ASIA- - The Indonesian parliament is drafting a bill to ban most forms of public advertising by tobacco companies.
The bill would also increase excise duties 65 per cent and prohibit under-18s from smoking.
It is sponsored by 220 legislators, but is expected to face strong opposition from Indonesia’s powerful tobacco lobby.
Cigarette manufacturers are currently free to advertise in all media and regularly sponsor sports events and concerts.
The bill would ban all forms of public advertising, except at cigarette booths and stalls.
The tobacco industry employs five million workers, with an estimated 20 million more thought to have jobs indirectly related to the industry.
Philip Morris International last year bought a 40 per cent share in Indonesia’s third-largest cigarette producer Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna.
The Central Statistics Agency reported that smokers under the age of 10 jumped from 3 per 1,000 children in 1999 to 28 per 1,000 in 2003.
Up to 70 per cent of male Indonesians are estimated to smoke and women are increasingly picking up the practice.
Nearly 90 per cent of Indonesian smokers choose locally-produced cigarettes known as kreteks, which are usually two-thirds tobacco and one-third cloves, but standard cigarettes, known locally as "whites", are gaining in popularity.
The United Arab Emirates acknowledged on Tuesday that two of its pilots were killed when their military aggression plane crashed over Jawf province, a military official said
The official added that the aggressive crashed plane was an apache that was
Artillery of the army and popular shelled a gathering of Saudi-paid mercenaries in al-Moqadra area in Serwah district of Marib province, a military official said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, dozens of Saudi-paid mercenaries were killed and others injured in Wadi al-Theek in the district, the official added.
The army and popular forces carried out on Monday unique military operations in Taiz province.
A military official said that a number of Saudi-paid mercenaries were killed at the hands of the army and popular forces in al-Jazami Hill in al-Kadaha area in al-Ma'afer district.
A Saudi aggression fighter jet targeted a citizen's car driving in Fara area of Kutaf district in Saada province overnight, killing the driver and injuring his friend, a security official said on Monday.
The army artillery and popular committees launched a fierce attack on Saudi-paid mercenaries' sites in Jawf province, a military official said on Monday.
The attack destroyed a military vehicle belonging to the mercenaries and killed all on board in Sabran area in khab and shaaf district.
Scores of Saudi enemy soldiers were killed and injured on Sunday when the army and popular forces repelled a Saudi military attempt to sneak into Shurfah site in the border province of Najran, a military official said.
The operation was accomplished successfully against the Saudi
The army and popular committees have killed a total of 18 Saudi-paid mercenaries in sniper operations over the past hours in the central province of Marib, a military official said on Sunday.
Ten mercenaries were killed in Nehm district and eight others were killed in Serwah district, said the official.
Saudi aggression warplanes have launched more than 49 airstrikes over the past hours on several residential areas across Yemen, a security official said on Sunday.
The airstrikes targeted the areas of Malahiz and Husama in Dhahir district, and areas Thuban, Masahif and Sdad in Bakim district of northern Saada province.