Judge William Q. Hayes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California rejected plaintiff Christopher Lorenzo's arguments in his amended complaint, standing by his previous ruling that Lorenzo lacked standing on the antitrust allegations.

The court also manintained that Lorenzo's claims did not give him the right to be compensated by Qualcomm under California's unfair competition law.

Three of the country's largest animal welfare groups on Monday accused the trustees of Leona Helmsley's estate of a "scheme to deprive dog welfare charities" of their stake in the real estate baroness' fortune. They filed a petition in Manhattan Surrogate Court arguing that Helmsley, who died in 2007, specified in her will that her multibillion-dollar estate should be used to help dogs, and the trustees disregarded those wishes.

The groups — the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Maddie's Fund — want the court to throw out a judge's February decision that gave the trustees for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust sole authority to determine which charities would benefit from her estate.

In April, the trustees gave away $136 million to hospitals, foundations and the homeless. They gave $1 million to animal charities, including $100,000 to the ASPCA and groups that train guide dogs for the blind.

The trust, in a statement posted on its Web site, said Helmsley never wanted her fortune just to go to dogs.

"Did Leona Helmsley intend for this charitable trust to focus on the care and help of dogs, rather than people? Absolutely not," the statement said. "Have the trustees of this vast fortune acted improperly and ignored Mrs. Helmsley's instructions? Again, absolutely not."

The hotel heiress, whose fortune had been estimated at $5 billion to $8 billion after her death at age 87, also named her dog as a beneficiary in her will, leaving a $12 million trust fund for the little white Maltese. But a judge whittled that amount down to $2 million.

Court documents unsealed this week show that Steven Topazio, DiMasi's former law associate, testified that he consulted DiMasi's lawyer, Thomas Kiley, as soon as questions surfaced about Topazio's relationship with the software company whose multimillion dollar state contracts are at the center of the case against the former speaker.

Prosecutors say Topazio was the conduit for monthly $4,000 payments from the company to DiMasi. Topazio is now a government witness.

The Boston Globe reports that prosecutors argue that Kiley has a conflict of interest by representing "two adversely positioned clients."

A Miami federal judge on Friday set a change of plea hearing for Tuesday for "Don" Diego Montoya, the alleged chief of Colombia's North Valley Cartel. Montoya was extradited to face U.S. charges in December and initially pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say in court papers that Montoya will plead guilty to charges from two separate cases: one in Miami and one in Washington, D.C. Both accuse Montoya of drug racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Montoya's attorney did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Three men are being retried for allegedly playing minor roles in Politkovskaya's 2006 slaying after the Supreme Court overturned their acquittal in June.

Politkovskaya's family had hoped the retrial, which started Wednesday, would spur a new inquiry to discover the masterminds of the killing. Prosecutors had backed the family's request for a new investigation.

But Friday's ruling dashed those hopes, and underpinned suspicion of official obstruction in the high-profile case.

Politkovskaya's daughter, Vera, said Friday's decision lessened the family's faith in the fairness of the proceedings.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its unanimous ruling Friday. The panel rejected several claims by Muhammad, including that he never should have been allowed to act as his own lawyer for part of his 2003 trial because he was too mentally impaired.

The 2002 shootings by Muhammad and teenage accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized the Washington, D.C., area. In all, 10 people were killed in four states, including Alabama and Louisiana, before the pair moved on to Virginia, Maryland and D.C.

Muhammad's attorney, Jonathan Sheldon, said in an e-mail that he will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.