UNITED NATION

-- Iraq has agreed to allow a United Nations (UN) team of experts into the country to remove toxic substances left behind in Baghdad by disarmament inspectors. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan's special envoy to Iraq, Prakash Shah, said Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, notified him of approval for the visit. The director of the UN monitoring and surveillance centre in Baghdad, Jaako Ylitalo of Finland, would be the team's administrator. Meanwhile, Iraq urged the UN to launch a "frank dialogue" with Baghdad in order to solve the deadlock over sanctions and weapons monitoring.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), passive smoking is damaging the health of almost half the world's children. An estimated 700 million children are exposed to the affects of tobacco by the 1.2 billion adults who smoke, according to the WHO. Infants of mothers who smoked were five times more likely to die than babies of non-smokers. There is also evidence that passive smoking in children affected the development of the brain and accelerated the onset of heart disease.