FLORIDA: The Florida Supreme Court has lifted a huge burden from U.S. tobacco companies on Thursday as it threw out a record $ 145 billion punitive-damages award against them, even though it agreed the companies had misled smokers about the dangers of lighting up.

It was also ruled by the court that individual smokers could sue the companies, and gave plaintiffs a potent legal weapon by upholding the trial jury's finding that the companies had negligently misled the public about the dangers and addictive nature of cigarettes.

WASHINGTON: The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced that the computer and video game industry filed a suit in Oklahoma asking that the state's new video game law should be overturned.

Certain similar laws have been ruled as unconstitutional by six federal courts in five years, all rejecting the unpersuasive claims made by states that violent video games cause aggression.

A consumer advocacy organization sued KFC on Tuesday to get it to stop using partially hydrogenated oils, a foremost ingredient of its fried chicken.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)-the advocacy group filed a lawsuit seeking to end KFC's use of partially hydrogenated oil in fried chicken and other dishes as the oils contain trans fats, which scientists consider the most unhealthful of all fats.

Kim Woo-choong, founder of the now-dismantled Daewoo Group, is sentenced to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of charges including embezzlement and accounting fraud.

He was found guilty of fraud in securing bank loans, fabricating financial accounts to falsify assets and embezzlement of company funds.

A Californian court has ruled that online reporters are protected by the same laws that protect print journalists, striking a blow against effort of Apple Inc to identify the people who leaked confidential data of the company on net.

Bush administration has invoked "Military and State Secrets" privilleges to run down a class action suit filed by Internet Privacy Group, EFF against AT&T accusing the company of colluding with National Security Agency to facilitate interception of all communications by the NSA. The government says the proceedings could reveal military and state secrets and hence should be quashed.

Apple’s courtroom troubles don’t seem to end. After Beatles-owned Apple Corps, it’s now the turn of Burst.com. It’s a patent infringrment battle & in one corner we have burst.com -the innovator of Burstware video and audio delivery software for IP networks offering unique Faster-Than-Real-Time technology to provide superior-quality, uninterrupted picture and sound, while optimizing network bandwidth. In the other, the creators of a small white box that has revolutionised the way we buy and listen to music.

In a sign of how meticulously Microsoft is planning its antitrust battle against the European Commission next month , Microsoft's legal team has been picking the brains of three former European Union judges in preparation for next month's showdown with the Commission.

A federal judge on Friday rebuffed the Bush Administration’s demand for a list of people’s search requests, considered a sensitive information by provacy lawyers but asked Google to give the administration a peek into its search engine.

Patent holder NTP has dropped the infringement lawsuit against the makers of Blackberry, Research in Motion in exchange for 2.5 million.