Cuba's economy is to receive a significant boost from one of its main industries, as tobacco leaf production reached 19,000 tonnes this year, the best harvest of the last decade, it was announced Tuesday in Havana. The figure represents success, but it is still far below the 30,000 tonnes from early estimates.
The World Medical Association has supported the increasing number of countries planning to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products, including Australia and France. This week it joined the Norwegian Medical Association in supporting proposals to introduce plain packaging in Norway.
The sixth session of the Conference of the parties (COP6) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) concluded in Moscow. Several landmark decisions were adopted in the course of the six-day session, regarded as one of the most successful in the WHO FCTC’s history.
Philip Morris International, the world's largest tobacco company, is prepared to sue the British government should it implement a law requiring plain packaging of cigarettes, a document showed.
The administration of president Jose Mujica is willing to take eight to twelve of Guantanamo prisoners as refugees in Uruguay and this could happen once the US Senate approves a bill to that purpose, according to sources from the ministerial delegation currently in Washington.
Cardiovascular diseases remain the number one cause of death throughout the world, and killed nearly 17 million people in 2011, that is 3 in every 10 deaths. Of these, 7 million people died of ischemic heart disease and 6.2 million from stroke, reports the World Health Organization.
Negotiators from 135 nations sealed Wednesday a global deal to stem the illegal tobacco trade that could net governments 50 billion dollars more annually in tax revenues, the World Health Organisation said.
By Emily Dugan - The following piece from The Independent on Sunday describes how in spite of the World NO tobacco Day (May 31) the industry ruthlessly exploits the developing world and makes huge profits even when smoking in the richer countries has been falling sustainedly.