Property rights advocates who fought to keep the city of New London from taking homes by eminent domain say the city's failure to develop the land is poetic justice. But city officials say the land's fate was victim of the bad economy.

Susette Kelo and six other homeowners fought for years to keep New London from taking their homes. The city won the right to buy the land in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in 2005.

Officials hoped for more than 3,000 new jobs in the development. But today, there's only a state park and a handful of new jobs.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on Friday made his first court appearance on charges of graft, vowing he would prove his innocence.

As the first Israeli premier to face criminal charges in court, Olmert acknowledged at the arraignment hearing in Jerusalem that he understood the charges against him. He is not scheduled to enter a plea until later this year.

Olmert resigned under pressure last September but has insisted on his innocence and told journalists on Friday he was confident the trial would vindicate him.

"I am innocent, and I am certain the court will clear me of any suspicions," he said. "It is not an easy day for me; for the past three years I have been the target of an almost inhuman defamation campaign."

The court decided it will start hearing testimony on February 22 and will hold three sessions a week.

Olmert, who turns 64 on Wednesday, was charged in August with three counts of graft.

The CEO of National Lampoon Inc. has pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia say CEO Daniel Laikin was part of a plot to artificially inflate the company's stock price by paying people to buy shares. The 47-year-old man, who lives in Indianapolis and Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to conspiracy Wednesday. Prosecutors dropped a count of securities fraud in exchange.

Prosecutors say Laikin and others hoped to push the price of the shares from $2 to $5 to boost its attractiveness in a strategic partnership or acquisition. The shares were trading on the American Stock Exchange at the time but prosecutors say they've since become an over-the-counter penny stock.

Defense lawyer Joseph Poluka did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Taiwan's High Court decided Thursday that former President Chen Shui-bian should remain in detention because he could flee if released pending his appeal of his conviction on corruption charges.

Chen has been detained in a Taipei jail since late 2008, and was sentenced to life in prison by the Taipei District Court earlier this month after being found guilty of embezzling $3.15 million during his 2000-2008 presidency from a special presidential fund, receiving bribes worth at least $9 million, and laundering some of the money through Swiss bank accounts.

Earlier this week, he was indicted on new charges that he pocketed US$330,000 from foreign affairs funds for personal use.

The High Court decided to keep Chen in detention for a further three months after a hearing Thursday, spokesman Wen Yao-yuan said.

After reviewing the case documents, "the court reckoned that he is still hiding huge amount of assets overseas ... and he is likely to flee (Taiwan) if free," Wen said. "So the court has decided to continue his detention."

Chen is appealing his sentence, but no trial date has been set by the high court.

Chen has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has charged that he is being prosecuted for his anti-China views by the administration of current President Ma Ying-jeou. Ma, who has been eager to improve ties with Beijing, has denied the accusation.

A money-market mutual fund that held more than $60 billion before it notoriously "broke the buck" a year ago said Wednesday it will hand out $1 billion in a fifth distribution to investors from the fund's remaining assets.

The $1 billion distribution, the smallest of five partial payouts since the Reserve Primary Fund's collapse, will be made to shareholders on or about Oct. 2, said New York-based Reserve Management Co., which ran the fund.

After that payout, the fund will hold about $3.5 billion. The final distribution and its timing is tied up in a pending civil fraud case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Reserve Management and its two top executives.

At a hearing in New York on Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Gardephe said he was inclined to set a Dec. 23 deadline by which the bulk of the remaining assets should be distributed to the fund's thousands of shareholders.

The fund had held more than $64 billion shortly before Sept. 16, 2008, when its net asset value fell below the $1 level needed to ensure investors a dollar-for-dollar return of their principal put into the fund. The fund declared $785 million that it held in Lehman Brothers debt worthless after the investment bank's bankruptcy filing. That sank the fund's net asset value to 97 cents, leading to the fund's collapse as institutional investors demanded cash back and fund managers were forced to sell assets at steep discounts amid plunging markets.

A Guantanamo prisoner who held up a photo of President Barack Obama as a sign of hope at a war crimes court hearing last year said Wednesday he has lost faith that the American leader will be much different than his predecessor.

Ahmed al-Darbi, who told the court in December he hoped Obama would "earn back the legitimacy the United States has lost in the eyes of the world," said in a note passed to his lawyer that he is disappointed the Guantanamo prison remains open and the military court still holds hearings.

"I say to him now that he has gone astray," al-Darbi said.

Al-Darbi, 34, a Saudi who is charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism, gave the note to his lawyer following a hearing at which a judge granted the Obama administration's request to delay all proceedings in his case for 60 days while the government completes a review of the system for prosecuting Guantanamo prisoners.

Obama is expected to shift some of the trials to civilian courts and has said he intends to close the prison in January. There are about 225 prisoners at the Guantanamo jail, which was created by President George W. Bush, and officials have not announced where they will be moved.