COURT

The fate of Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., a former Pennsylvania judge who has been charged with racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations, lies in the hands of the 12-member jury, who began their deliberations Wednesday.

The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market gainers are: Rubicon Technology, China XD Plastics, China MediaExpress Holdings, NutriSystem, and Drugstore.com. The top pre-market NASDAQ stock market losers are: Anadigics, NetApp, eHealth, EnerNOC, and NVIDIA.

A group of Republican lawmakers opened another front in a battle against the Federal Communications Commission's Internet traffic rules, filing a resolution of disapproval on Wednesday.

An American jailed for shooting two Pakistanis is shielded by diplomatic immunity, a Pakistani official said Wednesday, but local courts are likely have the final say in a case that has ignited a bruising row between two strategic allies.

A defiant Silvio Berlusconi vowed on Wednesday to see out his term as Italian Prime Minister until 2013, saying he was unworried by an order to stand trial for abuse of power and paying for sex with an underage girl.

A U.S. judge sentenced a Somali pirate to 33 years and nine months in prison on Wednesday for his role in the 2009 seizure of the Maersk Alabama container ship and two other vessels in the Indian Ocean.

Clay Aiken, the American singer, songwriter, actor, producer, and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of a television program American Idol in 2003, has listed his mansion outside Raleigh, NC on the market for $2,700,000.

The star forward has yet to win a ring, but his services at least strengthen a team's playoff hopes.

Global miner BHP Billiton's boss, Marius Kloppers, confirmed on Wednesday he had harboured concerns about Chinese and competitor espionage on his business, citing it as a reason behind his push for market pricing of key commodities.

The Kids for Cash trial resumed this week with former Pennsylvania Judge mark Ciavarella's attorneys trying to undermine the credibility of the prosecution witnesses and the accused vehemently claiming that though he has committed tax fraud, he never extorted money from others or took bribe in return for sending juveniles to a private detention center.

U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp. said it will challenge the ruling of an Ecuadorean judge who has ordered it to pay a record $9.5 billion fine after holding it responsible for polluting a wide swath of Amazon rainforest in Ecuador from 1972 to 1992 while it operated in a consortium with state-run Petroecuador.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued a former CEO and two former CFOs of failed mortgage lender IndyMac Bankcorp, accusing them of securities fraud.

Joerg Kretschmer, who was last week found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and handed down a 21-month suspended sentence for enabling his 17-year old son to go on a shooting rampage in 2009, has appealed the verdict.

Daniel Patrick Boyd, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina, has pleaded guilty in a federal court to charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons in a foreign country, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has sued a law firm in Henry County, Georgia, and one of its partners, accusing them of professional negligence, legal malpractice and other misconduct related to multi-million dollar real estate loans that contributed to the 2009 collapse of Neighborhood Community Bank (NCB) in Newman.

The second largest U.S. bookstore chain Borders Group Inc. (NYSE: BGP) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as its book sales started sinking in 2008, 2009, and in each quarter of 2010 even after management changes, job cuts and debt restructuring.

Universal is planning one with Justin Lin as director

Transparency campaigners sued the European Union's executive on Tuesday for withholding documents on free trade talks with India, stepping up pressure on the bloc to make its policymaking less secretive.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is under severe pressure, his administration derailed from its legislative agenda by a series of corruption scandals that have come to dominate politics.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defended himself on Wednesday against accusations his government was a lameduck, saying it was trying to bring justice in some of the country's biggest corruption scandals in decades.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday Pakistan must respect the diplomatic immunity of a U.S. consular employee jailed for shooting dead two Pakistanis, in a case straining ties between the allies.