Raymond Clark III arrived at court in New Haven just after 10 a.m. escorted by police with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Clark was arrested Thursday at a hotel and charged with murdering Annie Le, whose body was found stuffed in the wall of a research building on what would have been her wedding day.

Police say it was a case of workplace violence, but didn't elaborate.

Police had been waiting outside the Super 8 hotel in Cromwell, about 25 miles north of the Ivy League campus, where Clark got a room shortly after being released from police questioning in the death of the 24-year-old student.

The doors are closed at the California Supreme Court, the tiny courthouse in Alpine County and every state courthouse in between in an unprecedented attempt to close a historic budget deficit.

The Judicial Council, which oversees California's courts, plan to shutter the courts on the third Wednesday of every month from September through July. The move is expected to save the state $84 million.

The closures will cost 20,000 court employees a day's pay each month.

The state's 1,700 judges are protected by state law from having their paychecks altered and are exempt from the cuts. Chief Justice Ron George says all seven high court justices have voluntarily given up a day's pay and that a large number of other judges have followed suit.

Russia has reached a settlement with Bank of New York Mellon over a $22.5 billion lawsuit against the bank stemming from a 1990s money laundering scheme by one of its executives, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Wednesday.

Russia would receive no less than $14 million for court costs under the long-anticipated, out-of-court deal, Kudrin said — only a fraction of the billions it was claiming. But he said the government would also get a $4 billion discounted loan from the bank, an "act of goodwill" Kudrin insisted is not related to the case.

He said the agreement would be signed soon.

The two-year-long court case stems from a decade-old scandal in which a Bank of New York vice president and her husband were convicted of illegally wiring $7.5 billion of Russian money into accounts at the bank. The Russian federal customs service went to court in 2007 to claim lost tax revenues on those transfers, but the judge overseeing the hearings has urged the two sides to reach a settlement.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 6-3 that convicted murderer Charles Dean Hood should have raised concerns about the affair between the now retired court officials in earlier appeals. The ruling overturned a lower court's recommendation that Hood be able to make his case for a new trial based on the affair.

"Our argument is that they had this information and should have raised it in the earlier writ," said current prosecutor John Rolater, the chief of Collin County's appellate division. "We consider this a significant success for the state."

Hood's attorneys said in a statement that the affair led to a tainted trial and "obvious and outrageous violations" of Hood's constitutional rights. The ruling will "only add to the perception that justice is skewed in Texas," said Andrea Keilen, of the Texas Defender Service.

The rejection from the state's highest criminal appeals court means a future appeal on the same grounds must go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Two men pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a ring that forced teenage girls to work as prostitutes in a half dozen states - Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Shaun Leoney, 28, of Boston, and Aaron Brooks, 25, of Quincy, were among six men who were indicted in 2007 for participating in a Boston-based prostitution ring that operated from 2001 to 2005.

Leoney and Brooks originally were charged with conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. Leoney also was charged with sex trafficking of children.

Both men pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy. Brooks reached a plea deal with prosecutors, who will recommend a sentence of four years. Leoney faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Sentencing for both men was scheduled for Dec. 15.

As part of their guilty pleas, Leoney and Brooks admitted they drove a teenager to Orlando, Fla., during Memorial Day weekend in 2005 for prostitution activity sponsored by Hoodlum Entertainment, a company owned by two convicted sex traffickers.

Brooks faced a maximum of 15 years if he had gone to trial on the original charges, said his attorney, Raymond O'Hara.

"He just wants to put this behind him," O'Hara said.

Leoney's lawyer, James Dilday, said Leoney faced a maximum of 40 years if he had been convicted of the original charges.

The attorney general's office had requested a Nov. 9 execution. But Muhammad's attorney Jonathan Sheldon says Prince William County Circuit Judge Mary Grace O'Brien delayed it one day.

That's because Nov. 9 is a Monday and they want government offices to be open the day before in case of last-minute court action.

Muhammad was sentenced to death for the slaying of Dean Meyers, one of 10 people shot to death during a 2002 rampage that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area.

Sheldon says Muhammad will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and ask the governor for clemency.