But Mamdouh Habib almost certainly was mistreated during his three years of detention without trial in four countries after being arrested in Pakistan in late 2001, during which he suffered extreme stress and trauma, the judge found.

The findings came in a judgment in Habib's case against Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper in which he claimed that the paper defamed him by implying he lied about being tortured.

A jury in 2006 found in Habib's favor, but the paper's publisher, Rupert Murdoch's Nationwide News Pty. Ltd., sought to knock down the case by proving that there was some truth to its article.

On Friday, Justice Peter McClellan of the New South Wales state Supreme Court upheld News' case, and ruled Habib would get no payout. Habib vowed to appeal.

Habib, an Egyptian-born Muslim immigrant, was arrested in late 2001 in Pakistan, where he says he was held for 28 days and interrogated by Americans before he was transferred to Egypt, then six months later to the U.S. military base at Bagram, Afghanistan and then to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Habib told the court he had been beaten and electrocuted by his captors while he was in Pakistan and Egypt, kept drugged and shackled, had his fingers broken, and was sexually molested.

He claimed that Australian officials were present during parts of his ordeal.

Habib said that while at Guantanamo he was regularly beaten before interrogation sessions, kept shackled and often naked, and had his cell sprayed with pepper spray.

In his ruling, McClellan said he could not accept a lot of Habib's evidence because it was inconsistent with previous statements he had made. The judge also found Habib was "prone to exaggerate," and "evasive" when pressed on details.

"I have no difficulty in accepting that the experiences which Mr. Habib suffered were traumatic" and were an "extraordinarily stressful experience," McClellan said.

"I also have little doubt that from time to time he was mistreated," he said, citing electric shocks, kicks and the use of hot and cold water as included in the likely abuse.

"However, the evidence he gave was disjointed and on many occasions he failed to respond to a question," the judge said. "I have ultimately concluded that I cannot accept the allegations of mistreatment in the detail which he gave the evidence in this court."

"That does not mean that I have concluded that these events did not happen but merely that I cannot be satisfied that they did happen," he said.

Pearlman's Transcontinental Airlines Inc. didn't have 41 airplanes, as he represented to investors. He had two, he said in court.

And he didn't have a German investment partner with a $50 million line of bailout capital, he acknowledged. In fact, that guy was also trying to get money out of him.

"I'm accepting full responsibility," Pearlman said in a roughly 50-minute change of plea hearing.

He will be sentenced May 21, and faces up to 25 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Pearlman also pledged to help prosecutors locate coconspirators and any remaining assets, but couldn't explain to U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp where the money went.

"In different investments," he said. "Aircraft, living expenses, working capital."

Pearlman acknowledged setting up a fake accounting firm to create business documents and tax returns for himself and his companies. He also admitted using the signature of a deceased former associate, Harry Milner, to push off anyone seeking repayment. Milner hadn't worked with Pearlman since 1989, the mogul acknowledged, and died in 2003.

Miller Canfield's Kalamazoo law office has relocated into a 32,000-square-foot suite on the top two floors of the new building that bears its name in downtown Kalamazoo.

The 151,000-square-foot Miller Canfield Building at 277 S. Rose St. is being called the first Class A office building to be built in downtown in more than 20 years.

Catalyst Development Co., part of building owner The Greenleaf Cos., has placed the building cost at $32 million. Construction redeveloped a space that had held an older office building and parking lot.

"We're pleased to be a part of Kalamazoo's renaissance," Miller Canfield Resident Director John R. Cook said in a press release. "This new building represents our commitment to the community, while the state-of-the-art facility will allow us to expand and provide services to clients around the block and around the world."

The office's 40 lawyers and staff of 36 relocated from 444 W. Michigan Ave. They are part of an 800-attorney law firm established in Detroit in 1852 that has offices in Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida, New York, Canada and Poland.

According to information provided by the firm, it has grown from 18 lawyers in 1984, when Brown, Colman & DeMent merged with Miller Canfield.

Its legal practices include business law, securities, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, banking, intellectual property law, bankruptcy, litigation, labor, tax, health law and corporate-discovery-management services.

http://www.millercanfield.com

One of Charlotte's largest law firms is merging with a national powerhouse this month, creating one of the three biggest law offices in town, the firms said Wednesday.

Helms Mulliss & Wicker, which has more than 145 lawyers in Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington, is combining with McGuireWoods, a 750-attorney firm based in Richmond, Va.

McGuireWoods, which is among the 50 biggest law firms in the country, opened its Charlotte office in 1998.

When the merger takes effect March 31, the firm will keep the McGuireWoods name and will have about 160 attorneys in Charlotte, including 120 from Helms Mulliss & Wicker.

"We've been watching the market, and everything going on, and we're just doing what any business would do," Helms Mulliss Chairman Peter J. Covington said Wednesday from a conference room on the 30th floor of the firm's uptown office tower.

The merger is the latest sign of Charlotte's changing legal landscape, with national law firms flocking here for the big banks and businesses. Some attorneys worry the competition, along with clients' increasingly sophisticated legal needs, has put pressure on local firms, sparking talk of mergers.

Helms Mulliss had flirted with the idea of a merger with Charlotte's Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, but the firms decided to maintain separate practices in 2004.

Helms Mulliss has done well in the changing market, said Covington, who will become McGuireWoods' vice chairman. Its clients include Bank of America, Wachovia, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education and The Charlotte Observer.

"We also know our clients are growing, and for our best interest and the interest of our clients," the merger made sense, he said.

The new firm will rank third in size in Charlotte, behind Kennedy Covington and Moore & Van Allen.

Helms Mulliss started talks with McGuireWoods several months ago, drawn to the firm because it shared clients, expertise and Southern roots, Covington said.

Last week, after discussions with clients and lawyers at both firms, the firm's owners and partners voted overwhelmingly to move forward with the merger, he said.

Both firms are expected to hold a final vote in coming weeks.

Richard Cullen, McGuireWoods' chairman, said partners there respect Helms Mulliss and support the merger.

McGuireWoods, which was established in 1834 and now has 15 offices worldwide, has a long history of growth through mergers, it said.

McGuireWoods merged with Blakeney & Alexander to establish a presence in Charlotte and a year later merged with Fennebresque, Clark, Swindell & Hay.

The merger with Helms Mulliss will boost the firm's presence in Charlotte and throughout North Carolina, Cullen said Wednesday.

"We have an aspiration to be a great national law firm," he said. "This is a giant step toward that."

Changing names

Helms Mulliss & Wicker was formed in 1922, when Fred B. Helms, a Wake Forest Law School graduate, opened his law office in Charlotte. Soon, William F. Mulliss, a Harvard Law School graduate, joined him.

Later, the firm became Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore and grew to be one of the biggest in the state.

In 2002, the firm split into two firms, and Helms Mulliss & Wicker was established in Charlotte. The new name reflected the addition of former N.C. Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, who joined the firm's Raleigh office in 2001.

The court had been scheduled to rule on a 2005 petition by then-Attorney General Claudio Fontelles, who argued that a law passed that same year allowing embryonic stem cell research was unconstitutional because it violates the right to life.

The law opened the way for research with embryos resulting from in-vitro fertilization that have been frozen for at least three years.

The session was suspended, almost five hours after it began, when Justice Carlos Alberto Menezes Direito formally requested more time to consider the issue. He has 10 to 30 days to present his opinion during another session, according to the court's press office.

Before the adjournment, current Attorney General Antonio Fernando Souza and a lawyer for Brazil's Roman Catholic Church argued that embryonic stem cell research should be banned because the process involves destroying embryos, which they said ends human life.

Other attorneys representing the government and Congress defended the 2005 law, saying research with embryonic stem cells could lead to cures of diseases such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

While embryonic stem cell research is currently legal, scientists have put most projects on the back burner pending the Supreme Court's ruling.

On the way home from work in Rochester, Patricia Martinez stopped at a liquor store and bought a small bottle of Champagne to celebrate her marriage to another woman. The wedding took place in Canada nearly four years ago, but it wasn’t until Feb. 1 that a New York appellate court declared it valid in the state.

Last week in Manhattan, a State Supreme Court justice, ruling in a divorce proceeding, recognized the Canadian marriage of two New York City women, known publicly as Beth R. and Donna M. - or Mom and Mommy to the two young children they had been raising together.

Less than two years after New York’s highest court refused to legalize gay marriage, leaving it up to a divided Legislature, courts in Rochester and Manhattan, as well as state and local officials, have begun to carry out what some say is the de facto legalization of gay marriage - and gay divorce - in New York for the price of, say, a ticket to Toronto.

Advocates for same-sex marriage say the two court decisions last month granting reciprocity in New York to gay marriages in other jurisdictions simply underline what most people would consider common sense.