The decision Tuesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit lifts the Federal Communications Commission's "cross-ownership" ban.

That restriction had remained in effect under a stay issued by the court in 2003 as it has tried to sort out legal challenges to attempts by two previous FCC chairmen, Republicans Michael Powell and Kevin Martin, to relax the rules.

The decision comes as the current FCC, now under Democratic control, gears up for its next congressionally mandated review of its media ownership rules. Those rules, which the agency must review every four years, include the cross-ownership ban and limits on the number of television and radio stations that one company can own in a market.

In the meantime, some media companies already own newspapers and television stations in the same market because they were grandfathered in when the rules were first put into place in 1974.

The current court case began when Powell tried to lift the cross-ownership ban in large media markets and raise the caps on TV and radio station ownership. That effort drew legal challenges from public interest groups that said he had gone too far and from media companies that said he had not gone far enough.

The Third Circuit sent the matter back to FCC, telling it to rewrite the rules. And that led Powell's successor, Martin, to try to ease the cross-ownership ban in big media markets — drawing more legal challenges from both sides.

A court in Germany sentenced an 88-year-old former Nazi SS death squad member to life in prison Tuesday for the murder of three Dutch civilians in World War Two.

A spokesman for the court in the western city of Aachen confirmed the verdict against Heinrich Boere for the three killings, which were carried out in the Netherlands in 1944.

His defense said it would appeal, which could mean that the sentence is not legally binding for months.

Boere, who is on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted war crime suspects, had confessed to killing the three civilians when he was a member of an SS squad targeting anti-Nazi resistance, but argued that he was following orders.

The proceedings have attracted international interest, not least because they have coincided with the case of John Demjanjuk, 89, who is on trial in Munich on charges of helping to kill 27,900 Jews at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland.

Boere was born in Germany but grew up in the Netherlands. He was captured there by U.S. forces after the war, but escaped to Germany before being sentenced to death in absentia in the Netherlands in 1949.

Justice Clarence Thomas said Tuesday in his opinion for the court that debtors must normally prove undue hardship. Thomas said the bankruptcy judge was wrong to approve Francisco Espinosa's bankruptcy plan in 1993, but the lender did not object at the time. The judge's error was not serious enough to undo the agreement, Thomas said.

The case involved a dispute over $4,582 in interest on Espinosa's four student loans.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond will hear arguments in 66-year-old Jeffrey MacDonald's case Tuesday.

MacDonald is serving three life terms. He has always maintained that four drug-crazed hippies were responsible for the deaths of his family in their Fort Bragg, N.C., home. The slayings shocked a nation still reeling from the Charles Manson murders and spawned the book and TV miniseries "Fatal Vision."

MacDonald claims he has new evidence, including DNA tests and sworn statements by two people who are now dead, supporting his claim of innocence.

A new report warns law firms that they need to modernise or lose out as a major power shift is taking place in favour of the in-house client.  The report, which canvassed the opinions of 130 General Counsel and 80 law firm partners around the world, reveals that 78% believe that the recession will have a lasting impact on the profession, and that value and efficiency are now the non-negotiable attributes a client looks for in a legal partner.

The report – ‘Law firm of the 21st century – The clients’ revolution’ - commissioned by international law firm Eversheds, also reveals that the recession has had a major impact on how ‘magic circle’ law firms are viewed, with just over half (51%) of clients and 46% of partners citing the term as defunct.  When asked if this revision, to the traditional law firm hierarchy would be a welcome development for the market, an overwhelming 94% of clients and 81% of partners agreed. 

While the recession has proved to be a key catalyst for this change, the report also highlights several other factors that have contributed.  The primary factor identified by over a third (37%) of all respondents was globalisation, particularly the move to the East, with many international law firm leaders, as with other business sectors, considering moving their headquarters from the West to the East.

An additional driver for change is the increasing status and professionalism of the in-house lawyer (35%).  Three-quarters (74%) of General Counsel said they now occupied a far more senior commercial advisory role in their companies compared to before the recession, with 55% assuming more responsibility for corporate governance.