"Today's decision is an important victory not only for Atlantic Yards but for Brooklyn as well. This decision means we are one step closer to creating over 2,200 units of affordable housing, thousands of construction and office jobs and bringing the Nets to Brooklyn," said Bruce Ratner, president and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies.

Their suit’s chances, say project opponents, are best if the case remains in federal court. That is why they say they will appeal the ruling issued today by Judge Nicholas Garaufis to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

“Part of the reason we have a better chance to win [there] is because the federal courts are much more familiar with constitutional issues and are less susceptible to political pressures,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Matthew Brinckerhoff days before the ruling.

A federal magistrate judge had recommended in February that the case belonged in state court. Judge Garaufis disagreed, but dismissed the case on its merits.

Another suit by opponents, challenging the process by which the state reviewed and approved the development, remains pending. But the eminent domain lawsuit was considered the greater threat to the project.

The crux of Mr. Brinckerhoff’s argument was that the condemnations do not have a primarily public purpose, as required by New York’s eminent domain law.

The panel created by Governor Tim Kaine to study the Virginia Tech shootings has hired an outside law firm for advice.

The international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom will work with the panel on a pro bono basis. The states' attorney general's office has been advising the panel, state police and Virginia Tech.

According to the panel's chairman Gerald Massengill, because of the independent nature of the panel, outside counsel was necessary to provide legal advice.

Governor Kaine created the panel in order to study the circumstances and responses surrounding the April 16 tragedy.

From the beginning, Scott, his family and attorneys have all insisted he is innocent. They say he had nothing to do with the murders. The court of appeals threw out his conviction, saying his right to a fair trial was violated.

In 2002, prosecutors used a videotaped statement from Scott's former friend, Robert Springsteen, to help convict him of murder. At the time Scott did not have an opportunity to challenge it in court.It was a decision the Court of Criminal Appeals now says violated Scott's constitutional rights to a fair trial.

"Because the statement was introduced without Springsteen being there, Scott never had a chance to cross examine the statement,” appellate defense attorney Ariel Payan said. “It was just introduced and there was nothing that could be done about it."

Scott's wife Jeannine has spent five years trying to set him free. "I'm thrilled that they really did look at this and decide there's something wrong with this case," Jeannine said. She says it's time police investigators focus their attention on someone else. "I would like them to find the actual perpetrators and stop wasting the county's and the city's money in this particular endeavor," she said.

State prosecutors admit this latest decision is a setback. They say they don't agree with the Appeals Court ruling.

"If in fact it stays as it is now, Michael Scott would be tried again, " assistant district attorney Bryan Case said.

But until the decision is declared final, Case says they will continue weighing all of their legal options. They could appeal the reversal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or take the case back to trial all over again.

Scott also insists his confession to police was coerced. He say he only agreed to it after several days of almost non-stop interrogation.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, June 6, 2007 - Shouting "I am an innocent man, this is all a setup," Abdel Nur was taken to court here and formally charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act against the United States government.

He was remanded and will reappear in court on June 11. He was unrepresented by an attorney and told Senior Magistrate Lianne Lee Kim in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Magistrates' Court that he was poor and could not afford an attorney. Attorney Dana Seetahal SC, appearing for the Crown said that because Nur was not a Trinidadian he was not entitled to public-funded defence but it was up to the discretion of the Magistrate, pointing out there was such a precedence.

Nur, who was born as Campton Eversley, is the last of the four suspects arrested for conspiring to blow up a pipeline that feeds jet fuel to the JFK International Airport. US District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Rosalyn R. Mauskopf has alleged that if the plan worked it would have caused untold damage. Other reports suggest that the pipeline was designed to shutdown when it detected heat and while some damage would occur it would not be on the same scale as what was feared by the authorities.

Two of the accused were arrested in Trinidad Saturday and another in New York Friday.

When his picture appeared in local newspapers neighbours in Diego Martin, in western Trinidad where he was staying approached him and urged him to turn himself in which he did just before noon Tuesday.

US court documents allege that Nur went to Trinidad to seek help from the radical Islamic Jamaat al Muslimeen to plan the attack in detail however leader of the sect, Yasin Abu Bakr, has strenuously denied involvement and distanced himself from the alleged plotters.

Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana and former opposition member of parliament as a member of the Opposition People's National Congress Reform (PNCR), and Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, were formally charged Monday here when they appeared in court. They will return to court June 11 for a bail hearing while extradition proceedings have been set for August 2. Their attorneys say they will fight extradition all the way to the British Privy Council.

The men have proclaimed their innocence and like Nur say that they are being set up.

In a statement released by their families, they claim that they were the victims of a campaign by the US Republican Party of President George W. Bush aimed at bolstering its standing in the 2008 presidential election by sowing fear about terrorism.

"Unfortunately, innocent persons with no connection whatsoever to the political and military disputes between the United States and the Middle East ... have been used as pawns in an international game of subterfuge."

The alleged plot has been in the making since 2006, the US District Attorney has asserted presenting selections of recorded conversations in which the men alleged plotted to blow up the airport and a section of Queens.

American investigators from the FBI are expected in Trinidad and Tobago to question the suspects in the hope of uncovering whether there are other conspirators.

Up to the time of the arrests, nearly a year and a half after the alleged plot started, the quartet was still at an "aspirational" rather than operational stage. They did not have the means (money, explosives, bomb making skill and expertise, or a detailed plan) to put the plot into action

A former civilian employee of the Department of Defense (DOD) and former member of the California Army National Guard, has pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States and conspiring with four other individuals to do the same, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division announced today.

Jesse D. Lane Jr. pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles before U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson to one count of conspiracy and one count of honest services wire fraud. As part of his plea, Lane admitted that he and his co-conspirators were members of the 223rd Finance Detachment, a unit of the California National Guard that processes pay for Army National Guard members, and were deployed together to Iraq and Kuwait from March 2004 until February 2005, when they returned to their home drilling post in Compton, Calif. Beginning in March 2005, and continuing through August 2005, Lane accessed a DOD pay-processing computer system and inputted thousands of dollars in unauthorized DOD pay and entitlements for himself and his co-conspirators. In return, Lane’s co-conspirators kicked back at least half of the money they received to Lane.

Lane faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy, 20 years in prison for honest services wire fraud, and three years of supervised release. Sentencing was set for Sept. 24, 2007.

On Nov. 13, 2006, Lane’s co-conspirators Jennifer Anjakos of Chula Vista, Calif., Lomeli Chavez of Oceanside, Calif., and Derryl Hollier and Luis Lopez of Los Angeles each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on related charges arising from this scheme. Their sentencings have been scheduled for Sept. 10, 2007.

These cases are being prosecuted by trial attorney John P. Pearson of the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, which is headed by Section Chief William M. Welch II. These cases are being investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, in support of the Justice Department’s National Procurement Fraud Task Force and the International Contract Corruption Initiative. The prosecution has received substantial assistance from the California National Guard and the U.S. Army Audit Agency.

The National Procurement Fraud Initiative was announced by Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty in October 2006, and is designed to promote the early detection, identification, prevention and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase in contracting activity for national security and other government programs. As part of this initiative, the Deputy Attorney General has created the National Procurement Fraud Task Force, which is chaired by Assistant Attorney General Fisher.