A U.S.-trained Pakistani scientist accused of helping al-Qaida and shooting at FBI agents in Afghanistan has been forced to appear in Manhattan court by a judge's order.

Aafia Siddiqui (ah-FEE'-uh see-DEE'-kee) kept her hands folded as she entered court Monday surrounded by marshal's deputies. When the judge said that she was presumed innocent, she shook her head in apparent disagreement.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said he would not rule on whether Siddiqui is competent to stand trial, but would hear the testimony of mental health experts.

Psychologists for both prosecutors and the defense say Siddiqui has claimed she saw some of her children in her cell. They say seemed especially disturbed by required strip searches.

Berman has entered a not guilty plea for her.

A woman accused of withholding cancer treatment from her autistic son by canceling appointments and not filling prescriptions pleaded not guilty Monday to an attempted murder charge in the boy's death.

Kristen LaBrie was ordered held on $15,000 cash bail during her arraignment Monday in Salem Superior Court. She did not speak during the brief hearing, except to enter the pleas to attempted murder, child endangerment and other charges.

LaBrie's son, Jeremy, had been diagnosed with leukemia in 2006. He was 9 when he died in March.

Prosecutors say LaBrie, 37, canceled appointments for chemotherapy treatment, did not fill at least half her son's prescriptions and tried to deceived doctors into believing she was giving the boy the proper care.

Her attorney, Kevin James, said Monday that LaBrie was a victim, had financial trouble and took care of the boy on her own.

LaBrie had earlier been charged with child endangerment; a grand jury returned the more serious indictment Friday.

Deborah Rowe, the ex-wife of Michael Jackson and the mother of two of his children, has not reached a final decision on whether to seek custody of the children, a lawyer said Thursday.

Attorney Eric M. George made the disclosure on a telephone conference call but declined to take questions.

"The truth is that Debbie has not reach a final decision concerning the pending custody proceedings," he said. "When Debbie does take a position in the public forum of the court, those positions will of course be conveyed to all interested persons."

Earlier in the day, Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff rescheduled a guardianship hearing for July 13 at the request of attorneys for Rowe and for Katherine Jackson, the singer's mother, who has temporary guardianship of her son's three children.

The legal documents filed in connection with the request were not accompanied by any petition for custody by Rowe.

The reputed underboss of the New England mob has pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in a plea deal that will send him to prison for six years.

Carmen "The Cheeseman" DiNunzio pleaded guilty Wednesday to bribing an undercover FBI agent posing as a state highway department official in an attempt to win a $6 million contract on the Big Dig highway project.

DiNunzio is expected to plead guilty next week to separate state gambling and extortion charges.

Prosecutors have agreed to wrap both cases together under one plea agreement and to recommend a sentence of six years in federal prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 24.

Authorities say the 51-year-old DiNunzio has been underboss of the New England branch of the Mafia since 2004.

Judge Michael Kupersmith issued the sentence to 51-year-old Louise Desnoyers (day-noy-AY') on Wednesday in Grand Isle County after hearing her apology to family, friends and the court.

Desnoyers pleaded no contest this year in the death of Nicholas Desnoyers-Langlois. She had originally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

The judge says he determined that Desnoyers knew what she was doing when she drowned the 8-year-old boy in August 2006.

She told authorities she held her son under water so he wouldn't have to suffer through her impending breakup with his father.

Madoff "discarded me like road kill," Siegman said.

Even before the one-time financier was sentenced to 150 years in prison, Siegman, 65, hobbled out of the federal courthouse and into the media scrum that has followed the secretive money manager from his Upper East Side apartment seven months ago to this sentencing Monday.

There, anger toward Madoff appeared to have shifted more to the regulators that many believe failed to stop the massive fraud. Victims and nearby protesters took the government to task for not preventing Madoff's Ponzi scheme. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said estimated losses for investors were more than $13 billion, but he said that was conservative.

The crush of TV cameras and reporters spilled out into the street in front of oncoming traffic as New York City police tried to hem in the crowd.

Siegman, surrounded by cameras, said she lost 40 years of savings and now scavenges for food. Appearing frail and supporting herself on a walker, she began to feel unwell while speaking with reporters. The questions kept coming even as she ate a cookie to raise her blood sugar.

Thomas Daley, of Phoenixville, put cameras behind mirrors and in ceiling fans in bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms at five apartment buildings in Norristown.

Prosecutors say it began in 1989 and continued until September 2008. Norristown police were tipped off when a tenant found one of the cameras.

Daley pleaded guilty in Montgomery County on Wednesday to more than 30 counts, including invasion of privacy.

The 46-year-old will be sentenced later. He faces 10 to 151 years in prison.

Defense attorney Tim Woodward says Daley never showed the videos to anyone else and "is extremely remorseful."