Money laundering typically involves an effort to make it appear that money from an illegal transaction, often drug sales, is legitimate.

Several federal appeals courts have said that concealing money that is going across the U.S. border, without proving why, also is a crime under the federal law concerning international money laundering.

A three-judge panel reversed Cuellar's conviction on a 2-1 vote, saying that prosecutors had to show that the defendant's activities were designed to create the appearance of legitimate wealth.

Acknowledging that the money likely was drug proceeds and that Cuellar knew it, the appeals panel said the government did not prove that Cuellar was trying "to create the appearance of legitimate wealth." He could have been charged with smuggling cash, the judges said.

The full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that decision and affirmed the conviction, declaring that it makes no sense to say that Congress chose the word "conceal" to apply only in a certain way.

"Concealment of the funds during the U.S. leg of the trip is a vital part of the transportation design or plan to get the funds out of this country," the full appeals court said.

In asking the justices to take the case, Cuellar's lawyers said the appeals court decision incorrectly expands the scope of the money laundering law.

Defense lawyers who urged the court to hear Cuellar's case said the concealment provision — with its maximum prison term of 20 years and fine of $500,000 — has proven highly useful to prosecutors in forcing guilty pleas from defendants.

"The mere threat of a money laundering charge can be a powerful weapon in the prosecutor's negotiating arsenal," the brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said.

Had Cuellar been charged with smuggling, he would have faced up to five years in prison, the defense lawyers said.

Late on Monday, the Nevada State Supreme Court agreed to a request by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada to stay the execution pending an upcoming ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection. The country's highest court agreed on September 25 to review the issue, the same day Castillo was scheduled to die.

The Nevada court also said the state's methods are cruel and unusual because the prisoner is so heavily sedated it is impossible for witnesses to determine the actual effects of the injection, effectively violating First Amendment rights.

The ruling is an effective reprieve because Castillo's execution order is only good for a week, and the U.S. Supreme Court is not expected to rule before then. A number of states, including California, have halted executions pending the legal review of whether the current method of lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

Castillo had given up his remaining appeals, saying he was ready to die for bludgeoning an 86-year-old Las Vegas teacher to death in 1995.

Castillo worked on Isabel Brendt's roof, then returned with a female companion after finding a house key. He burglarized the home and beat Brendt to death with a tire iron. They later burned down the home.

The complaint charges NutriSystem and certain of its officers with violations of the Exchange Act while at the same time selling nearly $7 million in their personal holdings of NutriSystem stock. According to the complaint, during the Class Period, defendants issued materially false and misleading statements that misrepresented and/or failed to disclose: (a) that the Company had been signing up fewer new customers and was not performing according to internal expectations; (b) that the Company's costs of acquiring new customers were significantly increasing; and (c) that the Company's performance had been negatively impacted by competition from other weight loss products on the market. As a result, the defendants lacked a reasonable basis for their positive statements about the Company and its prospects, which artificially inflated NutriSystem stock to Class Period highs exceeding $70 per share while the defendants unloaded nearly $7 million in NutriSystem stock.

After the markets closed on October 3, 2007, the Company announced its preliminary third quarter 2007 results and revised earnings guidance for the full year of 2007. In response to this announcement, the price of NutriSystem common stock fell $15.98 per share, or approximately 34%, to close at $31.59 per share, on extremely heavy trading volume.

If you are a member of the class, you may move the Court, through counsel of your choice, no later than December 10, 2007 to serve as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of class members in directing the litigation. Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as lead plaintiff. If you have sustained losses on your purchases of NutriSystem publicly traded securities during the Class Period, please contact Klafter & Olsen LLP at http://www.klafterolsen.com or call us at 202/261-3553 for a more thorough explanation of the lead plaintiff selection process and the claims that can be asserted against NutriSystem.

Klafter & Olsen LLP has extensive expertise in prosecuting investor class actions involving financial fraud and has offices in Washington D.C. and New York. Please visit our website for more information about the Firm.

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, is to receive the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday after being hosted at the White House by President George W. Bush.

"We are furious," Tibet's Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, told reporters. "If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world."

China, which views the Dalai Lama as a separatist and a traitor, pulled out of a meeting this week at which world powers were to discuss Iran in protest at the U.S. plan to honor him.

China has also cancelled an annual human rights dialogue with Germany to show is displeasure over German Chancellor Angela Merkel's September meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China had expressed its "resolute opposition" to the award.

"China has solemnly demanded the United States cancel the above-mentioned and extremely wrongful arrangement," Yang told reporters on the sidelines of the 17th Communist Party Congress.

A pair of former users of Sprint Fidelis cardiac leads made by Medtronic Inc. (MDT) said Tuesday they are suing the medical device firm over injuries they claim to have sustained from the product.

The two are suing both for their own damages and as members of a class of all users of the leads.

The suit, filed in federal court in Minnesota, has plaintiffs Leonard Stavish and Kelly Liusi alleging the lead wire portion of the implanted heart defibrillators was defective and they "received jolting shocks when it falsely detected that the user needed a jolt from the device, or that the device failed, so that when they actually needed defibrillation they could not get it," according to their attorneys.

-William Spain; 415-439-6400

A Spanish manager, Felix Palacios de la Villa, took his company Cortefiel to court when he was notified of his pension two years ago, arguing it amounted to dismissal.

A court statement said that since it was part of national labor measures to promote employment "the legitimacy of such an aim of public interest cannot reasonably be called into question."

If the court had ruled against the pension system, it would have caused widespread disruption of social and economic policies throughout the 27-nation EU.