Ex-smoker Obama confesses having occasional ciggies

October 3rd, 2009 LONDON - A British woman believes cigarettes and alcohol have helped her reach the age of 107. Dorothy Peel, Yorkshire, treats herself to a glass of sherry before lunch, several shots of whisky and an occasional cigarette.

October 1st, 2009 MELBOURNE - Watching a four-year-old boy smoking a cigarette is enough to shock anyone. But what about knowing that he is a heavy smoker? Well, Dong Dong, from Banqiao village in China's Anhui province, has been smoking since he was only two.

September 21st, 2009 MELBOURNE - Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has shrugged off Australian premier Kevin Rudd's use of expletive-laden tirade at Labour's factional bosses, including three women MPs, as an occasional verbal lapse. The factional leaders reportedly went to see the Prime Minister in his office about a fortnight ago to object to his move to slash MPs' printing allowances from 100,000 dollars to 75,000 dollars.

August 25th, 2009 LONDON - Thousands of kids in Malawi are taking in 50 cigarettes worth of nicotine a day due to their employment as child labourers on the country's tobacco fields, warns an organisation. According to a study by Plan, the kids showed an array of nicotine poisoning symptoms, such as severe headaches, abdominal pain, muscle weakness and breathlessness.

August 6th, 2009 KUALA LUMPUR - A Form Four Malay student, who was caught with a cigarette and a lighter in his locker, was forced to smoke 42 cigarettes as punishment by the hostel warden. Mohd Alif Arifin, 16, of SMK Langkawi, Pulau Tuba said he had no idea about the cigarette in his locker, but his denials were not headed and he still received his punishment, witnessed by other teachers and students.

July 30th, 2009 LONDON - After a recent health scare, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has revealed that he and his wife Carla Bruni hardly ever go out and would rather stay in. Sarkozy, 54, spoke with journalists on the steps of the Elysée Palace following rumours of ill health after he collapsed while jogging on July 26, and he insisted that there was nothing to it and that he just needed rest.

July 20th, 2009 LONDON - Police recently fined three nuns for crossing the speed limit as they rushed to Pope Benedict XVI's holiday home to see him after he met with a small accident. Sister Tavoletta, 56, was driving the Ford Fiesta at 120mph, while two other nuns were with her when shocked police pulled them over.

July 8th, 2009 SAO PAULO - A 17-year-old girl has confessed to the police that she participated in more than 30 murders since 2006, with all the killings committed with the same knife, a media report said. The teenager told the police she confessed to clear her conscience and avoid being tried as an adult once she turns 18, the police commander in the city of Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Mauro Truzzi, told the media.

June 25th, 2009 MELBOURNE - A two-year-old Chinese boy is the world's youngest smoker. And it was Tong Liangliang's dad who taught him how to spark up between tantrums and milky vomits.

June 23rd, 2009 Get a whiff: Obama admits occasional cigaretteWASHINGTON — It fell to President Barack Obama to confirm the gossip that his aides had spent weeks trying to snuff out: He still sneaks an occasional cigarette. "There are times where I mess up," Obama said at a White House news conference on Tuesday.

June 22nd, 2009 Obama, citing his smoking woes, signs tobacco lawWASHINGTON — Lamenting his first teenage cigarette, President Barack Obama ruefully admitted on Monday that he's spent his adult life fighting the habit. Then he signed the nation's toughest anti-smoking law, aiming to keep thousands of other teens from getting hooked.

June 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Even as US President Barack Obama congratulated Congress for passing tough new tobacco regulations, the White House admitted on June 12 that the commander-in-chief himself was still struggling to do away with his smoking 'addiction'. When White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked if the president still smoked, he replied that Obama has "a struggle with nicotine addiction" every day.

June 10th, 2009 For many senators, tobacco bill is personalWASHINGTON — Sen. Dick Durbin was just 10 or 11 when he and his cousin Mike sneaked out behind a garage in East St.

June 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - Another Indian student has been attacked by a group of males in Frankston in Melbourne after they stopped him and demanded money and cigarettes despite Australian Government's promise to take strict action against those who attack Indians. Nardeep Singh, a nursing student at Chisholm College was slashed with a stanley knife carried by one of the group, a spokeswoman for Victoria Police said.

April 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives Thursday approved tougher anti-smoking controls in the US, for the first time granting a government agency the power to regulate tobacco products. The House voted 298-112 to hand the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) control over advertising and even the contents of cigarettes, though it does not allow the agency to ban tobacco outright.