Booze Flows in Baghdad

Scottish company will sell 12-ounce cans for $5

(NEWSER) - You'll soon be able to crack open and swig down a can of… Scotch whisky? Liquor company Scottish Spirits Imports plans to introduce aluminum cans filled with Scotch to the US by February 1. Each can will contain 12 ounces of the 80-proof liquor, or about eight shots' worth, reports the Huffington Post . The retail price: $5 a can. More»

VP urges Maliki to strengthen coalition with Kurds, Sunnis

(NEWSER) - Joe Biden called Iraqi officials today, urging them to calm rising sectarian tensions after a bombing killed at least 63 people there earlier this week, the AP reports. Biden and other US officials have been phoning Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as well as Sunni and Kurdish leaders all week, asking them to "stop hurling accusations at each other through the media and actually sit together and work through your competing concerns,” a White House official tells the New York Times . More»

'A Nation of Drunkards' is the best episode: reviewers

(NEWSER) - Ken Burns' latest mega-documentary, Prohibition, starts a three-night run tomorrow on PBS. Reviewers are praising the 5 1/2-hour survey of America's war on booze, but warn that it's a bit slow and may reveal its best stuff in the first episode:

• "It's a great subject with many present-day echoes, as the war on drugs ever more loudly raises questions of legislated morality," writes Robert Lloyd in the Los Angeles Times . "The drama might flag or grow diffuse, but there is still a lot here to learn."

Sure, the food is gross, but the wine might make up for it

(NEWSER) - At some hospitals, you just might be able to enjoy a glass of wine alongside your Jell-O and boiled carrots. Indiana’s Parkview Ortho Hospital is the latest to allow patients or family members to bring alcohol in—with doctor’s approval, of course—and it’s not the only one. According to the Association for Healthcare Foodservice, a Tennessee medical center and “many other healthcare facilities” stock beer, wine, and sometimes liquor, NPR reports. More»

No more midnight vodka runs after Sept. 1

(NEWSER) - It’s only 10pm, and you’re all out of vodka: No problem! Except in Moscow. Starting Sept. 1, stores in the Russian capital will not be allowed to sell any beverages with more than 15% alcohol between 10pm and 10am, the Telegraph reports. (You can still, however, buy beer and wine.) The ban comes on the heels of President Dmitry Medvedev’s comments this summer that Russians can’t be trusted with alcohol—alcohol abuse kills 500,000 each year. More»