PAROLE REVERSAL
One of the key witnesses in the Knapp Commission hearings on police corruption will go free, according to an order by Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Marcy Friedman. The story about William Phillips, who is serving 25 years to life for two murder counts and a count of attempted murder, is carried by both the Daily News and the Times (which carries an AP account). Friedman gave a stern reprimand to the state parole board, which has denied the 75-year-old Phillips his freedom four times, writing in her decision that the rejection of Phillips's latest parole request was “so irrational as to border on impropriety.”

NO FAULT FRACAS
Andy Humm has a piece over at Gotham Gazette on talk in Albany about introducing “no fault” divorces in the Empire State and how two women’s groups have stalled such a move. New York is the only state in the country that doesn’t allow for such divorces — which can be issued without “grounds” such as adultery or abandonment. Chief Judge Judith Kaye has been a strong advocate of no-fault actions. Stay tuned.

TERROR VICTIMS' SUIT PROCEEDS
U.S. District Judge Charles Sifton in Brooklyn again refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that a European bank knowingly provided financial services to charities allegedly controlled by a terrorist organization, the New York Sun briefly reports. Credit Lyonnais, the major French bank, had asked for the dismissal of the suit, which was filed by families of Americans who were victims of violence in Israel linked to Hamas.

TERRITORIAL TERROR TUSSLE
A British judge ruled for the extradition to America of a former New York resident. The accused allegedly provided military equipment to a group that ultimately delivered it to Al Qaida. Syed Hashmi was indicted in Manhattan federal court in May and will return to the United States if British Home Secretary John Reid gives the extradition order a final stamp of approval. The AP reports, via The New York Times, that Hashmi has lived in Britain since 2003 and was arrested at Heathrow Airport in June when he tried to travel to Pakistan on an expired student visa. The story doesn’t make clear whether British and U.S. authorities were cooperating on the investigation from the start. It’s a little confusing that he was reportedly indicted in New York a month prior to his arrest in London. “The defendant was arrested here, he was here and, save in the most tenuous way, this case has absolutely nothing to do with the Americans,” said Hashmi’s lawyer, Mark Summers.