Cigarettes online. Best cigarettes news online.

A senior manager of a wealthy corporate house, who drove up in an Indica car for an important meeting with tobacco farmers in Rajahmundry town last week, arrived a bit late at the venue only to find himself in for a big surprise.

Most of the cars parked outside the venue premises were Ford ikons and Honda Citys. And virtually every single vehicle at the lot outranked his Indica.

Tobacco farmers of Andhra Pradesh have apparently had good income following record prices at auctions and most of them seem to have upgraded from the entry level Maruti 800s to bigger, swankier cars.

Talking to some of the farmers at the recent Tobacco Institute of India awards function in Rajahmundry, Business Line found out that they were not only investment-savvy, but also possessed a sound head on their shoulders.

A TOWERING office block sprouting tobacco plants, private gardens transformed by sculptures and random video screens installed around the city centre will be just some of the stranger sights of this year's Edinburgh Art Festival.

The programme was launched today, with the diverse selection of exhibits and events including a chance to listen to a modern version of a record sent into outer space or read quotes from the Bible on giant rotating lightbulbs.

pective of Tracey Emin's work, being held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, is this year's major exhibition, and the controversial artist is expected to draw huge crowds. Among the more striking highlights on show around the city will be East Lothian-based artist Ettie Spencer's Tobacco House, which will see large tobacco crops growing out of the windows of St Margaret's House on London Road, as well as an outdoor crop grown behind the Craigmillar Arts Centre.
The artist hopes that the installation in the former pensions building will raise questions about the issues of slavery, poverty and taxation surrounding the tobacco industry, as well as brightening up the "grim" building.
She has not yet decided what will be done with the crop but will be taking suggestions from the public during the festival.
Another event sure to catch the eye will be Boris Eldagsen's Spam: the musical, a series of video installations based on two years' worth of spam e-mails collected by the artist. As it is a work of "guerrilla" art, organisers were in the dark over exactly where, or what, the installations would be, but said they would include videos around the city centre.
The videos will also be uploaded to internet sites in dozens of countries across the globe, in a bid to create the world's biggest piece of spam art.
Big Things on the Beach is again working with the festival after last year's successful sandbag pyramids, and this year have organised Garden Gallery, which will see artists placing works in the gardens of private houses around Portobello beach.
The homeowners have all given their permission, and the works will all be visible from the street, with tours being arranged to take people around the event.
The festival includes more than 50 exhibitions, and features more than 120 events, including artists' talks, screenings, debates, tours and family projects.
Director Joanne Brown said she was "overawed" by the quantity and quality of the work.
She said: "I feel really proud of the way the city has taken on the Art Festival, and we now have so many galleries commissioning work and organising events, most of which are free to the public and which will really raise the profile of visual arts."
The Edinburgh Art Festival runs from July 31 to August 31.

NEW YORK - Altria Group Inc's Philip Morris USA has cancelled its Marlboro Ultra Smooth cigarettes, highlighting challenges it faces in trying to grow its tobacco business despite a decline in U.S. cigarette sales, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Altria gets nearly all its revenue from Philip Morris USA after spinning off its Philip Morris International operations, the Journal reported.
Philip Morris's sales volume fell 4.6 percent last year, worse than the 4 percent decline in the overall U.S. cigarette market, the Journal reported. Underlying sales volume fell 3.6 percent, the Journal added.
The company expects overall cigarette sales to fall at an annual rate of 2.5 percent to 3 percent in coming years, the Journal reported.
Philip Morris has turned to developing tobacco products that are not as risky to their user's health, the Journal said. Ultra Smooth cigarettes include an activated carbon filter that delivers nicotine but with potentially less exposure to the carcinogens of conventional cigarettes, the Journal reported.
A Philip Morris spokesman was unavailable for comment.

Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, Europe's second-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, plans to cut 2,440 European jobs after buying Altadis SA for 12.6 billion euros ($20 billion) earlier this year.

Six of 58 factories will shut as staff numbers fall by about 6 percent, Imperial said today. The plants slated for closure are located in its hometown of Bristol, England, as well as Spain, France, Germany and Slovakia. The maker of Davidoff cigarettes fell 3.3 percent in London trading as the plan failed to persuade some analysts to lift their savings estimates.

Western European tobacco companies have eliminated jobs as governments restrict smoking and advertisements. Gareth Davis, Imperial's chief executive officer since the company was spun off from Hanson Plc in 1996, has beat cost-savings goals consistently since the cigarette maker bought German rival Reemtsma in 2002 and then cut 4.4 percent of its jobs.

Expectations for today's announcement ``got carried away,'' wrote Jonathan Leinster, an analyst at UBS in London, who repeated his ``sell'' rating on the stock today. He left his savings estimates unchanged and said he's ``not satisfied'' with expense reduction related to the Altadis merger.

Almost half of the job cuts, or 1,060 positions, will take place in France, equating to almost a quarter of Imperial's local payroll. The company stuck to forecasts for expenses of 600 million euros for the reductions and plant closings and annual cost savings of 400 million euros by the year through September 2012.

Shares Retreat

Imperial fell 64 pence to 1,879 pence in London trading. The stock has declined 20 percent in 2008 after rising more than sixfold in the prior eight years.

The cigarette maker will need to negotiate with unions over the job cuts and gain approval from the French and Spanish governments. Plans to reduce payrolls have sparked strikes this year by French workers from hospital staff to employees of newspaper Le Monde.

``They're brutally tearing the company apart,'' Jorge Tome, a representative of Spain's Comisiones Obreras union, said in an e-mailed statement. ``Once again they're showing that the only thing that counts is profit and not a social commitment.''

The takeover of Madrid-based Altadis added about 27,000 employees to Imperial's work force. The Iberian company, which was formed when Spain and France merged their tobacco monopolies in 1999, makes cigarettes under brands including Gauloises and Gitanes and also is the world's largest cigar manufacturer.

Cigarettes in Indonesia, the world's fifth largest cigarette market, are among the cheapest in the world with a pack costing around $1.

Four Indonesian NGOs filed a lawsuit against the president and parliament on Thursday for not signing a global tobacco treaty, saying the high level of tobacco use was forcing millions into poverty.

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) along with three other NGOs slammed the government for not taking stronger measures to increase cigarette prices while prices of basic needs such as food have risen after fuel prices were hiked nearly 30 percent in May.

Cigarettes in Indonesia, the world's fifth largest cigarette market, are among the cheapest in the world with a pack costing around $1.

Although smoking has taken a toll on the health of Indonesians and pushed millions further into poverty, Indonesia is reluctant to sign the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) aimed at cutting cigarette consumption because of concerns about the developing country's economy.

The World Health Organization's FCTC aims to reduce tobacco consumption, including through a ban on advertising and promotion.

China, which is the world's largest cigarette producer, is among the 168 signatories to the treaty.

Indonesia's $8-billion tobacco industry is big business which provides jobs for 7 million people and contributes about 10 percent to the government's coffers.

"We demand the Indonesian president ratify FCTC because it can protect people from the bad impact of tobacco," Tulus Abadi, an anti-tobacco activist at YLKI, told reporters after the case was filed against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a Jakarta court.

"The majority of smokers are poor people who allocate more money for cigarettes than for education and food."

Most Indonesians smoke traditional clove cigarettes which were invented in the late 19th century to ward off illnesses.

Called "kretek" for the crackling sound they make when they burn, the cigarettes usually contain added flavours such as chocolate and dried fruits. Some taste sweet, others spicy, but they are all distinctly Indonesian.

Some big cities in Indonesia, including Jakarta, have banned smoking in public areas, but these local regulations are still not implemented, Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, an activist of the Jakarta citizens forum, told reporters.

Numbers compiled by the state show cigarette sales in decline at Oneida Indian Nation stores and other Native American shops.

However, these numbers may not tell the whole picture about these locations that do not collect state taxs on tobacco products. Indian tribes do not collect state levies on the grounds that they are sovereign nations.

The Oneidas bought nearly 2.6 million cartons of cigarettes last year from state licensed agents, down from nearly 2.8 million in 2006, according to figures supplied by the state Department of Taxation and Financ. The drop amounts to approximately 7 percent.

The 2005 level was 2.1 million cartons.

Under the new state tax of $2.75 for each pack, the Oneidas’ reported cigarette purchases for last year would represent about $71.3 million in state revenue losses.

Department spokesman Tom Bergin cautions that actual cigarette sales could be higher because his department’s numbers do not include any sales to Indians by vendors not required to report such transactions to the state.

Statewide, the number of cigarette cartons sold to tribes dropped from 36 million in 2006 to 30.4 million last year, a decrease of approximately 18 percent, according to the state data.

The Seneca Indian Nation in Western New York fell from 17.8 million cartons in 2006 to 12.2 million last year. The Senecas sell the most cigarettes of the eight nations.

STEPHENS CITY — A pack of smokes will cost 25 cents more in town when a new tax adopted Tuesday takes effect.

The Town Council voted 6-1 at its regular meeting to approved an ordinance creating a 25-cent excise tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes. Mayor Ray Ewing, Vice Mayor Joy Shull and councilmen Ronald Bowers, John Hollis, Lindel Fravel Jr. and Micheal Grim voted to approve the ordinance on the final reading. Councilman John Harter gave the dissenting vote.

"There were enough people in this town that didn't like the idea, and somebody had to vote against it," Harter said, explaining his vote.

Bowers disagreed.

"I think it's a fair because you're putting it on an elected product," Bowers said.

Currently, four businesses within town limits sell cigarettes and would have to charge the tax. Sellers must display a cigarette stamp provided by the town. Taxes will be collected by the town treasurer. The tax per individual cigarette will be 1.25 cents, but the total revenue should be around $25,000, according to Town Manager Mike Kehoe.

In other business, the council:

* Adopted a resolution to address "Virginia's transportation funding crisis," by which the town supports the efforts of the governor and the General Assembly "to act swiftly and decisively to approve legislation that will address the transportation funding crisis at the statewide, regional and local levels."

The resolution also states that such legislation should include new tax and fee revenue, including tolls on new highways, to ensure safe roads, ease congetion, promote economic development and provide consumer choices.

* Held a public hearing on the proposed 2008-2009 budget. No one spoke during the hearing. The total budget is proposed at $1.45 million, compared to $1.66 million for the current year. The council scheduled a June 12 special meeting at which they plan to vote on the budget.

Also, the council approved a motion extending the deadline to pay real estate and personal to June 30. Bills were to be due Thursday.

* Voted unanimously to award a contract to American Disposal Inc. for refuse collection. The contract is for one year at $101,192. Evergreen Waste Inc. currently provides the service for nearly $90,000 but submitted a bid of $125,881 for the next year, the second-highest of three bids.

* Voted unanimously to adopt a resolution requesting that the Virginia Department of Transportation reduce the speed limit on U.S. 11 (Valley Pike), 0.95 miles south of the previous town limits, from 55 mph to 45 mph.