CHEYENNE—The City Council tonight will decide whether Cheyenne becomes the second Wyoming town to ban smoking in public buildings. CHEYENNE—The City Council tonight will decide whether Cheyenne becomes the second Wyoming town to ban smoking in public buildings. If the measure passes as expected, it could put an end to legal smoking -- even in bars, restaurants and private clubs. ...

During the last week of June, a 50-year-old Chicago woman, an elderly Tucson man and a paraplegic in Austin died in smoking-related fires. That same week, fires started by cigarettes forced evacuations and caused injuries in Philadelphia, Rochester, N.Y., and New York City. The rash of blazes was hardly unique: Smoking is one the leading causes of fires in the United States. In the 1990s, smokers started 1.6 million fires that produced $4.5 billion in property damage and claimed 10,130 lives, according to the National Fire Protection Association. ...

During the last week of June, a 50-year-old Chicago woman, an elderly Tucson man and a paraplegic in Austin died in smoking-caused fires. That same week, fires started by cigarettes forced evacuations and caused injuries in Philadelphia, Rochester, N.Y., and New York City. The rash of blazes was hardly unique: Smoking is the leading cause of fire death in the United States. In the 1990s, smokers started 1.6 million fires that produced $4.5 billion in property damage and claimed 10,130 lives, according to the National Fire Protection Association. ...

For the first time in 32 years, Georgia has increased its tax on tobacco products. Starting today the state tax on cigarettes will triple -- from 12 cents per pack to 37 cents. This sin tax is expected to raise $180 million in general funds for fiscal 2004. The impending date had some smokers stocking up on their favorite choices of tobacco products last week. But Debbie Kenyon, owner of Savannah Cigars at City Market, is worried the increase will eventually cut into cigar and specialty cigarette sales. She said tourists from states with high tobacco taxes have bought their products while on vacation. ...

From higher taxes on a pack of smokes to new so-called safer cigarettes, the battle over tobacco in America is being reshaped. "I think this a major shift in the world of tobacco marketing, and regulation, and public health," says Jack Henningfield, a behavioral biology professor at Johns Hopkins University, referring to the intensified push by state and local lawmakers to discourage smoking, and a host of new products designed to provide safer ways to smoke. ...

ISLAMABAD, July 06 (Online): Rather than abruptly kicking the habit, many smokers seem to prefer a step-down approach -- first cutting down to fewer than five cigarettes each day and then quitting altogether, study findings suggest. "Many established smokers are trying to cut down their cigarette consumption, and a number are able to," study author Shu-Hong Zhu, of the University of California in San Diego, told. ...

The maker of Marlboro cigarettes agreed Friday to pay up to $1.25 billion to help the European Union combat smuggling and fakes, ending years of legal wrangling over an illegal trade that costs both sides hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Philip Morris International, a unit of U.S. tobacco and food giant Altria Group Inc., will make the payments the most ever extracted from a single company by the EU in varying amounts over 12 years in return for ending litigation on both sides ...

On Thursday, Local 4 Defender Karen Drew reported on a lawsuit against the makers of Marlboro Light cigarettes Many assume smoking a light cigarette is a healthier choice. In fact, Phillip Morris, the maker of Marlboro Lights proudly touted those claims right on the packaging. But recently that information was quietly removed from all packs of Marlboro lights. Why? ...

Kenny Kemp looks at why European fund managers still view the industry as a safe haven despite the anti- smoking lobby NOBODY in the UK can possibly say they haven't been warned. It says in bold, black letters on a packet of Marlboros: "Smoking Kills" or "Smoking Can Cause a Slow and Painful Death". Even the website of RJ Reynolds, makers of Marlboro's rival brand Winston, states clearly that studies by the US Surgeon General show smokers have almost twice the risk of having coronary heart disease as non- smokers; and that the risk of getting lung cancer is 14 times higher, while the risk of chronic pulmonary disease is 10 times higher. It can't be much clearer. Yet investors around the world, including UK fund managers desperate to buttress flagging equity portfolios, are still sitting like clucking chickens on their tobacco stocks. Why? ...