Drink tea instead of wine: UK medical chief

London

"GOOD wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used," the villain Iago says in Shakespeare's Othello. Britain's government health chiefs appear not to agree. In tough new guidelines issued last week, the first to be issued in 20 years, public health officials warned that Britons should curtail alcohol consumption, saying that any drinking carried potential health hazards, including the increased risk of illnesses such as cancer.

Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England, also poured scorn on the notion that a glass of red wine a day was good for the heart, calling it an "old wives' tale".