Yahoo yesterday asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the Internet giant of abetting torture and abuse of pro-democracy writers in China.

Yahoo acknowledged releasing personal user information about the writers to the Chinese government, but said it had to comply with the country's lawful request and therefore cannot be held liable. Its 40-page response was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for Northern California.

Advocacy groups view the suit as an important test case because it asks U.S. courts to punish corporations for human rights violations abroad. Internet companies such as Yahoo entering the booming Chinese market have had to alter user policies or allow censorship in order to comply with the country's laws.

The lawsuit was filed this spring by The World Organization for Human Rights USA on behalf of the imprisoned writers.

Two Chinese writers who used Yahoo's e-mail service to distribute their work are serving 10-year prison sentences. Shi Tao, a reporter and editor at Contemporary Business News in China, was arrested in November 2004 for publishing a document that the Chinese government considered a state secret and pleaded guilty. Wang Xiaoning, an author and editor of pro-democracy publications, was arrested in September 2002 and convicted for "incitement to subvert state power." Both are believed to have been abused and tortured while in custody, according to the lawsuit.

In its response, Yahoo argued that it did not "willfully" provide information about the online activities of the writers.

"Defendants cannot be expected, let alone ordered to violate another nation's laws," the company said in its filing. Chinese law requires anyone who receives a request for information as part of an investigation to comply and prohibits challenging such a request in the Chinese courts, Yahoo said in its filing.

Morton Sklar, the human rights organization's executive director, questioned whether the Chinese government's request for information was lawful. "But even if it was lawful in China, that does not take away from Yahoo's obligation to follow not just Chinese law, but U.S. law and international legal standards as well, when they do business abroad," Sklar said in a statement.

Yahoo spokeswoman Kelley Benander said in a statement that the company supported freedom of expression around the world and would continue to work with human rights organizations "on a global framework for technology companies operating in countries that restrict free expression and privacy."

"The real issue here is the plaintiffs' outrage at the behavior and laws of the Chinese government," she said. "The U.S. court system is not the forum for addressing these political concerns."

Berkley's widow, Monique Berkley, 27, and Canty's friend, Latwon Johnson, 20, also are charged with first-degree murder in Paul Berkley's death.

Investigators accused Monique Berkley of luring her husband to a park on Dec. 18, 2005, so Canty and Johnson could shoot him and the three could share money from Paul Berkley's insurance policy.

Paul Berkley had just returned from a tour of duty in the Middle East. Investigators said he had learned his wife was having an affair and told his daughter he planned to seek a divorce.

"After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision," Bush said from Texas, where he is vacationing.

Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found and confirmed by the Senate, Bush said.

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was among those mentioned as possible successors, though a senior administration official said the matter had not been raised with Chertoff. Bush leaves Washington next Monday for Australia, and Gonzales' replacement might not be named by then, the official said.

"It has been one of my greatest privileges to lead the Department of Justice," Gonzales said, announcing his resignation effective Sept. 17 in a terse statement. He took no questions and gave no reason for stepping down.

Bush said the attorney general's "good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons." Though some Republicans echoed the president's veiled slap at Democrats, Gonzales had few defenders left in Washington.

Many Republicans actually welcomed his departure, some quietly and others publicly so.

Congressional aides and lawmakers agreed that any nomination of a new attorney general was almost certain to be acrimonious. The easiest prospects, some said, might be a current or former colleague of senators charged with the confirmation. Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, told reporters Monday that he would not accept the job, if offered.

But, he said, another current or former senator "might be just the ticket."

"If you have a former senator or a present senator or somebody who is well known to the Senate or the committee...that's always a big help if you know the person," Specter told reporters in a telephone call as he traveled from Warsaw to Paris.

Asked, too, about whether Chertoff might be a good candidate, Specter replied:

"I think he's a first-rate prospect."

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards applauded Gonzales' resignation, saying it was "better late than never."

The announcement came as a surprise to many in the administration. Gonzales was tight-lipped about his thinking before going on vacation more than a week ago and aides were planning events for the next several months.

After spending time with his family in Texas, however, and facing the prospect of returning to Washington for months of continued fights with Congress, he called the president on Friday.

The White House has asked anyone staying past Labor Day to stay the remainder of the president's term.

Gonzales, formerly Bush's White House counsel, served more than two years at the Justice Department. In announcing his decision, Gonzales reflected on his up-from-the-bootstraps life story; he's the son of migrant farm workers from Mexico who didn't finish elementary school.

"Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days," Gonzales said.

Bush steadfastly — and at times angrily — refused to give in to critics, even from his own GOP, who argued that Gonzales should go.

Earlier this month at a news conference, the president grew irritated when asked about accountability in his administration and turned the tables on the Democratic Congress.

"Implicit in your questions is that Al Gonzales did something wrong. I haven't seen Congress say he's done anything wrong," Bush said testily at the time. Actually, many in Congress had accused Gonzales of wrongdoing.

After the 52-year-old Gonzales called Bush Friday, the president had him come to lunch at his ranch on Sunday as a parting gesture, a senior administration official said.

Gonzales, whom Bush once considered for appointment to the Supreme Court, is the fourth top-ranking administration official to leave since November 2006, following Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, who had a high-ranking Pentagon job before going to the World Bank as its president, and top political and policy adviser Karl Rove.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., reacted to the announcement by saying the Justice Department under Gonzales had "suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence."

As attorney general and earlier as White House counsel, Gonzales pushed for expanded presidential powers, including the eavesdropping authority. He drafted controversial rules for military war tribunals and sought to limit the legal rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay — prompting lawsuits by civil libertarians who said the government was violating the Constitution in its pursuit of terrorists.

"Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

In a warning to the White House, Reid suggested that investigations into the Justice Department will not end until Congress gets "to the bottom of this mess."

One matter still under investigation is the 2006 dismissal of several federal prosecutors, who serve at the president's pleasure. Lawmakers said the action appeared to be politically motivated, and some of the fired U.S. attorneys said they felt pressured to investigate Democrats before elections.

Gonzales maintained that the dismissals were based the prosecutors' lackluster performance records.

In April, Gonzales answered "I don't know" and "I can't recall" scores of times while questioned by Congress about the firings. Even some Republicans said his testimony was evasive.

Not Bush. The president praised Gonzales' performance and said the attorney general was "honest" and "honorable."

In 2004, Gonzales pressed to reauthorize a secret domestic spying program over the Justice Department's protests. Gonzales was White House counsel at the time and during a dramatic hospital confrontation he and then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card sought approval from then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was in intensive care recovering from surgery. Ashcroft refused.

Similarly, Gonzales found himself on the defensive as recently as March because of the FBI's improper and, in some cases, illegal prying into Americans' personal information during terror and spy probes.

Taiwan-based Acer computers announced Monday it will buy U.S. company Gateway Computers for $710 million U.S., doubling its presence in the United States and becoming the third-largest PC maker in the world.

Acer said the merger would create a multibranded PC company with more than $15 billion in revenue and at least 20 million PC units shipped each year.

"This will be an excellent addition to Acer's already strong positions in Europe and Asia," J.T. Wang, Acer's chairman, said in a statement. "Upon acquiring Gateway, we will further solidify our position as No. 3 PC vendor globally."

In the second quarter, Acer was the world's fourth-largest PC maker behind U.S.-based Hewlett-Packard, No. 2 Dell, and third-ranked Lenovo Group Ltd. of China, according to research company Gartner Inc.

Gateway, based in Irvine, Calif., had the third-largest share of the PC market in the United States, but was well behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Under terms of the agreement, Acer will purchase all outstanding shares of Gateway for $1.90 a share — 57 per cent above Gateway's Friday closing price of $1.21. In 1999, Gateway traded at a high of $81.50.

The court's decision means that Prairie State's advanced technologies will meet or exceed compliance with state and federal regulations to protect the environment. The decision ends a six-year regulatory review process that included approval by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Prairie State will provide electricity to hundreds of communities from Missouri to Virginia. Equity partners include: American Municipal Power- Ohio; the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency; Indiana Municipal Power Agency; Kentucky Municipal Power Agency; Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission; Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency; and Prairie Power Inc.

St. Louis-based Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) is one of the world's largest coal producers.

BRITISH Airways could be forced to pay out hundreds of millions of pounds to settle a class action lawsuit relating to cargo price-fixing, it emerged yesterday.

Several European blue-chip companies, including Ikea, Volvo and TNT, are said to have joined the lawsuit and noted that BA has set aside £350 million to pay fines.

The airline has already paid out $300m (£174m) levied by the US department of justice (DoJ). Two thirds was related to cargo price-fixing and $100m concerned price-fixing related to passengers.

According to documents filed to a US district court, the class action suit concerns shipments valued at $29 billion. Ten present and former BA executives, including the current director of operations, have not received protection from prosecution under a plea agreement between the airline and US prosecutors investigating the price-fixing conspiracy.

BA said four of the ten still worked for the airline.

Three weeks ago, Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, assured customers and the media that only a "very limited number of individuals" were involved in the two illegal cartels through which BA had fixed the fuel surcharges.

Yet papers released by the DoJ have confirmed that the corruption inquiry into BA went beyond Martin George, its former commercial director, and Iain Burns, its former head of communications, the only two named in the press before this weekend.

The DoJ said it was "carving out" ten current and former senior BA executives from an immunity deal that will settle BA's criminal liability in the US. The individuals, who have yet to be charged, could face criminal prosecution and, ultimately, jail.