Ohio court reverses $2 billion judgment against Ford

Ohio court reverses $2 billion judgment against Ford
Five Philadelphia priests sanctioned in sex abuse probe
Arizona surgeons carry out rare mom-to-child liver transplant
Edwards acknowledged secret payments "for his benefit": heiress's lawyer
Iowa man convicted in bomb plot targeting financial firms
French billionaire quizzed at NY child support trial
Planned Parenthood can be in Texas health program, court says
Woman accuses son of taking $51 million lottery ticket
Jailed U.S. contractor in Cuba pleads for brief release
U.S. must heal native peoples' wounds, return lands: U.N.
Muslim woman wins $5 million verdict from AT&T for discrimination
Ohio turns over five dangerous wild animals to private farm
Son charged in killing of immigration and customs agent
Hiring slows, spells trouble for economy, Obama
Muslim woman wins $5 million verdict from AT&T for discrimination
Famous "falling bear" killed in Colorado car crash
Honor student pleads guilty in Jihad Jane plot
Planned Parenthood can be in Texas health program, court says
Probe of U.S. military role in Colombia scandal finished
Valuable art recovered in Alaska wildlife trafficking case
U.S. launches advanced military communications satellite
California pension fund sues Wal-Mart, alleges bribery
Kent State survivors seek new probe of 1970 shootings
Sky Capital founder sentenced to 12 years prison
Californian jailed 5 days without water seeks $20 million
Court rejects appeal in wife's attempt to poison mistress
Killing of bald eagles divides Native American tribes
University of California urged not use force to end protests
French billionaire quizzed at NY child support trial
Arizona surgeons carry out rare mom-to-child liver transplant
Woman accuses son of taking $51 million lottery ticket
Iowa man convicted in bomb plot targeting financial firms
Muslim woman wins $5 million verdict from AT&T for discrimination
Jailed U.S. contractor in Cuba pleads for brief release
Planned Parenthood can be in Texas health program, court says
U.S. must heal native peoples' wounds, return lands: U.N.
Ohio court reverses $2 billion judgment against Ford

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(Reuters) - The Ohio Court of Appeals reversed a $2 billion judgment against Ford Motor Co this week and ordered a new trial for a group of dealers who said the No. 2 U.S. automaker overcharged them for commercial trucks over an 11-year period. In its Thursday ruling, the appeals court said the contract at the heart of the dealers' class-action suit was "ambiguous." It also said evidence submitted by Ford was wrongly excluded. "We hold that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding Ford's mitigating evidence at the damages trial," the court said in its ruling. ...

Five Philadelphia priests sanctioned in sex abuse probe

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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput stripped five priests of their duties and apologized to their victims on Friday following an investigation into a pedophilia scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic archdiocese. The sanctions come as the archdiocese nears the end of its investigation into 27 priests who were put on leave when a January 2011 grand jury report raised questions about their possible involvement in abusing children. ...

Arizona surgeons carry out rare mom-to-child liver transplant

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PHOENIX (Reuters) - Surgeons in Arizona have successfully carried out a rare mother-to-child liver transplant, after a search for an organ from a deceased donor for the desperately ill 1-year-old girl came up blank, the hospital said. In a procedure performed on March 20 by surgeons at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, Vanessa Negrete, 26, from Yuma, Arizona, donated a section of her liver to her daughter, Aliyah Negrete. Aliyah was released from the hospital this week. She and her mother were "doing great," the hospital said in a statement on its website. ...

Edwards acknowledged secret payments "for his benefit": heiress's lawyer

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(Note: Graphic language in final paragraph) GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Former Senator John Edwards acknowledged that secret payments provided by an heiress during his 2008 presidential bid were "for his benefit," an attorney testified on Friday as the second week of Edwards' campaign-finance trial drew to a close. ...

Iowa man convicted in bomb plot targeting financial firms

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Iowa man was convicted on Friday of mailing pipe bombs and threatening letters to investment companies in a failed bid to get the firms to artificially drive up the value of certain stocks. A jury in federal court in Chicago found John Tomkins, a 47-year-old machinist from Dubuque, guilty of one count of using a destructive device while mailing a threatening communication, two counts of possessing an unregistered destructive device, and nine counts of mailing a threatening communication. ...

French billionaire quizzed at NY child support trial

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault was grilled on Friday -- the second day of a child-support trial in Manhattan -- about why he delayed accepting paternity of the child he had with supermodel Linda Evangelista. Pinault, 49, who is currently married to actress Salma Hayek, has called Evangelista's demand of as much as $46,000 a month in child support unreasonable. Evangelista, 46, wants Pinault to provide for their son, Augustin, at a level on par with his daughter with Hayek. ...

Planned Parenthood can be in Texas health program, court says

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AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood can offer services for now as part of a Texas program for low-income women despite a new state rule that bans money going to affiliates of abortion providers, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday. The court order from a three-judge panel - which lifts an emergency stay put in place earlier this week - was the latest in a series of alternating legal victories for Planned Parenthood and the state of Texas. But the court battle over the Texas Women's Health Program is not finished. A hearing is scheduled for May 18 in U.S. ...

Woman accuses son of taking $51 million lottery ticket

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California woman has sued her son and accused him of making off with her $51 million Mega Millions lottery ticket, and then racking up expenses on houses, cars and cash gifts. The legal dispute between Etta May Urquhart, 76, and her son Ronnie Orender, who had been a truck driver, centers on who owns the ticket. She admits he signed it, but she is the one who lottery officials acknowledge bought the slip of paper. ...

Jailed U.S. contractor in Cuba pleads for brief release

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MIAMI (Reuters) - An American contractor imprisoned in Cuba praised Raul Castro's economic reforms but called the Cuban government's treatment of him "shameful" on Friday in his first media interview since he was jailed more than two years ago. In a telephone interview with CNN, Alan Gross also made a new appeal to Cuban authorities to allow him to return to the United States for a brief visit with his gravely ill 90-year-old mother. Gross, a veteran development worker, was arrested in Havana in December 2009 for his work in a semi-covert U.S. ...

U.S. must heal native peoples' wounds, return lands: U.N.

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States must do more to heal the wounds of indigenous peoples caused by more than a century of oppression, including restoring control over lands Native Americans consider to be sacred, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Friday. James Anaya, the U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, just completed a 12-day visit to the United States where he met with representatives of indigenous peoples in the District of Columbia, Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Washington State, South Dakota, and Oklahoma. He also met with U.S. government officials. ...

Muslim woman wins $5 million verdict from AT&T for discrimination

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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Kansas City woman who converted from Christianity to Islam has been awarded $5 million in punitive damages by a jury who found the telecommunications giant AT&T created a "hostile work environment" after her conversion, according to a judge's order issued Friday. Susann Bashir, a 41-year-old married mother, sued AT&T unit Southwestern Bell for what she said was a pattern of offensive and discriminatory conduct by her supervisors that began when she converted to Islam in 2005, six years after she started working for the company as a network technician. ...

Ohio turns over five dangerous wild animals to private farm

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - The Columbus Zoo on Friday reluctantly turned over two leopards, a bear and two monkeys to the widow of a man who released them and more than four dozen other dangerous animals into the Ohio countryside before he committed suicide last October. The incident in October caused a panic in a rural area near Zanesville, Ohio and forced police to hunt the animals and kill most of them. ...

Son charged in killing of immigration and customs agent

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The 14-year-old son of a Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was charged with murder on Friday after prosecutors said he used his father's service gun to shoot him in the head. The boy, whose name was not released because of his age, fired a single round through a window from outside the family home on Wednesday in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, the local District Attorney's Office said in a statement. Prosecutors declined to discuss a motive. ...

Hiring slows, spells trouble for economy, Obama

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employers cut back on hiring in April and more people stopped looking for work, troubling signs for President Barack Obama whose re-election prospects could hinge on his handling of the economy. Employers added 115,000 workers to payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. It was the third straight month in which hiring had slowed, intensifying fears the U.S. recovery is losing momentum. Even a slight drop in the unemployment rate to 8.1 percent had a dark tone because the fall was due entirely to people dropping out of the workforce. ...

Muslim woman wins $5 million verdict from AT&T for discrimination

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Famous "falling bear" killed in Colorado car crash

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DENVER (Reuters) - A black bear made famous by an Internet photo of it falling from a tree after being tranquilized was struck by two cars and killed on a highway in Colorado this week, authorities said on Friday. The 280-pound (128 kg) bear, which was tagged and relocated to the mountains about 50 miles from the city of Boulder last week, was killed on Thursday morning, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. Last week, the three-year-old bear was spotted in a tree outside a student housing complex at the University of Colorado. ...

Honor student pleads guilty in Jihad Jane plot

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Maryland honor student pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to help a Pennsylvania woman known as "Jihad Jane" plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who had offended some Muslims. Mohammed Hassan Khalid, 18, is believed to be the youngest person ever charged with terrorism in a U.S. civilian court. He faces a sentence as high as 15 years in prison. Khalid, who moved with his family from Pakistan to suburban Baltimore in 2008, was a high school student who had been accepted on a full scholarship at prestigious Johns Hopkins University. According to filings by U.S. ...

Planned Parenthood can be in Texas health program, court says

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AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood can participate for now in a Texas health program for low-income women despite a new state rule that bans affiliates of abortion providers, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday. The court order from the 5th U.S. Circuit -- which lifts an emergency halt that was put in place on earlier this week -- is the latest in a series of alternating victories for Planned Parenthood and Texas. But the court battle is not over. ...

Probe of U.S. military role in Colombia scandal finished

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fate of a dozen U.S. troops linked to a prostitution scandal in Colombia ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama will be decided within days after an investigator forwarded his recommendations on Friday to the general in charge of the region. The military personnel and another dozen Secret Service agents were linked a raucous party last month that ultimately led to as many as 21 prostitutes being taken back to some of their hotel rooms. ...

Valuable art recovered in Alaska wildlife trafficking case

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(Reuters) - Federal prosecutors are seeking to take control of five paintings - one valued at up to $50,000 - seized in one of Alaska's biggest wildlife-trafficking cases in recent years. Prosecutors said they hope to ultimately return the paintings to their rightful owners. The paintings were found during last year's prosecution of two Alaskans, Jesse Leboeuf and Loretta Sternbach, who pleaded guilty in July to wildlife trafficking and weapons charges. ...

U.S. launches advanced military communications satellite

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday to deliver the second member of an advanced U.S. military communications satellite network into orbit. The 197-foot (60-metre) tall rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, blasted off its seaside launch pad at 2:42 p.m. EDT, piercing partly cloudy skies as it headed into orbit. Sealed inside the rocket's protective nosecone was the second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications satellite. ...

California pension fund sues Wal-Mart, alleges bribery

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The second largest U.S. public pension fund said on Thursday it had sued current and former executives and board members at Wal-Mart Stores Inc, alleging bribery and a cover-up in the company's expansion in Mexico. The $153 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), which holds more than 5.3 million shares of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, said in a statement it had filed the derivative lawsuit in Delaware on behalf of the company. ...

Kent State survivors seek new probe of 1970 shootings

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Survivors of the shooting of 13 students by the Ohio National Guard during an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in 1970 called on Thursday for a new probe into the incident that came to define U.S. divisions over the Vietnam War. Four students were killed and nine wounded in the shootings on May 4, 1970 that followed days of demonstrations on the campus after disclosures of a U.S.-led invasion of Cambodia that signaled a widening of the war in Southeast Asia. ...

Sky Capital founder sentenced to 12 years prison

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(Reuters) - The former chief executive of defunct brokerage Sky Capital LLC was sentenced on Thursday in a Manhattan federal court to 12 years in prison for defrauding investors, Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara said. Last year, Ross Mandell and former Sky broker Adam Harrington were each convicted by a Manhattan federal jury of securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit each of these offenses. ...

Californian jailed 5 days without water seeks $20 million

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California university student left handcuffed in a federal holding cell for nearly five days without food or water has filed a claim for up to $20 million in compensation, saying he suffered kidney failure and nearly died as a result. The five-page notice, a precursor to a lawsuit against the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, was sent Wednesday to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration by a lawyer for the student, Daniel Chong, who has said he was forced to drink his own urine to stay alive. ...

Court rejects appeal in wife's attempt to poison mistress

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(Reuters) - A microbiologist charged under an anti-terrorism law for attempting to poison her husband's mistress lost a bid to overturn her conviction on Thursday. Carol Anne Bond had argued that the U.S. federal chemical weapons act, which makes it a crime to acquire or use any chemical weapon, was meant to target terrorist activity, not the crimes of a spurned lover. A Philadelphia-based federal court rejected Bond's appeal, ruling that the government was justified in applying the law, even if it seemed a questionable move. ...

Killing of bald eagles divides Native American tribes

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SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A plan by a Native American tribe to kill two bald eagles for use in a religious rite has drawn the ire of a fellow tribe, which says it doesn't want any eagles sacrificed on the Wyoming reservation they share. An attorney for the Eastern Shoshone tribe told Reuters on Thursday that killing bald eagles on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming would violate its religious beliefs, threaten tribal sovereignty and was "unacceptable." "To the Eastern Shoshone, the eagle is our messenger to the creator. ...

University of California urged not use force to end protests

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The University of California, heavily criticized over campus police tactics during the "Occupy" movement, should establish strategies to handle protests without resorting to the use of force, a report commissioned by administrators urged on Friday. The draft report came after the 10-campus University of California system came under heavy criticism over its handling of protests last fall, during which a UC Davis officer was videotaped dousing a group of seated protesters with a heavy dose of pepper spray. ...

French billionaire quizzed at NY child support trial

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Arizona surgeons carry out rare mom-to-child liver transplant

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Woman accuses son of taking $51 million lottery ticket

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Iowa man convicted in bomb plot targeting financial firms

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Muslim woman wins $5 million verdict from AT&T for discrimination

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Jailed U.S. contractor in Cuba pleads for brief release

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