A woman is suing Oprah Winfrey's studio, claiming she was injured in a rush for seats before a taping in Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune's Web site reports Tayna Milner is seeking more than 50-thousand dollars in damages.

Her lawsuit alleges Milner was pushed down the stairs between a waiting area and audience seating at Harpo Studios, causing her to fall and suffer unspecified injuries. Milner accuses the studio of failing to properly control the crowd.

No comment yet from Milner's lawyer or Harpo Studios.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider a discrimination case in which a Coca-Cola bottling company fired a black employee.

Coca-Cola asked the Supreme Court to hear the lawsuit, which involves allegations that a supervisor of employee Stephen Peters was motivated by racial bias and influenced a human resources manager to fire the worker.

Such circumstances are sometimes referred to as "cat's paw" or "rubber stamp" liability. Coca-Cola fired Peters for insubordination after he refused a request to work on a weekend during his scheduled days off.

A federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit brought on Peters' behalf by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The appeals court said a federal judge placed too much emphasis on the fact that Peters' immediate supervisor made no express recommendation to fire him.

In asking the court to hear the case, the company asked the justices to consider when an employer may be held liable for intentional discrimination when the person who fired an employee harbored no discriminatory bias. Peters worked at the Coca-Cola facility in Albuquerque, N.M.

The Spokane diocese came up with this plan in order to avoid bankruptcy and also offer succor to people by allowing them "closure" for their sufferings. Around 150 claims have been filed against the diocese and this settlement provision gives the Church a chance to avoid insolvency as well.

The Archdiocese of Portland filed for Chapter 11 in 2004, and the dioceses of Tuscon, Spokane, and Davenport soon followed suit in the wake of hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits against clergy. Last month, the Portland archdiocese filed a new bankruptcy plan including a $75 million settlement of the sexual abuse claims.

Federal bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive said that the settlement would allow the victims to gain some "measure of closure and allow them to move forward and continue the healing process”. However the plan still needs to be approved by the victims as well as another judge.

Zive said that the money would be put up by six insurance companies and would also be collected through selling off the bishop's office building. However he added that the specific amount to be disbursed to specific victims was not yet determined.

The judge also added that the settlement would allow the diocese “to continue its ministry and to begin its own journey of renewal, healing and hope”. It may be recalled that the Spokane diocese bankruptcy protection in 2004 after the claims against it increased to $81.3 million.

Walt Disney Co. has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a woman that said her fatal aneurysm was triggered by the Indiana Jones Adventure ride in Disneyland.

Both sides refused to release the settlement terms, agreed to Friday. The trial was set to start Thursday in Los Angeles.

"Safety always has been, and continues to be, our top priority," said Rob Doughty, a Disneyland spokesman, in a prepared statement.

Barry Novack, the plaintiff's attorney, declined to comment about the family's reaction.

Cristina Moreno, of Barcelona, Spain, was a 23-year-old newlywed on her honeymoon when she and her husband rode the Indiana Jones attraction in Anaheim on June 25, 2000, court documents state. Within a few hours, she collapsed from a bleeding cerebral aneurysm. She died a few months later.

Her estate filed the lawsuit in 2001, seeking more than $1 million in damages. The plaintiff alleged that that the jerky moves and emotional stress from the ride prompted the pre-existing aneurysm to rupture, court documents state.

At least three other lawsuits related to Indiana Jones-ride injuries were filed then settled.

The Moreno case might have made it easier for visitors to successfully sue over ride-related injuries. In a ruling last year tied to the case, the California Supreme Court found that Disney must apply "the utmost care and diligence" related to passenger safety, allowing the case to go forward.

The soft-spoken Miers has described herself as a "Texan through and through." White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove said she can be "tough as nails." Bush once called her "a pit bull in size 6 shoes."

She was Bush‘s personal lawyer in Texas, took on the thankless job of cleaning up the Texas Lottery when he was governor, and followed him to Washington to serve as staff secretary until Bush appointed her White House counsel, succeeding Alberto Gonzales when he was named attorney general.

Miers withdrew her nomination after intense scrutiny by lawmakers and observers wary of her lack of judicial experience.

Causey's plea deal came just days before the scheduled trial of fellow ex-Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who were both later convicted of conspiracy and fraud. Lay's conviction was vacated after he died before sentencing and Skilling began serving his 24-year sentence last month. Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow was sentenced to six years in prison in September 2006 for his role in the accounting fraud.

An Egyptian man holds a photograph of Iraq's late president Saddam Hussein during a condolence service held at the local lawyers syndicate in Cairo, 3 Jan 2007
An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Wednesday that an individual has been detained and is under investigation for having made the video of Saddam's execution.

The identity of the person detained has not been released.

The film had poor audio and grainy pictures, but clearly showed the former Iraqi strongman at the gallows and then in some Internet versions, falling through the trap door and hanging to death.

In the accompanying audio, persons in the room could clearly be heard shouting taunts at Saddam in his last moments, telling him to "go to hell" and chanting the names of two Shi'ite rivals of Saddam. The former dictator shouted back at them, "Is this how you show your bravery as men?" and told them to "go to hell."

The Iraqi government announced Tuesday that it was launching an investigation into the matter. Only about 17 people were present in the execution chamber.

Munqith al-Faroon, one of the prosecutors in the trial that sent Saddam to the gallows, was a witness at Saturday's execution. He told an Arabic-language television channel that only two officials had camera phones in the room and that he knows who they are but would not name them to the press.

In earlier media reports, al-Faroon allegedly accused Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouffac al-Rubaie of being one of two people who used a mobile phone to videotape the execution. Al-Faroon later denied those reports.

The video has further inflamed sectarian tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs. Sunnis in Iraq and Jordan have staged demonstrations since the execution, saying it was purely an act of Shi'ite revenge, and the Shi'ite-led government has come under criticism from other Islamic nations for carrying out the hanging on the morning of a major Muslim religious holiday, Eid al-Adha.

An Iraqi special tribunal condemned Saddam to death on November 5 for his role in ordering the executions of 148 Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against him there in 1982.

Meanwhile, there are media reports that two of Saddam's lieutenants who helped carry out the Dujail executions will be hanged soon, possibly as early as Thursday: his half brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who was head of intelligence in 1982, and Bawad al-Bandar, the chief Judge of the Revolutionary Court that handed down the Dujail death sentences.

The Iraqi court that upheld the death sentences said they must be carried out by January 27. On the day of Saddam's execution, National Security Adviser al-Rubaie said al-Tikriti and al-Bandar's sentences would be carried out after the Muslim holiday, but did not specify when. Al-Rubaie said the government wanted to execute the former dictator alone, to make it a "special day" for Saddam.