British exploration firm Europa Oil and Gas is hopeful of landing a development partner for licences it holds off the Irish coast before the end of the year.

Microsoft has been ordered by a United States federal court to turn over a customer’s emails and other information stored in a Dublin data centre.

A jury in Silicon Valley has ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple $290m (€215m) for copying vital iPhone and iPad features.

BP has asked a judge to temporarily suspend all settlement payments to Gulf Coast businesses and people who claim they lost money after the company’s 2010 oil spill while former FBI director Louis Freeh investigates alleged misconduct by a lawyer who helped administer the multibillion-dollar settlement programme.

Apple goes to trial today over allegations by US federal and state authorities that it conspired with publishers to raise the price of e-books.

A US judge has rejected Apple’s demand to increase the $1.05bn damages a jury ordered Samsung Electronics to pay its fiercest rival in the smartphone market.

The NFL moved this week to try to shut down lawsuits filed by thousands of former players who say they suffered or fear suffering permanent brain injuries from football-related concussions, calling the issue a “labour dispute” that should be resolved not by courts but by terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

After a year of scorched-earth litigation, a US jury decided that Samsung ripped off the innovative technology used by Apple to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad.

Samsung faced two options to compete in the booming mobile phone market after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to critical acclaim in 2007 — innovate or copy, an Apple lawyer told a US court yesterday.

Bitter rival Samsung faced two options to compete in the booming mobile phone market after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to critical acclaim in 2007 - innovate or copy, an Apple lawyer told a US court.

Former presidential candidate John Edwards was found not guilty on one of six campaign fraud charges today.

When it comes to compiling a list of the great songwriters of the past 50 years, Victor Willis’ name would probably merit little more than an asterisk.

The US court case over the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster has been delayed for a week after a judge heard that BP was making some progress in settlement talks.

A man from Uzbekistan who pleaded guilty to plotting to kill US president Barack Obama with an automatic rifle claimed he was acting at the direction of an Islamic terror group in his home country.

THE man accused of gunning down US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killing six is mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge ruled yesterday.

The suspect in the shooting of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords pleaded not guilty in court, the 22-year-old’s first response to the charges.

The neurosurgeon treating Representative Gabrielle Giffords says doctors are “actually confident” she’s making progress in her recovery.

The gunman who carried out the Tucson massacre in the US has refused to say anything to police since he was taken into custody.

Oil giant BP is fighting charges that it violated probation for a 2006 oil spill on Alaska's North Slope by allowing another large spill in the area three years later.

A FEDERAL judge has declared the foundation of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law unconstitutional, ruling that the government cannot require Americans to purchase insurance.

The US military is accepting openly gay recruits for the first time in history, even as it tries in the courts to slow the movement to abolish its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

THE scene in a remote spot in Pennsylvania was exactly what authorities say failed bomber Faisal Shahzad had wanted on a busy evening in Times Square on May 1.

California's highest court refused to order Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's attorney general to appeal against a federal ruling that overturned the state's gay marriage ban.

ARIZONA is preparing to ask an appeals court to lift a judge’s ruling that put most of the state’s immigration law on hold in a key first-round victory for the federal government in a fight that may go to the US Supreme Court.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers have asked a US federal judge to issue a subpoena for President Barack Obama to testify as a witness at his corruption trial.

A US school district violated a lesbian student's rights by banning her from bringing her girlfriend to the prom, a federal judge ruled, but he stopped short of forcing the district to hold the event.

A US bank manager who insisted she gave the $340,000 (€230,000) US dollars she stole over eight years to needy customers was sentenced to a year and a day in prison by a judge who declared that her “Robin Hood days are long over”.

Eminem’s music publisher wants a bigger slice from Apple.

Disgraced US financier Bernard Madoff, who faces sentence on Monday for massive fraud, must forfeit $170bn (€121bn), a judge ordered.

CALLING him a “murderer” and a “monster”, more than 100 victims of Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff have asked the judge, who will sentence him on June 29 for the maximum sentence.

The personal doctor to a professional wrestler who killed himself, his wife and their seven-year-old son was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for illegally distributing prescription drugs to patients.

The US government is asking a judge for permission to go after at least $226.6m (€174.4m) in back taxes, penalties and interest it says are owed by Sir Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire accused of conducting an €6.1bn investment fraud through an offshore bank.

A US federal judge refused to order the words “so help me God” taken out of President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural oath or to stop ministers from praying at the inauguration ceremony.

Voting problems surfaced in several areas today as electors turned out in droves to be confronted with long queues and malfunctioning machines.

Actor Wesley Snipes has filed a motion with a federal appeals court in a bid to have his tax evasion trial moved out of Ocala, Florida.

Former media mogul Conrad Black may remain free on bond pending sentencing on last week’s conviction of fraud and obstruction of justice, a federal judge ruled today.

Lawyers for Lewis "Scooter" Libby are preparing a last-ditch effort to delay the former US White House aide's two-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Former media mogul Conrad Black’s racketeering and fraud trial resumed its search for a jury today, with some prospective jurors expressing concerns about business corruption.

Former White House aide I Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted today of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative’s identity.

A juror was today dismissed from the trial of former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby after court officials learned she had been exposed to information about the case over the weekend.

A Washington jury is moving into its second week of debate on whether former US White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby obstructed the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative married to a prominent Iraq war critic.

Former newspaper tycoon Conrad Black’s lawyers are asking a judge to bar from his trial testimony that he used money belonging to the Hollinger International media empire to buy dinner for former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, refurbish a Rolls Royce and pay for his wife’s jogging suit.