The 8-month trial and 8 day verdict ended an anguished wait for Jackson’s successful defense team – and their client – but resulted in a euphoria for the star’s fans as much as it created a bitter defeat for prosecutors Jackson, 46, was prosecuted on 10 felony counts – four of child molesting, one of […]

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear several appeals from media companies that wanted the court to restore regulations making it easier for newspaper and broadcast companies to combine. Without comment, justices let stand a lower court ruling that threw out the FCC regulations as unjustified. The media groups argued that the Philadelphia-based 3rd

Radical Arab militants have been trickling into Iraq to join the fight of Ba’athists and radical Islamists against US forces. But another, non-violent Arab contingent of volunteers has been gearing up for battle on a different front – the defence of Saddam Hussein. During the past year, the committee for the defence of Mr Hussein,

A gay senior associate in the Los Angeles office of New York’s White & Case has sued the firm for sexual harassment and sex discrimination, claiming two male partners created a “intimidating, hostile and offensive work environment” through inappropriate comments and behavior. In a suit filed June 2 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Christopher

Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, pleaded for leniency yesterday from the judge who will sentence him for his conviction on charges of orchestrating the largest securities fraud in the nation’s history. Lawyers for Mr. Ebbers, who will be sentenced on July 13, asked the court to depart from federal guidelines when

Citigroup Inc. said on Friday it will pay $2 billion to Enron Corp. investors who accused it of helping the energy trader in a massive accounting fraud, a move that cleans up one of the bank’s top legal problems and could pressure others to settle the case. The class-action settlement with stock and bond holders

The UK magic circle had a truly ropey year in 2004. Indeed, anyone espousing the cause of the European independent firmmight have felt vindicated. Average profits at the UK/European big four slipped across the board. Clifford Chance’s average profit per equity partner (PEP) dropped from €913,000 (£644,000) to £562,000; Linklaters’ from €1m (£734,000) to £674,000;

In a defeat for New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, former Bank of America Corp broker Theodore Sihpol on Thursday was acquitted by a Manhattan jury of 29 counts of helping a hedge fund trade mutual funds illegally. New York Supreme Court Justice James Yates declared a mistrial on four other counts on which the

A Justice Department decision to seek $10 billion for a stop-smoking program in its suit against the country’s leading tobacco companies, instead of the $130 billion suggested by one of its expert witnesses, set off a firestorm on Wednesday. Several Democratic lawmakers with a longtime interest in smoking and health issues attacked the department for

HealthSouth, the scandal-plagued healthcare services group, said on Wednesday it agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC sued HealthSouth in March 2003, accusing the firm of overstating profits. The settlement pact resolves that litigation only, said HealthSouth, which is involved in several other