Judge To Cigarette Co.'s: Admit You Lied

Posted: November 28, 2012

WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered tobacco companies to publish corrective statements that say they lied about the dangers of smoking and which disclose smoking's health effects, including the death on average of 1,200 people a day.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler previously had said that she wanted the industry to pay for corrective statements in various types of advertisements. But Tuesday's ruling is the first time she's laid out what the statements will say.

Each corrective ad is to be prefaced by a statement that a federal court has concluded that the defendant tobacco companies "deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking." Among the required statements are that smoking kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol combined, and that "secondhand smoke kills over 3,000 Americans a year."

Arafat probe: Remains to be seen

JERUSALEM - Remains of Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader who died in 2004, were exhumed from his tomb in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday as part of an inquiry into whether he might have been poisoned, Palestinian officials said.

The probe was ordered after an investigative report on the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera in July presented what it said was evidence of possible poisoning, reviving suspicions surrounding Arafat's death. The report prompted Arafat's widow, Suha Arafat, to call for an exhumation. It was authorized by Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank.

Palestinian officials have long accused Israel of poisoning Arafat, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who personified dreams of Palestinian statehood and over decades shifted from embracing terrorist tactics to negotiating a peace deal. Israeli officials emphatically deny the claims.

Cry for yourself, Argentina

Fitch Ratings downgraded Argentina's debt Tuesday, as it said a default is "probable."

Fitch on Tuesday cut its rating of the country's long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating to "CC" from "B", and the short-term IDR from "B" to "C," just one step above default.

A New York court has ordered the Argentine government to pay back more than $1 billion to investors who bought its restructured debt, but Argentina has said it won't follow the court's orders - which would result in a default.

In brief:

* SAN FRANCISCO - Four female service members filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Pentagon's ban on women serving in combat, hoping the move will add pressure to drop the policy just as officials are gauging the effect that lifting the prohibition will have on morale.

* CAIRO - More than 200,000 people thronged Cairo's central Tahrir Square, protesting against Egypt's Islamist president Tuesday in an opposition show of strength, as the standoff over Mohammed Morsi's assertion of near-absolute powers escalated into the biggest challenge yet to his and the Muslim Brotherhood's rule.

* CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced plans to travel to Cuba as early as Tuesday for more medical treatment after spending much of the past 18 months fighting cancer.

- Daily News wire services