Dutch restaurants and bars sent tobacco smokers out the door Tuesday, enforcing a public smoking ban that excluded marijuana smokers in "coffee shops," who were welcome to stay.

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who became one of the wealthiest civil lawsuit attorneys in the country by taking on tobacco, asbestos and insurance companies, was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to bribe a judge.

Imperial Tobacco Group said Thursday that it plans to slash its work force by around 6 percent as part of its restructuring plans after its recent takeover of Spanish rival Altadis.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it would hear a Philip Morris USA appeal seeking to overturn a $79.5 million punitive damages award won by the widow of a longtime Oregon smoker.

New Yorkers start paying the highest cigarette taxes in the nation Tuesday with the latest $1.25 spike per pack that officials expect to bring in $265 million a year.

Plain packs a risk to UK cigarette profits-analysts British cigarette makers face a new and serious risk to their profits if the UK government rules that cigarettes should only be sold in plain packaging, undermining the power of brands, analysts said on Monday.

Chief executives from around Europe discussed their companies' earnings, opportunities and the challenges they face in 2008 with CNBC Europe Wednesday.

Smoking can be hazardous to your health, and it’s turning into a bad career move for 39 Whirlpool workers.

Shares of Philip Morris International, the world's largest non-state-owned cigarette maker, rose as much as 5 percent Monday morning in their first day of trading after the company was spun off from Altria Group.

European earnings failed to drive broader European markets higher, as disappointing numbers from bigger names and cautious guidance mostly pushed shares in reporting companies lower.

A new WHO report does not single out tobacco companies by name, but anti-tobacco groups have sounded the alarm about aggressive expansion in emerging markets by cigarette makers like Altria's Philip Morris International unit, which is set to be spun off as an independent company in March.

Wyeth Thursday forecast flat revenue and lower earnings for 2008 due to suddenly erupting generic competition for its blockbuster Protonix heartburn medicine and assumptions about possible generic competition for other medicines.

Altria Group posted lower quarterly profit on Wednesday due to the spinoff last year of Kraft Foods, and set March 28 as the date for its planned spinoff of Philip Morris International.

Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group on Tuesday said earnings grew further in the last three months of 2007 along with higher cigarette volumes and share gains in many of its markets.