Premium passengers traveling on Dubai-based airline Emirates will be exempt from the no-smoking policy starting next month, when the carrier debuts a shisha lounge on select jumbo jets. The new service is set to debut on the carrier’s fleet of Airbus A380 aircraft and will be offered to Emirates’ business and first-class passengers. Passengers can pre-order a shisha -- also known as a waterpipe, hubble-bubble, hookah or narghile -- from the onboard menu and retire to the lounge for a post-meal smoke beginning in June.

Toronto's Mayor Rob Ford angrily denied on Friday that he had smoked crack cocaine, after a newspaper said it had seen video footage showing him puffing from a pipe and wisecracking. Ford told reporters the claim is "ridiculous" while his lawyer has called media descriptions of the video "false and defamatory." "How can you indicate what the person is actually doing or smoking?" Ford's lawyer Dennis Morris demanded, according to the Toronto Star.

LONDON (Reuters) - British American Tobacco <BATS.L> said it was confident it would grow earnings this year after it reported a 1 percent rise in volumes of its premium brands like Kent and Lucky Strike in the first three months of 2013. The world's second biggest cigarette maker said on Thursday that revenue grew by 5 percent, measured in constant rates of exchange, in the first quarter.

By Claire Davenport and Charlie Dunmore BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An influential EU lawmaker has proposed strengthening draft European anti-tobacco rules by banning all distinguishing branding from cigarette and tobacco packets, following the example set by Australia. The tobacco industry has begun lobbying against the idea, and if a ban won backing from EU governments and the European Parliament, it could face a legal challenge from companies such as Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco.