Alcohol-soaked Bali is running out of booze!

October 14th, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian airport police detained a Philippine national who is seven months pregnant after she was allegedly caught carrying a cocaine-soaked jacket, news reports said Wednesday. The 24-year-old woman was detained Friday at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after officers checked her fleece-lined jacket and said they found it was soaked with about 2 kg of liquid cocaine, the Star newspaper said.

October 9th, 2009 LONDON - Excessively low cost alcohol promotes harmful underage drinking, says a new study based on survey of 9,833 teens between the ages of 15 and 16 years. Mark Bellis worked with a team from Liverpool John Moores University and Trading Standards to survey the teens' alcohol consumption patterns, drink types consumed, drinking locations, methods of access and harms encountered.

October 3rd, 2009 LONDON - A British woman believes cigarettes and alcohol have helped her reach the age of 107. Dorothy Peel, Yorkshire, treats herself to a glass of sherry before lunch, several shots of whisky and an occasional cigarette.

September 29th, 2009 MOSCOW - The Kremlin has launched a campaign to curb excessive drinking, especially of vodka, which it says is wreaking the country. According to a report in The Scotsman, Russians could soon find it harder to buy alcohol, and pay more for a bottle of the national drink, vodka, if the Kremlin gets its way.

September 2nd, 2009 WELLINGTON - A Christchurch school has said it is prepared to face criticism when it serves alcohol to under 18-year-olds at its school ball next week. Christ's College will host its annual school ball complete with three-course meal and a full bar.

August 31st, 2009 LONDON - An increasing number of lonely and depressed elderly in the UK are turning to drinking, and are dying from booze-related illnesses. Recent data has revealed that a total of 1,912 over-60s died as a result of boozing in 1999, which has increased 40pct in the last decade to 2,677 in 2008.

August 29th, 2009 SYDNEY - The suspected mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people, may escape trial in the case with US officials saying that military prosecutors lack the evidence to charge Hambali. News.com.au quoted senior US officials, as saying that military prosecutors don't have enough evidence to prove Indonesian terror suspect's role in the bombings of the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar on October 12, 2002.

August 27th, 2009 LONDON - People are taking in more booze "by stealth", thanks to stronger drinks that are on sale, according to an analysis of consumption in the UK. Researchers Mintel, who headed the survey, found the alcohol consumption level per person had leaped by 10 per cent since last nine years despite steady drink sales.

August 23rd, 2009 LONDON - A teenage Lotto winner is facing bankruptcy after spending the money on a series of breast enhancement surgeries, sponging boyfriends, alcohol and buying-sprees. Callie Rogers, who bagged 1.9 million pounds when she was 16, is now a single, broke mum-of-two, living with her mother in a tiny two-up two-down.

August 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Two drunk Chinese men were left stranded on the road after they filled their car's tank with alcohol instead of petrol in Jinyang, Shanxi province.he two men were returning from a party last Saturday, when their car broke down on a highway. They had a bottleful of alcohol, which they emptied out in the petrol tank, reports the China Daily.

June 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has revealed that nearly 20 percent of undergraduate American women are sexually assaulted during their time in college and that the majority of incidents occurred while they were under the influence of alcohol. Researchers suggest that college campuses need more integrated substance use and sexual victimization risk reduction and prevention programming.

May 7th, 2009 LONDON - A 17-year-old girl is so addicted to alcohol that she gulps down one litre of vodka and eight cans of beer every day. And the addiction is so severe that Jamie-Lee Day even punched her mum in the face when she refused to buy her more alcohol.

February 17th, 2009 MOSCOW - Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov signed a decree Tuesday restricting alcohol sales in the predominantly Muslim Russian republic to two hours per day, Russian news agencies reported. 'The fight against alcoholism is as pressing an issues as the fight against illegal armed groups,' said Kadyrov, 32, an ex-Chechen rebel fighter who switched sides and is backed by the Kremlin since Russia quelled separatists fighters in the two wars in the 1990s.

January 14th, 2009 SYDNEY - Even moderate amounts of alcohol slows down recovery from athletic performance, besides doubling muscle performance loss, a new study has found. 'If you're there to perform, you shouldn't be drinking alcohol,' said Matt Barnes, author of the study.

December 30th, 2008 SYDNEY - Making a New Year's resolution to give up alcohol can be bad for your health, according to an Australian rehabilitation expert quoted in a news report Wednesday. It could have serious side effects and people should find out if they are dependent on drink before going cold turkey in the new year, James Pitts, chief executive of Odyssey House, New South Wales, said.