China to ban tobacco vending machines

In a bid to reduce tobacco-related deaths, China, the world's biggest market for cigarettes, said it would ban tobacco vending machines shortly after it ratified on Sunday the World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty it signed in 2003. Hong Kong and Macau would be subject to the ban. The WHO treaty also requires countries to ban tobacco advertising, promotion, sponsorship, and the sale of tobacco to minors. Parties to the treaty must pass the measures into national law within three to five years.