Free Republic

(AP) WASHINGTON A federal judge ruled Thursday that the nation's top cigarette makers violated racketeering laws, deceiving the public for years about the health hazards of smoking, but said she couldn't order them to pay the billions of dollars the government had sought. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler did order the companies to publish in newspapers and on their Web sites "corrective statements" on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine. She also ordered tobacco companies to stop labeling cigarettes as "low tar," "light," "ultra light" or "mild," since such cigarettes have been found to be no...

WEST NEW YORK - A Cliffside Park man has been charged with cutting his own mouth with a razor and stuffing his McDonald's chicken sandwich with staples and a paper clip in an apparent copycat attempt to cash in with a lawsuit against the company, officials said. The incident follows a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Beatriz Bermeo of North Bergen against the same Bergenline Avenue McDonald's, in which she claims she ingested five needles that were inside her chicken sandwich. At about 2 p.m. Tuesday, West New York police arrested Jose Rodriguez, 48, and charged him with supplying...

DANVILLE, Pa. - A woman is suing a doctor who operated on her, accusing him of leaving a 4-inch metal instrument in her uterus. The lawsuit filed in Montour County Court says Dr. Samuel Owusu operated on Lori Klinger, now 35, in November 2002. Klinger said she was in severe pain when she returned home and called her doctor. According to the lawsuit, Owusu told Klinger her pain was normal and told her to take pain medication. Two days later, she went to the bathroom, and the instrument emerged from her vagina, the lawsuit said. Klinger said the instrument was...