Harrisburg, Pa. – People who like to light up are fired up over new rules concerning how tobacco can be bought, sold and advertised. Those rules come straight from the federal government. Smokers feel singled out and picked on. Here in Pennsylvania, every time there’s a budget crunch, cigarette taxes get raised. The state recently passed an indoor smoking ban. Now come new laws from the Food and Drug Administration. The intent is to ... Jump to full article >>

Turns out that smoking is not just bad for your health; it may be bad for your game. At the World Chess Cup, which is being held in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, two top Chinese grandmasters, Wang Yue and Li Chao, showed up late for tie-breaker games in their third-round matches because they had been smoking. Under new World Chess Federation rules, they had to forfeit. The forfeits cost Wang and Li their matches, and they had to go home. In an inter ... Jump to full article >>

The editorial, “Start planning now to launch controversial smoking rules” (Nov. 12), properly advises proprietors of restaurants and bars to become familiar with how a new law that eliminates smoking in these venues starting on Jan. 2, 2010, will affect them. It is important to recognize Greensboro, Guilford County and North Carolina have a 20-year, unblemished record of successful implementation of incremental restrictions on smokin ... Jump to full article >>

In the absence of a federal ban on smoking in public places, individual emirates have introduced their own rules, leading to a somewhat disjointed approach to the problem of tobacco use. Since 2007, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al Khaimah and Dubai have introduced partial or full smoking bans. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi and Umm al Qaiwain are waiting for federal legislation to be passed. The most recent draft, which went before the Federal National C ... Jump to full article >>