A federal appeals court in San Francisco has upheld a jury verdict clearing the Chevron Corp. of alleged human rights abuses during a violent 1998 protest on a company oil platform in Nigeria.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the lower court judge conducted the 2008 trial that resulted in the verdict without error and instructed jurors properly.

Human rights activists had accused the Nigerian military of attacking protesters on orders from the oil company. The demonstration was over Chevron's alleged pollution of local fishing grounds and farms in the country's oil-rich Delta region.

Two demonstrators occupying the oil platform were killed. The company denied involvement.

A federal appeals court struck down a city ban on tattoo parlors Thursday, ruling the artistic expression is entitled to free speech protection under the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Southern California city of Hermosa Beach to allow tattoo parlors to operate.

The city had argued the operations threaten public health and attract an unsavory clientele prone to crime.

Several state courts and federal trial courts have upheld similar bans in other cities across the country.

However, the ruling Thursday was the first by a federal appeals court, meaning such bans are now unconstitutional in the nine western states that must comply with 9th Circuit rulings.

Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel, called the city's ban "substantially broader than necessary to achieve the city's significant health and safety interests and because it entirely forecloses a unique and important method of expression."

The court said the ban was an unconstitutional overreaction to health concerns that can be addressed through regulations to ensure sanitation.

A Garner man has pleaded guilty Tuesday to transmitting child pornography over the internet.

Gary Wayne Robinson, 28, entered the plea in federal court before Judge James C. Fox.

Garner Police were alerted to Robinson after they say he engaged in an online chat with an undercover officer in New Hampshire in October of 2009. During the chat the two discussed trading child pornography and Robinson sent several pictures of children to the undercover cop.

An investigation revealed over 700 photographs and 59 videos of child pornography were found on Robinson's computer.

Robinson faces up to 20 years in prison and up to a life-term of supervised release. Robinson also faces a fine of up to $250,000.

The ruling may end a legal battle that has dragged on seven years after the slayings of Richard and Karla Van Dusen in Tierra Verde, near St. Petersburg.

William Deparvine was sentenced to death in 2006 for the killings, but continued to press his claim on a restored 1971 Chevrolet Cheyenne the slain man restored. Authorities say Deparvine forged a bill of sale for the truck, then killed the couple and tried to frame someone else.

The St. Petersburg Times reported that an appellate court panel on Friday upheld a judge's finding that Deparvine had no claim to the truck.

Attorneys for Cal Coburn Brown could now ask the full court to review the case or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brown is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 10 for the 1991 torture and murder of 22-year-old Holly Washa, a Burien woman.

Brown is challenging, among other things, the state's new one-drug system for lethal injection.

The three-judge panel rejected his request for a stay in a 2-1 decision on Saturday.

An attorney says Ford Motor Co. has settled a Mississippi lawsuit over damages sought from a 2001 rollover crash that killed a New York Mets prospect in the Florida Panhandle.

Tab Turner, an attorney for the family of Brian Cole, told The Associated Press the settlement Thursday came after the jury in Jasper County awarded $131 million in actual damages to the family and before it was to consider possible punitive damages.

Turner said the settlement amount and terms were confidential.

A Ford spokeswoman blamed speeding and reckless driving for the accident.

Cole died from injuries he suffered when his Ford Explorer overturned as he drove home on March 31, 2001, from spring training in Port St. Lucie, Fla., to Meridian, Miss.