Jailed Las Vegas man stabs cellmate to death with pencil (Reuters)

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – A Las Vegas man jailed on charges of murdering his nephew killed his cellmate on Friday, stabbing him with a pencil during a fight in their cell, police said.

Guards found the cellmate unconscious and wounded during an early morning bed check at the Clark County Detention Center, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. They said he had been in a fight with his cellmate.

"The suspect physically battered the deceased inmate and stabbed him with a pencil," police said in a statement. Police spokesman Bill Cassell said pencils were among items allowed in the jail.

Carl Guilford, 18, was charged with murder in connection with the death, the first killing of an inmate in the jail since 1979, when an inmate strangled his cellmate. That inmate was sentenced to death for the crime and remains on death row.

A local television news station, 8NewsNow, reported on its website that Guilford had been in custody over the suffocation death of his 6-year-old nephew.

(Reporting by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Price tag for Casey Anthony case near $700,000 (Reuters)

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – The Casey Anthony murder investigation and trial cost taxpayers almost $700,000, based on new tallies on Friday from the major agencies involved in the case.

Prosecutors are seeking reimbursement from Anthony, 25, who was acquitted July 5 of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee. Casey Anthony was convicted of four charges of lying to detectives in 2008 and leading them astray from the first day of the investigation into the fate of the missing toddler.

A hearing is scheduled for August 25 at which trial judge Belvin Perry will decide how much of the bill Anthony must pay.

Although Anthony was declared indigent for purposes of her legal fees, rumors abound of possible high-priced book deals and paid interviews that could bring the infamous single mother a small fortune.

The single largest bill was $293,123 from the Orange County Sheriff's Office, which released its figures Friday. Even that includes only costs of the criminal investigation division from the time Caylee's grandmother reported her missing to the discovery five months later of her remains.

Many other expenses could not be fairly isolated, according to an accounting by Lieutenant Paul Zambouros.

"An incredible amount of manpower was deployed and over 6,000 tips were received requiring extensive man hours," Zambouros wrote in his report.

Also reported Friday was the $186,903 expended by the court clerk to select a jury, and to house and feed the 12 jurors and five alternate jurors sequestered throughout the nearly seven-week trial.

The prosecutor's office previously reported expenses of $91,000 on the case. And, after Anthony was declared indigent for legal fees, taxpayers paid $119,000 for defense expenses requested by her lawyer, according to the state Justice Administrative Commission.

The whereabouts of Anthony, released from jail on July 17, and details of how she is supporting herself are not publicly known.

The Anthony case riveted the nation for three years, first during a nationwide search for the missing Caylee and, later, as evidence piled up about Casey Anthony's many lies, the strong odor of decomposition in her car trunk, and her inappropriate behavior for a mother of a supposed missing child.

Caylee's remains, with duct tape hanging from her skull, were found in swampy woods near the Anthony home five months after she was reported missing. All that was left of the child were bones and hair, making it impossible to scientifically determine a cause of death.

Also standing in line to collect damages from Casey Anthony is Texas EquuSearch, which mounted a $100,000 search for the toddler after Anthony misled detectives by telling them Caylee had been kidnapped by a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez.

Casey Anthony's lawyer Jose Baez acknowledged at trial that the nanny was a figment of her imagination.

But a Central Florida woman by the name of Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez is suing Anthony for damages, saying her life was destroyed after Anthony inserted her name into the case.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Iran may release detained U.S. hikers soon: lawyer (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran may release U.S. citizens detained on charges of espionage, their lawyer Masoud Shafiee told Reuters on Saturday, a day before a scheduled court session for the two coinciding with the second anniversary of their detention.

Josh Fattal, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd were arrested by Iranian forces in July 2009 on suspicion of spying after crossing into Iran from Iraq. Shourd was freed on bail in September 2010 and returned to the United States.

Under Iran's Islamic law, espionage can be punished by execution.

"Tomorrow it will be two years since my clients were jailed ... I believe their already two years in detention will serve as their sentence," Shafiee said. "I hope it will be their last court session."

In November, Iran's judiciary announced espionage charges against the three. Their families said they were hiking and had strayed across the border accidentally. Washington says the charges are totally unfounded and they should be released.

The last hearing was scheduled for May 11 but was postponed without any explanation. Iranian authorities had previously called on Shourd to return to Tehran to stand trial alongside Fattal and Bauer.

Asked whether Shourd would appear at the session, Shafiee said the court had not demanded that she should attend. "It is one of the signs. In the previous warrants Shourd was asked to return to Iran for the trials ... but this time there is no such demand," he said.

Bauer and Fattal pleaded not guilty at a closed-door court hearing on February 6 but the lawyer said he had had no recent legal access to his clients.

"So far, no permission has been granted to my request for a private meeting with my clients," Shafiee said.

"Despite asking repeatedly, I have not met them since the last trial," he said. "I hope to have a meeting with them even a few hours before tomorrow's trial."

The United States cut diplomatic ties with Tehran after the Iranian revolution in 1979. The two countries are now embroiled in a row over Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies this.

Some Iranian officials and newspapers had suggested that the

Americans may be swapped with jailed Iranians in the United States. But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there were no talks between the United States and Iran on a prisoner exchange.

Iran said in 2009 it believed 11 Iranians were being held in the United States.

(Writing by Ramin Mostafavi and Parisa Hafezi; Editing by David Stamp)

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Analysis: Former prosecutors weigh in on Strauss-Kahn case (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even by the standards of a salacious and unpredictable international scandal, it was a whirlwind week in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case.

On Sunday, Strauss-Kahn's accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, 32, broke her silence and anonymity, telling the world in televised and print interviews her version of the incident with the former International Monetary Fund chief. Diallo, a hotel maid, alleges Strauss-Kahn forced her to perform oral sex on him and attempted to rape her at an upscale Manhattan hotel on May 14.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, who had been seen as a possible French president, has denied any wrongdoing.

On Tuesday, prosecutors requested and received a second postponement of the next court date in the case, originally scheduled for July 16. It is now scheduled for August 23.

On Wednesday, Diallo met with prosecutors behind closed doors for more than eight hours.

The next day, a tearful Diallo appeared before a sea of cameras in a Brooklyn church, as her attorney accused prosecutors of abandoning her.

Yet through all the dizzying developments, the case remains in limbo. Despite speculation the prosecution would collapse after significant doubts arose regarding Diallo's credibility, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. insisted the office was still investigating.

Interviews with eight former Manhattan prosecutors found agreement the case was an uphill climb, but no clear consensus on whether Vance should -- or would -- continue to prosecute Strauss-Kahn.

"Every juror has to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that she's telling the truth," said Bennett Gershman, a former Manhattan prosecutor and a law professor at Pace University. "The burden is enormous on the prosecutor. Do they want to go ahead with a case that seems so difficult?"

'TREASURE TROVE' FOR DEFENSE

Several former prosecutors said the decision to allow Diallo to speak publicly about the incident could create inconsistencies the defense would try to exploit at trial. Her credibility is already under siege after prosecutors said she lied about her past and about the immediate aftermath of the alleged attack.

"You're creating a treasure trove of material for the defense to dig into," said Jeremy Saland, a defense lawyer who worked as a prosecutor under Vance's predecessor, Robert Morgenthau.

Others have suggested that the media appearances show that Diallo's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, no longer believes the criminal case will hold up. Thompson argued on Thursday that she was forced to come forward to counter "lies" about her, including a report in the New York Post claiming she worked as a prostitute. Diallo has sued the Post for libel over that report.

The publicity could also backfire if it appears to be an effort to extract money from Strauss-Kahn to settle a potential civil lawsuit. Thompson has said she will file a civil claim soon.

Thompson's comments seemed to reflect his own uncertainty over whether the criminal case will proceed.

On Wednesday, following Diallo's meeting with prosecutors, Thompson said the discussion "went well." When questioned on Thursday about that assessment, he appeared to backtrack.

"You know, yesterday when I said it went well, I think that you read too much into that," he said in response to a reporter's question. "It was a meeting, I got out of it, I came outside. I don't know what the district attorney will do."

'PRETTY IMPRESSIVE SHOW'

But some observers say the media blitz could succeed in bringing pressure to bear on Vance's office.

"My sense is that they want to be done with it and they want to dismiss it," said one former city prosecutor who did not want to be named. "But, having said that, the victim has put on a pretty impressive show this past week."

John Moscow, the former deputy chief of the district attorney's investigations division, said the physical evidence was strongly suggestive of a forced encounter. That could be enough to overcome doubts about her credibility, Moscow said.

"Here's how I look at it: if she were run over by a car, would you still have a case?" he said. "Yes, you would. I just don't see any reason at all not to go forward."

Matthew Galluzzo, a former Manhattan sex-crimes prosecutor, said Diallo's story about being gang-raped in her home country of Guinea, which she later admitted was inaccurate, could be devastating to the case.

But Daniel Bibb, another former prosecutor, said jurors could forgive her, since she apparently told it to gain political asylum and entry into the United States.

"In the average rape case, I would say that discovery of a prior false allegation of rape is fatal to the prosecution," he said. "In this case, I'm not so sure, simply because her motives in claiming rape were not malicious."

Even if Vance goes ahead with the prosecution, former prosecutors say a conviction of Strauss-Kahn will be hard to secure.

"If what I've read and seen is accurate, it appears to me that this case will ultimately be dismissed," Saland said.

But like most of the prosecutors interviewed, Bibb warned it was impossible to assess from the outside whether the case will continue.

"I don't know what the right decision is," he said. "I don't have all the facts."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Noeleen Walder; Editing by Jesse Wegman and Peter Cooney)

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Comic Andy Dick pleads not guilty to sex abuse charges (Reuters)

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (Reuters) – Comedian Andy Dick pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges he sexually abused a security guard and another man at a West Virginia bar by grabbing their crotches.

The case marks the latest in a long string of legal entanglements for Dick, who was a regular cast member on the 1990s television comedy "NewsRadio" but has since struggled with substance abuse problems.

Dick pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual abuse before Cabell County Circuit Judge Paul Ferrell in Huntington, West Virginia, according to the local prosecutor's office.

He is accused of groping the two men at the Huntington bar in January 2010. The charge of sexual abuse carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

In 2008 Dick pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of battery and possession of marijuana stemming from an incident in which police said he pulled down the top of a 17-year-old girl in Southern California.

Dick, who sports curly blond hair and rectangular glasses, has had several other brushes with the law in recent years. He made a guest appearance earlier this year on the NBC comedy "Community."

(Reporting by Steven Adams, Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Steve Gorman)

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Jury finds Anthony Sowell guilty of 11 murders (Reuters)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – A Cleveland jury on Friday found ex-Marine and convicted rapist Anthony Sowell guilty of the serial killing of 11 women whose decomposed remains were found in and around his home.

Sowell, 51, faces the possibility of the death penalty.

Many of the victims had histories of drug problems or were transients, and their disappearances were not always immediately reported to police. Sowell, who had a previous conviction for raping a pregnant woman, had claimed that bad smells in the area came from a nearby sausage factory.

Police discovered the first two bodies in 2009 after executing a search warrant for Sowell's arrest in response to an assault and rape charge.

In total, more women's bodies were found in and around Sowell's Cleveland house.

Two were found on the third floor, partially covered; one was in a plastic bag in pieces; another was covered with dirt in a crawl space. Two bodies were found in the basement -- one covered in dirt under the stairs, and one skull wrapped in plastic in a red bucket.

Five bodies were found in the backyard, all wrapped in plastic in shallow graves.

Sowell came to live in the Imperial Avenue house with his stepmother after serving 15 years in prison for rape. A balding man with glasses of medium height, he was described by neighbors as helpful, and a snappy dresser.

The first of the 11 homicides occurred in the house in 2007. The house had tenants who moved out after complaining about the smell.

Sowell was arrested shortly after one surviving victim jumped naked out of a window after being raped. At first, she claimed she had been in a car accident, but later told police she was attacked after seeing the bodies recovered from his house.

After police took Sowell in for questioning, he was told about six bodies found at his house and one in the backyard. Sowell responded, "Oh, those," using the plural when only one body had been found in the backyard at the time, according to police testimony.

In a videotaped interrogation by police, Sowell talked about meeting women and bringing them to his house. But he never gives any details about what happened to them or how their remains came to be in his house. "Maybe all I did was strangle ... that's what I did," he says.

Most of the victims were strangled. Some victims were so badly decomposed that the cause of death could not be determined.

The jury found Sowell guilty on 82 of 83 counts -- the not guilty on a single charge of stealing $11 from a surviving assault victim.

A fierce thunderstorm raged outside the courtroom windows as the verdicts were read. Some family members of victims wept, while others nodded their heads in agreement with the guilty counts.

Sowell blinked rapidly but otherwise showed no emotion as the verdicts were read.

After he was told of his right to appeal, he refused to look at Judge Dick Ambrose, and yawned. As he left the courtroom, he put his fists up in the air.

In closing arguments, the prosecution called Sowell a "vile and disgusting" serial killer. The 62 prosecution witnesses included women who said they had fled Sowell's house after being attacked.

One prosecution witness was Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's niece, Lori Frazier, an ex-girlfriend of Sowell, who said he suffered a series of suspicious injuries. Once she saw a deep gash across his head and blood on the floor and walls that he said were the result of a struggle with an intruder.

Family members of some victims have filed suit against the city, complaining about the police's handling of the case. The father of one of the victims said his concerns were dismissed by police because of his daughter's history of drug use.

The defense called no witnesses, but criticized the state's handling of the crime scene investigation and some of the women who testified against Sowell.

The murder victims are Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Janice Webb, Nancy Cobbs, Tonia Carmichael, Tishana Culver, Leshanda Long, Amelda Hunter, Michelle Mason, Crystal Dozier and Kim Smith.

Jurors deliberated for about 15 hours before reaching a verdict. On August 1 begins the mitigation phase of the trial, when the jury must determine whether Sowell should be expected.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by Greg McCune)

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Teenagers swam for their lives in Norway carnage (Reuters)

NESLANDET, Norway (Reuters) – Norwegian teenagers at a lakeside summer camp fled screaming in panic, many leaping into the water to save themselves, when an attacker dressed as a policeman began spraying them with gunfire.

Police said at least 10 of the youngsters, attending a camp run by the governing Labour Party, were killed in Friday's attack, shortly after a blast in the capital Oslo killed seven people in Western Europe's worst bombing since 2005.

"I just saw people jumping into the water, about 50 people swimming toward the shore. People were crying, shaking, they were terrified," said Anita Lien, 42, who lives by Tyrifjord lake, a few hundred meters (yards) from Utoeya island, northwest of Oslo.

"They were so young, between 14 and 19 years old," she said.

Utoeya is an island about 500 meters long, clad with pine trees. Lien said the shooting sounded like automatic gunfire.

A camp guard, Simen Braenden Mortensen, said that the gunman had tricked his way onto the island by posing as a policeman driving a silver grey car.

"He gets out of the car and shows ID, says he's sent there to check security, that that is purely routine in connection with the terror attack (in Oslo)," Mortensen told the daily Verdens Gang.

"It all looks fine, and a boat is called and it carries him over to Utoeya. A few minutes passed, then we heard shots," he said.

A teenaged boy who witnessed the attack from the mainland told Britain's Sky Television: "We heard people screaming, it was horrible...Some were waving at us from the island."

Police said they had found undetonated explosives on the island. They said the gunman, whom they described as ethnic Norwegian, may also have been involved in planting the bomb in Oslo.

Early on Saturday, an ambulance left the lake area, with a body lying on a stretcher inside. Cars with distraught relatives were heading to a nearby hotel hoping to meet loved ones evacuated from the island.

Police and dogs were still searching the island and lake overnight from boats and helicopters, with ambulances on standby. Searchlights slowly swept the water in the dark.

People living by the lake got into boats to try to evacuate people from the water. "I used my boat to ferry a lot of people from the island, I saw many wounded people," said a local man who said he lived in a white house by the lake.

(Writing by Alister Doyle and Anna Ringstrom, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

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Alleged Army ringleader in Afghan murders faces accuser (Reuters)

By Laura L. Myers Laura L. Myers – Thu Jul 21, 10:52 pm ET

TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) – The U.S. Army sergeant charged with murdering unarmed Afghan civilians as ringleader of a rogue combat platoon faced his chief accuser in a military court on Thursday, a soldier who pleaded guilty earlier this year to three killings.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was back in court for a reopened Article 32 hearing, a military justice proceeding roughly equivalent to a grand jury session that determines whether a case gets referred to court-martial for trial.

Prosecutors have cast Gibbs, 26, of Billings, Montana, as the main instigator behind the most serious case of alleged U.S. military atrocities in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

He is one of five soldiers from the infantry unit formerly known as the 5th Stryker Brigade charged with killing innocent Afghan villagers in cold blood while deployed last year in Kandahar province.

Seven other soldiers were charged with lesser offenses stemming from the investigation, which began as a probe of rampant hashish abuse among the soldiers.

The Stryker Brigade cases, with scores of photographs seized as evidence but sealed from public view by the military, have drawn comparisons to the inflammatory 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

Gibbs was ordered in January to stand trial on three counts of premeditated murder and other offenses. They include charges he beat up a fellow soldier, tried to obstruct an investigation and collected fingers and other body parts from Afghan corpses as war trophies.

An Army judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma granted a defense request to reopen the Article 32 inquiry to give Gibbs' lawyers a chance to cross-examine witnesses who were not previously made available for questioning.

The most anticipated testimony on Thursday came from Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, sentenced in March to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder for his role in the same killings in which Gibbs is accused.

'DROP WEAPON'

Echoing previous statements to military investigators in the case, Morlock recounted incidents in which he said Gibbs opened fire on innocent, unarmed Afghans during encounters staged to appear as legitimate combat engagements.

In one such killing, Morlock said, Gibbs planted an AK-47 assault rifle that he carried around as a "drop weapon." In another, he testified, Gibbs tossed a Russian-style hand grenade as he opened fire on his victim to leave the impression that their patrol had come under attack. Morlock later added that he then moved the unexploded grenade closer to the body.

"The idea was to go out and find someone to plant an AK-47 on and say, 'We got shot at,'" said Morlock, whom prosecutors have described as Gibbs' right-hand man in their platoon.

Gibbs sat silently through the eight-hour hearing, seeming alert but largely at ease, even as he stared intently at Morlock during his accuser's testimony. Morlock avoided looking at Gibbs, and the two men never appeared to make eye contact during Morlock's 3-1/2 hours on the witness stand.

During two hours of cross-examination intended by defense lawyer Phillip Stackhouse to undermine Morlock's credibility, Morlock acknowledged a history of alcohol and drug dependence. He also admitted, as he has before, to burning his ex-wife with a cigarette during a bar fight and getting into trouble with the Army for having women in his barracks after hours.

But Gibbs' platoon leader, Captain Roman Ligsay, and a fellow sergeant, Michael Hefner, both testified that Gibbs was a "good squad leader," and neither could recall him ever discussing murder scenarios like those described by Morlock.

Morlock, whose previous statements were considered central to the prosecution's case against his co-defendants, had agreed to testify in open court against Gibbs and others as part of his own plea deal.

In May, Morlock took the stand against another of the five soldiers charged with murder, Private Andrew Holmes.

Morlock and Holmes appeared in separate photos published in March by two magazines showing them crouched over the bloodied corpse of a 15-year-old Afghan -- the son of a village elder -- holding the boy's head up for the camera by his hair.

Gibbs' hearing was set to resume on Friday with more witnesses due to be called, but no decision on whether the case will proceed to court-martial was expected immediately.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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UK lawmaker asks police to investigate Murdoch (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – News Corp executive James Murdoch could face a police investigation into claims he gave "mistaken" testimony to Britain's parliament this week, deepening the legal crisis that has engulfed the Murdoch family's media empire.

Prime Minister David Cameron, criticized for his close ties to senior figures at News Corp, said that Murdoch had "clearly got questions to answer in parliament."

Police received a letter Friday from opposition legislator Tom Watson asking whether Murdoch was involved in illegal efforts to cover up phone hacking.

Detectives investigating a hacking scandal centered on the Murdochs' now defunct News of the World tabloid were considering the letter, they said.

Keeping up the pressure, another Labor member of parliament (MP) wrote to non-executive directors of News Corp calling on them to suspend James and company chief executive Rupert Murdoch over the scandal.

James Murdoch, chairman of News Corp's British arm, and his 80-year-old father appeared before parliament's media committee Tuesday to answer questions on phone-hacking.

The company had long maintained that the illegal practice was the work of a lone "rogue reporter." However, two former senior figures at its British newspaper arm have disputed James Murdoch's claim that he was unaware of an e-mail that suggested as early as 2008 that wrongdoing was more widespread.

"I think this is the most significant moment of two years of investigation into phone hacking," Watson, a Labor lawmaker, told BBC TV Friday.

"If their statement is accurate, it shows that James Murdoch had knowledge that others were involved in hacking as early as 2008, that he failed to act to discipline staff or initiate some internal investigation," added Watson, part of the media committee who has long campaigned to expose wrongdoing at the newspaper.

"If their version of events is accurate, it doesn't just mean that parliament has been misled, it means the police have another investigation on their hands," Watson added.

In a letter to committee chairman John Whittingdale on Friday, James Murdoch said he had answered questions in parliament truthfully.

"I stand by my testimony," he said, adding that he was preparing a written response to questions raised during his appearance.

CAMERON SEEKS CLARITY

Prime Minister Cameron tried to distance himself from the company after his image was tarnished by his decision to hire a former News of the World editor as his communications chief.

"Clearly James Murdoch has got questions to answer in parliament and I am sure that he will do that," he told reporters, "and clearly News International has got some big issues to deal with and a mess to clear up."

"That has to be done by the management of that company. In the end the management of a company must be an issue for the shareholders of that company."

Ex-News of the World editor Colin Myler and Tom Crone, who was the newspaper group's top legal officer, accused James Murdoch of giving "mistaken" testimony.

Watson said the dispute between senior figures past and present in News Corp marked a turning point in efforts to get to the bottom of a scandal dating backing to 2005.

"I think we're getting near to the core of this now, we're getting nearer the truth," Watson said.

"People are beginning to speak out. The company effectively closed ranks three years ago," he added.

"Now that News of the World is gone, now that the world's media hold this company in the spotlight, I think individuals are beginning to speak out and we will get the full picture."

News Corp long maintained that listening in to voicemails to get stories was the work of a single reporter after their royal editor was jailed in 2007.

A series of legal actions by celebrities who claimed their mobiles had been hacked undermined that defense and raised questions about how far up the company responsibility went.

The floodgates opened two weeks ago when a lawyer for a murdered schoolgirl alleged that her telephone had been hacked while she was missing and messages deleted, giving her parents false hope she was still alive.

Facing public outrage and opposition from long compliant politicians, News Corp closed the News of the World newspaper after 168 years and dropped a $12 billion bid to buy full control of pay TV broadcaster BSkyB.

In a scandal shaking the British establishment, London's police chief and its head of anti-terrorism resigned over their cozy links to a former News of the World deputy editor.

The disputed testimony from Tuesday's dramatic televised session hinges on what James Murdoch knew about a 700,000 pound payment to soccer players' union boss Gordon Taylor to settle a legal claim that his phone had been hacked.

"What Myler's statement shows, if it's true, (is) that James Murdoch knowingly bought the silence of Taylor thereby covering up a crime," Watson said.

"Now in the UK that is called conspiring to pervert the course of justice and it's a very serious matter."

His Labor colleague Chris Bryant said News Corp had failed to exercise proper corporate control.

"I would therefore urge you to suspend both Rupert and James Murdoch from their responsibilities within the organization," Bryant wrote in a letter to directors who include former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar and Rod Eddington, who once headed British Airways.

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden and Stephen Addison; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

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Sex, drugs and porn barred from Jeffrey Gundlach trial (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Evidence allegedly showing that star fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach kept a stash of drugs and porn in his office will not see the light of day at trial, a judge ruled in a lawsuit pitting Gundlach against his former employer.

More evidence related to Gundlach's alleged sexual liaisons with former co-workers also will not be allowed in the high-profile trial scheduled to begin next week between Gundlach and Trust Company of the West, a California judge ruled on Thursday.

TCW sued Gundlach, its former chief investment officer, in late 2009. The company Gundlach formed upon getting fired, DoubleLine Capital, used stolen proprietary data including contact databases to develop a client base, thereby engaging in "an ongoing pattern of wide-ranging, systematic unfair competition," TCW says in its complaint.

TCW is seeking in excess of $375 million in damages, according to Peter Viles, its corporate communications head.

Gundlach fired back with a countersuit, claiming that TCW owes him damages from his termination. He is seeking $500 million in damages, according to his defense team.

"Unrelated evidence" found in Gundlach's office would not be considered except under exceptional circumstances, said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl J. West on Thursday.

"Collateral evidence will drag us down and take an untoward amount of time," West said, claiming that the extraneous evidence would be a distraction from the serious issues of fraud, proprietary theft, and damages stemming from Gundlach's termination.

"The fact that Jeffrey Gundlach kept hard core pornography, sexual devices and drugs at his TCW offices is not in question, and clearly demonstrates an unacceptable pattern of unstable and unprofessional behavior," Susan Estrich, an attorney for TCW, said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

"The heart of this case is and always has been Mr Gundlach's theft of trade secrets and confidential information from TCW, and his betrayal of the trust placed in him by his former employer and its investors."

DoubleLine Capital was content with the decisions made on the eve of the trial.

"We're pleased that Judge West once again has ruled correctly on pretrial issues in favor of DoubleLine and adverse to TCW's meritless lawsuit," Lew Phelps, a spokesman for DoubleLine Capital, told Reuters.

West also noted that the power of two "well-heeled" legal teams was overwhelming his office.

"You guys are taxing me here," he said, adding that the lawyers were submitting so much paper and so many motions that he and his staff could not read it all.

Jury selection for the trial begins on Monday, July 25.

The case in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles is Trust Co of the West v. Jeffrey Gundlach et al, BC429385.

(Reporting by Mary Slosson; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Casey Anthony released from Florida jail (Reuters)

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – Casey Anthony was released from a Florida jail on Sunday to resume the life on the outside interrupted three years ago when she was charged with the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

Casey Anthony exited the jail escorted by guards wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying rifles and stepped into a black SUV, one of two waiting vehicles, a few minutes after midnight on Saturday.

Anthony was acquitted by a jury on July 5 of culpability in Caylee's death. Since then, her future has been the subject of much speculation, but with no publicly known facts beyond her jail departure date.

Pool reporters inside the jail saw Anthony and her attorney Jose Baez whiz by them in the lobby and exit through the front door in a matter of about 12 seconds.

"She was just tunnel vision on that door," said Tony Zumbado, an NBC News cameraman. Anthony's only words were "thank you" to a jail sergeant, he said.

"When she walked out, she had a smirk on her face," said Zumbado, who interpreted the expression as relief.

"She looked to me like she might be nervous or holding back tears," said Matt Sedensky, an Associated Press reporter in the pool.

He quoted jail officials as saying Anthony -- wearing the tight hair bun seen during her trial, a bright pink shirt, jeans and bright blue sneakers -- left with the $537.68 remaining in her inmate account.

Two backup plans to take her out of other jail doors were scrapped when officers determined she could safely depart through the front, Sedensky said.

Some TV reports showed footage of a plane at an Orlando executive airport that they said Anthony had boarded and which then left for an unknown destination, but the reports could not be immediately confirmed.

CROWD WAITING

A crowd of several hundred had been waiting since midafternoon for the release, and many of its members rushed into the street trying to follow Anthony as she was driven away, briefly blocking the eastbound lanes of a six lane road.

Lori Richards, 54, of Daytona Beach and three friends had set up a tent at 3 p.m where they huddled through a brief lightning storm.

"We're here to support Caylee and we want them (the public) to boycott anything Casey or any of the Anthonys do," Richards said.

Casey Anthony's parents and brother had testified at the widely telecast trial.

Many in the crowd at the jail came with signs for and against Casey, and some periodically chanted Caylee's name.

A large police presence included the sheriff's mobile command center, five horse-mounted officers and at least 20 uniformed officers on foot, many wearing bullet-proof vests. Three news helicopters hovered overhead.

Anthony's safety is no small matter. Her trial revealed gruesome details of Caylee's death and the disposal of the toddler's remains in trash bags in swampy woods. There was also plenty of evidence of Casey Anthony relishing her life, partying and shopping, after Caylee died.

Even Casey Anthony's lawyer Baez acknowledged her outward lack of emotion over the death was "bizarre."

Her acquittal was met with shock and derision by much of the public, egged on by outraged television commentary.

Charles Greene, Anthony's defense lawyer in a related civil defamation lawsuit, told a judge on Friday that he had received seven threats against her that day.

Much speculation has focused on whether Anthony will try to live quietly out of the public eye, or seek out attention, and just what sort of person she is.

She stopped accepting jail visits from her parents long ago. An attempt by her mother Cindy Anthony to visit her both right before the trial began and just after the verdict were rejected.

Lawyer Greene told a judge that psychologists who examined Anthony at the jail this week found her mentally unstable after the ordeal of the trial, according to opposing lawyer Keith Mitnik.

Mitnik is suing Anthony on behalf of Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, whose life the suit says was ruined after Anthony initially lied to detectives that a woman by that name had kidnapped Caylee.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jerry Norton)

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Two men charged with Dodger Stadium beating (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two men newly arrested in the savage beating of a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium were charged on Friday with assault and battery, while an ex-convict jailed two months ago as a suspect was officially exonerated.

The turning point in a case that drew national headlines and stymied the Los Angeles Police Department for weeks came as the family of Bryan Stow, 42, who was left in a coma by the beating, said he was finally showing signs of improvement.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck waited until after prosecutors had formally charged the two men arrested on Thursday to confirm at a news conference that the latest suspects were in custody.

"The process has worked," Villaraigosa said.

Louis Sanchez, 29, and Marvin Norwood, 30, both of Rialto, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, are slated for arraignment on Monday. They were held in lieu of $500,000 bail each.

The district attorney's office said both men were charged with mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury -- all felonies collectively punishable by up to eight years in prison.

Sanchez was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of battering stemming from a separate incident the same day. He faces another year behind bars if convicted of those charges.

Authorities said a woman was also arrested in the case but has not been charged. She was identified by the Los Angeles Times as Dorene Sanchez, 31, believed to be Louis Sanchez's sister and the wife or girlfriend of Norwood.

Investigators concluded that the convicted felon originally arrested as a suspect, Giovanni Ramirez, 31, a documented gang member, was not involved in the attack.

"I want to tell the world, Giovanni Ramirez is no longer a suspect in this case," Beck said. "It is just as important to exonerate the innocent as it is to implicate the guilty."

Ramirez, arrested on the basis of a tip from a parole officer in what police then called a major break in the case, was never charged with the beating. But he was sent back to prison for 10 months on a parole violation stemming from the discovery of a gun in the apartment where he was staying.

His lawyer and family have steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying he was not at the stadium at the time of the beating. His mother, Soledad Gonzalez, called her son's arrest "a big, big mistake."

Stow, a paramedic and father of two, had driven to the game in Los Angeles from his northern California home in Santa Cruz to see his favorite baseball team, the Giants, play the Dodgers on the Opening Day game March 31 at Dodger Stadium.

Dressed in Giants apparel, he was attacked by two men wearing Dodgers gear in the stadium parking lot after the game, beaten so badly that he was left in a coma.

The assault touched off a furor in Los Angeles over what critics said was a failure by the city and team officials to provide adequate security.

Stow remains hospitalized in San Francisco, but his family said on its website that he was opening his eyes and alert, and was able to mouth his last name, just days after suffering a medical setback that had led to emergency surgery.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Grand jury hears evidence in slaying of Brooklyn boy (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A grand jury began hearing evidence on Friday against a man who confessed to butchering an 8-year-old Brooklyn boy, as the child's family thanked those who searched in vain for their son.

Behind yellow crime scene tape, police in white protective suits carried plastic and paper bags bulging with potential evidence from the Brooklyn home of Levi Aron, 35, charged in the death of Leiby Kletzky.

Less than two miles away, the Orthodox Jewish family of the 8-year-old boy who got lost on his first walk home from a religious day camp and encountered Aron began a week-long mourning ritual known as "shiva."

The family thanked the waves of people who joined the frantic search that ended with the gruesome discovery by police of the boy's severed body parts in a freezer in Aron's apartment and a dumpster.

"We are forever grateful and thankful to (God)," the family said in a statement posted outside their home in the close-knit Orthodox community of Borough Park.

"We would also like to express to each and every individual... who assisted us above and beyond physically, emotionally and spiritually - and to all from around the world, who had us in their thoughts and prayers. From the depths of our mourning hearts, thank you!"

Police declined to say what they were looking for in the home owned by Aron's family, where he lived on the third floor. Investigators scoured the contents of three computers removed from the home.

The widening search for evidence now includes Memphis, Tennessee, where Aron lived with a former wife, said Jeremy Schmetterer, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, began presenting evidence in the case to a grand jury in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn but declined to speculate on when an indictment might be returned.

Aron, held without bail on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder and placed on a suicide watch, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric exam. He is due back in court on July 28.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Cynthia Johnston)

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Accused Ohio serial killer, in video, admits sex with victims (Reuters)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Jurors in the capital murder trial of accused Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell watched on Friday as he admitted in a videotaped interrogation to having sex with six women whose remains were found on his property.

In the video, jurors see a Sowell who is at times talkative and animated when discussing his house or relationship with ex-girlfriend Lori Frazier, but who sometimes appears agitated when the subject turns to the remains found in his home.

Sowell, 51, is on trial accused of murdering 11 women and assaulting four others, and could face the death penalty. The bodies of the women were found in and around his house after police raided his home in 2009 to arrest him for rape and assault.

Sowell, in video shown to jurors, never confesses to hurting or killing any of the women found at his house, although he does discuss meeting women and refers to dreams and fantasies as detectives ask him direct questions.

Sowell appears to concentrate as he tries to remember information about the women he met, what they were wearing, and their height and weight. He is seen rocking in his chair grabbing his head and repeating: "I don't remember."

At one point, two detectives show Sowell a diagram outlining where they found six bodies and asking him repeatedly which body was "his first" and which "the last".

"I don't remember actually killing anyone," Sowell says and tells the detectives he can't distinguish the women he dates from the six bodies that had been found by then by police.

"I was separated ... I see flashes," he says.

Throughout the interview, Sowell is asked if the women he describes meeting were "one of the six". Never does Sowell hint that there were more remains to be found on his property.

Sowell admits to having sex with "the six" women but when Smith says, "If we took DNA from you will we find it on them?" Sowell responds, "I don't want to do that."

Sowell talks about meeting women and bringing them to his house. But he never gives any details about what happened to them or how their remains came to be in his house. "Maybe all I did was strangle ... that's what I did," he says.

He says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again as the interrogation goes on late into the night and the detectives offer to give him time to think.

Sowell agrees with detectives that he should help give the families of the victims closure but appears to have problems distinguishing fact from fantasy.

"I'm telling you the best I can," he says.

At one point, Sowell seems to grasp what is going to happen to him, "My life is over," he tells detectives.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Cynthia Johnston)

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Feds indict 18 alleged Wheels of Soul motorcycle gang leaders (Reuters)

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – Some 18 Wheels of Soul motorcycle gang leaders face racketeering, murder and kidnapping charges in a wide-ranging indictment aimed at a nationwide takedown, federal authorities said on Tuesday.

Gang members allegedly murdered a rival gang member in St. Louis in August 2009, committed murders in Illinois and Ohio, and were involved in extensive drug dealing in at least seven states, according to the 40-page federal indictment.

"The significance of today's arrests is not just the fact that these members are considered the most violent of the group," FBI Special Agent in Charge Dennis Baker said.

"Today's nationwide takedown has disrupted and dismantled the Wheels of Soul by targeting the senior leaders."

Among the long list of crimes authorities accused gang members of committing were a drive-by shooting in Colorado and a stabbing during a gang fight in Chicago. The indictment also said gang members used high explosives, committed arson, and were ordered to carry guns, hammers and knives.

It said this activity added up to a racketeering enterprise, involving a federal law often used against Mafia members.

The indictment handed up June 9 and unsealed in U.S. District Court also brought gun violations charges against three other members.

Eighteen of 21 indicted gang members were in custody on Tuesday, with three members from the Denver area at large, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis said.

The federal investigation targeted the gang's leadership, a small percentage of members who attained the status of "One Percenter" or "Diamond" level and were considered "particularly criminal and violent," authorities said.

Those members wore special patches reflecting their status in addition to the Wheels of Soul colors that consist of a black vest adorned with several patches worn on the back, according to the indictment.

The gang is governed by a "Mother Chapter" in Philadelphia, with regional chapters around the country, according to the indictment. Federal agents raided two Wheels of Soul clubhouses in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Some of those identified as leaders in the group included James "Animal" Smith in Philadelphia, Allen "Dog" Hunter in Chicago and Dominic "Bishop" in St. Louis.

The indicted members were from seven states: Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Court extends stay against forcibly medicating Loughner (Reuters)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner should not have been forced to take anti-psychotic drugs against his will without a judge first ruling on his appeal of the issue.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals keeps in place a stay that court imposed on July 1 ordering officials at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to stop forcibly medicating Loughner.

The three-judge panel ruled that a U.S. district judge in San Diego abused his discretion by denying Loughner's emergency petition seeking to bar the Federal Medical Center from involuntarily medicating him after an administrative hearing found he posed a danger to others in the facility.

Prosecutors have cited several outbursts by Loughner in which they said he threw chairs or spat at others.

But the appeals court panel said the government "has managed to keep Loughner in custody for over six months without injury to anyone."

"We are confident it can continue to do so for the short period it will take to resolve this appeal," the judges added. "And the record shows Loughner is not a danger to himself."

The appeals court ruled that its stay should remain in effect until a hearing on the merits of Loughner's appeal, and it ordered a such a hearing set for the week of August 29.

Although prison officials remain barred from giving Loughner anti-psychotic drugs against his will, the court said they were free to take less drastic measures to control his behavior, including forced administration of tranquilizers.

The 22-year-old college dropout was declared in May to be mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges he killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in a January 8 shooting rampage in Tucson.

At the competency hearing, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns cited the conclusions of two medical experts that Loughner suffers from schizophrenia, disordered thinking and delusions.

Described by his own lawyers as "gravely mentally ill," Loughner has been since undergoing psychiatric evaluation to determine whether his ability to understand the court proceedings against him can be restored.

He pleaded not guilty in March to 49 charges stemming from the shooting at the "Congress on Your Corner" event, including multiple counts of first-degree murder. (Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb)

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Body of missing Brooklyn boy found in trash container (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The remains of a 9-year-old boy who disappeared while walking home from day camp were discovered in a trash container on Wednesday in Brooklyn, police said.

A 35-year-old man was taken into custody, police said.

Leibby Kletzky, 9, was supposed to meet his family on Monday on his walk home from day camp in Brooklyn's Borough Park neighborhood but never arrived, police said.

After an extensive search, his dismembered body was found stuffed in a suitcase, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag inside a dumpster. Other remains were found inside a refrigerator in a home nearby.

Police said they had surveillance video of the boy, who lived in the borough's tightly knit Orthodox Jewish community, getting into a car with an unidentified man a few blocks from the park.

"I don't think there is anyone in this world that can comprehend what just happened," said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who helped search for the boy.

"In a neighborhood like ours where our crime rate is almost nonexistent, where a boy disappears and is brutally murdered is beyond comprehension."

Hikind said the suspect also lived in the Orthodox community.

Police were slated to hold a news conference later on Wednesday to disclose further details."

(Reporting by Aman Ali; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jerry Norton)

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More grisly details in trial of alleged Ohio serial killer (Reuters)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Testimony in the capital murder trial of alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell continued here on Tuesday with more grisly details of the evidence authorities collected at his home.

Dr. Elizabeth Balraj, the former chief deputy coroner for Cuyahoga County who autopsied five of the bodies, spent almost two-and-a-half hours on the stand Tuesday morning as the trial entered its third week.

She and others testified the victims were strangled and bound with apparently random items, including shoe-strings, socks, a belt, a bag strap, a coaxial cable and a cell-phone charger cord.

Sowell, 51 is accused of killing 11 women and assaulting four others. Their remains were found in 2009 after police executed a search warrant at Sowell's house on a rape charge.

Sowell, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, faces the death penalty if convicted.

Police and SWAT found two bodies on the floor in a room next to Sowell's bedroom and eventually discovered three more bodies and a skull in the house and five more bodies buried in shallow graves in the back yard.

Balraj also provided more details about the state of the victim's bodies found at Sowell's house, testifying those she examined were nude or nude from the waist down, some wrapped in blankets and plastic and bound at the hands and wrists.

Sowell, wearing a light-colored short-sleeve shirt, was stoic while listening to doctor's testimony and viewing autopsy photos.

Balraj testified that the plastic bucket that held the skull of Lasanda Long had "no evidence of decomposition" and that the bucket had "non-human bite marks" around the rim.

"I couldn't draw any conclusion when the skull was placed in the bucket," Balraj admitted to prosecutor Rick Bombik.

On Balraj's cross-examination, defense attorney John Parker continued to question the validity of the date of death given to the victims, pointing out Balraj had changed the date of death for Janice Webb after a family told her she had seen her alive after the date Balraj had originally provided.

Parker also took issue with part of the autopsy report on Amelda Hunter that stated she was strangled by "a male" and asked Balraj, "How could you know that information based on her autopsy?"

Balraj said she consults police reports and uses that information to help determine cause of death. She has come under fire from local media in the past for a perceived bias toward prosecution and police.

Kristopher Kern, who had been a forensic scientist with the coroner's office, and Curtiss Jones, the supervisor of the trace evidence department with the office, also took the stand Tuesday.

Kern testified to testing a number of items of clothing and "ligatures" used in the strangulation of the bodies.

Kern identified both a shoelace and sock for the prosecution that he removed from the neck of Nancy Cobb and what looked like a cell-phone charger from Tonia Carmichael.

According to Kern, Cobb was also wrapped in six different plastic bags and a blanket when she came in for autopsy.

During his testimony, Kern described removing shoestrings from one of the wrists of one of the victims, Janice Webb, and said: "They were bound so tightly, I had to cut them to remove them."

Jones testified he removed coaxial-type cable from around the partially clothed body of Crystal Dozier and found trace fibers of blue polyester from the plastic bag around another victim.

He said those fibers were consistent with the fibers from the carpet in Sowell's bedroom and were found on the clothing of other victims.

As he has with all of the other prosecution witnesses, defense attorney Parker pointed out a mistake in Kern's reports and asked how much time he spent at the crime scene.

Parker kept Kern on cross from almost an hour-and-a-half as he went through an exhaustive list of women's clothing that was collected, tested for DNA and semen, and returned without testing positive.

The trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday with more witnesses for the prosecution.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Jerry Norton)

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TV producer ordered to Mexico on murder charges (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A judge on Tuesday ordered a former producer for the TV show "Survivor" extradited to Mexico to face charges that he killed his wife two years ago while they were on holiday in the resort town of Cancun.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian determined that Bruce Beresford-Redman, who has been jailed since November 2010 awaiting a decision, should be sent to Mexico for a trial because there was enough circumstantial evidence to show probable cause he could have murdered his wife.

The U.S. is required to send Beresford-Redman to Mexico within 60 days but he can appeal the judge's ruling, which would extend the process for an undetermined period of time, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors said.

The badly beaten body of Monica Beresford-Redman was found in a sewer at a resort hotel where the couple and their children were vacationing in April 2010. Beresford-Redman had reported his wife was missing three days before she was found.

Mexican authorities believe the two had an argument, he beat her to death, then dumped her body.

Beresford-Redman has proclaimed his innocence, saying in a statement that he was "devastated at her loss" and "incensed at the suggestion" that he could have killed his wife.

At Tuesday's extradition hearing, defense attorneys Richard Hirsch and Vicki Podberesky claimed that statements from the couple's 6 year-old daughter suggested there was no animosity between them while on the Cancun vacation with their family.

But U.S. prosecutors, who have reviewed the case made by Mexican authorities, believe there is enough evidence to show Beresford-Redman killed his wife for three reasons: collecting insurance money, getting sole custody of their children and continuing an extramarital affair.

According to court papers filed in Los Angeles, Monica Beresford-Redman was hit on the head, her face and body were badly beaten and the cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation. Mexican police searched the couple's hotel room in Cancun and found blood spatter in several areas.

The couple's two young children are currently being raised by their grandparents.

(Reporting by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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WikiLeaks' Assange in final day of UK extradition fight (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces accusations of rape and sexual assault and should be extradited to Sweden to face them, lawyers acting for Swedish authorities told a British court Wednesday.

The 40-year-old Australian computer expert is in the High Court in London for the final day of a two-day hearing after losing an initial challenge to the extradition order in February.

Swedish prosecutors want to question Assange about three allegations of sexual assault and one of rape made by two women, both WikiLeaks volunteers, in Sweden last August. Assange denies the allegations and no formal charges have yet been brought.

Assange's defense team has asked two judges to block his extradition, arguing the case was legally flawed and that sex had always been consensual.

But Clare Montgomery, appearing for the Swedish prosecuting authority, dismissed the Assange claims, saying it was "perfectly plain" that the women had made allegations of non-consensual sex.

The defence's argument has centered on the fact that Assange has not been formally accused of any crime yet in Sweden, though his team concede that could come at a later date.

Assange's defense lawyers told the court Tuesday the European arrest warrant on which he was being held was flawed because it failed to provide "a fair, accurate and proper" description of his alleged sexual misconduct in Sweden.

His team also said it had no access to the full dossier detailing the allegations against him.

NO NEED TO EXTRADITE

Defense lawyer Ben Emmerson stressed that interviews could take place by telephone, using Skype, or in writing, under Swedish law, without the need to extradite.

Legal teams acting for both Assange and Swedish authorities have told Reuters it would be highly unusual for the two judges hearing the case to make a decision on the appeal on the same day. They said a written judgment is more likely at a later date.

Assange sat quietly in court, flanked by aides and supporters that include fellow Australian and left-wing investigative journalist and author, John Pilger.

Assange's whistle-blowing website began publishing a cache of more than 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables which angered the U.S. government and caused a media sensation last year shortly before Assange was arrested.

Assange has said he believes the Swedish case is politically motivated.

Even if the High Court upholds the extradition request, Assange could take his battle to Britain's Supreme Court, the country's highest, though this can only be done on a point of law considered to be of general public interest.

A Supreme Court ruling would mark the end of the process.

(Reporting by Stefano Ambrogi)

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