News in Brief -(19-09-2019)

Venezuela frees key opposition figure from jail

CARACAS, Sept 18: Venezuela has released key opposition figure Edgar Zambrano from jail, where he had been held since a failed uprising in May, Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced on Tuesday. Zambrano - the vice president of the National Assembly - had been held in a military prison since his dramatic arrest for supporting a failed April 30 uprising organized by opposition leader Juan Guaido. The government petitioned the Supreme Court to release Zambrano "following partial agreements reached by the Venezuelan government and sectors of the national opposition," Saab said in a statement. — AFP

India bans e-cigarettes as

vaping backlash rises

NEW DELHI, Sept 18: India announced on Wednesday a ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes, as a backlash gathers pace worldwide due to health concerns about a product promoted as less harmful than smoking tobacco. The Indian announcement, also outlawing production, import and distribution, came a day after New York became the second US state to ban flavoured e-cigarettes following a string of vaping-linked deaths. "The decision was made keeping in mind the impact that e-cigarettes have on the youth of today," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters in New Delhi. — AFP

Sri Lankan doctors strike over salary 'injustice'

COLOMBO, Sept 18: Doctors at state-run hospitals across Sri Lanka began a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, demanding that the government resolve what they say is a salary "injustice." Two years ago, the government gave an unusually high salary increase to legal officers in the government sector, creating what Dr. Haritha Aluthge, secretary of the Government Medical Officers Association, called a severe injustice. —AP