Smoking reform in Massachusetts, and more

Smoking reform in Massachusetts

Smoking has plunged 26 percent among lower-income smokers in Massachusetts, after just two years of an unusual state program targeting tobacco use. Patients enrolled in the state’s MassHealth insurance program receive free counseling and medications to help them stop smoking. Anti-smoking advocates said the results suggest that expanding the Massachusetts program nationwide could save tens of thousands of lives. “These findings are extraordinary,” said Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “They have major public-health implications as Congress is debating health-care reform.”

Bomb-sniffing dog returned to army unit after 14 months

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A bomb-sniffing dog was returned to its Australian army unit in Afghanistan, 14 months after being lost in a fierce gun battle in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province. Sabi, a black Labrador, had disappeared during an ambush of a joint Australian-Afghan patrol in which nine troops were wounded. The dog was recovered in good health by a U.S. soldier at a remote, undisclosed base in Uruzgan. How she survived, and who took care of her during her absence, may never be known. But Sabi was on hand to greet Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week when he visited troops in Afghanistan. “Sabi is back home in one piece and is a genuinely nice pooch as well,” Rudd said.

Lost camera found through Facebook

A Facebook group called “Needle in a Haystack” has found its needle. Australian Danny Cameron organized the Facebook group in an effort to locate the owner of a camera he found on the Greek island of Mykonos. Cameron posted a photo he’d pulled from the camera’s memory card and then spread the word on Facebook. More than 230,000 people joined the online search effort and eventually somebody recognized the people in the photo, who were friends of the camera’s owner, a Frenchwoman. With the camera now returned, Cameron has issued a final post: “Congratulations, everyone. I am amazed and in awe of you all.”