The Boston Passante law firm reached a temporary agreement in court today on its dissolution.

The agreement will allow the firm to pay debts and provide income to its partners for the next two months as both sides try to find a permanent solution.

Russell Boston, his wife, Wendy S. Boston, and other partners Lauren L. Benedict and David M. Cusson petitioned Bibb County Superior Court in December to dissolve the firm, and they cited problems with managing partner Brian Passante's completion of his duties.

Passante filed a countersuit earlier this week denying the allegations and blaming Russell Boston for the problems in the firm.

A former eye doctor who set off a seven-year federal investigation into class action law firm Milberg Weiss has agreed to plead guilty to taking $6.4 million in secret kickbacks from the firm, lawyers in the case said on Wednesday.

Steven Cooperman, 64, of Connecticut will plead guilty to a charge of conspiring with Milberg Weiss and some of its partners to obstruct justice and make false statements in class actions the firm filed against scores of publicly traded companies between 1988 and 2003, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles said.

The firm and two of its senior partners have been indicted on charges that they participated in a scheme to pay secret kickbacks to Cooperman and other plaintiffs.

Milberg Weiss and its partners have pleaded not guilty.

That case is set for trial in 2008.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Milberg Weiss said the allegations against the firm "are not new" and "have never been credible and they are no more so today."

Cooperman first brought Milberg Weiss to prosecutors' attention after he was convicted in 1999 of federal insurance fraud charges for staging the theft of two paintings, a Picasso and a Monet, from his Los Angeles-area home.

Prosecutors gave Cooperman amnesty in the Milberg Weiss investigation in exchange for his cooperation in providing the government with information about the alleged kickback scheme.

A BID to extradite two people to the United States over an alleged international operation to produce an illegal drug got under way yesterday.

Brian Howes, 43, and Kerry Ann Shanks, 29, are wanted by the American authorities to face 82 charges over the alleged supply of chemicals to people believed to be involved in the production of methamphetamine, better known as crystal meth.

An initial extradition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard claims that chemicals allegedly supplied by the pair, of Bo'ness, were traced to more than 80 unlawful laboratories in the US.

Sheriff Isabella McColl remanded them in custody until a further hearing in March.

An appeals court reinstated a charge of conspiracy to "murder, kidnap, and maim" against accused terrorist supporter Jose Padilla, the most serious count that he will face at a trial scheduled to begin in April.

The Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta yesterday reversed a lower court ruling that threw out the charge, which carries a possible sentence of up to life in prison. District Judge Marcia Cooke in Miami had dismissed the count, ruling it duplicated other charges.

Mr. Padilla, 36, a former Chicago gang member and alleged Al Qaeda operative, is charged with being part of a terror cell that provided money, aid, and recruits to Islamic extremists. Those charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. His case is set for trial April 16 in Miami federal court.

"We are gratified by the 11th Circuit's swift decision and look forward to presenting the evidence at trial," said Alex Acosta, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in Miami, in a statement.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals heard arguments January 10 over Judge Cooke's decision that the charges violated Mr. Padilla's right against being charged twice for the same offense. Federal prosecutors argued the charge was dropped in error, saying Judge Cooke used flawed legal analysis. Mr. Padilla has 21 days to seek a rehearing before the appeals court, according to the Justice Department.

An America citizen, Mr. Padilla was arrested in Chicago in 2002. The government initially accused him of plotting to detonate in America a "dirty bomb," a conventional explosive device that includes radioactive material for dispersal in the blast. America later said Al Qaeda trained him to blow up American apartment buildings. In November 2005, Mr. Padilla was indicted on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Prison officials are scheduled to report by February 9 on a mental competency exam of Mr. Padilla to determine whether he is fit to stand trial.

Mr. Padilla's lawyers said in court papers that he suffered mental damage because of abuse that they claim was inflicted by American authorities during the three years and five months he was held in a Navy prison in South Carolina.

An Oshkosh couple must move from the home where they allegedly made a 13-year-old daughter stay confined to a bedroom up to 22 hours a day.

Clint and Lynn Engstrom were evicted by a Winnebago County court official Wednesday, a day after he ordered that they each should stand trial on a charge of mental abuse of a child.

Court Commissioner Daniel Bissett ruled in favor of their landlord who said they were not paying rent or utilities and owe more than $4,700.

The Engstroms, jailed in lieu of $25,000 bail each, face an eviction deadline of Monday to move out of the house. Bissett told them the deadline could not be extended.

The girl testified Wednesday that her father and stepmother ordered her to stay in her sparsely furnished upstairs bedroom for months, as punishment for her bad behavior that included hitting, kicking, lying and making "mean comments."

Defense lawyers said the Engstroms will plead not guilty at a hearing in Circuit Court Monday.

Greek-based shipping companies Chian Spirit Maritime Enterprises, Inc. and Venetico Marine each pleaded guilty today in District court in Delaware to a felony violation related to the operation of the M/V Irene E.M., a large bulk carrier. Chian Spirit, the carrier owner, and Venetico, the carrier operator, admitted to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) by misleading U.S. Coast Guard investigators during the vessel’s port call to the United States in December 2005. The companies were sentenced by the Court to pay a total criminal penalty of $1.25 million dollars and to implement a detailed, court-monitored Environmental Compliance Plan.

According to the plea agreement, on December 5, 2005, the Irene requested entry into the Delaware Bay, en route to Newark, N.J. During the Coast Guard’s routine boarding, officers aboard the Irene provided Coast Guard investigators with a false log book that omitted required entries of overboard oily waste discharges made during the recent voyages.

Further investigation revealed that the vessel’s oil water separator had been inoperable for several months during the previous year. A vessel crew member testified that the ship illegally discharged waste oil into the ocean approximately four times per week into the open ocean. Most of these discharges took place at night or far from shore during trips to various ports, from Africa to Brazil, and from Brazil to the United States, so as to avoid detection. These illegal discharges were either recorded in the ship’s log inaccurately as having been “discharged through the oil water separator” or were not recorded at all. The Irene’s engineers also constructed a bypass pipe, often referred to as the “magic pipe,” which was also hidden from investigators during Coast Guard boardings.

“Companies that illegally and intentionally pollute our oceans violate the law and harm one of our most precious and vulnerable natural resources,” said David M. Uhlmann, Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The Justice Department will continue to prosecute companies who fail to comply with the laws that protect our environment from illegal pollution.”

Engine room operations on board large oceangoing vessels such as the Irene generate large amounts of waste oil. International and U.S. law prohibit the discharge of waste oil without treatment by an oil water separator. The law also requires that all overboard discharges be recorded in an oil record book, a required log which is regularly inspected by the Coast Guard.

As part of the plea agreement, the corporations will pay a combined penalty of $1.25 million, $250,000 of which will be dedicated to a marine-based environmental enhancement community service project on the Delaware Bay.

In a related case, the Chief Engineer of the Irene, Adrien Dragomir, pleaded guilty in August 2006 to one APPS violation for falsifying the Irene’s oil record book. He was sentenced to serve a one-year term of unsupervised probation. Grigore Manolache, the ship’s master, pleaded guilty in July 2006 to a one-count information charging him with presenting false information to the U.S. Coast Guard regarding the vessel’s illegal dumping.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division. This case was prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.