A Colombian judge on Thursday ordered the release of a former Cali drug cartel leader from his maximum security jail, as Colombian and U.S. investigators rushed to compile evidence to extradite Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela to the U.S. to face charges.

A federal judge on Friday approved most of a settlement the Justice Department reached with Microsoft Corp., ruling against a coalition of nine states and the District of Columbia that argued the terms of the deal were too lenient.

Federal prosecutors filed a 20-count criminal complaint against sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad, charging him with discharging a firearm as part of an extortion scheme in the deaths of six people in Maryland and one in the District of Columbia.

A suspected Sept. 11 plotter went on trial this week in Hamburg, Germany, the alleged location of an al-Qaida terror cell. Special Correspondent Simon Marks reports on the the terror network's roots in Germany.