A Swiss court ruled that the nation's top financial regulator acted in an "unlawful" manner when it forced UBS AG to release client data to U.S. authorities, reigniting a debate over bank-secrecy practices.

The decision, if upheld, could complicate efforts to extract client data by tax authorities in other countries. Private bankers have argued that whittling away Switzerland's banking-privacy laws has led to withdrawals by wealthy individuals.

Nearly one year ago, Finma, the Swiss financial-services regulator, ordered UBS to hand over details on nearly 300 accounts to U.S. authorities in order to settle a tax dispute. The regulator said it had to move quickly because, according to Swiss officials, U.S. authorities were threatening to indict the bank over the tax issue.

Finma argued that a potential indictment was a "clear and present" danger that UBS might not survive. Moreover, Finma added, UBS already had admitted to aiding tax fraud through hidden offshore accounts. The court disagreed, saying Finma had exceeded its authority and should have referred the matter to the government. The government backed Finma's move last February.

A federal appeals court gave notice Friday it likely would reject the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to sanction Comcast for throttling peer-to-peer applications.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit suggested as much during oral arguments from the FCC and Comcast. The Philadelphia-based cable concern is appealing the agency’s 2008 decision ordering it to stop hampering the peer-to-peer service BitTorrent as a traffic-management practice.

The move was in response to complaints Comcast was sending fake signals to users of BitTorrent, a bandwidth-heavy protocol often used to pirate copyright content.

A millionaire motorist clocked up a record fine of 299,000 Swiss francs ($290,000) after Swiss police caught him racing through a village at 100 km per hour in his red Ferrari Testarossa, Swiss media reported on Thursday.
A court in the northeastern Swiss canton of St Gallen gave the millionaire the hefty penalty, which outstripped the previous record of 111,000 francs handed a Porsche driver in 2008 in Zurich, after a string of previous traffic offences.

"The accused ignored elementary traffic rules with a powerful vehicle out of a pure desire for speed," the court said in its judgement of the motorist, who clocked speeds of up to 137 km per hour on country roads, said daily Blick.

The St Gallen Cantonal Court ordered the man to dip into his 23.3 million franc fortune, which included a villa with a garage containing five luxury cars.

Court officials said they could not immediately confirm details of the case.

In October, St Gallen police pulled over another speeding motorist after he committed 15 traffic offences in 10 minutes, including driving on the hard shoulder, jumping a red light and failing to stop for police.

Attorney General Rob McKenna and Secretary of State Sam Reed say they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court's decision that would give Washington state felons in prison and on community supervision the right to vote.

McKenna and Reed announced their decision Wednesday. The appeal has to be filed with the court by April, and the state will seek a stay on felony inmates' ability to vote until the case is resolved.

Tuesday's 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the 2000 ruling of a district judge in Spokane. The appeals court says Washington state's felon disenfranchisement law violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A federal appeals court has overturned the embezzlement convictions of a former tribal manager and members of his family who allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Texas' first legal casino.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued a ruling Tuesday overturning on procedural grounds the conspiracy and theft convictions of Isidro Garza Jr.; his wife, Martha; and son, Timoteo, a former state representative.

Garza, the former manager of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, was given vast financial oversight of the tribe and the casino near Eagle Pass from 1996 until he was ousted in 2002. He, family members and other tribal employees — the so-called Kickapoo Seven — were indicted in 2004 for allegedly misappropriating funds from the lucrative casino operation for personal purchases and their political aspirations.

The appellate court, however, ruled that the 2007 trial of Garza, his wife and son was wrongly moved to Waco, creating undue hardship by forcing witnesses, family members and attorneys to travel more than 300 miles for the proceedings.

In a case from northeast Ohio's Summit County, the court ruled 5-2 Wednesday that owners may be sued both under the state's dog bite law and for more general negligence.

The decision is a victory for the family of a 12-year-old girl who was mauled by a dog and was hurt on the head.

A trial judge had allowed the girl's mother to sue the owners only under the dog bite statute, limiting the money award in the case. The jury awarded compensatory damages of $5,000 for the girl's medical bills and other costs.

The Supreme Court says the mother should also have been allowed to pursue a negligence claim and possible punitive damages.