Raveendran / AFP - Getty Images file

Delhi Metro passengers watch a policeman as he patrols with a sniffer dog on a train in this file photo.

Passengers on Delhi's subway face being breath-tested for alcohol consumption in an experiment aimed at preventing late-night brawls, according to local media reports.

Anyone who appears drunk will be tested and possibly refused entry to the metro system, according to the Hindustan Times.

The pilot project seeks to reduce the number of late-night fights on the city’s subway, which carries almost 2 million people a day.

It also follows wider public concern about alcohol and lawlessness. The alleged perpetrators of the December 16, 2012 gang rape on a New Delhi minibus - in which a medical student died, prompting global outrage – were drunk, according to prosecutors.

Although there is no law against being drunk on a train in India, anyone found to have more than 30mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood will be denied travel, according to the Telegraph newspaper in Calcutta.

"Drunkenness is an unnecessary nuisance to other passengers. It's uncomfortable if you have to share space with someone who is reeking of alcohol," Hemendra Singh, spokesman for the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which is responsible for metro security, told AFP.

Singh said officers would only breath-test people who shows signs of being under the influence of alcohol, adding that drunken brawls had become a problem on the metro, especially in the late evening.

The CISF has asked metro authorities for 130 hand-held breath-testing devices, similar to the ones used by traffic police.

Not everyone has welcomed the idea. “Not everyone who drinks is a potential rapist or a molester to be kept under watch. If there was a measure for silliness, this beats all records,” 21-year-old student Rakesh Srivastava told the Calcutta Telegraph. 

Related:

• Female tourists shun India after gang rape, murder
• 5 accused men plead not guilty in India gang rape
• India gang-rape victim's father: Hang the 'monsters' responsible

TRIPOLI, Libya -- Fifty-one people have died since Saturday after drinking homemade alcohol, most of them in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and more than 300 others were suffering from alcohol poisoning, the health ministry said on Monday.

The consumption and sale of alcohol is banned in the North African country, even though it is available on the black market.

In a statement on its website, the ministry said 38 people had died in Tripoli and another 13 had died while on their way to Tunisia for treatment.

"There have been 378 cases of alcohol poisoning so far," the ministry said, adding the illegal concoction was believed to have contained methanol. The deaths were among that figure.

It gave no further details about the alcohol or its source.

With its long, porous borders, Libya has seen a significant increase in drug and alcohol trafficking since the 2011 war that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Permits allowing people to drink alcohol then drive should be issued to make it easier for those in isolated, rural areas to visit the pub, according to a motion passed by a local government in Ireland.

Kerry County Council, which governs an area with a population of more than 120,000, is to formally ask the Irish government to allow some drivers to have the equivalent of up to three pints of beer.

The motion -- passed by five votes to three with seven abstentions –-- said this would “greatly benefit people living alone looking at four walls and restore some bit of social activity in local pubs and may also help prevent depression and suicide.”

The idea has been condemned by leading politicians, including Ireland's Transport Minister Leo Varadkar, so it appears unlikely to be adopted. Kerry does not have the power to change the law itself, the country's justice department stressed.

However, Danny Healy-Rae, the councilor behind the motion, was sticking to his guns Thursday.

Healy-Rae, who runs a pub in the village of Kilgarvan, said because people couldn’t drink alcohol in pubs then drive home, they were instead buying it in supermarkets and drinking at home. This could lead to a downward spiral that ended with some taking their own lives, he argued.

“I know of instances where the local garda [police] have to call out to these people to see if they are all right, to see if they are still there,” he said.

'Wouldn't harm or hurt anyone'
Healy-Rae said that under his plan the permits would be issued only to people in isolated rural areas who use narrow country roads where it is difficult to travel faster than 25 or 30 mph. Police would decide who was eligible to drink the equivalent of two or three pints of Guiness and then drive.

“You have to travel the roads and travel the terrain to understand -- honestly what I’m suggesting … it wouldn’t harm or hurt anyone,” he said.

"It would allow these people to meet with their friends and neighbors and to discuss the topics of the day, the price of cattle and whatever,” he said.

The mayor of Kerry, Terry O’Brien, was among the three councilors who voted against the idea.

Asked why, he said “because it’s absolute lunacy to allow anybody behind the wheel of a car with a drink in them.”

“We’ve come a long way from those days,” he added.

O’Brien said wearily he had been “on the phone for the last two days explaining that.”

Varadkar admitted rural isolation was a problem, but added “the solution to it is not to hand out drink-driving permits. Obviously it's something we very much disagree with," according to the Irish Independent newspaper.

"Most of the accidents that are happening are happening in rural areas and on country roads," he added.

The number of people who died on Irish roads is at a record low, with 161 people killed in 2012, down from 186 in 2011.

Varadkar's comments prompted a fighting response from Healy-Rae, who said Varadkar was refusing to help ease the plight of people who were “greatly suffering from rural isolation.”

“He’ll be judged accordingly by those people in the upcoming election,” the councilor said.

“We’ll have to keep the fight on because I’ve got massive support right around the country and from different countries around the world,” he added.

All images by Faisal Mahmood / Reuters

Workers at Pakistan's lone beer maker, Murree Brewery, line up empty beer bottles at the factory in Rawalpindi, Nov. 10, 2012.

Faisal Mahmood, Reuters — Murree Brewery, established in 1860 by British colonial rulers to supply beer to their troops, is desperately looking for business overseas to hedge against its uncertain domestic market. Prohibition was imposed in Pakistan in 1977. Non-Muslims and foreigners must obtain a government permit to purchase alcohol at designated retailers which are mainly upscale hotels.

See more beer related images on PhotoBlog

EDITOR’S NOTE: Images made available to NBC News on Nov. 15.

An employee prepares barley at the Murree Brewery in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Nov. 10.

A Murree Brewery employee checks barrels at the factory in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Nov. 10.

A Murree Brewery guard closes the factory's main gate in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Nov. 10.

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PRAGUE -- Czech spirit makers on Friday slammed a government decision to freeze all sales and exports of hard alcohol following a health scare, saying it would unfairly damage their reputations and cost millions in sales.

A number of leading brands told Reuters on Friday they were suspending production and said smaller firms could face severe cash-flow problems and even bankruptcy.

The EU country temporarily banned the sale of spirits in shops and pubs last Friday -- a dramatic move in one of the world's heaviest-drinking nations -- after 23 people died and others went blind drinking bootleg alcohol laced with methanol.

The restriction was extended to exports on Thursday evening, under pressure from the European Union. Prime Minister Petr Necas said he had heard the bloc was preparing to impose its own ban and decided to make a preemptive move.

Tainted moonshine kills at least 5 in Czech Republic

The government has vowed to get the drinks back on the shelves of bars and supermarkets as early as next week, as soon as it can impose new safety measures, but has given no firm date.

'A scar' on Czech goods' reputation
Spirit companies said the ban and other planned measures like new tax stamps or certificates of origin would have little impact on bootleg makers who operate outside the law.

The freeze would also damage the brands of reputable companies by bundling them in with bootleggers, they added.

"It is a scar on the reputation of quality Czech goods for exports," said Zdenek Chromy, deputy chairman of the country's top fruit brandy maker Rudolf Jelinek.

"Orders from Germany and Austria have already been canceled. We have a shipment to the U.S., where we don't know how things will end up," Chromy added.

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He said Rudolf Jelinek would stop production on Monday.

A third of the company's $18.19 million in sales last year were from exports. Slovakia and Poland, which take about 50 percent of the $80 million in annual Czech liquor exports, had already imposed their own freeze.

Jan Becher-Karlovarska Becherovka, the country's second largest drinks seller and part of France's Pernod Ricard, said it was extending a halt on its 60-80,000 bottle-a-day production that started on Thursday.

"This is our biggest worry. Our brand is not only alcohol but is a symbol of the Czech Republic," said Vladimir Darebnik, operations director at the company which makes the 205-year-old Becherovka liquor.

Beer still available
The ban covers all alcohol with over 20 percent alcohol content but not the country's well-known beers.

Police have charged 30 people with crimes related to bootleg alcohol, but have not yet found the origin of the deadly spirits.

Investigators suspect methanol was mixed into bootleg drinks made from industrial alcohol and sold under fake labels as vodka, rum or fruit distillates.

Huge rally in Prague against austerity measures, alleged corruption

The illegal drinks market has roughly doubled since 2010 when an excise tax hike was put in place to plug budget holes. Analysts estimate black market sales make up between 15-25 percent of the Czech market.

Fruko-Schulz, which makes absinthe, vodka and one of many brands of the Czech rum often copied by bootleggers, is losing about $150,000 a day in lost revenue, said sales director Ladislav Kremlicka.

"The government should act quickly. We have raised the problem of illegal alcohol before, and are sorry that nothing came out of it, only now when there is such an affair and people are dying," he said.

The company might need to lay off some of its 90 staff after it halted production on Wednesday, he added.

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Filip Singer / EPA

A vendor covers shelves filled with hard alocohol at a shop in Prague, Czech Republic, on Friday. The Czech government banned the sale of hard alcohol in the wake of a series of deaths linked to such drinks. Health Minister Leos Heger made the announcement in a television broadcast. The ban would apply for the foreseeable future to all liquor with an alcohol content of more than 20 per cent. The announcement comes after at least 19 deaths linked to people who drank vodka or rum drinks spiked with methanol, which can cause illness in small quantities and blindness or death in larger doses.

David W Cerny / Reuters

Workers puts tape to close an aisle with hard liquor in a supermarket in Prague on Friday. The Czech Health Ministry on Friday indefinitely banned the sale of drinks containing more than 20 percent alcohol after 19 people died from drinking bootleg spirits containing poisonous methanol, the CTK news agency reported.

David W Cerny / Reuters

A bartender covers bottles of hard liquor with towels in a bar in Prague .

Zdenek Nemec / AP

A policeman leads a man accused in the case of illegal alcohol to the court in Zlin, Czech Republic, 150 miles east of Prague on Friday. His arrest is in connection with the latest police discovery. Around 500 bottles and several barrels of illicit booze were found in a garage in the eastern city of Zlin on Thursday. Eighteen people have recently died after drinking liquor tainted with methanol (methyl alcohol) in the Czech Republic.

AP reports that the Czech Republic has banned the sale of spirits with more than 20 percent alcohol amidst methanol poisonings:

Dozens of people have been hospitalized, some in critical condition after drinking vodka and rum laced with methanol. The problem has appeared largely centered in northeastern Czech Republic.

Methanol is mainly used for industrial purposes, but unscrupulous criminal networks sometimes misuse it to illegally produce cheap liquor because it's cheap and impossible to distinguish from real drinking alcohol.

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