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Illegal online pharmacies are using social media to attract young customers and sell them illicit drugs and medicines, a UN agency warned Tuesday.

"Illegal Internet pharmacies have started to use social media to get customers for their websites," Hamid Ghodse, president of the International Narcotics Control Board, said in the agency's annual report published Tuesday.

This "can put large, and especially young, audiences at risk of dangerous products, given that the World Health Organisation has found that over half of the medicines from illegal Internet pharmacies are counterfeit," he said.

Illegal online pharmacies often pretend to be legal but in fact smuggle illicit products to their customers, the INCB found, urging governments to close them down.

More broadly, the agency called for greater efforts to tackle poverty, violence, organised crime and corruption as these created a climate for drug abuse and trafficking, with young people among the biggest victims.

"Youth of these communities must have similar chances to those in the wider society and have a right to be protected from drug abuse and drug dependence," said Ghodse.

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Social media used to sell illegal drugs to youth, INCB warns

MOSCOW (Reuters) - It was like the bad old days of Soviet TV for Vladimir Pozner, a Russian broadcaster who began his career under Communism, when he found editors had cut parts of a pre-election talk show where he mentioned critics of the Kremlin.

But this is 2012. With censorship grown patchy and half the country online, the uncut program had been uploaded to the web - thanks to viewers in Russia's far east who had caught the show live, before the edited version was broadcast in Moscow later.

"I think it's just a Soviet reflex: 'How can you criticize power?'," said Pozner, who has watched Russian leaders, from Brezhnev to Gorbachev, Yeltsin to Putin, blow hot and cold on political censorship of the media for the past 30 years.

"It's called a hangover in English. Eventually, it passes."

That sentiment echoes many who believe the genie of media freedom is, slowly, pushing its way out of the bottle in Russia, notably since street protests began against the expected return of Vladimir Putin to the presidency at an election on Sunday.

A public who tasted post-Soviet liberties in the anarchic 1990s, combined with new technology, will, many believe, not let the Kremlin force it back in again - despite years of tightening state control under former KGB man Putin, and despite a backlash against small, liberal media since protests began in December.

Ranked 142nd out of 179 countries worldwide on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Russia has seen journalists intimidated, even murdered, for exposing endemic crime and corruption, while privately owned and critical media have been much diminished since Putin first took over the Kremlin in 2000.

Having retained power during his four-year stint as prime minister to his protege, the outgoing president Dmitry Medvedev, Putin has seen control of the media as a vital tool through which he has maintained his widespread popularity.

Yet in the Internet age even the state-controlled networks on which most Russian voters rely have had to offer at least some account of grassroots protests since liberal anger erupted over the handling of the parliamentary election in December.

Some cautious critics see that as little more than a sop to public opinion, in their view as much a stage-managed piece of political machination as the electoral process itself. Yet others believe the shifts of the past few months are real.

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Russian media genie pushing at the bottle

MAHDASHT, IranIran opened a key space facility to visiting journalists for the first time Wednesday in an apparent effort to show its willingness to allow glimpses at sensitive technology even as Tehran and U.N. inspectors trade accusations about access to nuclear sites and experts.

The press tour of the Alborz Space Center, about 40 miles (70 kilometers) west of Tehran, also sought to showcase Iran's advances in aerospace sciences less than a month after it announced another satellite was launched into orbit.

Iran's ambitious space program has raised concerns in the West because of possible military applications. The same rocket technology used to send satellites into orbit -- including the Feb. 3 launch of the domestically made Navid, or Gospel -- can also be retooled to create intercontinental warheads.

Iran says Navid was designed to collect data on weather conditions and monitor natural disasters.

The space center visit -- by nearly 50 journalists for international media in two separate groups -- comes as Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency are locked in disputes over access to officials and key sites in the Islamic Republic's atomic program.

The West and allies fear Iran's uranium enrichment labs could eventually produce weapons-grade material. Iran says it only seek nuclear power for energy and medical research.

Allowing journalists into the space facility could be an attempt to discredit U.N. claims that Iran is keeping a tight lid on its technological capabilities. Officials said the space center has no military role, and is used to control and collect data from various satellites, including Navid.

The facility is on a sprawling tract at the base of hills. Inside are huge satellite dishes, buildings housing the control rooms monitoring satellites, including display panels nearly three feet (a meter) across.

"We are the control station for Navid satellite, which has been designed to take pictures from the earth's orbit," director of project, Mojtaba Saradeghi, told the visiting journalists, who were shown a model of the Navid satellite.

Saradeghi said sanctions prevented Iran from buying some of the key equipment needed to build Navid, but Iranian space experts were able to design and produce the equipment.

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Iran opens space program site for media tour

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Mood Media Corporation (TSX:MM.TO - News)(LSE AIM:MM), the worlds leading in-store media solutions provider, will bring its suite of integrated visual, music and mobile media products and solutions to GlobalShop 2012 from February 29 to March 2 in Las Vegas. The company will also unveil its revolutionary Internet-delivered audio solution for retailers that can change in-store Moods MBOX 4.

GlobalShop 2012 provides the ideal venue for Mood Media to demonstrate how we create memorable consumer experiences that drive brand loyalty, create brand differentiation and maximize revenue for retailers, said Mark Elfenbein, North American President of Mood Media. We are particularly thrilled this year to show off our latest offering, MBOX 4, which will be a true game-changer in the in-store media industry.

Servicing more than 470,000 commercial locations in 40 countries, Mood Media reaches approximately 100 million consumers each day through customized media solutions linked to business insights, consumer behavior and brand personality. On display at GlobalShop 2012 (Booth 2613), the company will showcase unique in-store media solutions for international and national brands such as Levis, The TJX Companies, Inc., PUMA, Guess and Volkswagen among others.

For example, as part of a complete re-design of PUMAs Boulevard de Sbastopol store in Paris, Mood Media recently created an immersive shopping experience by incorporating floor-to-ceiling video screens featuring creative, customized content throughout the store in coordination with Mood Media's powerful content management software, TeamCo, which manages changing content throughout the day and delivers high-definition (HD) video to every screen. Content can now also be updated remotely to reflect changing collections and promotions.

In-store media is a powerful marketing tool utilized by top brands across the globe, Elfenbein said. We help our customers unlock the value of experience economy and boost sales and brand loyalty by transforming purchasing into purchasing a memorable experience.

Mood Media to Unveil MBOX 4 at GlobalShop 2012

MBOX 4 is Mood Medias latest groundbreaking PCI compliant media player, which will further empower retailers to engage customers and manage in-store media operations through a series of product enhancements and new features such as:

Media Briefing Opportunities at GlobalShop 2012

Note: For Media attending GlobalShop 2012 who would like to schedule a meeting with Mood Medias North American President, Mark Elfenbein to learn more about the company and Marks unique perspective on broader in-store media trends, please see media contact information below.

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Mood Media to Showcase Its Suite of Revolutionary Visual, Music, Mobile and Social In-Store Media Solutions at ...

VIENNA (Reuters) - Illegal "Internet pharmacies" are using social media to market drugs to young people, an international report said on Tuesday.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which monitors the implementation of U.N. drug control conventions, said illicit drugs as well as prescription medicines were being ordered online from such unscrupulous operations.

"Disturbingly, illegal Internet pharmacies have started to use social media to publicize their websites, which can put large audiences at risk of dangerous products," INCB President Hamid Ghodse said in a statement accompanying its 2011 report.

He told a news conference in London that the rogue pharmacists used social media such as YouTube or Facebook to draw people to chatrooms and engage them "in a variety of ways which, in the first instance, you do not see as that they are marketing the drug....then of course they are bombarding them with the sort of drugs."

The Vienna-based body called on governments to shut down illegal Internet drug activity and to seize substances smuggled via the postal system, adding that many of the medicines sold in this way were counterfeit.

"Key aspects of illegal Internet pharmacies' activities include smuggling their products to consumers, finding hosting space for their websites and convincing consumers that they are, in fact, legitimate," it added.

The INCB said it had information on more than 12,000 seizures of "internationally controlled substances" sent via the postal system in 2010, including legal substances. It said over 5,500 of those substances were drugs of illicit origin but did not name them.

"India was identified as the leading country of origin for these substances, accounting for 58 percent of the substances seized, while the United States, China and Poland were also identified as significant countries of origin."

The INCB said it has published guidelines for governments on preventing illegal drugs sale via the Internet but that further progress was needed.

"Barriers to implementation that need to be addressed are inadequate legislative or regulatory frameworks, insufficient technology and lack of staff," it said. "International cooperation in counteracting this issue is essential."

In its annual report, the INCB also said that drug abuse and drug trafficking had become virtually endemic in communities the world over, "part of a vicious cycle involving a wide array of social problems such as violence, organized crime, corruption, unemployment, poor health and poor education".

(Reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Adrian Croft in London; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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Social media used to sell drugs to youth - report