A recently enacted law will allow class-action lawsuits -- commonplace in the countries such as the United States -- to be filed in Italy starting July 2008.

Adusbef, which focuses on financial services matters, wants to take aim at the so-called practice of anatocism, where compound interest is calculated on the initial loan plus interest that is accumulated each time the money comes due.

"We want to start from the most hated banking practice, this form of usury that is known as anatocism," Adusbef said.

That is opposed to using simple interest, in which only the interest on the original money borrowed is added.

Although banned by the Italian civil law code, Italian banks have been using compound interest for over 50 years, Adusbef said. No-one at Italian banking association ABI was immediately available for comment.

U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers on Tuesday granted the request by Joey Langston and Billy Quin of the Langston Law Firm to withdraw as attorneys for Scruggs, according to court records filed Tuesday in federal court in Oxford.

Scruggs, his son Zach and three others were indicted Nov. 28 on charges they conspired to bribe a judge in a case involving disputed fees related to lawsuits from Hurricane Katrina.

On Wednesday, Anthony Farese, an attorney for Zach Scruggs, also asked to withdraw from the case. He said in court papers that Zach Scruggs has "terminated his services" and intends to hire a new lawyer.

Biggers declined the request because the younger Scruggs has not yet named a replacement for Farese.

The elder Scruggs, a brother-in-law of former Sen. Trent Lott, is best known for making millions from tobacco litigation.

One of Langston's former law partners, Timothy Balducci, pleaded guilty Dec. 4 to conspiracy in the bribery case and is helping investigators. He had been one of those indicted along with Scruggs and his son.

On Dec. 10, the FBI searched the Langston Law Firm. FBI officials would not say what they were looking for, but Farese said at the time that they took records from cases that Balducci had worked on before he left the firm.

Quin and Langston did not respond to several messages left Tuesday by The Associated Press. John Keker, another attorney for the elder Scruggs, would not comment on why the two would no longer be working on the case.

In a separate case, a judge ruled Wednesday that an insurance company can question Richard and Zach Scruggs about their handling of leaked documents in a Hurricane Katrina insurance case.

Richard Scruggs wore "two hats" as the employer and lawyer for two key witnesses in that case, U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. ruled.

After Hurricane Katrina, Scruggs announced that sisters Cori and Kerri Rigsby, former employees of a State Farm contractor, were helping him build cases against insurance companies over their handling of storm claims. The sisters gave him thousands of internal State Farm records.

Scruggs hired the Rigsby sisters as consultants for $150,000 a year and served as their lawyer. State Farm wants to know more about those relationships.

Scruggs has said the leaked records proved that State Farm fraudulently denied the claim of policyholders Thomas and Pamela McIntosh, whose Biloxi home was destroyed by the storm on Aug. 29, 2005.

Also on Wednesday, attorney Kenneth Coghlan notified Biggers that he intended to represent Richard Scruggs in the bribery case.

Biggers refused to allow Coghlan, however, because the attorney represented another defendant in the case — former state auditor Steven Patterson — before withdrawing last month.

Allowing Coghlan to represent Scruggs could be a conflict of interest if one defendant testifies against the other, Biggers said.

If you bought diamonds over the last decade, you might be entitled to some money back.

The mining company De Beers is settling a $295 million class action lawsuit.

De Beers was accused of fixing diamond prices and monopolizing the market. The case involves diamonds bought from 1994 through March of 2006.

The amount of money you can get depends on how much you paid an the quality of the diamonds.

https://www.diamondsclassaction.com

Democrats who are challenging the law say it uses prevention of fraud as a pretext to discourage elderly, poor and minority voters — those most likely to lack proper ID and who tend to vote for Democrats.

Opponents say there have been no Indiana prosecutions of in-person voter fraud — the kind the law is supposed to prevent.

A federal judge who upheld the voter ID law pointed out that opponents were unable to produce evidence of a single, individual Indiana resident who had been barred from voting because of the law.

Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. Wednesday's case should be decided by late June, in time for the November 2008 elections.

The justices could use the case to instruct courts on how to weigh claims of voter fraud versus those of disenfranchisement.

The Supreme Court was bitterly divided, 5-4, in 2000 in Bush v. Gore, the case that clinched the presidential election for George W. Bush.

The consolidated cases are Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, 07-21, and Indiana Democratic Party v. Rokita, 07-25.

An appeals brief filed Tuesday contends that Minnesota's disorderly conduct law "requires that the conduct at issue have a tendency to alarm or anger 'others'" — underscoring the plural nature of the term.

Craig's brief goes on to cite other convictions that were overturned because the multiple-victim test wasn't met. His lawyers apply the same logic to his case.

The Republican senator pleaded guilty in August after his arrest two months earlier at the Minneapolis airport. It was part of a broader undercover push targeting men soliciting sex in public restrooms.

Craig was arrested June 11 by an undercover officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia, who said Craig tapped his feet and swiped his hand under a stall divider in a way that signaled he wanted sex. Craig has denied that, saying his actions were misconstrued.

"Appellant's alleged conduct in this case affected only a single individual — Sergeant Karsnia," the Craig brief says. "It did not — and could not affect 'others' as the disorderly conduct statute requires, and therefore, does not satisfy that element of the statute."

The brief also argues that Karsnia himself could not have been offended by the alleged conduct because "he invited it." The alleged conduct, Craig's lawyers added, doesn't rise to the level of being "offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy."

Craig's earlier attempt to withdraw his plea was turned down by a district court judge, and the case is now before the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Besides attacking the law he was prosecuted under, Craig's legal team argues that the hand signal allegedly used to communicate a desire to engage in sexual conduct would be constitutionally protected speech. They also say the plea is technically flawed because it lacked a judicial signature.

Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which oversees the Minneapolis airport and which brought the charges, said he was confident the guilty plea will stand.

"Facts are resilient, and Sen. Craig's continued, transparent efforts to escape them don't change the truth of his behavior in an airport restroom or the fact that he admitted guilt last August," Hogan said.

Prosecutors have 45 days to respond, and then the case will be scheduled for oral arguments. Once heard, a ruling is required within 90 days.

Craig has said he will finish his term, which ends in January 2009.