It can hardly come as a surprise that Barack Obama, Harvard Law Class of '91, is popular with lawyers. They've given him $21 million in donations so far, compared with a measly $7 million for Republican rival John McCain.

But like all things Obama, the picture is cloudier than it first appears. Most of Obama's lawyer money came from defense firms. He got the single biggest slug of cash from Kirkland & Ellis, the Chicago law firm that represents Marlboro merchant Philip Morris and asbestos manufacturers, among others. He also co-sponsored a bill designed to cut down on malpractice litigation in 2005, and voted for the Class Action Fairness Act, a law that made it harder for trial lawyers to file some of their most lucrative cases.

Those actions send pangs of doubt through die-hard supporters of the unfettered right to sue, such as Graham Steele, a staff attorney at consumer watchdog group Public Citizen.

If liberals are worried, however, conservatives should be terrified. Whether Obama or McCain wins in November, tort reform appears dead in Washington for at least the next two years. A catchall phrase for legislative measures designed to make it harder for individuals to sue businesses, tort reform has long been a pet project of Republicans. Not coincidentally, it reduces the earning power of plaintiff lawyers, some of the biggest contributors to the Democratic Party.

The detective accused the mayor of pushing another investigator while recently trying to serve a subpoena on a friend of Kilpatrick. The two counts of assaulting or obstructing a police officer are each punishable by up to two years in prison.

"In my almost 20 years, first as a prosecutor and now as an attorney general ... I cannot recall ever seeing let alone hearing of a situation where a police officer trying to serve a subpoena was assaulted," Attorney General Mike Cox said at a news conference.

Kilpatrick spent Thursday night in a one-man jail cell with no TV for violating his bond in a criminal perjury case that has dogged him for months. Then Wayne County Circuit Judge Thomas Jackson altered the ruling of the lower court judge who ordered the mayor to jail.

Jackson said District Judge Ronald Giles went too far by not attaching some kind of cash bond to his ruling.

In order to get out of jail, Kilpatrick must pay a $50,000 cash bond and wear an electronic tether. He won't be allowed to travel.

The trial of New York-based lawyer Emmanuel Zeltser, a specialist in Russian law and organized crime, was held behind closed doors. The verdict was announced by the defendant's lawyer, Dmitry Goryachko.

"My position is that he did not commit these crimes," Goryachko told Reuters. "We will, of course, be making an appeal."

Zeltser's secretary, Vladlena Bruskova, was jailed for a year.

The U.S. State Department has repeatedly expressed concern over his arrest and sought his release on grounds of ill health.

On Monday, the U.S. embassy said it could not judge whether the trial met international standards as it had not been present. It repeated calls to be granted access to Zeltser.

"We have not been granted consular access to him for more than two months," it said. "We ... call upon the Belarsussian authorities to provide him with all the medication which has been prescribed to him."

Zeltser was detained in March on his arrival in Belarus, where he was to represent the interests of Josef Kay, a relative of the late Georgian businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili.

A handwritten statement from Thaksin issued Monday said he fled because he could not expect justice in Thai courts. It came amid newspaper reports that he would seek asylum in Britain.

"My wife and I have traveled to reside in England," Thaksin said in the statement. "If I still have luck, I would come back and die on Thai soil like every other Thai person.

Thaksin's statement, which did not mention asking for asylum, was read Monday afternoon on state-run television.

"What happened to my family and me is like fruit from a poisonous tree — the fruit will also be poisoned," the statement said. "There is a continuation of dictatorship in managing Thai politics ... which is followed by interference in the justice system."

Thaksin and his wife Pojaman failed to appear Monday morning before the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions in a case involving an allegedly unlawful purchase of real estate.

The couple left Thailand last week after the court gave them permission to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing but ordered them to report Monday. News reports in Bangkok said Thaksin and Pojaman flew from China to England, where the former leader owns several properties and the Manchester City football club.

Thaksin lived in exile in Britain after he was ousted in a 2006 military coup. He returned to Thailand earlier this year to face corruption charges against him after his political allies won new elections and formed a coalition government.

NCAA officials announced Thursday that the U.S. district court in Los Angeles had approved the proposal Tuesday.

As part of the deal, the NCAA will create a $10 million fund for former student-athletes, thousands of whom joined in the class-action lawsuit. Those students, who attended school between Feb. 17, 2002 and Aug. 4, 2008, have three years to file claims with the NCAA.

As part of the deal, the NCAA denied it any wrongdoing in the case and said it agreed to settle to avoid additional expenses.

"God forgive them, receive my spirit," Heliberto Chi said in English. In Spanish, he told a friend watching through a window that he loved him and appreciated his hard work. He appeared to be whispering a prayer in Spanish with a tear at the corner of his right eye as the lethal drugs began to take effect.

One of Chi's cousins, who was among the witnesses, sobbed uncontrollably. Two sons of his victims watched through another window and Chi glanced at them briefly but didn't appear to acknowledge them. Chi was pronounced dead nine minutes later at 6:25 p.m. CDT.

He murdered his former boss, Armand Paliotta, during a 2001 robbery at an Arlington men's clothing store where Chi had once worked. An employee was wounded trying to run away and another hid among clothing racks and called 911 for help.

Chi went on the run with his 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend. She turned him in California about six weeks later for assaulting her and told authorities he was wanted for murder in Texas.

Lawyers for Chi had claimed in appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court that he should have been told he could get legal assistance from the Honduran consulate when he was extradited to Texas to face charges.

The Supreme Court, ruling about 2 1/2 hours before his scheduled execution time, rejected his appeal without dissent. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, rejected a similar appeal late Wednesday.

Police warned jumpy residents in this city of 8,300 people to be on the lookout for a dangerous suspect who may be someone they know.

Nobody was injured in either fire, the latest of which started shortly after 4 a.m. in the prosecutor's office in a one-story brick building that houses several other law offices in Lancaster's small downtown, authorities said.

Police Capt. Harlean Howard said witnesses to the fires have been interviewed but urged more to come forward. She also said experience shows the suspect will likely follow the investigation closely in media reports and in conversations.