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• Obama rejects Russians' invite to light up  

Russia is a smoker's delight - ashtrays in hotel elevators, cheap cigarettes readily available. The Tuesday edition of the Moscow Times, an English-language paper, urged the American president to use his time here to re-embrace the habit he's trying to kick. . . .

Mr. Obama said he offered advice to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on reducing the smoking rate in Russia.

"We talked about the fact that government programs can be initiated, but to the extent that there's been success in the United States around reducing smoking levels, it's not only a matter of changing laws - it's also been changing attitudes, so that people feel that they need to change," Mr. Obama told a gathering of civil society activists Tuesday afternoon.

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