Up in smoke: Man wins at casino, loses it in blaze

SOLVAY, N.Y. (AP) -- A Syracuse-area man's lucky day at an upstate casino has gone up in smoke - along with his winnings. Kenneth Lamoree said he returned to his home in Solvay around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday after winning $3,200 at the Turning Stone casino in Verona. A little more than an hour later, a fire broke out in the two-family home he shares with his fiancee and their three children....---...More

Stupid News-No butts: China orders officials to smoke

BEIJING (AFP) – Officials in a county in central China have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported.

The Gong'an county government in Hubei province has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said.

Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, according to the report.

"The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax," said Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong'an cigarette market supervision team, according to the paper.

The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in neighbouring Hunan province, according to the paper.

China has 350 million smokers, of whom a million die of smoking-related diseases every year.

More than half of all male doctors in China smoke, but the government is now trying harder to get them to kick the habit in order to set an example for others, state media reported recently.