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WEIRD BUT TRUE  

Romanian border police nabbed a hapless bungler who tried to enter their country from the Ukraine in a horse and buggy, then made a break for it.

They caught the man after a short chase in their cars. Turns out he was trying to smuggle 100,000 packs of cigarettes and tobacco worth $450,000.

"Outrunning our officers was never a possibility," said a police spokesman.

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Smoking crackdown clears air at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy 

Smoking among youth in Ukraine seems to be getting worse all the time. In the past 15 years, more Ukrainians have been lighting up. Girls and women are increasingly joining this death march, attracted by such marketing gimmicks as pretty, slim and pink packs of cigarettes.

The World Health Organization says more than 100,000 Ukrainians die prematurely from smoking-related diseases each year. About 40 percent of the nation’s adults smoke, with as many as 10 percent of smokers taking their first drag at the age of 10.

Amid these sad statistics, a positive trend is also taking place in Ukrainian society as more individuals seek to kick the habit. The stars are aligned behind this effort. On May 31, which is World No Tobacco Day, about 100 well-known Ukrainians signed a “Manifesto Against Smoking.”

One of them was Serhiy Kvit, president of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, one of the nation’s top universities with more than 4,000 students.

Kvit turned his signature into direct action to protect non-smokers from the dangers of second-hand, or passive, smoking. Since Sept. 1, the start of the new school year, smoking has been prohibited on the entire campus – inside buildings and outside on the grounds.

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• A high-ranking smoker keeps cigarette prices low in nation 

Ukrainian Finance Minister Victor Pynzenyk can touch the clouds without opening the windows on the eighth floor of his government office.

He sits in his own cloud of dense cigarette smoke while drafting anti-crisis plans for the nation.

One of the best economists in Ukraine, he is also one of the most notorious chain smokers.

“During the five minutes that I was there, he had five cigarettes,” said parliamentarian Oleh Lyashko from Yulia Tymoshenko’s party, describing the minister’s vice.

Public health advocates blame Pynzenyk for some of the cheapest cigarettes and, consequently, one of the highest smoking rates in the world by resisting meaningful tax hikes on the deadly products. . . .

Lawmakers went further and banned cigarettes from workplaces and government buildings altogether.

But many, including Pynzenyk, continue to smoke inside.

Parliament and other government toilets stink of tobacco fumes.

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• Smuggling cigarettes in Schengen Poland 

I’m standing on the crooked pavement of the square in front of the tatty Terespol railway station. Belarus is only a few kilometers east from here. Against the gloomy backdrop of the townlet buildings a new, nicely smelling white board stands out, complete with the Polish and European Union flags. Soon I’ll know that it is the only wordly feature of this town which has found itself on the way to economic collapse. The Saturday morning silence is broken only by the whistle of the train leaving for Brest and the barking of a homeless mongrel. What’s it like to live here? I ask myself, going 'downtown'. . . .

''The prices have gone up as the customs officers are more difficult to bribe' - smugglers

'Rubbish!' responds assistant superintendent Cezary Grochowski, the spokesperson for the Municipal Police Department in Biała Podlaska, to the boys’ allegations. 'The policemen and border guards go out of their way to dispose of the smugglers, once and for all.' He does admit, however, that individual cases still crop up, but, in his opinion, the times of smuggling are over. . . .

Lean years on the eastern partition had begun long before Poland became part of the Schengen zone. Since the introduction of the Russian embargo on Polish meat, more and more meat plants have collapsed like a house of cards. Both legal and illegal trade with Belarus had flourished until 21 December 2007, so it was possible to make up for the losses. Today, Terespol citizens are fearful of what the future may bring.

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Ukranian railway engineers arrested for cigarette smuggling 

Hungary's customs officials arrested two engineers of a cargo train from Ukraine, suspected of having smuggled cigarettes into Hungary, seizing both the smuggled goods and the train's engine at Zahony border station, a local customs spokesman told MTI on Wednesday. The train entered the country late on Tuesday. Officers spotted that several large packages had been thrown out of it before it reached the railway station, Jozsef Kupecz said.

The packages were found to contain some 15,000 packets of Ukrainian cigarettes, worth an estimated 7 million forints (22,400 euros).

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• Parliament hikes cigarette excise tax 

In need of cash because of the stalled privatization of state assets and unexpected costs from last month’s flooding in western Ukraine, lawmakers unexpectedly doubled excise taxes on cigarettes last week.

The increase, which came as parliament met in a special session on July 31 to approve $1.2 billion for flood relief, is more symbolic than substantive, experts said. Even with the modest hike, Ukraine will remain home to some of the world’s cheapest cigarettes and, consequently, one of the highest smoking rates, experts added.

If approved, cigarette prices are expected to increase by only an estimated 15-20 cents per pack in a nation where popular brands still sell for $1 or less.

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EDITORIAL: Hike cigarette taxes 

The parliament now on summer vacation missed an easy opportunity to improve the nation’s health. Instead, lawmakers continue to act like lobbyists for the tobacco industry. . . .

Ukraine’s cigarettes are among the cheapest in Europe – the cheapest for Marlboro, the most popular brand, which sell for roughly 57 euro cents a pack, even below the price in Moldova and Russia. Inexpensive cigarettes are a big reason why an alarming 40 percent of Ukrainian adults smoke, one of the world’s highest rates, and double the rate of many Western nations. There are other proven solutions, such as banning all indoor smoking and restricting availability to minors by forbidding tobacco sales from street kiosks.

These steps will improve the health of Ukraine and help millions to live longer.

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Hapless hang-glider or cigarette smuggler? Ukraine investigates mystery flier 

The man, who claims he was just enjoying a routine flight when strong winds blew him over the border Friday night, was detained for illegal border crossing and suspected cigarette smuggling, officials said Monday. Authorities are investigating suspicions that the man was smuggling cheap cigarettes into Hungary, said Volodymyr Sheremet, spokesman for the western Ukrainian border unit.

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Japan Tobacco International Hopes That Meeting Of Georgia And Ukraine To Solve Problem ($$) 

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乌克兰国会禁止室外烟草广告--食品资讯 

乌克兰立法议员们通过了一项法律，严格限制卷烟和酒类广告，包括禁止室外广告牌上的广告。

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• Ukraine parliament places restrictions on alcohol and cigarette advertising 

UKRAINE-A March 18 Verkhovna Rada bill restricts public tobacco and alcohol advertisements in Ukraine. The bill, subject to presidential approval, will outlaw billboard advertisements like these as of Jan. 1, 2009.

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• Ukrainian parliament limits alcohol, tobacco advertisements 

The Ukrainian parliament has limited advertisements of alcohol and tobacco.

From now on, it is prohibited to advertise alcoholic beverages, including beer, in outdoor billboards, the first and last pages of printed editions, public transport and day programs of television and the radio. The only exception is made for specialized exhibitions.

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• The Eastern Cigarettes Underground 

This dialogue recurred dozens of times on the illegal cigarette route along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. A team of undercover reporters from the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism (www.crji.org) together with Ukrainian colleagues tracked down smuggling routes through the European Union's Eastern borders.

Romanian and Ukrainian smugglers offered the investigative team duty-free cigarettes, illegally manufactured cigarettes, fake brands such as LML (an imitation of L&M) as well as legally produced Ukrainian cigarettes that illegally entered Romania through border check points or the so-called "green zone," the mountainous areas between them

Officials from both countries complain about the growing level of cigarette smuggling but little is done to stop it.

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• New high for underage drinking and smoking 

School-aged girls light up cigarettes in Kyiv this past summer. A World Health Organization-commissioned study has found that Ukraine is a world leader when it comes to underage tobacco and alcohol consumption

Widespread underage smoking and drinking is on the rise as exposure to vices occurs at increasingly younger ages, according to a recent study released by the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research (UISR) conducted for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) collaborative cross-national study of 41 nations. . . .

Although the 41-nation HBSC report hasn’t been published yet, UISR’s Olga Balakireva, the Principal Investigator for HBSC in Ukraine, released a fact sheet of its 2006 findings. . . .

Statistics regarding underage smoking also gave reason for concern since the rates rise with age: the number of smokers for both sexes increased by 7 percent among 6th graders, 15 percent among 8th graders, 26 percent among 10th graders, 50 and 33 percent among college and university level students respectively.

“This could have drastic consequences not only for the government, as healthcare costs will significantly rise, but also for the population as a whole,” said Dr. Serhiy Potashev, Assistant of the Department of Cardiology and Functional Diagnoses at the National Medical Academy. . . .

The “tobacco epidemic” is fueled by ‘Big Tobacco’ profits. The three largest tobacco companies making cigarettes in Ukraine (Phillip Morris/Altria, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International) have combined annual incomes of several billion dollars and have expanded production in Ukraine.

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• Donetsk Bans Smoking And Drinking Spirits In City Center 

The Donetsk city council has banned smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages in the central part of the city (Lenina Square, Pushkin Boulevard, city parks and Kalmiusa Riverbank Avenue), and also on the territory of medical, education and pre-school establishments, administrative buildings and inside of residential quarters. . . . The city council also ruled that the ban would be cancelled during holding mass events on Donetsk streets.

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