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• Lithuania Bans Davidoff Cosmetics Sales on Tobacco Advertising  

Lithuania banned sales of Davidoff cosmetics, claiming that the brand advertizes cigarettes carrying the same name.

Cosmetics retailer Kristiana violated the tobacco law and was fined 7,500 litai ($3,420) for selling and advertising perfume and cosmetics with the Davidoff brand, the Vilnius-based tobacco and alcohol supervision office said today. The retailer promoted a positive image of tobacco through its Davidoff perfume sales, the office said.

Tobacco advertising and sales of other goods carrying the same name as cigarette brands is banned, the office said. Kristiana, which has sold Davidoff branded cosmetic goods for 15 years, may appeal the decision in court.

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Inmates told about tobacco effects 

National Integrated Medicine Association (NIMA) and D.D. Kotnis Hospital organised a lecture at the Central Jail to observe the Anti-tobacco Day. The lecture was aimed at educating the inmates about the bad effects of tobacco use on health. Dr S.P. Sharma, Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana, presided over the seminar.

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Gediminas Kirkilas, the Lithuanian Prime Minister, makes light of smoking fine  

VILNIUS The pipe-smoking Lithuanian Prime Minister said that he would pay a £64 fine for violating a ban on smoking in public places. Gediminas Kirkilas said that he had agreed to pay the fine for lighting up in a bar in the Baltic Sea port town of Klaipéda.

“I'm to blame for this. I simply forgot that we can no longer smoke inside bars. I will cover this fine for the bar,” he said.

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• Lithuanian bar fined after pipe-loving PM lights up 

A hotel in Lithuania which allowed the country's prime minister to light up his pipe in breach of no-smoking laws has been hit with a hefty fine, authorities said Thursday.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas smoked his beloved pipe in the bar of the Klaipeda hotel in the eponymous city port, at a meeting in February with his Latvian opposite number, Ivars Godmanis.

Now the Lithuanian alcohol and tobacco control service said the bar in the had been ordered to pay 1,000 litas (290 euros, 446 dollars).

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立陶宛酒吧允许总理吸烟受罚 

立陶宛媒体13日报道，立陶宛总理基尔基拉斯日前违反禁令在公共场所吸烟，允许他抽烟斗的酒吧因此受到牵连，被罚1000立特(约合435美元)。基尔基拉斯事后表示愿代缴罚款。

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Humber | Customs swoop nets 7m cigarettes 

More than 7m cigarettes hidden behind boxes of frozen blackcurrants have been seized by customs officers at the Humber port of Immingham.

The duty evaded on the 7.3m cigarettes is estimated at £1.9m, said a spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The consignments, which originated in Lithuania, arrived on 15 April in two refrigerated trailers aboard the Tor Britannia from Esbjerg in Denmark.

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• Doors to public places shut to smokers in Lithuania 

Smokers in European Union member state Lithuania were forced to indulge their habit in the streets after a ban on smoking in public establishments took effect at the start of the year.

A law against smoking in cafes, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, discotheques and other public establishments -- passed by the country's parliament in May -- came into force on Monday. . . .

Some 39 percent of Lithuanian men and 14 percent of women are smokers, according to recent data collected by the Baltic country's department of statistics.

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Family time, parental behaviour model and the initiation of smoking and alcohol use by ten-year-old children: an epidemiological study in Kaunas, Lithuania  

Conclusion: Joint family activity time deficit together with frequent parental examples of smoking and alcohol use underlie the development of alcohol and smoking addictions in children to some extent. The above-mentioned issues are suggested to be widely addressed in the comprehensive family health education programs.

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• Baltic gangs ‘smuggling cigarettes into Ireland’ 

CRIMINAL gangs from the Baltic states are operating a highly organised cigarette smuggling operation into Ireland, according to the Revenue Commissioners.

The emergence of the trafficking route is directly responsible for a massive jump in the number of cigarette seizures last year. . . .

He said most of the smuggling is done in suitcases, and an unknown amount of consignments were getting through. Customs believe the cigarettes are being sold to people from the Baltic states, through their own shops.

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Cigarette smuggling cartel busted 

A dramatic chase on the Lithuanian border helped guards crack a large and well-organized cigarette smuggling ring.

The State Border Guard Service said the chase began when two suspicious vehicles failed to stop at a checkpoint in Taurage in the west of Lithuania on May 14.

Guards fired a warning shot then opened fire when one of the vehicles attempted to run down a border official in its escape. The accused smuggler found in a nearby hospital.

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• Lithuanian government approves public smoking ban from 2008 

The Lithuanian government approved a law that aims to ban smoking in public places from January 1, 2008, the government's information bureau said.

The law, if approved by parliament, will ban smoking in restaurants, cafes, pubs, discos and other public locations.

Smoking in the Baltic country, which joined the European Union in May 2004, is currently allowed in public places in specially designated areas. . . .

Some 39 percent of Lithuanian men and 14 percent of women are smokers

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For Europe's Sake, Spotting Moonshine Among Swans 

Inside was the latest haul in Lithuania's cat-and-mouse fight to keep its border secure: Russian cigarettes, 9,000 packs in all, headed to the black market here and across Europe.

Had they not been intercepted they could have sold for $3,000 or more, twice what they would have cost in Russia. And here along this impoverished frontier, such profits outweigh the risks of seizure, arrest or worse.

"A lot of people drown," said Genadijus Kuznecovas, chief of Pagegiai's border troops, "though I cannot say that all of them were smugglers."

Smuggling has thrived along Lithuania's borders ever since it regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, when shuttle traders began exploiting the not-so-legal opportunities with economies in tumultuous transition. It has skyrocketed, however, since Lithuania joined the European Union in May 2004, expanding the union's external borders to Russia and Belarus.

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Kaliningrad border-guards stop smuggling of cigarettes to Lithuania 

Kaliningrad frontier-guards have stopped an attempt to smuggle a major batch of cigarettes worth over 580,000 roubles to Lithuania on Monday.

As Itar-Tass learnt at the press service of the Border Department of the Federal Security Service for the Kaliningrad Region, three Russians intended to smuggle 56,000 packets of cigarettes across the River Neman on a rubber raft.

According to the press centre, this is the biggest batch of contraband cigarettes seized this year.

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Billions of cigarettes smuggled into Lithuania 

Vilnius - Around two billion cigarettes were smuggled into Lithuania in 2004, the head of the local subsidiary of the US tobacco company Philip Morris was quoted on Wednesday as saying by Lithuanian daily Vakaru Ekspresas.

"Based on different data, some two billion illegally imported cigarettes were consumed in Lithuania last year," Edinas Katilius, general manager of Philip Morris Lietuva, said.

"This represents six fully loaded trucks crossing the Lithuanian border every week and 200 million litas (R465.7 million) in taxes which did not reach the Lithuanian budget," he added.

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Billions of cigarettes smuggled into Lithuania 

Around two billion cigarettes were smuggled into Lithuania in 2004, the head of the local subsidiary of the US tobacco company Philip Morris was quoted on Wednesday as saying by Lithuanian daily Vakaru Ekspresas.

"Based on different data, some two billion illegally imported cigarettes were consumed in Lithuania last year," Edinas Katilius, general manager of Philip Morris Lietuva, said.

"This represents six fully loaded trucks crossing the Lithuanian border every week and 200 million litas (R465.7 million) in taxes which did not reach the Lithuanian budget," he added.

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