One of Dr Hibbeln's other studies, for example, showed that omega-3 supplements given to violent alcoholics reduced their anger levels by a third within three months.

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The BBC's Heba Saleh said the move appeared to be an effort to assuage public anger over a perceived increase in violent crime in the country.

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Increasing poverty, and anger that sacred Quechua sites were being exploited, led to a violent four-day occupation of one Canadian-owned gold mine in 1996.

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And where current crime reporting tends to dwell on the emotional impact, what is striking sitting on the edges of these meetings between the victims of serious violent crime and the commissioner, is that the overriding mood is one of anger.

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