A New York law firm is soliciting shareholders to join a class-action lawsuit against Tween Brands Inc. over Dress Barn Inc.'s planned acquisition of the Central Ohio apparel retailer.

Levi & Korsinsky LLP said Tuesday it filed a suit in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging Tween's stock-swap deal with Suffern, N.Y.-based Dress Barn Inc. values the New Albany-based merchant lower than its book value and analysts' stock price targets. Based on terms of the $220 million transaction, Dress Barn is paying about $157 million for Tween shares and paying off the troubled retailer's outstanding bank debt.

The deal for Tween is expected to close in October, provided it gets regulatory and shareholder approvals.

The law firm, which specializes in securities and shareholder litigation, said other terms of the deal, including a break-up fee of more than $5 million, “all but ensure that no superior offer will ever be forthcoming."

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say Deborah Duffy participated in a scheme to defraud investors in Greenwich-based WG Trading Co. from 1996 through February. They say she and others at the company failed to invest $131 million as promised and instead used it for their personal benefit.

The government says the company's customers included charitable and university foundations, pension and retirement plans and other institutions.

Two investment advisers who ran the business have been charged in the case.

Duffy entered her plea Tuesday. She signed a cooperation agreement with the government. Sentencing is set for Jan. 21.

Both sides agreed to head back to the bargaining table to prepare their duel in multihulls in February 2010 that is to settle the 33rd edition of the Cup, the oldest trophy in international sports following the ruling by Judge Shirley Kornreich of the Supreme Court of New York State.

Alinghi had asked the court to disqualify Oracle if the US syndicate did not provide a description the trimaran it has built for their duel.

For its part Oracle had accused Alinghi of wanting to unilaterally change the rules of the duel with the alleged complicity of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).

The two syndicates expressed satisfaction on Tuesday the results of the hearing in New York.

Oracle noted that the judge had asked to see the agreement signed between Alinghi and the ISAF, while reserving any decision on whether an engine and moveable ballast can be used.

On the other side Alinghi was pleased that the judge did not accept the accusations against it by Oracle that it was in contempt of court.

The two sides are expected to meet in a duel in multihulls - Alinghi in a catamaran while Oracle will use a trimaran - in February 2010 at a site shich the Alinghi, as the defending champion, must announce before August 8.

The catamaran launched by Alinghi began sail on Monday in Lake Geneva while Oracle has tested its trimaran off the coast of San Diego in California.

The two sides have been locked in a legal battle over the rules of the America's Cup, the oldest trophy in international sports, since Alinghi won the 32nd edition in 2007 in Valencia in eastern Spain.

Justice David Eady said that Google is not a publisher because searches are carried out entirely by computers and the search engine does not choose the terms itself.

The case was closely watched because the United Kingdom is perceived as having particularly stringent libel laws.

The ruling came in a suit by Metropolitan International Schools Limited, a British company which offers distance learning courses and trades under the brands of SkillsTrain or Train2Game, and previously as Scheidegger MIS.

MIS sued both Google UK Ltd. and the parent company, Google Inc., and Designtechnica Corp., incorporated in Oregon. The company's Web site hosts bulletin boards and forums that have carried allegedly defamatory complaints about Metropolitan International Schools.

Google cannot be "regarded as a publisher" for what its searches discover on the Web, the judge said in his ruling handed down Thursday, noting that Google had prevailed against similar suits in the Netherlands two years ago, and this year in cases in Spain and France.

Aiden Quinn was arraigned Monday in Suffolk Superior Court on charges of gross negligence by a person in control of a train. He was released on personal recognizance after entering his plea.

Quinn did not speak to reporters after his appearance, but defense attorney James Sultan described Quinn as "very afraid" of the situation he's in.

Prosecutors said in court that Quinn made a cell phone call and admitted typing a text message to his girlfriend in the moments before his Green Line trolley crashed into the rear of another trolley beneath Government Center on May 8.

In a verbal statement, Ajmal Kasab described his group's journey from Karachi, Pakistan on a boat, their subsequent landing in Mumbai on Nov. 26, and his assault on a railway station and a hospital with a comrade he identified as Abu Ismail.

The other gunmen, also armed with automatic rifles and grenades, attacked a Jewish center and two five-star hotels, including the Taj Mahal. The rampage ended at the historic hotel days later after commandos killed the attackers holed up there.

"I was firing and Abu was hurling hand grenades (at the railway station)," Kasab told the court. "We both fired, me and Abu Ismail. We fired on the public."

Earlier Kasab, 21, stood up before the special court hearing his case just as a prosecution witness was to take the stand and addressed the judge. "Sir, I plead guilty to my crime," he said, triggering a collective gasp in the courtroom.