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Letter bomb woman 'shunned' - court
Court Watch | 2007/09/25 08:15

A woman who opened a letter bomb told a court that she has been shunned by colleagues who blame her for the injuries they received in the explosion. Karen Andrews was working in the post room of the DVLA headquarters in Swansea when she opened a padded envelope on February 7. Miles Cooper, 27, from Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, is charged with sending seven letter bombs made from party poppers and nails or broken glass, over a period of two weeks earlier this year.

On Monday, the court was told by prosecutor John Price that the series of attacks had caused "widespread public alarm" as police and public alike tried to work out where the next bomb would arrive.

On Tuesday, Mrs Andrews told Oxford Crown Court that, as she opened the envelope, she joked: "Do we think this is suspicious?" She told the court: "I was just joking. It was because it was a Jiffy bag and because of what had been on the news."

She described how she broke the seal on an envelope contained within the original package and saw a bright flash and heard a very loud bang.

Mrs Andrews has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder since the incident, the court heard, a condition which worsened following the recent car bomb attacks outside West End nightclubs in London. She suffers from permanent tinnitus and has a large scar on her upper chest where she had to receive stitches.

She told the court that she has only returned to work intermittently and said: "I've been forced out of my department because some colleagues refuse to work with me. One manager even wanted me to apologise to people for what I did that day."

The court heard how the bomb had been addressed to the IT manager of an old DVLA office which no longer exists. Most of the company's large volume of mail that it receives each day is opened automatically, but items sent to an old postcode, the court heard, are opened by hand in a separate room and the backlog this creates could mean that the bomb was received as early as Monday that week.

Cooper denies eight counts of causing bodily injury by means of an explosive substance, two counts of using an explosive substance with intent to disable and making and possessing an explosive substance.



Supreme Court to rule on lethal injection executions
Law Center | 2007/09/25 08:11
The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether the commonly used lethal injection method of execution violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The nation's highest court said it would decide in its upcoming term an appeal by two death row inmates from Kentucky arguing that the three-chemical cocktail used in lethal injections inflicted unnecessary pain and suffering.Their lawyers said the Supreme Court has not addressed the constitutionality of a method of execution or the legal standard used to determine whether the method violated the ban on cruel and unusual punishment in more than 100 years.

All but one of the states with the death penalty and the federal government use lethal injection for executions. The only exception is Nebraska, which requires electrocution.

The standard method involves administering three separate chemicals: sodium pentothal, an anesthetic, which makes the inmate unconscious; pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes all muscles except the heart, and then potassium chloride, which stops the heart, causing death.

Attorneys for the two Kentucky men said at least half of the death row inmates facing imminent execution in the last two years have filed suit challenging the chemicals used in lethal injections. While various lower court federal judges have ruled on the issue, the Supreme Court has yet to decide it.



Microsoft may take stake in Facebook
Venture Business News | 2007/09/25 07:10

Microsoft Corp. is in talks about a possible investment in Facebook Inc. that could value the social networking site at $10 billion or more, according to reports.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has joined Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc. in expressing interest in Facebook.

Microsoft could take up to a 5 percent stake in the Palo Alto-based company, the Journal reported, which could mean about $300 million to $500 million.

The Journal also reported that Microsoft and Facebook could expand an agreement -- set to expire in 2011 -- in which Microsoft serves display ads to Facebook.

Facebook has raised about $40.7 million so far, and earlier this month announced a new $10 million fund to promote development of new applications for its online social network site.



Eckert Seamans Law Firm Wins Award
Legal Business | 2007/09/25 04:15
The law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellott LLC has won the Allegheny County Bar Association's 2006 Law Firm Pro Bono Award.

The award will be formally announced next month. It recognizes firms that provide free, or pro bono, legal services to the community.

Eckert Seamans is being honored for administering the county's Custody Conciliation Project, which provides free attorneys to disadvantaged people involved in custody disputes and works to help them reach custody agreements without litigation.



Dissolving Phila. law firm's lawyers find new home
Legal Business | 2007/09/24 07:42

Seven lawyers from the dissolving Philadelphia law firm McKissock & Hoffman will become the Philadelphia office of Pittsburgh-based Burns White & Hickton, the firm said Monday. Partner William J. Mundy will lead a group that includes six associates and four support staff that handles defense litigation for long-term health-care providers. They will join effective Oct. 1, when 40-lawyer defense litigation boutique McKissock & Hoffman officially dissolves.

Most McKissock lawyers are expected to follow name partner Peter Hoffman to Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott while two other partners, Reed Haywood and John McGrath, will be joining Dickie McCamey & Chilcote. Like Burns White, both of those firms are based in Pittsburgh. Name partner Bruce McKissock has yet to decide where he will practice after being conflicted out of joining Eckert Seamans.

When the new group arrives, Burns White, Pittsburgh's 10th-largest law firm, will have 81 lawyers spread over Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Plymouth Meeting, Pa.,; Princeton, N.J., and Wheeling, W. Va. The firm focuses on litigation, business law and transportation law.

The Mundy group will continue to work from offices formerly occupied by McKissock & Hoffman located at 1818 Market St., 13th floor, in Center City at least through the end of next month, Mundy said.



Fujimori returns to face trial in Peru
International | 2007/09/24 07:41

Human rights groups in Peru and abroad are heralding the weekend extradition of former President Alberto Fujimori as a groundbreaking move for Latin America and beyond. The Supreme Court in Chile, Peru's southern neighbor, agreed on Friday to accept the Peruvian government's request to send Mr. Fujimori home to stand trial on charges of corruption and human rights violations. The court approved seven of the 12 counts originally filed by Peru in January 2006. Fujimori arrived in Peru late Saturday afternoon and was taken to a police complex where he will be held temporarily until his arraignment. A special prison may be built for him, a justice official said.

"This is huge," says John Walsh, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights and democracy group. "It sets a precedent for the region."

This is the first time a former head of state has been extradited back to the country he once led to face justice.

Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic was handed over to an international court. But previous similar cases have been the result of executive branch negotiations. This marks the first time a national court has handed a leader over to a domestic court of another nation, say human rights experts. "This is a victory against the impunity that we have been accustomed to in Latin America. It is a major step forward for Chile, Peru, and the region as a whole," says Gloria Cano, a human rights lawyer in Lima.

A Peruvian court will now try Fujimori on charges ranging from his alleged approval of a death squad killing of 25 people to giving his intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, a $15 million "retirement" package after he was fired.

Fujimori has been a controversial figure in Peru since his upset victory in the 1990 presidential election. He vanquished hyperinflation and a leftist insurgency at the start of his 10-year rule (1990-2000), but at the end was hounded by charges of corruption and human rights abuses.

His government began to unravel after the 2000 presidential election. A secretly taped video was leaked showing Mr. Montesinos bribing an opposition congressman. Swiss authorities announced that they had discovered bank accounts traceable to Montesinos. Peruvian prosecutors estimate that more than $1 billion was stolen during the Fujimori years.

Montesinos has been in prison since 2001 on an array of convictions, including a 20-year sentence for drug trafficking.

As pressure built, Fujimori used his participation in the 2000 Asia-Pacific summit in Brunei to bail on his presidency. He stopped off in Japan, his parents' homeland, and resigned via fax. He stayed for five years. Fujimori secretly left Japan in October 2005, flying to Chile with the idea of then entering Peru.

Investigators here say that Fujimori miscalculated the reaction in Chile, thinking that he would be afforded the same treatment as another former president, Argentina's Carlos Menem, who had sought refuge in Chile. Chile rejected an Argentine extradition request in 2004.

But Mr. Menem was married at the time to a Chilean, the charges against him were purely economic, and Argentina officials only wanted to question him. In the case of Fujimori, the major charge involved human rights, which is a delicate issue in Chile, given the brutal dictatorship of former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet, and it came with reams of supporting information.

Fujimori faces charges in the murder of 15 people in Barrios Altos, an inner-city Lima neighborhood, in 1991 and the killing of 10 people at the La Cantuta college the following year. Fujimori is accused of approving the actions of the paramilitary group, Colina Group, that did the killing. The inter-American court system has already found the Peruvian state culpable in both cases. Peruvian prosecutors would like Fujimori sentenced to 30 years for this case. The corruption charges carry sentences from two to eight years.

"I have waited many years for this day. We can finally imagine that there might be justice for our children," said Raida Condor, whose son, Armando Amaru, was killed in the university slayings.

Fujimori's extradition has immediate resonance in Bolivia, where the government is expected to request the extradition of former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who has lived in the US since being ousted in October 2003.

Rogelio Mayta, a human rights lawyer in Bolivia, says the Fujimori case "is a significant example for Latin America and will serve as a reference point for us."

Mr. Sánchez de Lozada is accused of unleashing the military on protesters calling for his resignation. More than 60 people were killed. Bolivian authorities have publicly called on the US government to return Sánchez de Lozada, but they are only now filing the legal paperwork.

The other active extradition case in Latin America involves former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega.



Auto workers set strike deadline in talks with GM
Labor & Employment | 2007/09/24 07:38
Bargainers for the United Automobile Workers union and General Motors worked through the night in an effort to reach a settlement in contentious contract talks, facing an 11 a.m. Eastern time strike deadline on Monday. G.M.'s 73,000 workers began returning to factories around the United States this morning as scheduled, but were prepared to walk off the job when told to leave by their union. Picket signs, which had been printed 10 days ago when the U.A.W. and G.M. faced an original deadline of midnight Sept. 14, were brought out of storage at local union halls around the country. In many locations, assignments and schedules for picket duty have already been announced, only to be put on hold as negotiations went on.

One local in Flint, Mich., told workers on its Web site, "U.A.W. leaders set 11:00 a.m. as strike deadline. If a strike should occur, members are asked to refer to the letter handed out earlier," the notice, from Local 599, read.

Negotiations continued after the unexpected move by the union late Sunday night. Until then, the U.A.W. had extended its contract on an hour-by-hour basis, and the union's president, Ron Gettelfinger, told workers in a memo last week that the U.A.W. hoped to avoid a strike against G.M.



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