Hysen Sherifi, 29, was one of six Raleigh-area Muslims convicted in 2011 of planning to attack the Marine base in Quantico, Va., and overseas targets.

Shortly after starting his 45-year prison sentence in the terror case, Sherifi approached another inmate to help him hire a hit man to behead government informants and FBI agents. He recruited his younger brother Shkumbin Sherifi, 23, and former special education teacher Nevine Aly Elshiekh, 48, to help pay the hit man and organize the murders.

But the inmate whose help Sherifi sought turned out to be yet another government informant. FBI agents then staged an elaborate sting that involved secretly videotaped meetings with a woman posing as the go-between for a fictional hit man named Treetop and doctored photos that appeared to show the corpse of a beheaded witness in a shallow grave.

Federal prosecutors recommended leniency for the two coconspirators, who pleaded guilty last year and agreed to testify at the elder Sherifi's trial on nine felony counts.

Citing their extensive cooperation, U.S. District Senior Judge Earl sentenced the younger Sherifi to 3 years in prison, while Elshiekh got 3 1/2 years. They had faced as much as 10 years each.

Before Hysen Sherifi was sentenced, he lectured the judge about Islamic teachings.

"The Koran is the truth that invalidates all other religions," said Sherifi, who declined a court-appointed lawyer and represented himself at trial. "If you do not submit, he will severely judge you, and on the day of judgment you will enter hellfire."

"That it?" asked Britt, who has served more than three decades on the federal bench. The judge then tacked the four life sentences onto the end of Sherifi's earlier 45-year prison term, along with another 50 years on top of that.

"There can be no doubt Mr. Sherifi, the defendant in this case, meets the definition of a terrorist," Britt said. "He was the genesis of this conspiracy. He was the mastermind, though I'm hesitant to use that term because it affords him more credit than he is due."

Noting that the defendant was unsuccessful in killing anyone, Britt said Sherifi's worst transgression was destroying the lives of his little brother Shkumbin and Elshiekh, with whom he had carried on a romantic dalliance from behind bars.

Elshiekh, a U.S. citizen whose parents emigrated from Egypt, was a respected teacher of special-needs children who was also active as a youth leader at her Raleigh mosque.

According to court testimony, she had just undergone a painful divorce from a cheating husband when she began attending Sherifi's 2011 terrorism trial. She later began visiting him regularly in jail.

Dr. Emily Keram, a forensic psychiatrist hired by the defense, testified that Elshiekh was molested as a child by an uncle in Egypt and then trapped in an arranged marriage to a "con man" who later abandoned her to marry another woman.

Elshiekh was prescribed several psychiatric drugs that impaired her ability to reason and made her pliable to the will of others, the psychiatrist said.

At Hysen Sherifi's direction, Elshiekh gave a collection of gold jewelry given to her by her ex-husband to the younger brother, who pawned the pieces to raise the $5,000 he believed was needed to hire the hit man to execute the first victim.

Elshiekh claimed she had no idea what the money was for until she followed her paramour's direction to meet with a woman in a parked car. The woman, an informant for the FBI, showed Elshiekh a photo of one of the targeted witnesses and asked her to confirm that was the first man to be killed.

Though she then knew what the money was for, Elshiekh continued on with the plot for another 20 days until her arrest.

In her early court appearances, Elshiekh wore a headscarf and a black dress that fully covered her arms and legs. On Friday, her long hair trailed down her back and she wore western clothes.

In a tearful apology before the court on Friday, she accepted responsibility for what she had done.

"I wish I could turn back time, but I can't do that," she told the judge. "I never wanted anyone to get hurt."

Wearing shackles and a black Chicago T-shirt, Shkumbin Sherifi declined to address the judge before sentencing.

The Sherifis are ethnic Albanians who fled Kosovo in 1999 during a brutal sectarian war with Serbs and ended up as refugees in Raleigh. Though Hysen gravitated toward a militant strain of Islam, his younger siblings acclimated more readily to life in America. Shkumbin went so far as to record an amateur rap album.

Among those testifying Friday was one of the government witnesses Hysen Sherifi wanted dead. Melvin Weeks was a U.S. Army soldier serving in Kosovo after the war when he met the older Sherifi, who was visiting his grandparents.

Weeks, a Muslim, said Sherifi praised Osama bin Laden and showed him jihadist videos that included a hostage being beheaded. Though an American bombing campaign had saved the ethnic Albanians from genocide just a few years earlier, Weeks said Sherifi called for holy war against the very nation that gave his family a new home.

"In my opinion, he is a devil manifested here on Earth, walking among us," the former soldier said.

___

Follow Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck

(Reuters) - WebMD Health Corp said Chief Executive Cavan Redmond will be leaving the health information provider, less than a year after the former Pfizer Inc executive was appointed to turn around the company's fortunes.

Shares of the company, which reported a smaller first-quarter loss, were up about 16 percent at $29.50 in after-hours trading. They closed at $25.51 on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.

The company said its senior vice president of strategic and corporate development, David Schlanger, will serve as interim CEO.

WebMD's earnings have been hit as consumers use its websites for specific information only without surfing the other content on the site.

"One of the areas of investment is in the areas of personalization to increase user frequency and how much time they spend on the site when they are there," Schlanger said to Reuters.

WebMD, which operates medical websites providing health and disease related information, has struggled with a fall in advertising revenue with pharmaceutical companies slashing marketing budgets as several blockbuster drugs go off patent.

WebMD also said Anthony Vuolo will be replaced as chief financial officer by Peter Anevski, currently a senior vice-president of finance.

"We do not believe this management change will adversely affect our recent momentum. Results that we issued today along with improved outlook for the balance of the year are a result of the collective efforts of our senior leadership team," WebMD Chairman Martin Wygod said on a conference call with analysts.

UPBEAT OUTLOOK, NEW IDEAS

WebMD expects full-year revenue of $450 million to $470 million, ahead of analysts' expectations of $444.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said it is developing a new channel called the healthcare reform center which will be launched to coincide with the next implementation phase of the Affordable Care Act in the fall.

"We believe that this channel will become a valuable resource for the tens of millions of consumers who will be responsible for choosing a health plan for the first time and will need to understand the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to themselves and their families," Schlanger said.

Schlanger told Reuters that the channel will be free and open to all users and its purpose will be to provide consumers with content and tools to help in understanding the ACA and make key decisions in choosing their health plan.

The company said the changes in Google's search algorithms increased the traffic to its flagship site, WebMD.com.

Public portal advertising and sponsorship which makes up most of its revenue stream rose 6 percent to $93 million, while overall revenue rose 5 percent to $112.8 million in the first quarter.

Schlanger said about 34 percent of the company's page views were delivered to U.S. mobile devices during the quarter.

"We have been able to sustain our overall traffic growth in an environment where PC traffic has been declining across the web," Schlanger said.

WebMD's net loss narrowed by about 80 percent to $1.5 million, or 3 cents per share, from $7.8 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 15 cents per share on revenue of $106.6 million.

(Reporting By Pallavi Ail and Adithya Venkatesan in Bangalore; Editing by Anthony Kurian, Roshni Menon and Carol Bishopric)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Given Kate Spade Saturday's bold designs, bright colors and creative flair, it was probably only fitting that the new lifestyle brand opened its first flagship store in fashion-obsessed Tokyo.

After all, the sister label of Kate Spade New York began developing the brand with Japanese consumers in mind more than three years ago, envisaging functional designs that would strike a chord with on-the-go urbanites and expand the original brand's DNA into a more casual realm.

Kate Spade Saturday opened its first store in Tokyo's trendy Harajuku district earlier this month and another in Osaka last week, and plans to have a total of five Japan stores open by June. Following the Japan launch, it also debuted in the United States via an online store and is eyeing a push into other international markets later this year.

"Because this brand's concept originated in Japan and we really wanted to make the brand global, we felt Tokyo was the perfect city to launch the brand," Ayako Yanagisawa, president of Kate Spade Japan, told Reuters in an interview at the company's offices in Harajuku.

"I think Tokyo is a very interesting city for the fashion industry to try out a new brand. The market is mature enough to receive, and digest, and understand new creativity. There is also a wide age range of people who like fashion in this city," she said.

"It can be a real showcase for the Asian market."

Tokyo has served as an overseas launch point in recent years for several brands, including designers Rebecca Minkoff and Tracy Reese. Both the Rebecca Minkoff and Tracy Reese brands showed at the Tokyo Runway fashion show Wednesday held in conjunction with Japan Fashion Week.

TRENDSETTERS

Kate Spade New York, owned by Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc, is known for the splashy colors and bold prints of its designer handbags, clothing and accessories. It competes with brands like Coach and Michael Kors in the attainable luxury category.

Kate Spade Saturday skews slightly younger, more casual, and less expensive than the New York label.

Yanagisawa said both the Japanese and U.S. sides of the company were involved in the development of the Saturday brand from the onset, and the design of several products reflects Japanese consumers' love for functionality and detail.

Its Half-Circle Bag, which goes for 19,845 yen ($210) online, can be worn over the shoulder or around the waist, and the strap can even be worn as a belt. Its Square Tote, at 17,325 yen ($180), has two side pockets that can be used to hold folding umbrellas - a must-have for Japanese urban life - or just as easily a bottle of wine to take to a party.

Japan is Kate Spade's biggest market outside the United States and the company aims to increase the number of its Japanese stores - including New York, Saturday and its Jack Spade men's brand - to between 85 and 105 in 2016, from 54 in 2012.

"The Japanese retail market still has room to grow," Yanagisawa said, noting that so-called fashion buildings, often built adjacent to or above train stations, were a big draw for women in their 20s and 30s even as traditional department store sales drop off.

Japan's young trendsetters are starting to take notice.

"Everyone has a Kate Spade iPhone case," said Kyoko Oyamada, a 21-year-old university student in Tokyo sporting a black leather Kate Spade handbag. "I thought they were cute so I went to check out the bags myself and found one I wanted."

($1 = 95.0550 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Chris Gallagher, editing by Elaine Lies)

University spokesman Colin Riley declined to provide the student's name or other identifying details.

The other two victims killed in the back-to-back blasts near the finish line of the storied distance race were Martin Richard, 8, and Krystle Campbell, 29, both from the Boston area. More than 170 other people were hurt by the two explosions.

(Reporting By Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Writing by Dan Burns; Editing by Scott Malone)

Kerry said the U.S. has expressed concerns about what such defensive systems in Syria would mean for Israel's security. He wouldn't address what the missiles might mean for Syria's civil war.

He spoke to reporters in Rome after the Wall Street Journal reported that Russia was preparing to sell the weapons to President Bashar Assad's regime.

Coming just days after Kerry hailed what he described as a U.S.-Russia breakthrough on Syria, the report suggested Moscow may already be angling to further strengthen the Assad regime two years into a war that has killed more than 70,000 people.

"We have previously stated that the missiles," Kerry said, "are potentially destabilizing with respect to the state of Israel."

"We have made it crystal clear that we prefer that Russia would not supply them assistance," Kerry told reporters alongside new Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino. "That is on record. That hasn't changed."

White House spokesman Jay Carney, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, said, "We have consistently called on Russia to cut off the Assad regime's supply of weapons," including air defense systems that destabilize the region.

"The provision of additional weapons to the regime will not hasten a political solution," Carney said.

Israeli officials said they have asked Russia to cancel the imminent sale to the Assad regime of advanced ground-to-air missile systems.

Such weapons would enhance the Syrian government's defensive ability and make it even harder for the U.S. and other governments to consider even the possibility of trying to enforce a no-fly zone in the country or otherwise intervening militarily.

Russia rarely comments publicly on arms sales or transfers, and there has been no official word on the deal in Moscow.

Even before Syria's 2011 uprising, the Israelis warned about a sale of S-300 batteries which can target manned planes, drones and incoming missiles. Moscow had held off on the deal under persistent U.S. and Israeli pressure.

The S-300 would be a state-of-the-art upgrade for Syria's aging Soviet-supplied defense system, which was easily circumvented in 2007 when Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria.

And it would only add to reservations in the United States and other Western nations about a more forceful, military intervention to end the war. With the advanced aircraft interception technology, Syria would be able to present a far more robust defense than Moammar Gadhafi's Libya offered two years ago.

The Wall Street Journal put the deal at $900 million for a package of four batteries, six launchers and 144 operational missiles. The missiles have a range of 125 miles, it reported, citing the Israeli-provided information, adding that the materiel would start arriving over the next three months.

Russia remains the Syrian government's most powerful international ally.

Kerry met earlier this week with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow to find a path forward. Kerry and Lavrov announced afterward that they would convene an international conference in the coming weeks to try to bring representatives of the Assad regime and the opposition to the negotiating table.

The enhanced Russian military support, if confirmed, would fly in the face of American claims that Moscow is demonstrating a new cooperativeness.

Moscow, with China, has repeatedly foiled Washington on Syria, blocking three U.N. Security Council resolutions against the Assad regime. It's unclear how its recent calculus has changed, even as U.S. officials point to statements by Lavrov and other Russian officials showing less support for Assad's continued leadership.

Kerry, however, offered only strong praise for Russia and said the focus now needed to be on how to corral the warring parties into peace talks and not on which governments are providing which sides with weaponry.

He said he was "grateful" for Putin's "willingness to try to move to a new paradigm" of peace talks between the Assad regime and the Syrian opposition.

Lavrov, Kerry added, made a "very important" statement by declaring that Russia isn't tied to "any one person" in Syria, suggesting it was comfortable seeing Assad leave power.

Syria "needs to emerge from the war in an inclusive, pluralistic democratic government that is protective of minorities and the rights of all Syrians," Kerry said.

"The current path in Syria is simply unsustainable," Kerry said. "The current path will only lead to greater bloodshed, greater destruction, greater instability, a greater humanitarian crisis, a greater challenge for stability of neighboring states, with the potential of extremists becoming stronger and with the potential of chemical weapons falling into the hands of dangerous people."

Those worst-case scenarios should motivate everyone to return to the negotiating table, he told reporters.

Moscow has been the source of most of Syria's military hardware since Assad's father and predecessor, Hafez, courted the Kremlin decades ago.

It has provided Syria with 36 Pantsyr mobile surface-to-air missile systems and at least eight Buk-M2E mobile SAMs. The Pantsyrs are considered particularly effective against attacking aircraft and feature a combination of 30mm cannons paired with a radar and anti-aircraft missiles on the same vehicle.

And other obsolete systems have been upgraded, and Kerry's predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, sparked controversy last year when she accused the Russians of preparing to deliver attack helicopters.

Russians officials have insisted to their American counterparts that they are only honoring old contracts that are nearing expiration.

LOS ANGELES, May 7 (Reuters) - For the Los Angeles Kings, it all came down to resilience and winning the final period as they faced the daunting prospect of trailing the St. Louis Blues 3-1 in their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.

In front of a packed house at Staples Center, the Stanley Cup champions were stunned by two early Blues goals in Monday's Game Four and despite clawing their way back to 2-2, they again fell behind by the second intermission.

"Just win one period" was the team's mantra as they huddled in their locker room before coming out for the final period and they delivered in style, Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams scoring 76 seconds apart to seal a 4-3 win for Los Angeles.

"There's a lot of resilience in this room," Kings left wing Dustin Penner told reporters after the fifth seeds leveled the playoff series at 2-2 with Game Five set for St. Louis on Wednesday and Game Six back in Los Angeles on Friday.

"The game has a funny way of making you question it, but we have a lot of resolve and obviously we draw on experiences from last year."

Penner described how the Kings had set themselves small building blocks going into the final period in a bid to erase a 3-2 deficit after T.J. Oshie had scored his second goal of the night with a wrist shot to put the Blues in control.

"Just win one period," Penner said. "We had tied one, lost one. If we could just win this period - small goals for ourselves - then that would lead into a big one.

"And get pucks to the net, get inside their D and create havoc for (St. Louis goaltender Brian) Elliott. The game tests you in different ways. We definitely earned this one."

Game Four was surprisingly electrifying for the fans as it followed three low-scoring affairs highlighted by two of the best defenses in the league and a pair of outstanding goalies.

NEAR-IMPREGNABLE QUICK

Jonathan Quick, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy last season as the most valuable player in the playoffs, had looked near-impregnable for the Kings as he stopped 93 of 97 shots in the first three games. Elliott had impressively stopped 76 of 79.

On Monday, however, Quick was beaten twice in the first five minutes of play, a wide open David Backes scoring with a wrist shot after just 72 seconds and Oshie making it 2-0 for the fourth seeds with a tip-in during a power play after 4:32.

Panic was never likely to set in, though, for a Kings team that became the first eighth seed to win a Stanley Cup last year after upsetting the Western Conference's top three seeds along the way.

"It's not about morale on our team," Kings head coach Darryl Sutter said. "It sounds repetitive, but this team has resilience. There was no faction, when it was 0-2, that it was 'Throw it in' or 'What's going on?'

"That's not the way it works. And there was really nothing to build back. They scored a weak goal, then they scored a power-play goal. We got a big goal from Jeff (Carter) which makes it 2-1 and that's pretty how much how the series has gone.

"Score was 4-3 coming in tonight in 10 periods and after three periods tonight it was 4-3 again ... so you play 13 periods and it's 7-7. That's how close it is."

The Kings have now won nine straight games at home for a 21-4-1 overall record at Staples Center this season, but they have lost eight in a row on the road, including the first two games of this series.

"We are going back home," smiled St. Louis defenseman Jay Bouwmeester. "We are in a good position still. You just have to approach it like it's a three-game series now.

"We just have to get back to doing the things that made us successful. We have to get back to skating and getting on the fore-check. This time of the year it's real close. You don't have to change a lot but sometimes it makes a big difference." (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California, May 8 (Reuters) - Tottenham Hotspur have to qualify for the Champions League or risk losing England's Footballer of the Year Gareth Bale, U.S. national coach and former Spurs talisman Juergen Klinsmann said in an interview with Reuters.

Klinsmann, who before Bale was the last Spurs player to score 20 league goals in a season and also win the prestigious Footballer of the Year for the feat, said Bale was a tremendous talent but he would need to play on the big stage with a club in the Champions League.

Klinsmann said that had been the reason he left the north London side with a heavy heart in 1995 for Bayern Munich right after winning the Footballer of the Year award.

"I'm a huge Tottenham fan and I'm also a huge Gareth Bale admirer," Klinsmann said in an interview near his home in Southern California.

"I just hope, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed, that they make into the Champions League. The risk is very big that if you don't go into the Champions League, you'll lose Gareth Bale."

Bale has scored 25 goals in all competitions for Spurs, many of them spectacular strikes from outside the penalty area.

His performances helped Tottenham reach the Europa League quarter-finals and have kept them in the race for a top-four finish in the Premier League and a possible return to the Champions League.

Spurs are currently fifth in the league, two points behind Arsenal who have played a game more, and a win over Chelsea on Wednesday would boost their Champions League hopes.

Bale's performances have also sparked widespread media reports that Spurs would value their prize asset at somewhere between 60 million pounds ($92.82 million)and 80 million pounds -- a price tag which would scare off all but the richest of suitors.

"I think he deserves that recognition, footballer of the year." Klinsmann said. "He deserves an amazing amount of admiration for how he's played the last two or three seasons.

"He plays for Wales and can probably never play in a World Cup. A player like him needs to play on the biggest stage. The risk is if Tottenham don't reach the biggest stage, the Champions League, that they might lose him."

Klinsmann said that was, ultimately, the reason he left Spurs in 1995 right after winning Footballer of the Year.

"My reason for leaving the Spurs was only to play on a bigger stage," he said.

"That's why I left the Spurs for Bayern Munich many years ago. I wanted to play top European football.

"That might be the risk now with Gareth. But I hope they make it happen, qualify for the Champions League and play Champions League next season and can keep Gareth Bale at White Hart Lane. That is my big hope."

($1 = 0.6464 British pounds) (additional reporting by Tom Wagner)

My wife is an out bisexual woman. You were correct that it is possible to be bisexual without having acted on it, as people are not defined solely by the partner they have. Precisely for that reason, some individuals feel that "bisexual" is who they are, and to omit it feels like living a lie.

The notion that stating one's bisexuality is "advertising that one is available" is why my wife chose to come out -- to combat this misconception. Just as straights can be attracted to people of the opposite sex besides their spouse, so might a coupled bisexual person be attracted to other individuals of both genders. Bisexuals, however, are no more likely to act on this attraction than anyone else.

"Bi" should just be herself and tell anyone who needs to know when she feels comfortable telling them. And you're right, Abby -- she should tell her husband first. But if her marriage is as strong and happy as she indicated, I'm pretty sure he already knows. I know I did. -- JON IN NORTH CAROLINA

DEAR JON: Thank you for writing. The comments I received about that letter were passionate and informed:

DEAR ABBY: Bisexual women and men who begin identifying and clarifying their sexual identities in the context of committed relationships need spaces where they can sort through their understandings of themselves.

A support group that is either counselor- or peer-led, in-person or online, can be an important resource to help "Bi in the Deep South" recognize that others have also experienced what she is going through and she can learn from them. She will see there is a place of support and encouragement where it's OK to talk about what bisexuality means for her. Being part of such a group can be particularly liberating. -- LICENSED COUNSELOR, AUSTIN, TEXAS

DEAR ABBY: If "Bi in the Deep South" is comfortable enough with who she is to tell someone, she should not be advised to stay in the closet to any degree. She has the right to be honest with herself and her family and not go through life hiding.

As for posting one's sexual orientation on social media profiles, doing so does not change your relationship status. You can be both "in a committed relationship" and "bisexual." They are not mutually exclusive. -- BI IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

DEAR ABBY: There is real power in coming out, in voicing your authentic self. There is an emotional cost to remaining silent. Many who do so feel like they are allowing others to assume things about them that are just not true.

I speak from personal experience. I was silent for five years, and the day I started talking about the fact that I am bisexual, I felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off me.

I hope "Bi in the Deep South" will find the courage to come out and fly her rainbow colors. Although she may have to correct some people's misconceptions of what it means to identify as bisexual, she will feel much better. -- ROBYN IN MASSACHUSETTS

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: "Abby's Favorite Recipes" and "More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $14 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

The two new landmarks are the Wade Tract Preserve in southern Georgia, one of the last old-growth stands of longleaf pine left in the world, and the Zumwalt Prairie in Oregon, an example of bunchgrass prairie that was once more widespread.

"By designating these remarkable sites as national natural landmarks, we recognize two extraordinary examples ofthat were commonplace at one time, but are now rarely seen intact," said National Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis in a statement.

Scientists think that the Wade Tract Preserve is an example of what that region of the country would have looked like at the time Europeans colonized the area, according to the statement. Some trees in the preserve are more than 300 years old.

At the other end of the country, the Zumwalt Prairie is home to large populations of mammals, birds and prey. In addition to bunchgrass , it features aspen groves, grasslands, sagebrush shrublands and other wooded areas. The landmark falls within a preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy.

The landmark status is intended to help preserve important natural areas and to allow scientists to better study them, though it doesn't impose and land use restrictions that weren't already in place.

In addition to the two new landmarks, the boundaries of Garden Park Fossil Area National Natural Landmark, located in Fremont County, Colo., have been expanded. They now include five quarries that have yielded important discoveries, including three of the most complete Stegosaurus skeletons ever found, the NPS statement said.

Follow Andrea Thompson , and . Follow OurAmazingPlanet, and . Original article at .

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City took the first step on Monday in outlawing sales of cigarettes to anyone under age 21, in an effort to reduce smoking among the age group in which most smokers take up the habit.

The bill, which was introduced by the City Council and has the backing of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, would make New York City, which already has the highest cigarette taxes in the nation, the first big city or state to set the smoking age at 21. Currently, individuals must be 18 to buy cigarettes.

Eight in 10 adult smokers in the city started smoking regularly when they were below the age of 21, and most smokers who are under age 18 obtain cigarettes from individuals who are just a few years older than them, city officials said.

While an increase in cigarette taxes contributed to a 15-point drop among youth smokers from 1999 to 2007, the number of high-school-aged smokers has held steady at about 8.5 percent over the last six years.

Cigarette packs sold in New York City currently carry a state tax of $4.35 and a city tax of $1.50 - making it the most expensive city in the nation to be a smoker.

"Too many adult smokers begin this deadly habit before age 21," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said. "By delaying our city's children and young adults access to lethal tobacco products, we're decreasing the likelihood they ever start smoking, and thus, creating a healthier city."

The bill marks the latest effort in the city's decade-long fight to discourage smoking, which the city's health commissioner, Thomas Farley, said was the most significant cause of preventable death in the city. In 2003, Bloomberg outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants, and smoking has since been banned in other public places, including parks.

Quinn, who is running to become the city's next mayor, made clear that she would continue Bloomberg's aggressive public health agenda - which has led his detractors to dub him the "nanny mayor."

MOST TOBACCO USE STARTS IN ADOLESCENCE

While most of the city's anti-smoking initiatives have originated with Bloomberg, the mayor did not join Quinn in making the announcement on Monday, instead sending Farley to say that the mayor looks forward to signing the bill into law.

Every U.S. state prohibits retailers from selling tobacco products to minors and in most states the smoking age is set at 18. Four states - Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah - require that a cigarette purchaser be at least 19 years old.

In New York, Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island have already boosted their legal age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products to 19.

Nearly all tobacco use starts in childhood and adolescence, according to the 2012 report by the U.S. Surgeon General, which declared smoking a "pediatric epidemic" both in the United States and globally.

According to the report, 99 percent of all first use of tobacco occurs by age 26. The report also found that if youth and young adults manage to avoid smoking or other tobacco products, very few will begin smoking after that age.

Evidence suggests that once youth start smoking, many find it hard to quit. Of all adult cigarette smokers in the United States who smoke daily, 88 percent started smoking by age 18, according to the report.

Currently, about one out of four seniors in high school - youth aged 17 or 18 - smoke on a regular basis. Among those who continue smoking, half will die 13 years earlier than non-smoking peers.

It was not immediately clear how the tobacco industry would respond to the proposed legislation, which Quinn said she hoped would become a model for the rest of the country.

"Our companies follow the law whatever it is in any jurisdiction," said Jane Seccombe, spokeswoman for Reynolds American Inc, the parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, American Snuff Co and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. "We believe no minors, however they're classified in those jurisdictions, should be able to access tobacco products."

She declined to comment on any potential sales impact from changes in the minimum age.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, Barbara Goldberg and Martinne Geller; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Cynthia Johnston and Marguerita Choy)