Researchers from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, have discovered a genetic variant that makes the wearer easier to quit smoking. They also found a gene that makes someone more likely to start smoking.The scientists hope their discovery may contribute to the development of therapies and medications that can promote smoking cessation.

The great-great grandmother, who loved a good party, took her first puff aged seven, just after the First World War started.Throughout her life it is thought the defiant OAP, who outlived her husband, son and all of her 10 stepchildren, smoked more than 170,000 cigarettes.Mrs Langley, who made headlines at her 100th birthday after being photographed lighting a cigarette with a candle, began smoking to calm her nerves during the war.The pensioner, of New Addington, Croydon, south London, was recently persuaded to give up her habit due to her failing eyesight after she could not see the end of a match.

Sales of cigarettes, once a helpful moneymaker for area convenience stores, have dropped dramatically because of the recent increase in the excise tax.At One Stop Grocery on Front Street in Binghamton, sales are down 50 percent, said manager Krista Schatz.Cigarette sales at the 55 Quickway convenience stores in New York are down between 10 and 45 percent depending on the location, said President Richard Mirabito.

Just two days after seizing a truck owned by a Seneca Nation businessman and the thousands of cartons of untaxed cigarettes inside it, the state tax department backed down Wednesday.Amid mounting criticism by Seneca leaders, the Paterson administration retreated and said it would return the truck and the cigarettes to Aaron J. Pierce following the seizure Monday by agents along a rural road between the tribe’s Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations.

Two San Fernando Valley tobacco wholesalers have been charged with evading California excise taxes on noncigarette tobacco products, federal prosecutors announced Monday.Eight federal indictments were unsealed charging 15 people and three businesses for not paying taxes on cigars and chewing tobacco, including Pay-Less Wholesale of North Hollywood and Wholesale Palace of Burbank.

Family and friends have suddenly found themselves blocked from shipping cigarettes and other tobacco products to American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq because of a new law meant to hamper smuggling and underage sales through the mail.The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 quietly took effect June 29.

A man stole cash and tobacco products from a midtown pharmacy early Tuesday, police said.The suspect apparently peeled back a sheet metal wall and entered the Drug Warehouse, 3126 S. Harvard Ave., just after 2:30 a.m, police said.He went straight to the cash registers at the front of the store and also put tobacco products into a white plastic shopping bag before he fled, police said.

To observe the 1980 World Health Day theme of “Smoking or Health — The Choice is Yours,” 24 countries issued an anti-smoking postage stamp. Since then, 41 other countries have recognized the importance of tackling the tobacco pandemic by issuing such stamps.The United States is not among those 65 countries with an anti-smoking stamp.Dr. W. Jeff Terry, president-elect of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, wants the medical profession and the public alike to correct this glaring oversight.