A mattress and furniture retailer here has won a $7.3 million emotional distress verdict against a law firm in a case involving the now-defunct Northern Mattress & Furniture Co. of Fairfield, Maine, according to a report in the Kennebec Journal.

Peter Redman, who now operates Priceless Mattress & Furniture in Augusta, Maine, said the firm Bernstein Shur Sawyer & Nelson was negligent in representing him in a sexual harassment claim brought by a co-worker at the former store in 2004.

He won the case at a jury trial three weeks ago, the Journal reported. An attorney representing the law firm said his client will ask for a new trial.

The European Union has approved a new chewable form of cholesterol blockbuster Lipitor for children 10 and up with high levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides, a type of blood fat, Pfizer said Tuesday.

The approval includes children whose high blood fats are due to an inherited disease that causes extremely high cholesterol levels, familial hypercholesterolemia.

New York-based Pfizer Inc. won U.S. approval for Lipitor use in children 10 to 17 with that condition in 2002.

Lipitor is the world's top-selling drug, with 2009 sales of about $13 billion, but its U.S. patent expires at the end of November 2011. Pfizer, the world's biggest drugmaker, will quickly lose most Lipitor revenue once generic competition hits, so the company has been trying to boost sales where possible before then.

Pfizer said last fall that it plans to apply for a six-month extension of its patent in European countries, after doing studies of Lipitor in youngsters.

As in the United States, the European Union allows drug makers to seek an additional six months of patent protection for medications if they test them in children, who generally are excluded from the drug studies performed to win approval for a new medication.

A U.S. appeals court says an Algerian protesting his Guantanamo detention deserves a new lower court review. The review should determine whether he was part of al-Qaida.

The three-judge panel reversed a decision that concluded Belkacem Bensayah's imprisonment was legal because he was an al-Qaida supporter.

U.S. Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg said the government presented no direct evidence of actual communication between Bensayah and any al-Qaida member.

The former head of a mortgage lending company accused of scheming to steal more than $500 million from the government's financial bailout fund has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Lee Bentley Farkas entered the not guilty plea Friday in Alexandria, Va., to charges including conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud in connection with the alleged plot at Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Corp.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema set a Nov. 1 trial date despite protests from Farkas' lawyer that it will be impossible for the defense to go through the millions of pages of documents in the case by that time.

Farkas still doesn't have a permanent lawyer because his assets have been frozen. However, the government is expected to unfreeze some of them so he can pay for his defense.

A former trucker serving at least 75 years in prison for knife attacks on women in New Jersey and Massachusetts will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to similar charges in Pennsylvania.

Forty-five-year-old Adam Leroy Lane pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from the July 2007 murder of a Pennsylvania woman and an attack on another. The plea deal allows him to escape the death penalty.

Dauphin County Judge Todd Hoover sentenced Lane to life imprisonment for the murder of Darlene Ewalt outside her Harrisburg-area home. Lane was also sentenced to a consecutive 10- to 20-year term for attacking a woman in her rural home north of York.

Prosecutors say the North Carolina man randomly attacked his victims at their homes near the highways he traveled.

A 36-year old Dutch man conned thousands of pounds out of show jumpers and horse riding fans by claiming to be the son of a big boss at IBM.

George Carlo Schouten of Finchampstead, Berkshire said his old man was helping out by sponsoring his show jumping team, a Reading court heard yesterday.

He convinced one of Britain's best female riders to join the fictional team and persuaded others to spend thousands of pounds on providing IBM-branded clothes and other kit for the team.

Baton Rouge rapper Torrence "Lil Boosie" Hatch has pleaded not guilty to several charges including first-degree murder.

Hatch appeared Monday before state District Judge Mike Erwin.

Hatch's attorney, Marcus Allen, spoke after the hearing and said Hatch is "absolutely not guilty."

The Advocate reports that Hatch is accused of paying a man to kill 35-year-old Terry Boyd, who was shot to death through a window while inside his home on Oct. 21. Two other Baton Rouge men also face first-degree murder charges in Boyd's death.