Friday,  Feb. 21, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 220 • 27 of 34

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• 10. HOW TWO STATES MAY TRY TO DRIVE SMOKING RATES LOWER
• Utah and Colorado, which already have low percentages of smokers, considering raising legal age to buy tobacco to 21.

AP News in Brief
Ukraine's president announces deal end to crisis; shots fired near protest square

• KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine's presidency said Friday that it has negotiated an international deal intended to end battles between police and protesters that have killed scores and injured hundreds. It was unclear whether the deal would appease protesters, and shots rang out Friday morning in central Kiev.
• President Viktor Yanukovych's office said that the government and the opposition had agreed to initial the deal, reached after all-night negotiations with EU diplomats, at noon local time (1000 GMT). That deadline passed without a deal, but an opposition spokeswoman said that opposition leaders will go to the president's office in the afternoon.
• European officials cautioned that it's too early to declare a breakthrough in a standoff that has plunged this country into the deadliest violence it has seen since winning independence from the Soviet Union.
• The conflict is a battle over the identity of Ukraine, a nation of 46 million that has divided loyalties between Russia and the West. Several regions in the west of the country are in open revolt against the central government, while many in eastern Ukraine back the president and favor strong ties with Russia, their former Soviet ruler.
• The preliminary deal struck overnight would see Ukraine's president would lose some of his powers, and a caretaker government created in 48 hours that would include representatives of the opposition, Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said.
• ___

A young woman's life entangled with al-Qaida points to reach of militant group in Yemen

• SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Abeer al-Hassani's ex-husband was famed for his beau

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