A Bahraini detainee held without charges since January 2002 threatened suicide in a letter released by his lawyer last Sunday, citing despair at his open-ended detention and conditions at the facility. Earlier this month, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to a defense spending bill that would require the Pentagon to develop a Guantanamo shutdown plan.

The lawsuit alleges that GE pays female lawyers and women in entry-level executive jobs less than men. The lawsuit also accuses the Fairfield-based GE of failing to promote its female entry level executives, or executive band employees, at the same rate it promotes men in the same jobs.

A call was placed to GE Thursday morning seeking comment.

Schaefer is asking a judge to certify a class of 1,500 plaintiffs that includes female entry-level executives and all female lawyers, potentially seeking damages of $500 million.

"It's a corporate culture. You know you're in a very male-dominated culture," said Schaefer, who as general counsel was the top legal officer for Erie, Pa.-based GE Transportation.

Schaefer, 43, accused GE in her lawsuit of failing to promote female lawyers from senior professional level to executive, from executive to senior executive and from senior executive to the officer level at the same rate as it promotes male lawyers.

Schaefer was an executive band employee since 1997 and a GE employee since 1994. She said she decided to sue in April after learning that she was to be demoted from her job, which paid $380,000 last year, including bonuses.

Executives, including chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt, decided she was to be replaced by a "big-time general counsel," she said.

"I had never heard those terms, 'big-time general counsel," she said.

Schaefer said she was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month when she complained about the impending demotion.

The lawsuit, which seeks an injunction to halt GE's pay and promotion policies and practices, names Immelt and numerous other executives.

The lawsuit says Immelt has taken responsibility for changing the top leadership of GE since he became chief executive in 2001. But female senior professional employees comprise about 20 percent, "a disproportionately small percentage," Schaefer says in her lawsuit.

"Women at GE have remained in this disproportionately underrepresented level for the past five years since CEO Immelt took," the lawsuit says.

GE Transportation, a part of the corporation's infrastructure unit, posted revenue of nearly $4.2 billion last year. It comprises aircraft engine and locomotive manufacturing and motorized systems for mining trucks and drills, gas turbines for marine and industrial applications.

US immigration courts are inconsistent in granting asylum to applicants, according to a new study by three law professors to be published in the Stanford Law Review. The professors found that factors that contributed to the outcome of applications for asylum include the location of the court, the background of the judge, and the nationality of the applicant.

For example, a person who has fled China has a 76 percent chance of winning their asylum case in the Orlando immigration court, but only a 7 percent chance in Atlanta. The New York Times Thursday quoted co-author Philip G. Schrag of Georgetown University Law Center as saying he found the results "very disturbing" especially because often "these decisions can mean life or death" for the applicant, and the study suggests that the random assignment to a particular judge may be outcome determinative.

In February, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (CIRF) reported that the practice of expedited removal is causing the claims of some legitimate asylum seekers to be ignored. The latest draft legislation on immigration reform does little to change the asylum process, although it could begin the road to citizenship for up to 12 million illegal immigrants in the US.

A homeless man accused of killing four other homeless men and placing their bodies in manholes in a dispute over scrap metal pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of murder.
 
Daniel J. Sharp entered the plea as part of an agreement with prosecutors that will have him serve his sentences concurrently instead of consecutively.
Sharp, 55, faces 45 to 65 years when he is sentenced Sept. 4 by St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Jane Woodward Miller.

Sharp pleaded guilty to killing Michael S. Nolen Jr., Michael W. Lawson, Brian Talboom and Jason Coates between Dec. 18 and 21 and dumping their bodies in manholes 75 yards apart just south of downtown South Bend.

Autopsies showed the four men died of blunt force trauma to the head. Sharp said he hit two of the men with "blunt objects" and helped another man kill the two others.

Randy Lee Reeder, 51, South Bend, also is charged with four counts of murder. According to the plea agreement, Sharp has agreed to testify against Reeder. Reeder's trial is scheduled for July 12.

Bracepac contributed to 53 Democratic candidates and 50 Republicans in the 2006 election cycle, federal records show.

Some Republican insiders said the campaign contributions by Giuliani's firm will have no influence on the former New York City mayor's attempts to woo conservative and grassroots voters away from the other leading GOP presidential candidates, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"If the donations were in Rudy Giuliani's name, or his wife's name, that would be a problem," said Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution research fellow and former speechwriter to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. "But it's the reality of modern-day politics ... and under the larger category of doing business. He's a partner in a law firm that wants to do business on both sides of the street -- so you give to Republicans and Democrats."

Giuliani is among a group of 2008 presidential hopefuls who are in California this week for fundraising and public events including Democrats John Edwards of North Carolina, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican McCain.

As the already busy presidential campaign gathers speed, the hopeful candidates are certain to face increasing scrutiny on their lives inside and outside of politics including issues such as the political contributions by the former mayor's law firm.

Giuliani already has faced questions about his income from the law firm, as a security consultant and as a public speaker, a field in which he reaped $11.3 million last year, federal records show.

The Houston Chronicle reported this month that Giuliani has been paid at least $1.2 million by Bracewell & Giuliani. Texas Lawyer reported that he also received $690,000 in partners' profits last year.

Scott Segal, a partner in Bracewell & Giuliani, said Tuesday in response to questions that the firm's "approach to government relations is bipartisan and bicameral."

Indeed, the firm's political donations are controlled entirely by its political committee. Insiders point out that Giuliani is not a member of that committee and makes no decisions related to its political contributions.

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Giuliani's campaign, said in an e-mail Tuesday that "the PAC is not representative of the mayor's beliefs," adding that "people donate to Mayor Giuliani based on their belief in his candidacy, not the other way around."

Bracewell & Giuliani has also been a high-profile lobbying firm, receiving nearly $6 million in lobbying fees last year with a client list that included the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association - which fought regulations to reduce greenhouse gases - and the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, an industry group formed in part to fight pollution controls for coal-fired plants.

Giuliani's chief policy adviser, Bill Simon - a former Republican candidate for California governor - said he expects Giuliani will be subject to examination by the public in the campaign and believes voters will fairly judge the former mayor's experience and long record of public service.

"I think any presidential contest is going to involve a lot of scrutiny, and the mayor has been a very, very successful individual on a number of different activities," Simon said. Opponents and the media "will look hard at the mayor's record and occasionally distort it."

Russia's federal tax body could join a $22.5 billion lawsuit filed by Russian customs against the Bank of New York if a criminal case is launched against bank's representatives, a Tax Service spokesman said Tuesday.

The Federal Customs Service on May 17 accused the bank of laundering untaxed profits of Russian exporters in 1996-99 and said it had filed a damages lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court.

"The Russian Federal Tax Service will get involved only if a criminal case is launched," the spokesman said.

Andrei Belyaninov, the head of the Federal Customs Service, said earlier he was optimistic about the prospects of his service's lawsuit against the bank, and saw no reason to give it up.

Experts doubt that customs authorities will recover the entire sum claimed, but lawyers acting for the service say their claim is legitimate, as the bank has admitted that $7.5 billion was laundered, and under U.S. law the plaintiff can demand compensation three times greater than the original loss.

The bank, which pleaded guilty to violating U.S. laws on control over financial flows in 2005 and was fined $38 million, dismissed the new claim.