Australia bans book on assisted suicide

The Peaceful Pill Handbook, by Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart, has been banned throughout Australia by the nation's Classification Review Board because it provides instructions on the illegal manufacture of barbituates. Board convenor Maureen Shelley said the book was not banned on moral grounds but because it encouraged readers to break the law, although she noted the drug-making instructions were "flawed and incomplete."

"The ban means the book cannot be sold, displayed or imported into the country and that all copies must be removed from bookstore shelves immediately," reports Agence France Presse.