Belgium cigarette sales plummet

Sales of cigarettes in Belgium fell by 6.7% during 2007. The big fall in sales of cigarettes and other tobacco product has meant that the Belgian treasury raised 150 million less in tobacco excise duty than expected last year. The tobacco companies claim that the fall in sales has come about as a result of the smoking ban in restaurants and at places of work.
The ban came into force at the beginning of last year and means that smoking is only allowed in designated smoking rooms.The ban doesn't affect pubs and bars. Another reason cited for the fall in sales is the increased excise duty on tobacco products that has served to sharply increase the price of a packet of cigarettes.

The Puegoet Pyrotechnics are on display again!

"The night was relatively calm, without notable incident,” reports a spokesman for the French national police. Sure sounds like it to me!
Vandals torched 372 cars as France celebrated the New Year ...
Cars are burned fairly regularly in France, for good reason I might add. They're French cars! ... At the height of the 2005 riots as many as 1,400 cars were attacked in overnight violence.

In protests over Sarkozy’s election last May, demonstrators set fire to 730 vehicles. Right now, the only thing hotter than these car-b-ques is Sarko's girlfriend
Meanwhile, France has now banned smoking in cafes and bars. Lighting up a heater will get you fined.

Au Revoir to the Smoke-Filled French Cafe

In bars and cafes across Paris, in restaurants and casinos throughout France, the once-revered cigarette now is officially banned, relegating one of the Western world's last public smoking holdouts to the ashtray of history.

On Wednesday, the public act that perhaps most epitomized the French as sexy, debonair, sultry, brooding -- and perhaps more than a little susceptible to cancer -- was snuffed out by the government.

This was not a decision taken lightly. Magazines ran nostalgic photo-spreads reminding us that French people look seriously cool with a fag in their mouth - as illustrated by Charles de Gaulle, Brigitte Bardot and the ambassador for nicotine-enhanced thinking, Jean-Paul Sartre. Even president Nicolas Sarkozy, painfully image-conscious, posed for Paris Match wrestling with a fat cigar. STORY