Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen issued an executive order Thursday, directing the Tennessee Commissioner of Corrections to conduct a "comprehensive review of the manner in which death sentences are administered... and provide new protocols and related written procedures in administering death sentences in Tennessee" no later than May 2, 2007. Executive Order No. 43 also grants reprieves to four inmates on death row until May 2, 2007, and revoked existing procedures and related protocols used to administer the death penalty. Tennessee currently administers the death penalty by lethal injection and electrocution.

Last week, a North Carolina state judge issued an injunction blocking two executions until Governor Mike Easley issues new procedures to execute capital defendants without the presence of doctors. Capital punishment has also been suspended in Florida and California. In early-January, the New Jersey Death Penalty Commission recommended abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with a life sentence without the possibility of parole. An increased number of states have begun to review the administration of the death penalty following the botched execution of Angel Diaz in December 2006.

The woman who claims to be James Brown's fourth wife wants half of the singer's estate and to be allowed back into the South Carolina home she was locked out of soon after his death.

Tomi Rae Hynie's lawyer said she filed a petition in Aiken County probate court Thursday, claiming that she is the surviving spouse of the singer and entitled to part of his estate, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press.

She wants the court to allow her to return to Brown's Beech Island home to retrieve "personal possessions" that belong to her and their 5-year-old son, including furniture she picked out for the home, according to the court papers.

"She's not asking the court to live there," said Robert Rosen, Hynie's attorney. "They locked her out and wouldn't let her in but she has a right to go in and get her stuff - furniture, her clothing, her son's toys. They keep saying that they're going to do it but they never do it so we're going to ask a judge to order them to do it."

Brown's attorney and trustee, Buddy Dallas, said Hynie never asked for any personal items from the singer's home.

"She never requested anything," Dallas said. "She's used a camera crew and a lawsuit. I'm sure the court will inquire into it and make a proper determination."

Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, two of three men indicted in 2004 by a US federal grand jury on charges of engaging in a 15-year conspiracy of providing funds to Hamas, were found not guilty of racketeering Thursday. While the men were exonerated of the most serious crime alleged, they were convicted of lesser charges. Salah, who spent 5 years in an Israeli prison in 1993 after confessing to transporting funds for Hamas, was convicted of obstruction of justice for providing false answers in a civil case involving an American student killed by the terrorist group while in Israel. Ashqar was convicted of obstruction of justice and criminal contempt for his refusal to testify before a federal grand jury after receiving immunity. The third man indicted, Abu Mousa Marzook, is currently living in Syria, and is considered to be a fugitive.

Controversy in the case arose when US District Judge Amy St. Eve closed the courtroom during the testimony of two Israeli security agents who were called to counter Salah’s claims that his 1993 admission to being in Hamas was false, and the product of Israeli torture during his interrogation. In a statement made after Thursday’s ruling, Amnesty International USA, while pleased with the “generally favorable verdict,” remains concerned that “evidence likely obtained by the use of torture even entered the courtroom.”

Opponents of the legislation said the issue was settled in the November election and lawmakers should not have revived it.

This year's bill would allow rape victims to get abortions if they report the rapes to police within 50 days. Doctors would have to confirm the report with police and would have to take blood from aborted fetuses and give that information to police for DNA testing.

In the case of incest, a doctor would have to get the woman's consent to report the crime along with the identity of the alleged perpetrator before an abortion could be performed. Blood samples from fetuses would have to be provided to police in incest cases, too.

Abortions could be done only until the 17th week of pregnancy in cases of incest and rape. The bill carries a tougher maximum penalty for illegal abortions than last year's bill - 10 years in prison instead of five.

It would allow abortions to save women's lives and in cases in which their health would be seriously jeopardized by a continued pregnancy. However, a doctor could perform an abortion only if a doctor from another practice concurs that a woman's health is in jeopardy.

In Utah, a state House committee voted 6-2 on Tuesday to ban abortion, setting the stage for a costly legal battle if the bill clears the Legislature and is signed into law. The committee sent the measure to the full House.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said the bill likely is unconstitutional and if it becomes law could be costly to defend against any legal challenges.

The government alleged that RightCHOICE, which participates in the FEHB Program as part of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan (SBP), passed on excessive costs to the FEHB Program in connection with compensating a preferred provider network of physicians known as “Alliance.” The government contended that RightCHOICE paid higher fees to Alliance physicians for serving patients insured through the SBP than these same physicians were reimbursed for providing the same types of services to patients insured through various other health plans. The government also alleged the physicians passed on these higher rates to the Office of Personnel Management as purportedly “reasonable” costs to the FEHB.

“Today’s settlement demonstrates the United States’ determination to make sure health care providers do not overcharge the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program,” said Peter Keisler, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

The civil settlement resolves claims brought under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act by Ronald Ekstrand against Wellpoint Health Networks, Inc., the entity into which RightCHOICE merged in January 2002. Mr. Ekstrand will receive $165,750 of the total recovery as his statutory award for his suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, private individuals can bring whistleblower actions for fraud on behalf of the United States and collect a share of any proceeds recovered by the suit as well as attorney fees.

"This civil health care fraud settlement should send a signal to all health care providers who receive federal funds that we are committed to protecting the health care system from fraud or abuse," said Catherine L. Hanaway, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri..

The case was handled by the Civil Division of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. The case was investigated by the St. Louis offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of Personnel Management-Office of the Inspector General.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Wednesday he would let selected members of the Democratic-led U.S. Congress see secret court documents that authorized President George W. Bush's newly revised domestic spying program.

Lawmakers and civil liberties groups called it a significant first step for an administration that in the past often refused to provide information to Congress, but they urged the Bush administration to provide full details about the program.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said he would review the documents and then decide if "further (congressional) oversight or legislative action is necessary."

The administration announced an abrupt end to what had been a 5-year-old warrantless surveillance program on January 17, two weeks after Democrats took control of Congress and vowed to bring the program in line with law. The surveillance program will now be subject to approval from the secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Critics had charged Bush overstepped his power after the September 11 attacks with warrantless domestic spying as well as actions such as holding terrorism suspects indefinitely without charges and interrogations that some said amounted to torture.

Democrats had complained that while Bush's fellow Republicans controlled Congress, their requests for information from the president were frequently rejected or ignored.

At a January 18 Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrats and Republicans alike demanded that Gonzales provide details about the agreement the Justice Department had reached with the secret court.

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.