US District Judge Patricia Seitz gave her conditional approval Thursday to the proposed $25.5 million settlement between Hungarian survivors of the Holocaust and the US government over a train seized by the US Army in 1945 that was filled with gold, art, and other property, valued at the time between $50 million and $200 million. [...]

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a written statement Thursday demanding that Syria withdraw all troops from Lebanon prior to that country’s April and May parliamentary elections in order to ensure that the elections are free, fair, and conducted as scheduled. Syria has pulled its forces back to eastern Lebanon, with some 4,000 troops returning to [...]

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) threatened to remove itself from Guantanamo Bay interrogations due to the abuse of detainees in late 2002, forcing the Pentagon to review interrogation techniques approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , according to a classified Defense Department report. Excerpts of the report were read by Senator Carl Levin during [...]

The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would block the withholding of food and water from patients in a persistent vegetative state when the patient did not leave specific instructions refusing artificial feeding. The bill is designed to prevent the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, which is scheduled to take place [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities law news, Martha Stewart was back in court today to press her appeal to have her conviction overturned. Stewart attorney Walter Dellinger argued her conviction should be reversed because of the trial court's failure to take perjury charges against a government ink expert Larry Stewart into account. The three judge [...]

Former Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland Thursday asked federal Judge Peter C. Dorsey for leniency when sentencing him on a federal corruptions. Rowland is charged with trading political access for trips to Las Vegas, Vermont, and repairs to his cottage totalling more than $100,000; he accepted a plea agreement with prosecutors in December. In the [...]

Reuters is reporting that US authorities have indicted an ex-employee of Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root for defrauding the government of $3.5 million. 2:32 PM ET – An Illinois grand jury has laid charges against former KBR employee Jeff Alex Mazon as well as Ali Hijazi, who was the managing partner for a Kuwaiti [...]

China Thursday announced a political prisoner's release in an apparent exchange for the US dropping its pursuit of a UN censure of China's rights record. Rebiya Kadeer was released Thursday on medical parole and left for the US for treatment, according to a statement by the US-based Dui Hua Foundation . Kadeer was convicted of [...]

Afghanistan parliamentary elections originally slated for May will be held in September, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Thursday. Karzai's announcement only confirmed the delay, which had been anticipated by observers for some time as the country struggled to prepare for the elections. Karzai said the delay was caused by technical problems, including an incomplete national [...]

A group of class-action suits against cell phone manufacturers has been revived after the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the cases Wednesday. The five suits claim the cell phone industry has failed to adequately protect users from radiation emitted by the phones and seeks to require the provision of headsets with phones, as [...]