discount that had encouraged diesel consumption.

But experts say that, unless India raises fuel standards to international norms, pollution levels that are already often deemed unhealthy or hazardous will escalate. Unchecked, today's vehicle trends in India could lead to a three-fold increase in levels of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 by 2030 — the tiny particulate matter believed to cause the most damage to human health — according to a study this month by The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, University of California, San Diego and the California Air Resources Board.

Still, few Indian cities have air quality monitors. New Delhi officially has 11, though experts say the readings can be erratic and the reporting opaque. The city reports several key pollutants and this month launched an air quality index, boiling down the ambient readings to a single daily number indicating whether the air is healthy, poor, harmful or hazardous.

Apte, who in January starts as an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, said that such indices, while perhaps easier for citizens to digest, represent vague urban background readings and can't help residents understand exactly what risks they face.

What ordinary people really want to know are answers to questions like, "'Should I be taking a walk outside in this neighbourhood right now?' ... 'Is it safe for my child to be playing cricket on the field here?'" he said.

Apte's goal was to highlight the huge differences between the urban background readings and ground-level pollution along roads. His approach to gathering his data involved twice-daily rush hour drives from the city center to a southeast suburb.

He travelled in one of India's typical open-aired auto rickshaws, which he outfitted with pollution monitoring equipment to gather second-by-second data. On one-quarter of his visits to Delhi, he developed bronchitis.

For comparison, he also took readings from inside regular cars with the windows rolled up, and from a rooftop monitor that stood for ambient air quality readings — or what the government might record and report to the public.

He found average, rush hour levels of PM 2.5 were about 50 per cent higher than ambient air quality readings, according to his team's data. The monitor shot up wildly for brief periods when lumbering vehicles emitting black smoke rolled by.

Levels of black carbon, a good indicator of diesel exhaust and poorly tuned vehicle performance, were more than three times higher than the ambient readings. The average level of ultrafine particles, especially tiny forms of PM 2.5, was more than eight times higher — so high that Apte's equipment broke when he initially tried to measure it. Ultrafine particles have been studied less than other forms of pollution but are believed to be particularly hazardous.

Environmental consultant Ajay Ojha, who works on air quality in the western city of Pune outside of Mumbai, said it will take more work to show policy makers the risks of air pollution and how to address them.

"The problem is nobody owns air pollution. Nobody is individually responsible. So unless the public is demanding action, officials have no reason to even bring it up," he said. "... More understanding is needed before people will start to get upset."

Policy makers disagree about which sources of pollution are the most worrying, with car traffic, industries and power plants, trash burning and small businesses like brick kilns all vying for attention.

To Apte, that simply means there are lots of ways to start clearing the air.

"The good news about air pollution in Delhi is that there's a lot of really low-hanging fruit in terms of sectors that we can choose to target," he said.

He added that the US and Europe began cleaning their skies only after incomes rose and people began to demand change: "I expect fully that we'll see the same thing in India."

PARIS — Overweight and obesity is now causing nearly half-a-million new cancer cases in adults every year, roughly 3.6 per cent of the world's total, a study said Wednesday.

A quarter of these cases are "realistically avoidable", said the authors of the work published in The Lancet Oncology.

Led by scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the paper drew on a range of sources, including a large database of cancer incidence and mortality for 184 countries in 2012.

In men, being overweight was blamed for 136,000 new cases, more than two-thirds of them cancers of the colon and kidney.

In women, it was linked to 345,000 cancer diagnoses, nearly three-quarters of which were post-menopausal breast, endometrial and colon cancers.

Mirroring the spread of obesity in developed countries, the tally was highest in North America, which accounted for nearly a quarter of all the weight-related new cancer cases.

Sub-Saharan Africa had the fewest, with 7,300 cases.

"Our findings add support for a global effort to address the rising trends in obesity," said lead researcher Melina Arnold.

"The global prevalence in adults has doubled since 1980. If this trend continues, it will certainly boost the future burden of cancer, particularly in South America and North Africa, where the largest increases in the rate of obesity have been seen over the last 30 years."

Measured as a ratio of weight in kilogrammes-to-height in metres squared, a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and 30 plus as obese.

Elsewhere in The Lancet, an updated map of cancer survival shed light on a persisting gulf between rich and poor countries, as well as within advanced economies themselves.

The CONCORD-2 study looked at a key benchmark — the rate for survival five years after diagnosis — among 25.7 million patients who had had one of 10 common cancers.

For acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children — the most common childhood cancer — the rate ranged from 90 per cent in Canada, Austria, Belgium, Germany and Norway, to just 16-50 per cent in Jordan, Lesotho, central Tunisia, the Indonesian capital Jakarta and Mongolia.

In most developed countries as well as in Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, the five-year survival from breast and colorectal cancers has increased, thanks to earlier diagnosis and better treatment.

There remains a major gap in the survival rate of cervical and ovarian cancer.

Five-year survival for these two types of cancer varies from more than 70 per cent in Mauritius, South Korea, Taiwan, Iceland and Norway to less than 40 per cent in Libya.

Within Europe, cervical and ovarian cancer survival is 60 per cent or less in Britain, France, Ireland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.

The study should be a barometer for national health policy, said Claudia Allemani at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"In some countries, cancer is far more lethal than in others — in the 21st century, there should not be such a dramatic gulf in survival."

NEW DELHI — Health campaigners Wednesday welcomed India's unprecedented plans to raise the age for tobacco purchases to 25 and ban unpackaged cigarette sales, calling them a major step towards stopping nearly one million tobacco-related deaths a year.

India, with a population of 1.2 billion, would have the world's highest minimum legal age for buying cigarettes if plans to increase the limit from 18 to 25 were implemented, according to campaigners.

The plans, proposed by an expert panel, were announced by health minister J. P. Nadda in parliament on Tuesday and will need final approval by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet as well as parliament before becoming law.

"This is a very welcome move by the government," Binoy Mathew, spokesman for the nonprofit Voluntary Health Association of India, told AFP.

"It's going to act as a huge deterrent, especially for students and youngsters."

Around 900,000 people die of tobacco-related illnesses in India each year, the second-highest number after China, and experts predict that could rise to 1.5 million by the end of the decade.

An estimated 70 per cent of cigarettes sold in India are unpackaged, equating to more than 100 billion sticks in 2012, according to market researcher Euromonitor.

Campaigners say the practice of selling single cigarettes at street stalls has pushed up smoking rates, particularly among teenagers and the poor who cannot afford a full packet.

"These people were easily buying single sticks for ten to 15 rupees [16 to 24 cents], but now they will have to shell out some 200 rupees [$3] for the full pack, which will not be so easy," said Mathew.

Indians consume tobacco in several forms apart from cigarettes, including "gutka" — a cheap, mass-produced mix of tobacco, crushed areca nut and other ingredients — and hand-rolled sticks called 'beedis'.

New Delhi announced last month that tobacco companies would have to stamp health warnings across 85 per cent of the surface of cigarette packets from next year.

Monica Arora, from the Public Health Foundation of India, applauded the jump in the minimum age which she said would be the highest anywhere in the world. In most countries it ranged from 16 to 21.

"Research shows that if someone hasn't started smoking at 21, chances of that person becoming a tobacco user drops drastically," said Arora, director of the foundation's tobacco control initiatives.

"Ninety per cent of youth take to smoking before the age of 18 and they experiment by buying single cigarettes.

"Now they will have to buy full packs which will have pictorial warnings and they would get reminded of the dangers every time they reach out for a smoke."

The proposed ban would badly affect companies such as ITC, India's largest cigarette maker, which earned $164 million from sales in 2013-14.

Arora acknowledged that enforcement of any law would be difficult and would need a community-led approach. Cigarettes are sold at small stands on most street corners.

"If you sensitise the retailers and tell them about what is illegal and that there are strict penalties, they would not want to violate the laws," she said.

Researchers say inadequate public awareness of smoking risks, coupled with aggressive tobacco marketing, has left Asian nations with some of the world's highest smoking rates, at a time when sustained campaigns have cut rates in the US, Australia and parts of Europe.