The Indonesian government should discourage tobacco consumption in the country through its regulations on the cigarette trade, a WHO official said, “Indonesia is a permissive country that does not restrain the promotion of tobacco products. So, the government needs to raise its tax on cigarettes to reduce tobacco consumption in the country,” Dr Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO`s Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), said here Wednesday.According to Bettcher, tobacco is a killer of people as in the 21st century it may take the lives of a trillion people.

American Blue Tip cigarettes and other electronic cigarettes have claimed to save consumers money on smoking cigarettes. But, recently after reviewing several studies regarding the loss of productivity and money due to smoking in the U.S., they have realized that electronic cigarettes could be the answer to a $92 Billion dollar loss annually.

A dispute between Armenia and Ukraine over taxes on Ukrainian tobacco products is already settled, Igor Kaletnik, head of Ukraine’s state customs agency, said in Yerevan on Wednesday after the 52nd meeting of CIS member countries’ customs services.Earlier, Ukraine accused Armenia of creation of adverse regime for Ukrainian tobacco and alcohol products in a clear breach of World Trade Organization’s general rules.

At a bar stand in Bucharest’s Obor area, men in black jackets sit on plastic stools drinking homemade whisky. They light up cigarettes while asking passers-by in a low voice: “Do you wanna a pack of cheap tobacco?” Even the bar owner sells unlabeled packs of cigarettes.Romania, one of the poorest countries in the European Union, remains a haven for bootleg cigarettes, with custom officers seizing millions of packs each year. Criminal gangs and impoverished communities near borders with countries where prices are lower – Serbia, Moldova and Ukraine – have taken to smuggling not only for big money but also as a means to earn a daily living.

The attacks on climate science that were made ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit were “organised” to undermine efforts to tackle global warming and mirror the earlier tactics of the tobacco industry, according to the vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).