Newsline 25 August 2009: The US Attorney general has named a special prosecutor to investigate cases of prisoner abuse by the CIA; counting has begun in Kenya's first census in a decade amid controversy over a question about tribal affiliation, and why smoking a water-pipe could be up to 450 times more damaging than smoking a cigarette.

CIA torture cases to be investigated
A special US prosecutor has been appointed to investigate allegations that CIA agents abused terror suspects. The appointment came as a report was release detailing the allegations against the Central Intelligence Agency and is likely to cause political difficulties for the Obama adminstration.

Controversy over Kenya census
Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki has declared today a public holiday and urged people to stay home and be counted in the counntry's first census in 10 years. But the questionnaire includes a query about which tribe a person belongs to - information critics say will be used for political purposes. Some 1,500 people were killed in ethnic violence following the disputed elections in late 2007. Listen to interview with East Africa correspondent Koert Lindijer.

Stay away from Shisha
Shisha - or water-pipes - are becoming steadily more popular in Europe and are often seen as a gentler, less harmful alternative to cigarettes, but startling new research shows that shisha smoking can be up to more than 450 times more harmful than having a cigarette. Listen to interview with researcher Hilary Wareing.

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