It takes a British American Tobacco factory machine three minutes to load 4 million cigarettes onto a truck in northern Bavaria - but it can take a lot longer to figure out whether those cigarettes end up where they should.So the EU is asking tobacco firms to do more to track and trace their goods, in order to tackle a huge black market and ultimately prevent some of the 700,000 deaths each year in the EU from smoking-related diseases.The legislation, which takes effect over the Read more [...]

* EU law to require tracking of single packs to retailers* Industry-developed system, Codentify, garners criticism* Consultation underway on various systemsBy Martinne GellerBAYREUTH, Germany, June 18 (Reuters) - It takes a British American Tobacco factory machine three minutes to load 4 million cigarettes onto a truck in northern Bavaria - but it can take a lot longer to figure out whether those cigarettes end up where they should.So the EU is asking tobacco firms to do more to track and trace their Read more [...]

Ludwig II of Bavaria was a monarch with more of a mania than a mere taste for extravagance. How else to account for the interior grotto, complete with waterfall and rainbow-generating lighting at his best-known castle Neuschwanstein? Or the “magic dining tables” that would appear laden with food and then disappear as seamlessly once it had been eaten at Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee, the latter his homage to Versailles.All these palaces are very much on the tourist trail (and justly so). In Read more [...]