Court

JERUSALEM - In a landmark ruling on the struggle over prayer at Judaism's holiest shrine, an Israeli court ruled Thursday that women could legally pray at the Western Wall wearing prayer shawls, contrary to Orthodox practice enforced at the site. The ruling came after a string of incidents in recent months in which police detained women who wore the shawls while worshiping at the shrine, saying they had broken a law requiring prayer according to "local custom. " The arrests created an uproar in American Jewish communities and exposed a divide between Israel, where the Orthodox rabbinate has authority in Jewish religious matters, and the Jewish diaspora, where the more liberal Reform and Conservative movements are dominant.

You knew when the Dodgers sold for more than $2 billion last March that the eye-popping price tag was going to have repercussions. One of those things shaken up was the carefully crafted divorce settlement of former owners Frank and Jamie McCourt. Jamie, or rather her lawyers, said Wednesday in a nonjury civil trial in Los Angeles that she was entitled to more than the puny $131 million she received in the settlement because the team was worth a lot more than Frank led her to believe.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court seemed conflicted Monday on the question of whether the federal government can force groups that receive funding for overseas anti-HIV/AIDS programs to adopt its views against prostitution and sex trafficking. And Chief Justice John Roberts pointed out the quandary, asking the first question to each of the lawyers arguing the case. Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan said that Congress decided to renounce prostitution and sex trafficking because they contribute to the spread of diseases.

The long-running contract dispute between the Delaware River Port Authority and its police officers is headed back to court. Although a federal judge in February ruled that the DRPA must submit to binding arbitration, the sides can't agree on what the arbitrator is to decide or what limits can be placed on the arbitrator. Both sides outlined their positions in briefs filed Friday, and U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle will hear arguments next month. The bistate DRPA operates four toll bridges and the PATCO commuter rail line between South Jersey and Philadelphia.

Freedom of speech for tobacco and pharmaceutical companies is hardly free of argument, and that was evident again Monday, when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower-court decision approving the use of graphic images on cigarette packages. Several cigarette makers say the Food and Drug Administration's proposed rules cramp advertising freedom. The government says cigarettes kill more than 440,000 people per year and raise health-care costs for everyone. The FDA-created images included a man holding a cigarette while "smoking" out of a hole in his trachea, smoke wafting near an infant's head, and a toe tag on a corpse.

WILMINGTON - The autopsy of a Texas man who killed his former daughter-in-law and another woman at a Delaware courthouse shows he had a brain tumor. The autopsy report of Thomas Matusiewicz, 68, says a large tumor known as a meningioma was found. Authorities say Matusiewicz killed himself after the courthouse shooting Feb. 11. His widow, Lenore, had sought an independent autopsy, saying she believed an untreated brain tumor was to blame for her husband's violent actions. Matusiewicz was cremated shortly after the state released his body.

With two school-age children, Rutgers-Camden University law professor Michael A. Carrier hears a lot about recess. "I'm a big fan," said Carrier, who teaches in Camden. "Recess is so underrated. " But not in the District of Columbia, where an appellate court has upended the National Labor Relations Board with a recent decision that hinges on the definition of recess - whether a president, in this case Barack Obama, can appoint members to the board during a U.S. Senate recess.

WILMINGTON - The autopsy report for a Texas man who killed his former daughter-in-law and another woman at a Delaware courthouse shows he had a brain tumor. The report notes a large tumor known as a meningioma was found during the autopsy. Authorities say Thomas Matusiewicz, 68, killed himself after the courthouse shooting Feb. 11. The gunman's widow, Lenore Matusiewicz, had sought an independent autopsy saying she believed an untreated brain tumor was to blame for her husband's violent actions.

For decades, fugitives thumbed their noses at judges in Philadelphia. But now something remarkable has happened: Criminal defendants are showing up for court. A year ago, the judge in a new Bench Warrant Court began to crack down on defendants who ducked out on court, handing out thousands of brief jail terms. Since then, the fugitive rate has fallen nearly in half, new figures show. "The results are pretty astounding," said Ronald D. Castille, chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf fled court in a speeding vehicle Thursday to avoid arrest after his bail was revoked in a case involving his decision to fire senior judges while in power over five years ago. The harried escape broadcast live on Pakistani TV marked a new low in Musharraf's troubled return from exile last month to seek a political comeback in the May 11 parliamentary election. Musharraf, 69, made his exit with the help of bodyguards, who pushed him past police officers and paramilitary soldiers and helped him into a black SUV that sped off with a member of his security team hanging on. Lawyers shouted taunts: "Look who is running!