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Reports on the ruling of a federal judge in the U.S. that accounting firm BDO Seidman LLP does not have to turn over confidential documents in its fight against government accusations that it sold abusive tax shelters. Bases of the court's decision.

Harold Wenning, 69, remembers what he called ''the one-for-five trick'' from his days running a news kiosk in Midtown Manhattan. ''They'll say it's a five and give you a one,'' he said. ''I had a guy say it was a 20 once and he gave me a one. I had a guy buy a roll of quarters from me and he gave me a dollar. That happens.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports that the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts has upheld a $2 million libel verdict in a lawsuit against the newspaper "The Boston Herald" and one of its reporters. The lawsuit concerns a series of articles and columns about Judge Ernest B. Murphy of the Superior Court in Massachusetts. The articles said that Murphy made disparaging comments about crime victims and was lenient with criminals.

When Frank Knight fell behind on his house payments in 2008 and the mortgage lender began a foreclosure case, a process server said he handed Mr. Knight the court papers at his bungalow on Chicago's Northwest Side. But public records show that at the time the server said Mr. Knight was being served, Mr. Knight was at a job site on the West Side, more than seven miles from his brick home in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A court in southern China convicted 11 people on Wednesday of violating national copyright laws and participating in a sophisticated counterfeiting ring that for years manufactured and distributed pirated Microsoft software throughout the world. The men were sentenced by a court in the city of Shenzhen to terms of 18 months to six and a half years in prison, according to court papers released late Wednesday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lou Pearlman, right, the former manager of pop acts like the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday for running a decades-long investment scheme that defrauded investors of $300 million. In a sentencing hearing at Federal District Court in Orlando, Fla., Judge G. Kendall Sharp gave Mr. Pearlman an unusual incentive to pay back his investors, offering to reduce the sentence by one month for every $1 million he repays. Mr. Pearlman, 53, pleaded guilty in March to charges of conspiracy and money laundering in connection with a Ponzi scheme in which he used fake accounting documents to lure people to invest in two companies that existed only on paper. Mr. Pearlman fled the country early last year, once federal authorities began investigating him, and in June he was found at a hotel in Bali, registered under the name A. Incognito Johnson. Larry Rifken, a lawyer representing victims of the schemes, said in a statement: ''The Creditors Committee is delighted with Judge Sharp's ruling today on Mr. Pearlman's sentence and believes that Judge Sharp did an excellent job in maximizing Mr. Pearlman's incentive to cooperate with the Trustee and the Committee in identifying, locating and monetizing any remaining undisclosed assets.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]