BRITISH Airways could be forced to pay out hundreds of millions of pounds to settle a class action lawsuit relating to cargo price-fixing, it emerged yesterday.

Several European blue-chip companies, including Ikea, Volvo and TNT, are said to have joined the lawsuit and noted that BA has set aside £350 million to pay fines.

The airline has already paid out $300m (£174m) levied by the US department of justice (DoJ). Two thirds was related to cargo price-fixing and $100m concerned price-fixing related to passengers.

According to documents filed to a US district court, the class action suit concerns shipments valued at $29 billion. Ten present and former BA executives, including the current director of operations, have not received protection from prosecution under a plea agreement between the airline and US prosecutors investigating the price-fixing conspiracy.

BA said four of the ten still worked for the airline.

Three weeks ago, Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, assured customers and the media that only a "very limited number of individuals" were involved in the two illegal cartels through which BA had fixed the fuel surcharges.

Yet papers released by the DoJ have confirmed that the corruption inquiry into BA went beyond Martin George, its former commercial director, and Iain Burns, its former head of communications, the only two named in the press before this weekend.

The DoJ said it was "carving out" ten current and former senior BA executives from an immunity deal that will settle BA's criminal liability in the US. The individuals, who have yet to be charged, could face criminal prosecution and, ultimately, jail.

Plaintiffs in the case had sued the company on behalf of Illinois residents who bought light cigarettes since the introduction of Marlboro Lights in 1971.

The lower court had found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded them $10.1 billion in damages, but the decision was overturned by the state Supreme Court, which also directed the lower court to dismiss the action last year.

In May this year, however, after the U.S. Supreme Court took up another case against Philip Morris, the circuit court of Madison County asked whether it had jurisdiction to consider the plaintiff's request to set aside the Illinois Supreme Court's judgment in light of new developments.

But on Wednesday, the state Supreme Court denied the request and directed the lower court to enter an order dismissing the plaintiffs' motion.

Two Illinois Supreme Court justices, however, dissented.

"The court's action today is entirely predictable because it quickly and quietly closes the book on a case that a majority of this court, I am sure, would rather forget," Justice Charles Freeman wrote in his dissent.

The Legislature this spring passed the law, allowing casinos in four "zones" -- Wyandotte County, Ford County, either Sedgwick or Sumner counties and either Crawford or Cherokee counties. The bill also would allow slot machines at dog tracks in Wichita and Kansas City, Kan.

But Sedgwick County this month rejected ballot initiatives on both the casino and slot machine questions. A casino is expected to be built in Sumner County.

Morrison's lawsuit, meanwhile, will center on the definition of a "state owned and operated lottery," which is allowed under the Kansas Constitution. Questions exist about whether casinos under the new state law actually will be operated by the state.

Nowak's lawyer, Don Lykkebak, is asking 9th Circuit Court Judge Marc L. Lubet to side with his client on three motions, including the request to remove the GPS monitor. Nowak was ordered to wear it on February 6 as part of her pretrial release.

Shipman also testified in court Friday and told Lubet that she was still afraid of Nowak and felt safe knowing the monitor was in place.

When Lubet asked her, "Do you want her taken off the ankle monitor?" Shipman answered, "Absolutely not."

Nowak argued that the device is expensive and she has paid more than $3,000 for it since it was put on.

Lykkebak also is asking the judge to throw out Nowak's statements to police and suppress evidence collected from her car after the alleged incident.

The monitor, which Nowak said causes abrasions and is not waterproof, is intended to keep her from traveling to Brevard County, Florida, where Shipman lives.

Asked by her lawyer if she can assure the court she won't go near Shipman, Nowak said, "I can absolutely say that I won't go to Brevard County.

"I will abide by all the court orders ... and any additional ones they wish to put on."

Under cross-examination, Nowak admitted that she could take some form of exercise and bathe herself, and find other methods for getting around the drawbacks of the device.

Nowak said she has had to pull over twice on the highway because the battery was low. When that happens, there is a buzzing vibration, then a siren goes off, she said.

Orlando police officer William Becton testified Friday that he read former astronaut Lisa Nowak her rights.

Becton, who was with the airport's investigative unit at the time of the alleged crime, said Nowak was asked before her police interview if she wanted an attorney, and she declined.

The officer said Nowak never told him she no longer wanted to talk.

NASA ended Nowak's assignment as an astronaut in March after she allegedly assaulted Shipman, who was dating Nowak's former boyfriend Navy Cmdr. Bill Oefelein.

Nowak, a captain in the U.S. Navy, allegedly drove nearly 900 miles from Houston, Texas, to Orlando -- wearing toddler diapers to cut down on the number of stops she needed to make -- in order to confront Shipman, according to an initial police report. Her lawyer has since denied that she was wearing any type of diaper.

She was arrested in the parking lot at Orlando International Airport after Shipman claimed Nowak attacked her. Airport surveillance tapes show Nowak donning a disguise while waiting for Shipman to arrive, then following her, police said.

Shipman told police that Nowak approached her car in the airport parking lot and asked her for help with a dead battery.

"I cracked my window open about two inches and told her I'd send someone to help her," Shipman said. "She said, 'Please help me,' and then started spraying something from a skinny black can into my window.'"

Police said the can held pepper spray.

Nowak pleaded not guilty March 22 to charges of attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm, battery and burglary of a vehicle using a weapon. The trial is to begin next month.

If convicted of the February 5 incidents, Nowak could face a sentence of up to life in prison.

Police contend Nowak gave them permission to search her car, which was parked away from the airport.

From it they seized weapons and photos inside a duffel bag, a steel mallet, a 4-inch buck knife and a loaded BB gun. They also found an alleged "plan," which was written on paper and included flight information and directions.

Police said they also found a large plastic trash bag.

"Inside the bag I saw two used diapers. I asked Ms. Nowak if the diapers were used. She said that the diapers were used," an officer said. "I then asked Mrs. Nowak why she had the baby diapers. Mrs. Nowak said that she did not want to stop and use the restroom, so, she used the diapers to collect her urine."

According to the Orange County Attorney's Office, Nowak -- while in a jail cell -- explained to authorities: "I just wanted to sit there and talk to her, and she said she wouldn't talk to me and she walked away."

"My rights are mine, and I am entitled to waive them just as is any other defendant," Chapman wrote.

His lawyers argued that his wish to waive appeals showed he was not competent. But the court ruled Thursday that "our review of the record in this case ... shows that Chapman's plea was competently, knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made."

The Supreme Court ruling, written by Justice John D. Minton Jr., rejected the argument made by Chapman's defense attorneys that his guilty plea amounted to state-assisted suicide.

"Furthermore, the death penalty is not a disproportionately sentence for Chapman's heinous offenses," Minton wrote. "So Chapman's plea is not an impermissible 'suicide by court.'"

Chief Justice Joseph Lambert said Chapman's "volunteerism" played no part in his decision to uphold the death sentence.

"The wishes of a defendant, whether motivated by sincere remorse, desire to escape life imprisonment or to assert control should play no part in a death penalty determination," Lambert wrote in a concurring opinion.

Chapman admitted to killing 6-year-old Cody Sharon and 7-year-old Chelbi Sharon, and attacking their mother, Carolyn Marksberry, and their sister, Courtney Sharon. Chapman said he deserved to die for the Aug. 23, 2002 attack at Marksberry's home in Gallatin County.

The trial judge, Tony Frohlich, said at the time that he could find no legal reason not to grant Chapman's request.

Despite his request to be put to death, Chapman's court-appointed attorneys, Donna Boyce and Randall Wheeler, appealed the sentence. They argued before the Supreme Court that Frohlich shouldn't have gone along with Chapman's request for a death sentence, saying a defendant who seeks the death penalty is inherently incompetent. For that reason, the attorneys said, Chapman's guilty plea should be set aside and he should be treated for depression before a new plea hearing is held.

Chapman said in the affidavit that sending his case back to the trial court would invalidate his rights, as well as the rights of other inmates who choose to plead guilty.

The Supreme Court, in Thursday's ruling, reaffirmed that the death penalty is constitutional and that neither lethal injection nor electrocution are cruel and unusual punishments.

Despite the ruling, it could be years before an execution date is scheduled, said Allison Connelly, a University of Kentucky law professor. Defense attorneys still could appeal the case to the federal level, even asking the U.S. Supreme Court for review, she said.

Connelly said the state attorney general's office typically won't ask for an execution date until all appeals are exhausted.

The defense lawyers declined to comment, as did the attorney general's office.

Volunteering for a death sentence is not new. Since 1977, when Gary Mark Gilmore waived his appeals and was killed by firing squad in Utah, 124 inmates in 26 of the 38 states with a death penalty law have waived appeals and asked to die, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

A second Kentucky Death Row inmate, Shawn Windsor, is also attempting to expedite his own execution. Windsor pleaded guilty in 2006 to killing his wife and son. He is on Kentucky's Death Row, but Chapman's case is further along in the automatic appeals process granted in death penalty cases.

The Supreme Court on Thursday also upheld the death sentences of Leif Halvorsen and Mitchell Willoughby who were convicted in 1983 of murdering three people in a Lexington apartment, and Fred Furnish who was convicted of murdering a Kenton County woman during a burglary in 1998.