A strong sense of pessimism shrouded the start of an economic summit of rich and emerging economies Thursday, with President Barack Obama and fellow world leaders arriving in Seoul sharply divided over currency and trade policies.

The Group of 20 summit, held for the first time in Asia, has become the centerpiece of international efforts to revive the global economy and prevent future financial meltdowns.

Failure in Seoul could have severe consequences. The risk is that countries would try to keep their currencies artificially low to give their exporters a competitive edge in global markets. That could lead to a destructive trade war. Countries might throw up barriers to imports — a repeat of policies that worsened the Great Depression.

Hopes had been high that the Group of 20 — encompassing rich nations such as Germany and the U.S. as well as growing giants such as China and Brazil — could be the world forum for hashing out an economic way forward from financial crisis.

But agreement appeared elusive as the summit began, divided between those such as United States that want to get China to allow its currency rise and those irate over U.S. Federal Reserve plans to pump $600 billion of new money into the sluggish American economy, effectively devaluing the dollar.

The Arkansas Supreme Court says Conway police didn't follow proper procedures to obtain a statement from a suspect and has overturned the man's conviction.

Antwan Lavan Fowler entered a guilty plea on the condition he be allowed to appeal a circuit judge's decision to allow into statements and evidence into the record. The court ruled Thursday that the judge was wrong and ordered a new proceeding in which the evidence and Fowler's statements aren't considered.

Fowler was arrested in 2007 for fleeing and was held on an alleged parole violation. The court found that police improperly sought a statement from Fowler in which he admitted to other crimes, which led to drug, firearm and theft counts.

A federal judge has again refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an Iowa woman who claims contaminated water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina contributed to her cancer.

U.S. District Court Judge Terence Boyle this week denied the federal government's motion to end the litigation filed by Laura Jones.

Jones used contaminated water during the 1980s while her husband was stationed at the Marine Corps base. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2003.

The government argued state law prevents a claim because the contamination took place more than 10 years after her illness. But Boyle said there's an exception for latent diseases.

In the six days Tom DeLay has been on trial, prosecutors have called 22 witnesses and presented volumes of e-mails and other documents as they try to convince a jury that the former U.S. House majority leader illegally funneled corporate donations to Texas GOP candidates in 2002.

So far, no witness or document has directly tied DeLay to the alleged scheme, and some courtroom observers are questioning how strong the prosecution's case is.

"I guess we have to give (prosecutors) the benefit of the doubt. They haven't finished their case yet. But what I've seen so far is troubling," said Bradley Simon, a New York white collar criminal defense lawyer who has been following the trial.

DeLay is charged with money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors allege he and two associates — John Colyandro and Jim Ellis — illegally channeled $190,000 in corporate donations collected by DeLay's Texas PAC through the Washington-based Republican National Committee. Under Texas law, corporate money can't go directly to political campaigns. Testimony was to resume Wednesday.

Former PAC fundraisers, lobbyists and Texas candidates who allegedly received illegal corporate donations have detailed for jurors how DeLay's PAC worked, the donations it received and problems it was having in raising money from individual donors — the only type of funds that could go to political campaigns under Texas law. Prosecutors have implied DeLay was the driving force behind the PAC and the alleged scheme to "clean" the corporate donations through a money swap they say couldn't have been done without his knowledge.

The former Houston-area congressman denies wrongdoing. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Federal prosecutors in Kansas who couldn't obtain a gag order against a strident patient activist later launched a secret grand jury investigation and issued subpoenas against the woman and her advocacy group — moves some argue are nothing more than government retaliation against an outspoken critic.

Siobhan Reynolds has taken her fight to quash the subpoenas and publicize the proceedings against her to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to take up her request to unseal the case Friday.

"Here the Assistant U.S. Attorney sought the subpoenas in question after the district court denied the government's motion to gag. This sequence of facts strongly suggests that the government has issued these subpoenas in direct retaliation for (Reynolds') political advocacy," the libertarian groups Institute of Justice and Reason Foundation argued in a brief filed with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the sealed amicus brief after it was anonymously uploaded to the public document-sharing website Scribd last month. Institute of Justice attorney Paul Sherman denied his organization posted the document but confirmed its contents.

Reynolds' subpoena challenge has been sealed in federal district court in Kansas and the appeals court. The 49-year-old Santa Fe, N.M., woman has acknowledged she is a target of a grand jury investigation into a possible conspiracy to obstruct justice. But because grand jury investigations are confidential, there was little public record showing her related subpoena challenge even existed until the Supreme Court agreed last month to release a redacted version of her appeal.

A Las Vegas court has ordered boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. to stay away from his former girlfriend and their two sons after prosecutors say he hit her and threatened to beat his children if they called 911.

The 33-year-old Mayweather was not required to appear at a hearing Tuesday before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Diana Sullivan on eight misdemeanor and felony charges. Sullivan gave Mayweather a week to pay $31,000 in bail.

Authorities allege Mayweather also took mobile phones belonging to Josie Harris and his sons following the Sept. 9 dispute.

Mayweather faces charges of felony coercion, grand larceny and robbery, and misdemeanor domestic battery and harassment.

He could face up to 34 years in prison if convicted on all charges. He is due back in court Jan. 24.