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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that lawsuits may proceed against tobacco companies for allegedly deceptive marketing of "light" cigarettes.

In a 5-4 split won by the court's liberals, the court said that smokers may use state consumer protection laws to sue cigarette makers for the way they promote "light" and "low tar" brands.'

The decision was at odds with recent anti-consumer rulings that limited state regulation of business in favor of federal power.

The tobacco companies argued that the lawsuits are barred by the federal cigarette labeling law, which forbids states from regulating any aspect of cigarette advertising that involves smoking and health.

Justice John Paul Stevens, however, said in his majority opinion that the labeling law does not shield the companies from state laws against deceptive practices.

People suing the cigarette makers still must prove that the use of 'light' and 'lowered tar' actually violate the state anti-fraud laws, but those lawsuits may go forward, Stevens said.

He was joined by the other liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter, as well as Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote often decides cases where there is an ideological division.

Rioters rampaged through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki Sunday, hurling Molotov cocktails, burning stores and blocking city streets with flaming barricades after protests against the fatal police shooting of a teenager erupted into chaos.

Youths wearing hoods smashed storefronts and cars in Athens. Riot police responded with tear gas while the fire department rushed to extinguish blazes. Several bank branches, stores and at least one building were on fire on a major street leading to the capital's police headquarters. Clashes also broke out near Parliament.

Streets quickly emptied as word of the violence spread. Local media reported several people sought treatment for breathing problems.

Violence often breaks out during demonstrations in Greece between riot police and anarchists, who attack banks, high-end shops, diplomatic vehicles and foreign car dealerships in late-night fire-bombings that rarely cause injuries.

Some believe the anarchist movement has its roots in the resistance to the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967-74. The anarchists often take refuge inside university buildings or campuses, where police are barred under Greek law.

The shooting of the 16-year-old boy that set off the first riots took place Saturday night in Exarchia, a downtown Athens district of bars, music clubs and restaurants that is seen as the anarchists' home base.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting were initially unclear. Police said the two officers involved claimed they were attacked by a group of youths, and that three gunshots and a stun grenade were fired in response.

Asian stocks plunged deeper into the red Tuesday, as confirmation of a U.S. recession and further falls in commodity prices dealt blows to exporters and oil producers. Financials also slid on some re-emerging signs of heightened borrowing costs. The surging yen continued to erode Japanese companies' overseas earnings.

Japan's Nikkei 225 sank 5.0% to 7,978.75 points in midafternoon trading, following the lead of the Dow Jones industrial average, which shed 679.95 points, or 7.7%, to 8,149.09 Monday. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared that a U.S. recession started in December 2007. Japanese financials suffered steep losses, as Mizuho Financial Group (nyse: MFG - news - people ) tumbled 7.6%, Sumitomo Mitsui (other-otc: SMFJY - news - people ) lost 6.6% and Mitsubishi UFJ (nyse: MTU - news - people ) slid 6.7%. Nomura Holdings (nyse: NMR - news - people ), which said it aims to reel in 500.0 billion yen ($5.4 billion) in pretax profit and 70.0 billion yen ($749.3 million) in investment banking profit in 2010, fell 7.2%.

Hitachi (nyse: HIT - news - people ) lost 3.5%, after the company and Intel Corporation (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) jointly announced plans to release solid-state drives, high-end memory storage drives that have no moving parts, by early 2010.

Hurting exporters, the yen strengthened further against the dollar, briefly reaching below 93 yen on the dollar, a five-week low in early trade. Steelmaker JFE Holdings (other-otc: JFEEF - news - people ) plunged 8.6%. Honda Motor (nyse: HMC - news - people ) fell 6.8%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 4.8%, to 13,427.95, on steep slides in financials and refiners. The three-month Hibor, or interbank lending rate, climbed to 2.14% from 2.04%. HSBC (nyse: HBC - news - people )tumbled 5.8%, amid reports that the bank plans to raise mortgage rates. Bank of East Asia (other-otc: BKEAY - news - people ) skidded 6.0%. CITIC Pacific (other-otc: CTPCY - news - people ) requested a suspension of trading without giving a reason, after soaring over 15% Monday. In November, the firm had to be bailed out by its state-owned parent company after huge losses from unauthorized forex trading (See "CITIC Pacific's $1.5 Billion Bailout: The Tarnish Remains").

PetroChina (nyse: PTR - news - people ) lost 7.0%, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec (nyse: SNP - news - people ), shed 6.2% and China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, slid 6.0%. In a turnaround from last week, Air China (other-otc: AIRYY - news - people ) dropped 6.0%, as parent companies of its peers China Eastern Airlines (nyse: CEA - news - people ) and China Southern Airlines (nyse: ZNH - news - people ) have received or look likely to receive government aid due to steep fuel hedging losses.

China Unicom (nyse: CHU - news - people ), which last week completed its merger with China Netcom (nyse: CN - news - people ) as part of Beijing's telecom restructuring, sank 5.6%.