The green, anise-flavoured spirit is associated with many of the country’s most famous and esteemed artists and writers – like Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and Paul Verlaine – but it was banned in France in 1915 for its alleged harmful effect.

 Absinthe facts

• First distilled in Val-de-Travers in Switzerland at end of 18th Century
• Name comes from its special ingredient Artemisia absinthium, commonly known as grande wormwood, which contains thujone
• Medicinal use of wormwood dates back to ancient Egypt
• At height of popularity, there were more than 1,000 distilleries of absinthe in France
• Was given to French soldiers in Algeria in 1840s as was believed to prevent malaria
• In the 19th Century the city with the biggest consumption, after Paris, was New Orleans in the US
• The French drink pastis started to be made after the absinthe ban came in. It has a similar anise flavour
• The US banned absinthe in 1912 – eight years before prohibition came in; it lifted the ban in 2007

Absinthe is distilled with the leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, known as grande wormwood, which contains the drink’s “special ingredient”, thujone, which reputedly has mind-altering effects.

Later, the rule was relaxed, allowing the drink to be sold as long as it was not called absinthe, and instead labelled “a spirit made from extracts of the absinthe plant”.

Now the ban is expected to be lifted entirely any day now, after the French Senate voted in favour of the move in mid-April.

While drinkers like Clement Arnoux are relieved that the stigma of illegality has gone, not everyone sees the change of law as cause for celebration.

Absinthe is usually around 60 or 70% alcohol, though it is not designed to be drunk neat, but mixed instead with water, much like pastis.

For some, the drink’s high proof is part of its appeal. Young people are “always looking for something more”, says Laurent Legay, who works with people with drink problems in the Pas de Calais region.

“I’ve had young people in secondary school who have told me that they are on the hunt for absinthe because it’s a strong alcohol,” he adds.

‘Redundant’ law

Absinthe was made legal in the rest of the European Union in 1988, provided the amount of thujone falls within the agreed limit of 10mg/kg, or 35mg/kg for absinthe bitters.

 In France, a decree was passed allowing absinthe to be sold but only if it was not actually called absinthe.

“It was a bizarre situation,” says George Rowley, Managing Director of La Fee Absinthe, who – though British – was one of the key people behind the resumption of absinthe production in France.

“You could distil absinthe in France, bottle it, label it for the rest of the world as absinthe, but you couldn’t do that for France.

“It was ridiculous; it was a redundant law that needed to be swept away,” he said.

Absinthe’s heyday was in the mid-to-late 1800s.

“Absinthe was the queen of the Parisian boulevards,” says Marie-Claude Delahaye, director and founder of the Museum of Absinthe in Auvers-sur-Oise.

Artists would hang out in the Parisian cafes to escape the chill of their studios, and a whole social scene developed around the drink, which was nicknamed la fee verte, meaning the green fairy.

Absinthe conveniently filled a gap left by the wine industry, which had been decimated in previous years by the vine disease phylloxera – but it also had its own attractions.

“It was cheap, it was an industrial alcohol, and it was very easy to buy,” says Jad Adams, author of Hideous Absinthe: History of the Devil in a Bottle.

“It was the drink of the poor, and if you were a poor artist, like Vincent Van Gogh, you were going to take the cheapest kind of alcohol you could.”

By the late 19th Century, France – like other countries in the Europe – was in the grip of a serious alcoholism problem, and this prompted a backlash, the repercussions of which have lasted to this day.

“For the French, it’s clear,” says Marie-Claude Delahaye.

“When you ask anyone, ‘what is absinthe?’ they reply ‘it makes you mad’.

“The anti-alcohol lobbies really rammed home the message that absinthe makes you crazy and a criminal,” she says.

The men assigned to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden were part of the US Navy’s legendary special forces unit, the Seals. Who are they?It was years in the planning but took just 40 minutes to execute.

More than a dozen members of the US military were dropped near the high-walled, three-storey compound on the outskirts of Abbottabad in north-west Pakistan.

After a brief firefight, five people were killed, including Osama Bin Laden, who reportedly received a shot above his left eye.

All the US forces escaped unharmed, despite technical problems with one helicopter that they had to leave behind.

It says everything about their presence of mind that despite the dangers, they collected hard drives, DVDs and documents from the building before they left.

From the US point of view, the mission, codenamed Geronimo, could hardly have gone any better, a reflection on the preparation and skills of the men who carried it out.

Although there has been no official confirmation which team was involved, it is widely thought that it was the Seal Team Six (ST6), officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but more commonly known as DevGru.

At first, he is seen wrapped up in a blanket, already crying, as adults in fur coats carry him towards an ice hole carved in a frozen lake or river.

The ceremony is reported to have taken place not far from a Siberian city of Irkutsk on 19 January, the Russian Orthodox festival of Epiphany, commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ.

Religion was frowned upon during Soviet times, but since the fall of Communism it has made a big comeback.

There is now no shortage of people of all ages, eager to fast during Lent, mark the resurrection at Easter with traditional bread, get married in church and christened in holy water.

And since Jesus Christ was baptised in January – according to the Russian Orthodox church – many regard stripping down and diving into icy water as a good way to erase their sins.

Some take their children with them, dipping newborns and older ones alike.

Not everyone, though, does it for religious reasons.”My son was eight when I first took him to an ice hole in a river, four years ago,” says Andrei Roletski, a musician living in Saint Petersburg.

Now they swim every winter weekend, carving a hole in the ice with axes.

But he never forced his son to dive into icy water – Igor actually asked his dad if he could come along.

“I myself started ice swimming five years ago, and at the same time I began getting Igor used to cold water by splashing it on his feet in the bath every night. He was fine with it,” says Mr Roletski.

“Then, one day, he asked me to pour cold water over him so that he was completely wet, and a few months later, when I said I was going for a dive in January, he said he wanted to come too.”

Mr Roletski says Igor enjoyed the experience and “hasn’t even sneezed once for the past two years as his body has become much more resistant to cold viruses and infections”.

But Irina Yefremova, a paediatrician from a Moscow Sports Medicine Centre, warns that plunging a child into an ice hole even for a few seconds could lead to all sorts of problems – from the common cold to loss of consciousness.

“Such a great temperature change is a huge shock for the body – one minute the child is dressed, the next he or she is in icy water. It is very stressful for the system, especially for the heart.”

Natalya, aged 22, was one of those who plunged into an ice hole cut in shape of a cross on the frozen Moscow River this year.

It was a last-minute decision, spurred on by a friend who showed her the Epiphany swimming page on social networking site vkontakte.ru.

“I’d never even taken a cold shower before that and I was scared a bit, but everyone was saying that the water is sacred and it will take all your sins away, so I went along,” she says.

She jumped into the water feet first, going under with her head, and loved the experience – though with an air temperature of -26C she admits it was painful.

“It was like getting your body pricked by a thousand needles at once – and my head was really, really cold,” she says.

And christening does not have to be done outside in the cold – or done on Epiphany at all, explains Father Yakov Krotov, an Orthodox priest from Moscow.

“Christening, while being beneficial for the soul, does not have to be harmful for the body,” he says.

“And although in the ancient times Christening was done in rivers, it does not mean that nowadays Baptising someone in a church by pouring warm water over the head is somehow less beneficial,” he adds.

Besides, he says, the practice of plunging into ice holes on Epiphany, is not really a centuries-old ritual. Before the October Revolution of 1917, only a few people would do it – nothing like the numbers that have taken it up since the 1990s.

“This is not going back to our traditions – no, this is just an attempt [by the masses] to create some kind of great past,” he says.

And regarding the case of a young boy being forcefully christened in an ice hole somewhere in Siberia, Mr Krotov says that he does not approve of those parents – and priests – who disregard the opinion of the child who is old enough to have his or her own stance on Christening.

“It does not matter if it happens in an ice hole or in a Church, a priest cannot ever be abusive,” he says. “This is not right.”

http://cityglobetrotter.com/gentleman/region/asia/moscow/

Two US airmen have been rescued after ejecting from their F-15E Eagle warplane just before it crashed during allied operations in eastern Libya.The plane appeared to suffer mechanical failure near the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the US military said. It came down after a third night of US-led coalition attacks on Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, aimed at enforcing a UN resolution to protect civilians.

Debate is continuing in the coalition over who should take command.

The US military would not give the exact location the F-15E Eagle came down, but said both crewmen suffered only minor injuries after ejecting. The aircraft was based in England and was operating out of Aviano in Italy. It was on a mission against a Gaddafi missile site, the Pentagon said.

One Libyan who came across the crashed jet told Britain’s Daily Telegraph that one pilot held his hands in the air and said “OK, OK”, but was quickly thanked by locals for his participation in the air strikes.

Younis Amruni told the Telegraph: “I hugged him and said ‘don’t be scared, we are your friends’.”

The crash followed renewed allied air strikes overnight.

Libyan state television reported that Tripoli was “under crusader enemy aerial bombardment” and that several sites had been attacked. The Libyan authorities said a naval base at Bussetta, about 10km (six miles) east of Tripoli, and a fishing village had also been hit.

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Monday’s air and missile strikes had caused “numerous” civilian casualties, especially at the “civilian airport” in Sirte.

Fighting between Col Gaddafi’s forces and the rebels continued on Friday, despite the declaration of a ceasefire by the government:

A doctor in Misrata – the last rebel-held city in western Libya – told the BBC that residents had suffered another night of shelling by government forces, with 22 deaths and 100 injuries

In Zintan, near the Tunisian border, one resident told Reuters at least 10 people had been killed in a Gaddafi bombardment

In Yafran, 130km south-west of Tripoli, at least nine people were killed in clashes, residents said

Gaddafi forces continue to hold rebels on the eastern frontline near Ajdabiya

Many of the reports of overnight strikes and fighting cannot be independently confirmed.The coalition’s joint task force commander US Admiral Samuel Locklear confirmed on Tuesday there had been “tactical air strikes in coastal areas throughout Libya” without specifying locations. He repeated that there had been no communication with the opposition and said he was “confident the Gaddafi air force will not have a negative impact on the coalition”.

He added: “Despite our success, Gaddafi and his forces are not yet complying to the UN resolution due to the continued aggressive actions his forces have taken against the civilian population of Libya.”

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that coalition forces were “going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties”.

Mr Gates, after talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov, added: “I also told him that I thought the significant military fighting that has been going on should recede in the next few days.”

Russia, which abstained in last week’s UN Security Council vote on the resolution authorising force in Libya, has since criticised the air strikes.China has also urged all parties to “immediately cease fire and resolve issues through peaceful means”.

On Monday US President Barack Obama said the US would soon cede control of operations in Libya – “in a matter of days and not in a matter of weeks”.

Mr Gates has said the mission could come under French-British or Nato control. But divisions have emerged within Nato over taking command, with France and Turkey in particular offering objections.

France has indicated Arab countries would not want Nato to lead and that the organisation should support US, French and British political control.

Turkey wants limits on Nato involvement and says the air strikes have already gone beyond the UN resolution.

Italy said it could withdraw its bases without a co-ordinated Nato structure and Norway said its jets would not take part in the action as long as it was unclear who was in overall command.

Nato officials say they do not expect a decision for several days. Nato did agree on Tuesday to begin enforcing a UN arms embargo on Libya, using aircraft and ships in the Mediterranean to “conduct operations to monitor, report and, if needed, interdict vessels suspected of carrying illegal arms or mercenaries”.

Also on Tuesday, Algeria called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities and foreign intervention”, saying the latter was “disproportionate” in relation to the UN resolution.

Meanwhile rebel leaders based in eastern Libya have had talks with United Nations officials on the humanitarian situation there.

The BBC’s Kevin Connolly in Tobruk, where the talks were held, says that although food is being imported in the region from Egypt, it is not clear how viable the local economy will be if it remains cut off from the rest of Libya.

United Nations aid agencies say they believe thousands of Libyan citizens are displaced within the country, amid reports of severe shortages of food and medicines, and reprisals by government forces.

The agencies are hoping to get a convoy of aid into Libya on Wednesday.

http://cityglobetrotter.com/

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site is now two levels below Ukraine’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned in Tokyo the battle to stabilise the plant was a race against time.

The crisis was prompted by last week’s huge quake and tsunami, which has left at least 16,000 people dead or missing.

The Japanese nuclear agency’s decision to raise the alert level to five grades Fukushima’s as an “accident with wider consequences”.

It also places the situation there on a par with 1979′s Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the US.

Meanwhile, further heavy snowfall overnight all but ended hopes of rescuing anyone else from the rubble after the 9.0-magnitude quake and tsunami.

Millions of survivors have been left without water, electricity, fuel or enough food; hundreds of thousands more are homeless.

According to the latest figures, 6,405 people are dead and about 10,200 are missing.

On Friday, people across Japan observed a minute’s silence at 1446 (0546 GMT), exactly one week after the disaster.

As the country paused to remember, relief workers toiling in the ruins bowed their heads, while elderly survivors in evacuation centres wept.

Japan’s upgrading of the Fukushima incident from severity four to five stems from concerns about the reactors in buildings 1, 2 and 3, rather than the cooling ponds storing spent fuel.

Level five is defined as an “accident with wider consequences”. This was the level given to the 1957 reactor fire at Windscale in the UK and the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant in the US in 1979.