France shootings: Police quiz Merah's 'proud' brot

Ban on cheap booze 'to cut binge drinking'

plans for minimum alcohol pricing in England. The proposal suggests a minimum price of 40 pence per unit as part of a wider alcohol strategy to curb health problems and crime associated with binge drinking.

It is estimated that each year alcohol causes over 1 million NHS hospitalisations and 1 million violent crimes in England, primarily through binge drinking. Earlier this week NHS figures revealed that deaths from liver disease had risen by 25% in less than a decade, mainly driven by alcohol.

The price of most drinks would be unaffected by a 40p threshold, although many super-strength and own-brand products could see large price rises: at present some super-strength lagers and ciders contain 4.5 units per can but sell for less than a pound, equating to less than 20p per unit.

Some bottles of ciders could also double in price, as some supermarkets sell them for less than 20p per unit – an equivalent of less than 50p per pint. This is well below the £3-£4 pounds charged in pubs.

The strategy has also called for consultation on multi-buy deals offering cheap alcohol in bulk, as well as a "zero tolerance" approach to dealing with drunken behaviour in A&E departments and new legislation over the licensing of pubs and clubs. The strategy is still at a proposal stage but the government hopes to implement it by 2015.

 
What is minimum pricing and why is it being proposed?

Minimum pricing per unit of alcohol is when no alcohol is allowed to be sold below a set price per unit. At present, supermarkets and other retailers frequently offer alcohol at discounted prices, with some reportedly offering alcohol at loss-making prices to attract customers. Bringing in a 40p per unit minimum would mostly affect cut-price brands, super-strength drinks and those offered at heavy discounts, but would be unlikely to affect many name brands or drinks in pubs.

What would 40p per unit cost me?

Under the proposals the minimum prices would be:

    * 88p per 440ml can of 5% lager, beer or cider
    * £10.56 for a case of 12 cans (440ml can at 5%)
    * £4 for a two-litre bottle of 5% cider (often sold for around £1.60)
    * £3.60 for a 750ml of 12% wine
    * £11.20 for a 700ml bottle of 40% spirits
    * £1.18 for a pint of 5% beer, lager or cider (well below the price found in most pubs)

The government argues that a minimum price for selling alcohol will reduce heavy drinking, which it says accounts for half of all alcohol consumed in this country and is associated with crime and violence. The prime minister, David Cameron, is reported to have said that a 40p minimum price per unit could mean 50,000 fewer crimes each year and 900 fewer alcohol-related deaths annually by the end of the decade.

 
What is a unit?

Due to the fact that drinks come in many strengths and sizes, their alcoholic content is expressed in units, which tells you how much pure alcohol a serving contains. One unit is defined as 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol. A drink of alcohol is not the same as a unit: for example, a single pint of premium lager, bitter or cider (5% alcohol by volume) contains about three units.

The recommended maximum limit is two-to-three units a day for a woman and three-to-four units a day for a man. The NHS Choices alcohol unit calculator can help you to find out how many units there are in different types and amounts of alcoholic drinks.

 
What price is being proposed?

The government has said that it is still consulting on what the

A Personal Quest to Clarify Bin Laden’s Last Days Yields Vexing Accounts
By DECLAN WALSH
Published: March 7, 2012

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — In his quest for the truth about his country’s most notorious guest, Shaukat Qadir started where it all ended: the room where Osama bin Laden was killed.
Enlarge This Image

The house in Abbotabad, Pakistan, last November, several months after Osama bin Laden was killed there by commandos from the United States.
Related

  
      Pakistan Razing House Where Bin Laden Lived (February 26, 2012)
  
      Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says (May 2, 2011)


Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.

Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
Enlarge This Image

An image taken in November 2011 inside the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed.
Readers’ Comments

    Readers shared their thoughts on this article.

Last August, Mr. Qadir, a retired Pakistani Army brigadier, retraced the steps of the American commandos who stormed through the corridors of Bin Laden’s hide-out on May 2.

Climbing the stairs to the second floor, Mr. Qadir passed a body outline that marked the spot where Bin Laden’s 22-year-old son, Khalid, was shot dead. Then he turned to a small room with a low ceiling, an empty wardrobe and a tight cluster of bullet holes in one wall, he said. Above that, on the ceiling, was a fading splash of blood that, his Pakistani intelligence escort told him, belonged to Bin Laden.

“As a former soldier, I was struck by how badly the house was defended,” Mr. Qadir said in an interview. “No proper

Pakistani Parliament Demands End to U.S. Drone Strikes
By DECLAN WALSH
Published: March 20, 2012

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A major parliamentary review of relations with the United States opened on Tuesday with calls for an end to drone strikes and for an unconditional apology for an American attack that killed Pakistani soldiers last November.
The demands, read to Parliament by the chairman of a cross-party national security committee, set a tough tone for a long-awaited debate that the United States hopes will bring a resumption of full diplomatic relations and the reopening of NATO supply lines through Pakistan.

“The U.S. must review its footprints in Pakistan,” said the five-page document, which read like a laundry list of Pakistani requests to the Obama administration. “No overt or covert operations inside Pakistan shall be tolerated.”

American hopes that the parliamentary review would conclude this week received a setback when the speaker adjourned the debate until Monday, ostensibly to allow the opposition to consider its position. There was another possible reason: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is locked in a bruising confrontation with the senior judiciary that is due to resume in the Supreme Court on Wednesday and that could, under one possible outcome, lead to his resignation by the weekend.

France shootings: Police quiz Merah's 'proud' brother
A police car possibly carrying Abdelkader Merah arrives at anti-terrorist police headquarters in Paris, 24 March Abdelkader Merah was taken to anti-terrorist police headquarters in Paris
Continue reading the main story
Toulouse Shootings

    * Could Merah have been stopped?
    * Siege as it happened
    * Did France ignore threat?
    * Political fallout

Anti-terrorist police in Paris are questioning a brother of Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah to determine if he played any part in deadly attacks.

Abdelkader Merah was flown to Paris from Toulouse along with his partner and taken to the headquarters of the domestic intelligence agency (DCRI).

Mohamed Merah admitted killing seven people in execution-style gun attacks before dying in a police siege.

Abdelkader reportedly told police after the attacks he was "proud" of him.

His mother was released without charge on Friday evening.

Investigators are trying to establish if Merah, a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian descent, acted alone.

Crucial questions include how Merah, a petty criminal, was able to amass an arsenal of weapons and rent a car without any clear source of income.

He reportedly told police during the siege he had