Libya airplane bombing compensation ruling [US DC] News
Libya airplane bombing compensation ruling [US DC]

Robert L. Pugh et al. v. Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, United Ststes District Court for the District of Columbia, January 15, 2008 [ruling that the Libyan government and six Libyan officials should pay more than $6 billion in damages to families of seven Americans who died in the 1989 bombing of French passenger jet UTA Flight 772, which killed all 170 people on board]. Read the full text of the decision [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Five executed for witchcraft in Salem

On August 19, 1692, 5 people - four men and a woman - were executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Learn more about the Salem Witch Trials.

USSR sentences US pilot to 10 years for espionage

On August 19, 1960, US spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Soviet Union after being convicted of espionage. Powers was captured and tried by the USSR after his U-2 was shot down while flying a mission over Soviet airspace. In 1962, Powers was returned to the US as part of a prisoner exchange agreement. Learn more about the spy plane incident from the US Department of State.