A Dutch court is deciding whether a 14-year-old girl should be released from state custody so she can try to become the youngest person to sail solo around the globe.

Child welfare authorities are seeking a two-month extension of Laura Dekker's guardianship.

Since she was made a ward of the state last year, Dekker has been trying to satisfy concerns for her safety and welfare.

Last weekend she made a solo trip to England and back — 22 hours each way — to show her command of her small yacht and its seaworthiness.

Her lawyer says Laura has obtained a first-aid diploma and has been getting accustomed to lack of sleep. Arrangements are being made for her schooling.

The court in the southern city of Middelburg is making its announcement Thursday.

The court, which also reduced former first lady Wu Shu-chen's life term to 20 years imprisonment, said it had reached the decision after concluding that Chen had embezzled less money than previously assumed.

"I thank the judges for the lighter sentence, but I will still appeal the ruling," said Chen, looking thinner and sporting longer hair than during his heyday as president from 2000 to 2008.

Chen was speaking after his reduced sentence was announced, while taking part in a detention hearing.

The court said it would give Chen a written reply later about whether it planned to keep him in detention while he prepared his appeal.

On Monday, the chief of a U.N. commission responsible for battling corruption and crime in Guatemala resigned and accused Reyes of having a history of ties to organized crime.

Reyes denies the allegations. But he promised Thursday night to comply with the court's ruling and cede office.

A commission will now repeat the process of compiling a list of candidates from which President Alvaro Colom will choose a new attorney general.

The British branches of Vodafone, Telefonica O2, T-Mobile and Orange had argued against the EU's imposing maximum price limits for "roaming" charges or extra fees for making or receiving calls outside the user's home nation.

The European Court of Justice dismissed their arguments, saying the EU's executive commission did not abuse its powers when it fixed limits for roaming fees across the 27-nation bloc in 2009.

Europeans have long complained about high roaming fees they were being charged.

"That high level of retail charges had been regarded as a persistent problem by public authorities and consumer protection associations," the court said in a statement.

It said the average level of roaming charges in the European Union was euro1.15 ($1.37) per minute, more than five times the actual cost that telecommunications companies paid to transfer the calls to each other.

The court also backed the maximum price set by EU regulators, saying they had carefully examined the economic impact.

Britain's regulator lost its first criminal case for insider dealing on Thursday as a jury acquitted a lawyer and a finance director of wrongdoing and a second lawyer had charges against him dropped.

The Financial Services Authority had charged Andrew King, a finance director, and lawyers Michael McFall and Andrew Rimmington with eight counts of insider dealing during the 305 million pound ($450 million) takeover of biotech firm NeuTec Pharma by Swiss drugmaker Novartis.

But in a blow to the regulator, the jury dismissed the charges against McFall -- a former partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery -- and King, the former finance chief at NeuTec.

Rimmington, a former partner at law firm Dorsey & Whitney, was discharged by the judge half-way through the trial for personal reasons. His brother had been assaulted and killed and the FSA said it was not pursuing him separately.

A taxi driver described as quiet but friendly went on a shooting spree across a picturesque rural area of northwestern England on Wednesday, killing at least five people and wounding 25 before apparently turning the gun on himself.

Officers found a body believed to be that of 52-year-old suspect Derrick Bird in woodland near the Lake District village of Boot, Cumbria police said. A gun was found alongside the body.

"I regret to report that a number of people have been shot and that at least five people have died," Prime Minister David Cameron told lawmakers in the House of Commons. "I can confirm that a body of a gunman has been found by police."

Police said that as well as the deaths, 25 people were wounded in shootings in the small town of Whitehaven and nearby Seascale and Egremont, about 350 miles (560 kilometers) northwest of London.

The BBC reported there had been shootings in 11 locations, not all of them fatal. Witnesses described seeing the gunman driving around shooting out the window of his car.

Barrie Walker, a doctor in Seascale who certified one of the deaths, told the BBC that victims had been shot in the face, apparently with a shotgun.

Witness Alan Hannah told the Whitehaven News that he saw a man with a shotgun in a car near a taxi stand in Whitehaven. Photos showed a body, covered in a sheet, lying in a street in the town.