The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has reached a settlement agreement with Hynix Semiconductor as part of the DOJ's ongoing investigation into price-fixing in the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) industry. Under the agreement, which must be approved by the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Hynix will plead guilty [...]

Former Merrill Lynch executive Daniel Bayly has been sentenced to 30 months by in prison US District Judge Ewing Werlein for his role in an Enron Nigerian barge scam. Bayly will also face six months of supervision after prison and must pay $840,000 in fees and fines. Judge Werlein found the losses caused by Bayly's [...]

In a case somewhat similar to that of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo, Justice Mark Hedley of the High Court in London Thursday upheld a court order allowing a critically ill baby to die if she stops breathing. Charlotte Wyatt was born 3 months premature with serious brain, lung, and kidney damage. Physicians say she [...]

In Thursday's environmental law news, US District Judge Shira Scheindlin has ruled that some 80 lawsuits can proceed against oil companies claiming that a gasoline additive, methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) , contaminated groundwater. The suits allege that the oil companies contaminated wells and underground aquifers across the country by adding MTBE to gasoline as a [...]

Saajid Badat , the British man who has admitted to conspiring with "shoebomber" Richard Reid to blow up an aircraft, will be sentenced on Friday after entering a guilty plea to a conspiracy charge in February. Badat, who did not go forward with his plan, was to use an explosive device similar to the one [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, the first troops of the UN peacekeeping force assigned to Sudan arrived in Khartoum Thursday to prepare the way for the more than 10,000 troops to follow. The 44 peacekeepers that arrived in the Sudanese capital were mainly staff officers sent to set up command and control elements for the next [...]

The office of the Pentagon's general counsel has sent leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives Armed Services Committees a draft copy of a proposal saying that consensual sodomy between members of the US military would no longer be a criminal act. The change would bring the military legal code closer to the [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved two of President Bush's judicial nominees , sending the nominations to the full Senate in what could trigger a partisan face-off over the filibuster. With two 10-8 votes along party lines, the Committee approved the nominations of Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown to the 5th and 2nd [...]

Zacarias Moussaoui , the only person charged by the US in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, could receive the death penalty after he requested nothing in return for agreeing to plead guilty, federal officials have said. Moussaoui has indicated he will plead guilty to a six-count indictment with no stipulation as to [...]

Brazil has granted asylum to ousted Ecuadoran President Lucio Gutierrez , Brazil's Ministry of External Relations said Thursday. The Ministry said Gutierrez sought asylum Wednesday at the Brazilian embassy in Quito, calling its grant of the request a "regional tradition." Gutierrez was removed from his position on Wednesday by a congressional vote after a day [...]