The US House of Representatives is set to vote Thursday on the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 , which will require multistate class action lawsuits to be brought in federal court. The measure, passed last week by the Senate , is expected to pass in the Republican-run House. Supporters of the bill say that [...]

National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Wednesday that the 2004-2005 hockey season has been cancelled because the league and the NHL Players' Association could not reach a new collective bargaining agreement . The lockout over the salary cap was announced last September and continues despite last minute efforts by both sides to reach an [...]

The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Wednesday assigned all pending Vioxx product liability lawsuits to Judge Eldon Fallon of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans. Judge Fallon will coordinate discovery and other pretrial proceedings in federal lawsuits that allege that Vioxx manufacturer Merck knew the painkiller increased [...]

FBI Director Robert Mueller told the US Senate Committee on Intelligence Wednesday that the FBI remains concerned about attacks by al-Qaida and related terrorist groups, particularly the threat of attack from covert operatives already inside the US, al-Qaida's intention to use chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-energy explosives in an attack, and the potential for [...]

Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, a former senior executive at Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. and two executives from American International Group Inc. (AIG) have pleaded guilty to fraud charges. The charges were brought as part of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's investigation of fraud in the insurance industry . Spitzer has [...]

AP is reporting that the US House has approved a dramatic increase in fines for indecent broadcast programming. 3:38 PM ET – The House passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 by a vote of 389-38 . The bill raises the maximum fine for indecent programming to $500,000 for both companies and individual entertainers. [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations of abuse of detainees held at Abu Ghraib prison , Guantanamo Bay and those transferred to foreign countries that engage in torture of prisoners. In the ACLU letter , ACLU Exective Director Anthony Romero wrote: An [...]

Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov said Wednesday that he will ask the Russian Constitutional Court to overturn portions of the country's controversial law canceling many welfare benefits and replacing them with cash payments. The reform, which affects medical, housing and transportation benefits, has been met with widespread protests by Russian citizens who are calling for a [...]

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday that the European Union should recognize that the US will never accept the International Criminal Court and should seek a practical solution to the problem. Saying, "I don't think we're going to make any progress. The sentiments are very profound in the United States" Solana indicated that [...]

US Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Patrick Kennedy told a Senate committee Tuesday that US officials knew of problems in the Iraq Oil-for-Food Program but chose to remain silent. Kennedy said the officials were more concerned with maintaining some form of sanctions on Iraq than with ensuring that those sanctions were air-tight. At the [...]