SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) - The California Supreme Court ruled on Monday that tobacco makers can have limited protection from smoker lawsuits, sending shares of major tobacco companies higher in New York Stock Exchange trading. But the California court also ruled that the companies can still be sued by smokers whose illnesses were diagnosed before the state in 1998 repealed a law that protected the industry. ...

The problem of high smoking rates among Maori stretches back to the colonisation of New Zealand, says Prime Minister Helen Clark. ...

AMMAN — Smokers should think twice before lighting up in public areas where smoking is prohibited, since the Health Ministry beginning next month plans to kick off a campaign to acquaint citizens with local legislation regarding tobacco use. ...

WASHINGTON -- Tobacco-industry critics say the departure of a top U.S. negotiator working on an international treaty to reduce smoking highlights how the Bush administration has gone soft on tobacco. ...

Bush administration relaxing US role in worldwide tobacco reform MICHELE NORRIS, anchor: The World Health Organization is trying to draft a treaty to curb tobacco use worldwide. One hundred and fifty nations are trying to agree on a pact that will go into effect in the year 2003. And the Bush administration's position is again in question, as it has been on international agreements on global warming and germ warfare. ABC's Josh Gerstein reports. ...

CHICAGO--Top cigarette makers, already engulfed in lawsuits over the health effects of smoking, are now facing a surge of legal attacks involving their role in cigarette smuggling, a global problem that experts say cheats governments out of tax revenues and promotes smoking by keeping supplies of cheap cigarettes on the market. ...

A Virginia mother was sentenced yesterday to 10 days in jail for defying a court order not to smoke in front of her children. Tamara Silvius, 44, who has said she smokes about a pack of cigarettes a day, was led from a Caroline County courtroom in handcuffs. But the judge allowed her to post a $500 bond to stay out of jail while she appeals the ruling. ...

I half smiled when I heard the report about a Virginia woman who was sentenced to 10 days in jail for smoking in the presence of her children. That's because my parents smoked. Every night after dinner, my mother and father would lounge on the couch and put a match to a cigarette. ...

Tokyo, Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Japan Tobacco Inc., the No. 3 cigarette maker, may change some labeling in Canada and could be blocked there from selling its top brand after a regulator vowed to ban such words as ``mild'' and ``light'' on cigarette packages. ...

Matao Yamamoto, a 67-year-old former Kyoto cab driver, is one of a large number of smokers in Japan who deeply regrets acquiring the hard-to-quit habit. Yamamoto, a patient of pulmonary emphysema and a member of a group of smokers suing Japan Tobacco Inc. and the state, said smokers are also victims of the tobacco industry. ...