The International Criminal Court in The Hague is scheduled to rule Monday on the genocide suit filed in 1993 by Bosnia-Herzegovina against Yugoslavia.

Basing its charges on the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide, Bosnia brought the case before the United Nations high court demanding damages.

In the 1990s, Serb-dominated Yugoslavia moved militarily against its regions that were seeking independence. Serbia stands as the accused since the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

The case is the first in which the UN court will apply the 1948 convention.

The Bosnian genocide case is not connected with trials by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, before which individual war crimes suspects must personally answer. The tribunal, which has already ruled that the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica was genocide.

Earlier Friday, 46 of 49 countries participating in the two-day Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions agreed to an action plan to develop a new international treaty to ban the use of cluster munitions by 2008. Romania, Poland and Japan refused to sign the Oslo Declaration. The United States, Russia, Israel, and China chose not to attend the conference. Cluster munitions are considered by many to be inaccurate weapons designed to spread damage indiscriminately and could therefore be considered illegal [CMC backgrounder] under multiple provisions of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions (1977).

The Democratic-controlled Montana Senate voted 27-21 Friday to give second-reading approval to a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in Montana. Third reading is slated for February 24 before the measure goes to the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives.

Eleven US states have recently suspended the death penalty pending review of the manner in which the death penalty is administered. In early-February, Tennessee governor suspended executions pending procedural review. In January a North Carolina state judge issued an injunction blocking executions there until Governor Mike Easley issues new procedures to execute capital defendants without the presence of doctors. Capital punishment has also been suspended in Florida, California, and New Jersey, Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, and South Dakota.

Shares of Alcatel-Lucent rose 2.6 percent after a U.S. federal jury ruled that Microsoft Corp. must pay the French company $1.52 billion for using digital music technology without permission.

The shares rose 26 cents to close at 10.09 euros in Paris, giving Alcatel-Lucent, the world's largest maker of telecommunications equipment, a market value of 23.3 billion euros ($30.7 billion).

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, infringed two patents of Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent with its Windows Media Player, including the version in the new Vista operating system, a San Diego jury said Thursday. Microsoft said it will appeal the verdict.

"The jury's decision, if confirmed, would open the way for Alcatel-Lucent to file a large number of lawsuits against other companies using these patents illegally," analysts Frank Maccary and Eric Beaudet at Ixis Securities wrote in a note.

One of the disputed patents relates to compression of digital audio signals, while the other describes how to encode and play digital music. The jury upheld the validity of the patents and found that Alcatel-Lucent is entitled to more than $759 million for each of the two infringed patents.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it licenses technology from a German researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. Fraunhofer helped develop MP3 audio-compression technology with Bell Labs, once part of Lucent Technologies Inc., which Alcatel SA acquired last year.

The decision allows Alcatel-Lucent to seek an order barring Microsoft from using the patented technology. The victory may clear the way for legal actions against hundreds of companies that rely on MP3, the standard for playing music and sound files on mobile phones and digital-music players.

A federal jury in California awarded Alcatel-Lucent $1.52 billion dollars in damages Thursday for violations of two of Alcatel-Lucent's digital music patents committed by Microsoft. The patents govern technology that converts audio input into MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly known as MP3, which Microsoft has incorporated into several variants of its Windows Media Player. Microsoft has said that it properly licenses the MP3 technology from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, a German company which Microsoft describes as the "industry recognized licensor."

Microsoft plans to appeal the jury's decision, which could have far-reaching implications in the digital media industry, as large numbers of companies in the industry, including Apple, Nokia, and Sony, license its MP3 technology from Fraunhofer.

Related claims against Gateway and Dell are still pending. Lucent Technologies filed 15 patent claims in 2003 alleging that the PC makers violated patents governing technology developed by its research and development organization, Bell Laboratories. Microsoft joined in the litigation as an intervenor and counter-claimant, due to its wide circulation of Windows Media Player through its Windows operating system. Lucent Technologies was acquired by Alcatel in December of 2006.

Raymond George Bohning, 59, of Hollywood, Fla., entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for preying on children, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta for the Southern District of Florida, and FBI Special Agent in Charge, Jonathan I. Solomon, announced today.

At a hearing held today before Senior District Judge Jose A. Gonzales, Bohning pleaded guilty to the enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, production of images of a child engaging in sexually explicit conduct, distribution of child pornography to a minor to persuade her to engage in sexual conduct, and possession of child pornography.

In November 2003, Bohning traveled from Florida to Birmingham, England, in order to sexually abuse 13 and 15-year-old girls. The father of the 13-year-old girl intercepted a telephone call between his daughter and Bohning upon Bohning’s arrival in the United Kingdom in which he discussed his planned sexual activity with her. The young girl’s father contacted U.K. law enforcement who notified the FBI in Miami. Bohning was arrested in the U.K. and charged with various offenses including possessing and distributing lewd images of minors. A search of his person and hotel room revealed he was in possession of numerous items including: a laptop computer, Viagra pills, Vaseline petroleum jelly, a teenage pornography magazine, and Polaroid images of a teenager engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Bohning pleaded guilty in the U.K. to possessing and distributing indecent images and publishing an indecent article and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was subsequently extradited to the United States for prosecution.

An investigation conducted by the FBI revealed that Bohning had an extensive collection of child pornography images depicting minors being sexually abused, including babies and toddlers. The defendant convinced a 15-year-old girl to engage in sexually explicit conduct in order to produce images which he saved; distributed images to a minor in an effort to persuade her to engage in sexually activity with him; and created a list of 374 individuals’ Internet screen or user names, mostly minors whom he catalogued by physical attributes, state or country of residence, and the nature of their sexual experiences.

Bohning faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years for production of child pornography. The defendant faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 30 years for enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. For distributing child pornography to a minor to induce her to engage in sexual activity, Bohning faces up to 20 years in prison. He also faces up to 10 years in prison for possessing in excess of 600 images of child pornography. Bohning is subject to a fine for each count of up to $250,000 and faces a possible lifetime period of supervised release. A sentencing hearing is currently scheduled for May 11, 2007.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Waugh for the Southern District of Florida, and Deputy Chief Sherri A. Stephan and trial attorney Bonnie Kane, both of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division. This case was investigated by FBI Special Agent Catherine Koontz in Miami, and the West Midlands Police Department in the United Kingdom. The analysis of the computer forensic evidence was accomplished by the High Technology Investigative Unit of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.

"Product testing by several states has now confirmed that Peter Pan peanut butter and certain Great Value brand peanut butter are the sources of the foodborne illness outbreak of Salmonella Tennessee that began in August 2006," the FDA said in a statement released late on Friday.

"To date 329 individuals have become ill from consuming the contaminated peanut butter, and 51 of those persons were hospitalized."

The FDA said the outbreak was still going on. "Potentially contaminated products include 3/4 ounce and 1.1 ounce single serving packs of Peter Pan brand peanut butter," the FDA said.