In Thursday's environmental law news, US District Judge Shira Scheindlin has ruled that some 80 lawsuits can proceed against oil companies claiming that a gasoline additive, methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) , contaminated groundwater. The suits allege that the oil companies contaminated wells and underground aquifers across the country by adding MTBE to gasoline as a [...]

Saajid Badat , the British man who has admitted to conspiring with "shoebomber" Richard Reid to blow up an aircraft, will be sentenced on Friday after entering a guilty plea to a conspiracy charge in February. Badat, who did not go forward with his plan, was to use an explosive device similar to the one [...]

Leading Thursday's international brief, the first troops of the UN peacekeeping force assigned to Sudan arrived in Khartoum Thursday to prepare the way for the more than 10,000 troops to follow. The 44 peacekeepers that arrived in the Sudanese capital were mainly staff officers sent to set up command and control elements for the next [...]

The office of the Pentagon's general counsel has sent leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives Armed Services Committees a draft copy of a proposal saying that consensual sodomy between members of the US military would no longer be a criminal act. The change would bring the military legal code closer to the [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved two of President Bush's judicial nominees , sending the nominations to the full Senate in what could trigger a partisan face-off over the filibuster. With two 10-8 votes along party lines, the Committee approved the nominations of Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown to the 5th and 2nd [...]

Zacarias Moussaoui , the only person charged by the US in connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, could receive the death penalty after he requested nothing in return for agreeing to plead guilty, federal officials have said. Moussaoui has indicated he will plead guilty to a six-count indictment with no stipulation as to [...]

Brazil has granted asylum to ousted Ecuadoran President Lucio Gutierrez , Brazil's Ministry of External Relations said Thursday. The Ministry said Gutierrez sought asylum Wednesday at the Brazilian embassy in Quito, calling its grant of the request a "regional tradition." Gutierrez was removed from his position on Wednesday by a congressional vote after a day [...]

Leading Thursday's corporations and securities brief, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced it will merge with rival Archipelago Holdings Inc. in a move which transforms the NYSE into a for-profit, publicly traded company. The NYSE, known for its busy trading floor, takes on all-electronic Archipelago to effectively compete with the Nasdaq Market Inc. and [...]

Prosecutors have finally charged Mexico City's popular mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with abuse of authority, a move that could threaten Obrador's run for president. A week after President Vicente Fox considered – then reconsidered a pardon, and two weeks after Lopez Obrador promised he would surrender to authorities when he was stripped of public [...]

The Israeli government has released a report setting material damages to the Jewish people during the Holocaust between $240 billion and $330 billion. The report is the first of its kind, including not only the value of looted Jewish property but also lost income and wages, as well as unpaid wages from forced Jewish labor. [...]