Malaysia’s government is battling a smoking epidemic that threatens its young people — and it fears Barack Obama’s big Pacific trade deal will make the health crisis even worse. When the president, a reformed smoker himself, landed in Kuala Lumpur this past weekend for his third stop in a weeklong Asia swing, he visited one of the other 12 Pacific Rim countries hoping to close the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement that American and Asian businesses value at billions of dollars in sales into new markets. Following Obama’s meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the two leaders addressed a room full of reporters, but it’s not clear whether any progress was made on ... [Read more]