Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has disposed of Golden Tobacco Company’s appeal against a judgment of the Company Law Board (CLB) on January 19, 2009, which stayed resolutions passed by the company’s board.

The court on Friday asked the CLB to pass a judgment on the matter by February 2.

The Golden Tobacco board had sought to sell or jointly develop some of its land banks in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Guntur.
However, Pramod Jain, a minority shareholder in the company, filed a case against Golden Tobacco, Sanjay Dalmia, the company’s promoter, and Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd (GHCL) in the CLB alleging foul play.

He alleged that GTC wanted to sell the land and use the proceeds to pay off its liabilities to Indiabulls Financial.

Jain urged the CLB to monitor the land sale and make sure that the money collected is used for the welfare of the company. “I want the CLB to appoint a real estate consultant and the company to invite a global tender to sell the land,” he said.

Sanjay Dalmia refused to comment when DNA contacted him on Saturday.

As per the resolution, Golden Tobacco has given powers to J P Khetan, the company’s managing director, and AK Joshi, director (finance), to take necessary steps for the sale or joint development of the land.

Dalmia had on January 20 told DNA that the company has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a real estate developer.CLB asked to pass judgment by Feb 2.

He refused to divulge details.

Golden Tobacco Company has, however, not yet informed the stock exchanges about the MoU. It has also not notified it about the CLB order.

Dalmia and Indiabulls Financial are in a legal tangle. Indiabulls had filed an FIR on July 25, 2009 against Dalmia and a few other directors of GHCL alleging he had duped it of Rs 641 crore. It alleged that Dalmia had issued bogus shares of Golden Tobacco Company and GHCL as collateral.

The two parties, however, reached an out-of-court settlement in which Dalmia agreed to pay Rs 25 crore cash to Indiabulls and Rs 235 crore as mortgage by March 31, 2010. Dalmia, wanted to sell the 7.5 acre prime property in Vile Parle and Marol areas in Mumbai to pay-off the Indiabulls loan.

If the matter goes to the Supreme Court, it is unlikely that Dalmia will be able to settle the IndiaBulls spat before the deadline.
Meanwhile, Jain is seeking to take over Golden Tobacco Company and has announced an open offer for 25% stake at Rs 101 per share. He is awaiting mandatory clearances from Sebi to start the open offer.
January 25, 2010

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Argentine singer Sandro, whose gyrating pelvis and romantic ballads brought comparisons to Elvis Presley and made him the first Latin American to sing in Madison Square Garden, died Monday of complications from heart and lung transplant surgery. He was 64.

Sandro, who recorded 52 albums, acted in 16 movies and was awarded a Latin Grammy for career achievement in 2005, suffered from chronic lung disease that led to the Nov. 20 surgery. He died at the Italian Hospital in the Argentine city of Mendoza, said Dr. Claudio Burgos.

Born Roberto Sanchez in 1945 in Buenos Aires, he was the author of hits such as “Asi” (“Like That”) and “Dame Fuego” (“Give Me Fire”), and his rock and pop tunes won him fame across Latin America. In the 1970s he became the first Latin American singer to play New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Last year, in one of his final interviews, the singer blamed his smoking habit for his long illness.

“I am debilitated because I cannot move. My life is my bed, my spot in the dining room where I read the newspaper, and from there I do not move,” Sandro told Mitre radio of Buenos Aires. “I am to blame for the condition that I am in. I deserve it; I sought it out. I picked up this damn cigarette.”

As a youth, Roberto Sanchez began playing guitar along with Enrique Irigoytia, another boy from his neighborhood. The two formed several rock bands that sang Spanish versions of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Paul Anka hits.

But it wasn’t until he was lead guitarist for the band Los de Fuego that his fame took off.

During one performance, the lead singer lost his voice and another performer broke his guitar strings. Sanchez relinquished his guitar, took over singing duties and threw himself into dancing to the rock rhythm. The crowd went wild.

Sanchez became the group’s front man and adopted the moniker Sandro — a name his mother had wanted to give him at birth, but the Civil Registry refused.

Sandro y Los de Fuego made their TV debut in 1964 on “Circular Saturdays,” one of the nation’s most popular shows.

Sandro’s sensual, irreverent style, gyrating hips and black leather jacket sent young female fans into a frenzy; his “babes,” as they were known, would scream wildly, pull their hair and throw their undergarments onstage.

He soon earned the reputation as Argentina’s Elvis Presley.

The band recorded two albums before Sandro went solo, turning to a more melodic repertoire and entering the “romantic” genre with classics such as “Quiero Llenarme de Ti” (“I Want to Fill Myself With You”). In 1969, he made his silver screen debut in a movie with the same title.

A later film, “La Vida Continua” (“Life Goes On”), was a hit not only in Argentina but in much of Latin America.

In 1982, Sandro signed with a Puerto Rican TV channel to star in the telenovela “Fue sin querer” (“I Didn’t Mean to Do It”), which was popular among U.S. Latinos.

By 2001, he was forced to play a series of shows with the assistance of a tube attached to a microphone, to combat the effects of pulmonary emphysema.

Last year he went on a waiting list for a lung and heart transplant, which doctors said was the only way to save him from a disease that had already destroyed his vocal cords and restricted his movements.

He is survived by his wife, Olga Garaventa, whom he married in 2007. He had no children.

NEW YORK – Injectable birth control is known to lower bone density, but women may be able to limit the loss by not smoking and getting even moderate amounts of calcium, a new study hints.

Health

The findings, say researchers, show that not all women are at equal risk of bone loss from using depot medroxyprogesterone (DMPA) — better known by the brand-name Depo Provera.

DMPA is given by injection about once every three months, and is generally considered an effective, convenient and low-cost form of birth control. The contraceptive can, however, lead to significant bone loss.

While research has shown that this lost bone mass is often regained after women stop using DMPA, there are still concerns about whether substantial bone loss is completely reversible. So limiting the decline in the first place would be ideal.

In the new study, researchers found that among 95 women who used DMPA for two years, those who smoked or had a low calcium intake were at particular risk of significant bone density loss — defined as a decline of at least 5 percent in the spine or hip.

Current smokers were nearly four times more likely to lose that much bone mass as non-smokers were. On the other hand, the risk declined by 19 percent for every 100 milligrams (mg) of calcium a woman got each day.

Drs. Mahbubur Rahman and Abbey B. Berenson, of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, report the findings in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study included 95 black, white and Hispanic women who were 24 years old, on average, at the outset. Their bone density was measured when they began using DMPA and two years later.

Overall, 47 percent of the women showed at least a 5 percent decline in bone density in the spine or hip.

Of those women, 44 percent were current smokers, versus 32 percent of women who lost less bone mass. The average calcium intake in the former group was 484 mg per day — less than half of the recommended 1,000 mg for women their age.

According to Rahman and Berenson, the findings suggest that not smoking can go a long way toward limiting the bone loss associated with DMPA. The same appears true of even moderate calcium intake; women who got more than 600 mg of calcium per day had lesser bone loss — about 2 percent or less over two years.

In other findings, women who had ever had a child were also at lower risk of significant bone loss. They were half as likely as childless women to see their bone density decline by 5 percent or more.

The results suggest that for DMPA users who have had children, do not smoke and get at least 600 mg of calcium day, “concerns about bone health are minimal,” write Rahman and Berenson.

But when women do smoke or get little calcium, they add, doctors should offer them help with smoking cessation and counsel them on eating calcium-rich foods and taking supplements if needed.

SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology, January 2010.

No one doubts that quitting smoking is one of the best ways to improve your health. But a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests that, in the short term, tossing the cigarettes might actually increase the risk of developing diabetes.

People who quit smoking tend to gain weight, and those extra pounds can put a person at increased diabetes risk. In fact, the diabetes risk was higher for people who gave up cigarettes than for those who continued to smoke – but only within the first couple of years of quitting, according to the research appearing in today’s Annals of Internal Medicine.

After that, the diabetes risk decreased and almost disappeared after 10 years, researchers found.

The study shouldn’t deter people from quitting smoking, researchers urged. Rather, quitters should be conscientious about their weight, and doctors who counsel them should offer lifestyle coaching, intensive weight management and glucose level checks, said Hsin-Chieh Yeh, an assistant professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the report’s lead author. In addition, some studies suggest nicotine-replacement therapy such as the patch could help patients keep off the pounds, she said.

Most importantly, “don’t even start smoking,” said Yeh. “Quitting is good, but you need to watch your weight.”

In the study of nearly 10,900 middle-age adults who were followed for 17 years, those who quit smoking had a 70 percent increased risk of developing diabetes in their first six years smoke-free. But smoking is also a risk factor for developing diabetes, researchers said. Over the same period, smokers had a 30 percent increased risk. The more a person smoked and the more pounds they gained, the higher the risk, researchers found.

Dr. Kevin Ferentz, a smoking cessation expert and associate professor in the department of family and community medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said the study confirms what he sees in his practice – about a third of all smokers who quit gain an average of 5 to 8 pounds. It’s not because of a slowed metabolism, he said. Quitters often substitute eating for smoking.

To stop successfully, smokers need nutritional advice and a plan to tackle the triggers that keep them vulnerable to relapse, he said. Ferentz reminds quitters to munch on low-calorie snacks like carrot sticks, celery and sugar-free gum when the cravings hit.

“The key to stopping smoking is preparation, it’s not will power,” he said. “The analogy that I use is stopping smoking is a test. You either study for the test and there’s a good chance you will pass, or you don’t study and there’s a good chance you will fail.”

Dr. Mansur Shomali, a diabetes specialist at Union Memorial Hospital, questioned the study’s scope. Researchers don’t know for sure if weight gain was the sole cause for a higher diabetes risk. Quitters might have been at higher risk for developing diabetes long before they tried to kick the habit, for example.

Shomali said patients who smoke and have diabetes are at greater risk for severe cardiovascular problems.

“We sometimes think of these patients like a time bomb waiting for a heart attack or stroke,” he said. “Diabetes is bad, smoking is bad, doing both together is worse. If you stop smoking it will be better for you in the long run. There is some short-term weight gain, but you can control that.”

Young people continue to purchase smoking products. For example, nearly one-third of minors are still able to buy cigarettes from retailers illegal. This is the main cause why anti-tobacco researchers call for a new legislation which will reduce the sale of cigarettes to minors.

Researchers found that almost one-third of shopkeepers were violating laws that prohibit the sale of cigarettes to minors.

More than a third of licensed premises were ready to sell tobacco to minors according to the survey, while compliance levels among these premises increased 28 percent from 37 percent in 2008 to 65 percent this year.
The research found that compliance was higher among premises with token-operated cigarette vending machines where 70 percent prevented children from buying cigarettes, compared to 37 percent of premises with coin-operated machines.

But the compliance among retailers was up 8 percent, from 60 percent in 2008 to 68 percent in 2009. Some 61 percent of shops and licensed premises asked children for identification.
Ninety-seven percent of minors who were asked for ID were rejected the sale of cigarettes, the researchers added.

Office of Tobacco Control chief executive Éamonn Rossi said although a clear amelioration in compliance culture which had arose among retailers.

Mr. Rossi said: “While we welcome the increase, still one-third of minors can buy cigarettes.”
Áine Brady TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Older People and Health Promotion, said staff watchfulness was necessary to assure young people don’t have access to cigarette vending machines.
However all retailers know that selling tobacco to a child, they continue to launch them a journey to addiction, disease and death.

Researchers concluded that if the new legislation which will prohibit selling cigs to minors will be accepted then the smoking among kids will decrease too.

Millions of people around the country have been treated to the anti-debt ads run by one-time tobacco industry lobbyist Richard Berman. Mr. Berman, who has also worked to thwart minimum wage increases and managed to get on the opposite side of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is now working alongside the Wall Street types who wrecked the economy.

Wall Streeters, like billionaire fund manager Peter Peterson, want to use the government debt burden created by the collapse of their credit bubble as an excuse to slash Social Security and Medicare. Therefore television viewers are being treated to an expensive ad campaign telling us that “debt stinks.”

While the ad seems to imply that we should reduce or dispose of our debt by just writing off an entry on the government’s accounting ledgers, in reality getting rid of debt means cutting important programs like Social Security and Medicare. These programs are more important than ever for our seniors, now that the wreckage caused by the Wall Street crew has taken away much of the wealth they had accumulated in their homes or in the stock market.

We can also start to work down the debt by cutting back funding for the education of children, like the cute ones in the commercial. That will be great for future generations.
By Dean Baker
Source: Truthout

Of course it is not just education that we provide to future generations; we give them a whole physical and social infrastructure. The quality of the society we pass on to our children is what determines their well being; not the government debt.

The generation that grew up in the decades after World War II was subjected to the largest debt burden in the history of the country. Yet they also enjoyed three decades of extraordinarily rapid growth. There is no reason that the debt burdens being projected at present should depress the living standards of our children and grandchildren.

In fact, the best way to limit the burden of the government debt on the economy is to support policies that promote growth. The federal government’s debt burden shrank from more than 110 percent of GDP immediately following World War II to less than 30 percent of GDP in 1980. This happened in spite of the fact that the government ran a deficit in all but three years over this period. The debt burden shrank because the economy outgrew the debt.

In short, the key to keeping our debt at a sustainable level is running sound economic policies that foster growth. We also need to contain health care costs. Our broken health care system is threatening to wreck our economy. It will also lead to impossible debt burdens if it is not fixed. But as every economist knows, the issue here is fixing the health care system, not whining about government debt.

But, the Wall Street crew’s agenda is not really about debt and deficits; it is about gutting Social Security and Medicare. They know that they cannot do this through normal congressional procedures, after all Congress is answerable to the people who depend on these programs. Instead, the Peter Peterson crew wants to do an end run around congressional procedure. They want to set up a special commission that will come up with recommendations to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Under this scheme, the commission’s report would be fast-tracked. There would be limited opportunity for debate, no amendments, and the vote would be taken by a lame duck Congress, after the November 2010 elections. That may not sound fair, but what else should we expect from the tobacco lobbyist/Wall Street gang?

So watch carefully for these folks. They have lots of money and they are prepared to use it to buy influence in Congress. They will use any conceivable tactic to achieve their goal of cutting Social Security and Medicare. (The commercial even tries to exploit nationalist sentiment by whining that half of the debt is owned by foreigners. The foreign debt is the result of the trade deficit and the over-valued dollar; it is not caused by the government debt.)

The people who depend on Social Security and Medicare (i.e. just about everyone) must realize that there is nothing benign about the Wall Streeters’ deficit commission. This is an end run around the normal congressional process to accomplish in backrooms what could never be done in full public view. If the public knew what is going on here then “commission” would be a four-letter word.

There is one place in Bhutan where the Indian-made Wills cigarette has not captured the tobacco market, not even the black one. The remote gewog of Laya smokes Chinese-made cigarettes like Hongtashan, Kingsize, Huangguoshu, Lian Xia, Hong Mel, Fupongyan, Five Bulls and Mellow Turong.

Layaps just call it “tangkhu,” which means tobacco – probably because of the difficulty in pronouncing the brands. The cigarettes are cheap and abundant and sneaked in from across the northern borders. Locals prefer Hongtashan, but King Size, costing Nu 80 for 20 sticks, is cheaper and more popular.

Laya smokers cannot remember since when they have been smoking, but say that Chinese cigarettes had been around in Laya for a long time – since Layaps and Tibetans across the border started trading. China is the largest single manufacturer of tobacco products in the world. It boasts a virtual monopoly in the people’s republic of China, which accounts for roughly 30 percent of the world’s total consumption of cigarettes.

“Indian cigarettes are expensive and tasteless. The Chinese King Size is the best,” said a smoker, Ugyen Dorji, 29. “For smokers with low income like us, Chinese-made cigarettes best suit our need.” A strong rumour that Chinese-made cigarettes would make the smoker impotent not long ago made Layaps think twice before they lit up, but today the rumour has died and smokers are convinced it was just a hoax. “I’d been smoking for six years and didn’t have any problem with impotency,” said Ugyen.

Other Layap smokers said that smoking is a common habit among Layaps. “It may be because of the cold and easy access to cigarettes,” said one smoker. “Many pick up the habit at a young age, especially those not going to school. Most Layaps aren’t aware of the tobacco legislation, which the National Assembly recently passed. “We heard that we can’t smoke cigarettes in dzongs, but that we never do even without a legislation,” said another.

Others, who heard of the ban on the sale of tobacco, said that they bring in the cigarettes for their own consumption. “Everybody brings in cigarettes, so there’s no point selling it,” said Wangdi, who calls himself a chain smoker.

Meanwhile, it is not tobacco that is bothering heath and local government authorities in Laya, but the number of medicines that Layaps bring in from across the northern borders. For many years, Layaps have been relying on unprescribed medicines, especially pain-killers, from Chinese Tibet. “Chinese-made medicines are more effective than the ones we get in our hispitals,” said Ugyen Dorji. “I’ve brought Crocin (Paracetamol) from China for my own consumption because it’s more effective than the Paracetamol we get from hospitals,” he said.

“I feel the Paracetamol tablet we get from tour hospital aren’t effective on me,” said 31-year-old Pego. “I’ve got used to the Chinese-made Crocin for 11 years and use it whenever I get a headache,’ she said.

Health officials have been frequently informing people not to consume unprescribed Chinese medicines, said Laya mangmi, Lhaba Tshering. “People were told not to use the medicines without consulting health officials. We even told them the hospitals wouldn’t be responsible for any complications,” said Lhaba Tshering.

Laya health assistant, Kinga Rinchen said that, although there weren’t any cases of complication, they have been warning villagers to avail medicines from them. “These medicines are strong in drugs and people will become dependent on them. It isn’t at all healthy,” said Kinga Rinchen.

By Gyem Thinley, Laya

NEW YORK — The City of New York has accused several cigarette dealers on a Long Island Indian reservation of secretly defying a court order that was supposed to have shut them down.

The charge is the latest in a legal battle between New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and smoke shops on the Poospatuck Indian Reservation over the sale of millions of dollars in untaxed cigarettes.

In August, a federal judge ordered most of the largest shops on the reservation to stop selling untaxed packs to the general public, saying such sales were illegal, despite the state’s tolerance of the practice.

Publicly, the shops promised to abide by the ruling, but in a motion filed in federal court on Wednesday, lawyers for the city said three dealers quietly continued to do business through newly formed cigarette stores not covered by the court order.

“It shows contempt for the court’s authority,” said Eric Proshansky, an attorney for the city.

The tribe’s chief, Harry Wallace, didn’t immediately return a phone and e-mail message from The Associated Press on Thursday, but told Newsday that the allegations are false.

The city has asked U.S. District Court Judge Carol Amon for thousands of dollars in penalties against the three dealers.

Lawyers for two of the dealers declined comment. Richard Levitt, a lawyer who represents dealer Wayne Harris, wouldn’t discuss his client’s case in detail but said, “the evidence will show that he is not in contempt of the court’s order.”

In August, Amon ruled that the tribal shops’ longtime practice of selling cigarettes without collecting required state taxes was illegal.

She ordered eight shops to stop selling cigarettes to anyone who wasn’t enrolled in the tribe, and barred 11 people affiliated with those stores from further sales to the general public. The three dealers were all named in that order.

The shops have appealed, but all had also publicly claimed to have ceased operations by September.

City lawyers didn’t buy it, and investigated with the assistance of agents from the state’s tax enforcement division.

The case is being watched closely because of its potential effect on other Indian reservations around the state.

Shops on tribal land now account for nearly a third of all cigarettes sold annually in New York. This booming business is a product of the state’s longtime reluctance to collect taxes on cigarettes sold on tribal land, which means reservation shops can offer tobacco at a huge discount.

Relatively few shop owners have ever been charged in criminal court over their dealings in untaxed cigarettes.

Menthol cigarettes appear to be more addictive for black and Hispanic smokers than regular cigarettes, a U.S. study has found.Researchers from the School of Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) analyzed data on 7,815 current and former smokers who’d reported at least one attempt to quit. The information came from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey.

Among adults who smoked menthol cigarettes, just 44 percent of blacks and 48 percent of Hispanics were able to kick the habit. But blacks and Hispanics who smoked regular cigarettes had higher quit rates — 62 percent and 61 percent, respectively. Those rates were similar to quit rates for white adults.

The data also showed that non-whites tended to smoke fewer cigarettes a day and were about three times more likely than whites to smoke menthol cigarettes, the study authors noted.

“Historically, tobacco companies have targeted minority populations when marketing menthol cigarettes,” study co-author Cristine Delnevo, director of the Center for Tobacco Surveillance and Evaluation Research at UMDNJ, said in a university news release.

“Although whites and non-whites have similar smoking prevalence rates, the fact that non-whites are more likely to smoke menthols, and those who smoke menthols are less likely to quit, could explain why minority populations continue to suffer disproportionately from tobacco-caused disease and death,” she said.

Study author Daniel Gundersen said in the news release that “with the substantial number of smokers smoking menthol cigarettes, particularly among minorities, this is serious cause for concern.”

The findings are published in the December issue of Preventive Medicine.

More information

For information on quitting smoking, go to smokefree.gov.
SOURCE: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, news release, Dec. 3, 2009
Dec. 10, 2009