A LETHAL BLOW
Three sick smokers in the US have been awarded a total of US $12.7 million in compensatory damages by a Florida jury in a verdict that indicted cigarette manufactures for their illness. This is the highest compensation paid in the country in a sick-smokers case and the verdict comes as a big blow to the beleaguered tobacco companies in the US. So much so, that it has the potential to push some of the nation's biggest corporations into bankruptcy. Among those who were compensated was an eight-year-old girl suffering from lung cancer. She was awarded US $2.85 millions.