"The criminal actions of this corporation had threatened to turn on the lights on the modern battlefield for our enemies and expose American soldiers to great harm," Brownlee said.

ITT defense-related technical data was given to China, Singapore and the United Kingdom in order to cut costs, government investigators said.

"Placing profits ahead of the security of our nation is simply not acceptable for any corporation," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie Myers said in a statement.

ITT, which Brownlee said is the U.S. military's 12th largest systems supplier, is the first major defense contractor convicted of a criminal violation under the Arms Export Control Act that a Brownlee spokesman said was passed in 1976.

According to the prosecutor, ITT agreed to pay a $2 million criminal fine, forfeit $28 million in illegal proceeds to the U.S. government and pay $20 million to the State Department.

"ITT will pay $50 million in restitution to the victims of their crimes _ the American soldier," Brownlee said.

The fine will be suspended for five years and the White Plains, N.Y.-based company can reduce it dollar-for-dollar by investing in the development and production of more advanced night-vision technology so the U.S. military maintains battlefield advantage.

The government will maintain the rights to any technologies ITT develops and can share them with rival defense firms bidding on future contracts, Brownlee said.

A group of public employee unions today filed lawsuits in opposition to the recommendations of the State's Berger Commission, which last year offered that multiple hospitals across New York need to be closed in order to control rising costs. The lawsuits, which focus on several hospitals upstate, argue that the State should not have empowered an unelected panel to make these decisions, among other things.

"The Berger Commission recommendation is a violation of the New York State Constitution. Decisions to close or merge hospitals should not be made by a commission that is unaccountable to the public and appointed by an outgoing governor. The commission also violated the Education Law. Only SUNY trustees have the authority to operate Upstate Medical Center. That authority cannot be transferred to any other entity,” said New York State Public Employees Federation President Ken Brynien.

John Williams, from the Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues attempted to forecast the risk of novel or disappearing climates by the year 2100, using global climate models and greenhouse gas emission scenarios from the recent assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC).

Their findings are being published Tuesday in this week's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found that under both high and low emissions scenarios, many regions would experience biome-scale changes. Biomes are types of major ecological communities, such as rainforest, grassland, or desert.

Tropical and subtropical regions may experience previously unrecorded climates, with the greatest changes in Amazonian and Indonesian rainforests. Areas like the southeastern United States and the Arabian Peninsula may also be affected.

Tropical mountains and poleward regions, such as the Peruvian and Colombian Andes, Siberia, and southern Australia, face a risk of climates disappearing altogether.

In the high-end scenario, up to 39 percent and 48 percent of the planet's land surface could experience novel or disappearing climates, respectively, while in the low-end scenario, the projections are up to 20 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

The regions facing climate disappearance have also been recently identified as biodiversity hotspots, suggesting that standard conservation solutions may fail to protect the fragile biodiversity in these areas.

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The appeals court said Lamberth, who held successive Democratic and Republican Interior Department secretaries in contempt of court, had lost his objectivity in the case.

The court also refused to review another appeals court ruling that reversed Lamberth’s order that the Interior Department disconnect its computers from the Internet for failing to provide adequate security for the Indians’ trust records.

The class-action suit, filed in 1996 by Elouise Cobell of the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana, deals with individual Indians’ lands. Several tribes have also sued, claiming mismanagement of their lands.

Earlier this month the government proposed paying $7 billion to settle the lawsuits, but only roughly half of that would go to the plaintiffs.

Lawmakers have said they plan hearings on the proposal. The Indians have said they would accept $27.5 billion to end the litigation.

Foley & Lardner LLP announced today that two attorneys in its Washington, D.C. office have been named 2007 "Super Lawyers" by Law & Politics Media, Inc.

The Foley attorneys named and their primary practices as classified by Law & Politics are Richard G. Stoll, environmental and administrative law and Jay N. Varon, antitrust litigation.

Richard G. Stoll is a partner and a member of the firm's Environmental Practice. Stoll concentrates his practice on federal administrative and environmental law matters. He counsels corporations and trade associations on environmental issues before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental agencies. He also represents clients in a variety of administrative law issues before other federal agencies. Stoll serves as an expert witness and arbitrator in environmental litigation and environmental disputes and handles EPA and state enforcement actions and rulemaking challenges.

Jay N. Varon is a partner in the firm's Antitrust Practice. He has litigated a broad cross-section of commercial cases around the country, including antitrust and unfair competition, consumer finance and deceptive trade practice involving matters relating to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 ("RESPA"), the Fair Credit Reporting Act, ("FCRA"), Truth In Lending Act ("TILA"), "fair lending" and related federal and state unfair trade practice and consumer protection laws, as well as cases dealing with trade secrets, employment, environmental, business tort, securities fraud, product liability and breach of contract issues. He is a former chair of the firm's Antitrust Practice and of its Washington, D.C. Litigation Department.

To compile the annual list, Law & Politics surveyed more than 17,000 lawyers practicing in the District of Columbia, asking them to vote for the best lawyers they have personally observed in action. The final list features the top five percent of Washington attorneys in more than 60 areas of practice and will be published in the June issue of Washington Law & Politics and in a special supplement in The New York Times. Foley & Lardner LLP provides the full range of corporate legal counsel. Our attorneys understand today's most complex business issues, including corporate governance, securities enforcement, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property counseling and litigation, outsourcing and information technology, labor and employment, and tax. The firm offers total solutions in the automotive, emerging technologies, energy, entertainment and media, financial services, food, golf and resort services, insurance, health care, life sciences, nanotechnology, and sports industries.