France's Assembly voted last week to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products. From May 2016 all cigarette packs will have the same shape, same size, same color and the same typography, without any logo. The brand name, however, will continue to appear on packages. "We know that young people and women are paying attention to packaging," explained the Health Minister Marisol Touraine. "Tobacco claims 73,000 lives per year in France," she added.

With the entry into force of the 2014 Commencement of the Tobacco Products Control Act, all packaging of tobacco products in Namibia is required to bear both pictorial warnings and textual messages from 1 of April 2015 on. The warnings have to cover at least 60% of the principal display areas of packages.

Representatives of different government sectors from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates came together at the second subregional workshop to promote entry into force of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products from 23-24 March 2015 in Kuwait City.

The workshop was kindly hosted by the Government of Kuwait and co-organized by the Convention Secretariat and the Ministry of Health of Kuwait.

The UK's upper chamber of Parliament, the House of Lords, voted on 16 March 2015, to require that tobacco products are sold in standardized packs. The government plans for the law to become effective in May 2016.

The vote will bring the UK into line with Ireland, which approved similar rules earlier this month, and Australia as the only countries to introduce standardized packs for cigarettes in an effort to curb the appeal of smoking.

Dr Peter Phillips, Minister of Finance of Jamaica, announced in the Parliament today an increase of 14.28 per cent in the Special Consumption tax (SCT) on cigarettes.

As a result of the move, the SCT rate applicable from tomorrow is $12,000 per 1,000 sticks, up from $10,500.

A proposed Order to amend the Schedule to the Tobacco Act, and its associated Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement, were posted online today in the Canada Gazette, as part of a 30-day public consultation period ending on 6 April 2015.

The proposed amendments would further restrict the use of flavours in most types of cigars. Menthol is not part of this proposal.

Ireland has become the first country in Europe, and it is second in the World, to pass legislation requiring plain packaging for cigarettes and tobacco products.

The Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill has passed all stages of the Oireachtas after completing its passage through the Seanad on 3 March 2015. It will now go to the President for his signature within the next five to seven days.

Dr Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, Head of the Convention Secretariat, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has expressed support for the draft law in a letter to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, and praised Thailand's efforts in the implementation of the Convention.

On 12 February 2015, Dr Vera da Costa e Silva, Head of Secretariat, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, met Dr José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Saira Afzal Tarar announced on 11 February 2015 that new pictorial warnings will be required on all tobacco packaging to cover 85 percent of both sides of cigarette packs, up from the currently applied 40%. The new measure will make Pakistan the third country in the world besides Thailand and India to have warnings of such size.