1 E-cigarette ban: India’s government on Wednesday decided to ban e-cigarettes, expressing concern at the alarming rate at which vaping is becoming popular among the country’s youth and causing breathing illnesses. The government is expected to issue an ordinance soon prohibiting the manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertising related to e-cigarettes. The first offense will be punishable by up to one year in prison or a fine of up to $1,390, or both. For a subsequent offense, the punishment will be imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to $6,945. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that e-cigarettes were promoted as a way to get people out of their smoking habits but reports have shown that many are becoming addicted to them.
2 Liberia fire: A fire at a Quranic school outside Liberia’s capital has killed at least 27 people and many are thought to be children, police said Wednesday. The fire around midnight gutted a dormitory and school building where students slept about 7 miles east of Monrovia, police spokesman Moses Carter said. Only the imam and two students escaped, he said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
3 Speedboat deaths: Three sportsmen trying to set a new speedboat record were killed when their vessel crashed into a breakwater offshore the lagoon city of Venice, firefighters said Wednesday. The sportsmen were trying to set a speed record from Monte Carlo, a Mediterranean port in Monaco, to Venice. Authorities said that an Italian and two Britons died in the crash. None were publicly named pending notification of next-of-kin. Authorities said possible factors include speed and the crew’s exhaustion; they had apparently traveled non-stop for about 20 hours.
4 Rescued hiker: A...
