American cigarette sales are expected to decrease by ______ by the end of the decade.

American cigarette sales are expected to decline by about 15 percent by the end of the decade, a reflection of the move to ban public smoking in most of the United States. Sales in Western Europe and other industrialized countries are also expected to drop.

France says it has received information that two French reporters held in Iraq are being treated well. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier made the comment in Jordan. He is there for talks aimed at freeing the two men. Late Thursday, an employer of the men said they had been given to a Sunni Muslim opposition group. The reporters have been threatened with death if France did not end a ban on Muslim headwear in public schools. French schools reopened on Thursday and the new law was not cancelled.