TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Miami’s 2 Live Crew helped redraw the legal landscape around what hip-hop could be, pushing the boundaries of free speech and taste with their provocative and sexually explicit recordings that led to landmark court decisions protecting the rights of artists.

But for decades the hip-hop legends haven’t had legal control over their iconic discography, after giving up their rights to the records in bankruptcy proceedings that followed their legal fights in the 1990s.

Now a jury verdict is paving the way for surviving members of the group, and heirs of the two who have since died, to retake five of their early albums following a yearslong copyright dispute with a record company. The company is in the process of appealing.

“We won,” 2 Live Crew member Luther Campbell, also known as Uncle Luke, said in a video posted to social media after Wednesday’s decision. “All the albums! We got them all back!”

The copyright case was brought by Lil’ Joe Records, which bought the rights to 2 Live Crew’s albums after the group’s record company filed for bankruptcy in 1995.

In 2020, the members of 2 Live Crew and the heirs notified Lil’ Joe that they were terminating its copyrights and that ownership of the albums would revert to the artists. In response, Lil’ Joe sued, arguing that it retained the copyrights under the bankruptcy agreement.

The federal jury in Florida decided in favor of 2 Live Crew and the heirs.

TORONTO (AP) — Three large tobacco companies would pay nearly $24 billion to settle a long-running legal battle in Canada, according to a proposed deal.

Philip Morris International said Friday that a court-appointed mediator had filed the proposed settlement with its Canadian affiliate, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, over tobacco product-related claims and litigation in Canada. Similar deals were also filed covering JTI-Macdonald Corp. and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.

“After years of mediation, we welcome this important step towards the resolution of long-pending tobacco product-related litigation in Canada,” Philip Morris International’s CEO Jacek Olczak said in a statement.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — One of Central America’s longest rivers will be the primary beneficiary of El Salvador’s deal to refinance $1 billion of debt with support from the U.S. government amid a resurgence in so-called debt-for-nature swaps.

In the deal announced by both governments this week, El Salvador committed the $350 million it will save to conservation projects benefiting the Lempa River, which provides two-thirds of the country’s water supply.

Jorge Oviedo of the non-governmental organization Environmental Investment Fund of El Salvador, said the agreement would “improve people’s lives and support the climate resilience that we need as Salvadorans.” His organization will partner with Catholic Relief Services to manage the program.

The Lempa River’s headwaters are in Guatemala and it flows through Honduras en route to El Salvador where it empties into the Pacific Ocean.

“I describe it as the heart and lungs of the country,” said the Catholic Relief Services’ Paul Hicks, interim program director for the Rio Lempa Conservation and Restoration Program. The Lempa provides not only drinking water, but also hydroelectric power, as well as water for agriculture and industry.

The river’s watershed is threatened by deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices, Hicks said. Some of the tributaries have gone dry from too much water being diverted and very little of the water used for industry or sanitation is treated.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A settlement reached by the U.S. government and a Native American tribe in New Mexico signals the end to what has been a yearslong legal fight over claims to the Valles Caldera National Preserve.

Government attorneys in a filing Friday asked a federal appeals court to close out the litigation with Jemez Pueblo in light of a settlement being reached after more than a year of negotiation. The case began in 2012 when the pueblo asserted its claims to all of the preserve, which spans nearly 140 square miles (363 square kilometers).

The agreement signed by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in part recognizes the pueblo’s rights to occupy and use a nearly 5-square-mile (13-square-kilometer) area for traditional cultural and religious purposes. It follows a 2023 ruling by the court that acknowledged the pueblo’s title to what is known as the Banco Bonito area.

Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo and the country’s first Native American Cabinet secretary, said in a statement that the nation’s lands have been central to the cultural and spiritual practices of Indigenous people for generations.

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Friday it has reached a proposed settlement pact related to three lawsuits filed by shareholders on behalf of the company over the handling of prescription opioids.

According to the terms of the settlement that were disclosed in a regulatory filing, insurance carriers will pay Walmart $123 million, excluding any attorneys’ fees and expenses awarded by the court to the plaintiffs’ counsel. Walmart would also maintain certain corporate governance practices for at least five years, according to the filing.

The settlement doesn’t include any admission of liability by Walmart. It’s subject to court approval.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — The death of a Virginia man who was restrained in jail has been ruled a homicide, while the deputies involved no longer work for the local sheriff’s office, authorities said Friday.

News outlets in southeastern Virginia report that Rolin Hill, 34, died at a hospital several days after being restrained at the Virginia Beach jail in June.

Hill had been arrested on charges of trespassing, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office said in a statement at the time. The office said Hill was denied bond and booked into the facility, where he became uncooperative and combative.

Hill was restrained before he experienced a medical emergency and was taken to the hospital, the sheriff’s office said in June. Virginia Beach Sheriff Rocky Holcomb said his office was investigating but also asked the Virginia State Police to conduct an independent review,

Donna Price, a spokesperson for the Tidewater Medical Examiner’s Office, told The Virginian-Pilot on Friday that Hill died from “positional and mechanical asphyxia due to restraint with neck and torso compression.”

One of the largest solar projects in the U.S. opened in Texas on Friday, backed by what Google said is the largest solar electricity purchase it has ever made.

Google executive Ben Sloss said at the ribbon cutting, about two hours south of Dallas, that the corporation has a responsibility to bring renewable, carbon-free electricity online at the same time it opens operations that will use that power. Google expects to spend $16 billion through 2040 globally to purchase clean energy, he said.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who attended, said the solar project is a posterchild for the administration’s efforts to incentivize manufacturers and developers to locate energy projects in the U.S.

“Sometimes when you are in the middle of history, it’s hard to tell, because you are in the middle of it,” she said. “But I’m telling you right now that we are in the middle of history being made.”

SB Energy built three solar farms side by side, the “Orion Solar Belt,” in Buckholts, Texas. Combined, they will be able to provide 875 megawatts of clean energy. That is nearly the size of a typical nuclear facility. In total, Google has contracted with clean energy developers to bring more than 2,800 megawatts of new wind and solar projects to the state, which it says exceeds the amount of power required for its operations there.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to expand the arms embargo in Haiti to all types of weapons and ammunition, expressing grave concern at the extremely high levels of gang violence and criminal activities in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

The resolution authorizes the 193 U.N. member nations to take “appropriate steps to prevent the illicit trafficking and diversion of arms and related materiel in Haiti.” U.N. experts have said increasingly sophisticated weapons that end up in the hands of gang members and criminals are being trafficked from the U.S., especially from Florida.

The resolution also extends a travel ban and asset freeze on individuals on the U.N. sanctions blacklist for a year. In late September, the council committee monitoring sanctions on Haiti added two people to the list, which included five gang leaders.

One was Elan Luckson, leader of the Gran Grif gang, which killed at least 115 people in the town of Pont-Sondé in the Artibonite region next to the capital in early October in one of the biggest massacres in Haiti in recent history. The other was Victor Prophane, a former member of the Haitian parliament accused of being involved in arms trafficking.

TOKYO (AP) — A man threw several firebombs into the headquarters of Japan’s ruling party in Tokyo Saturday, public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media reported. There were no reports of injuries.

Tokyo police declined to comment, noting the matter was still under investigation. The man, arrested on the spot, had driven his car into nearby fencing, the news reports said. His motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is increasingly unpopular with the public due to a ballooning money scandal involving dubious funding and suspected tax evasion.

The party declined to comment on Saturday’s attack, referring all queries to the police.

HONG KONG (AP) — Nine monkeys who died in Hong Kong’s oldest zoo in two days this week had been infected with an endemic disease, possibly after some digging work near their cages, officials said on Friday.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung said in a press briefing that the animals in the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens contracted melioidosis and the disease later caused them to develop sepsis.

Yeung stressed that such infections typically occur through contact with contaminated soil and water and that there is generally no danger to humans from contact with infected animals or people.

BRUSSELS, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine's president accused North Korea on Thursday of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send thousands of troops to help Moscow's war effort, although NATO's chief said there was no evidence of Pyongyang's presence at this stage.

Western countries have long accused North Korea of sending weapons to Russia, and in recent days President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said it was also sending personnel, a significant escalation of foreign assistance for Moscow's invasion.

Texas Supreme Court halts execution of Robert Roberson

Lawmakers subpoena Roberson to testify, creating unprecedented legal clash

Roberson guilt questioned by many including lawmakers, lead detective in his case

Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily halted the execution of a man scheduled to become the first person to be put to death in the United States for murder attributed to shaken baby syndrome, according to a court document.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a bipartisan group of state lawmakers who asked that the execution, scheduled to take place on Thursday evening, be delayed.

The lawmakers requested the delay after issuing an unprecedented subpoena on Wednesday for death row inmate Robert Roberson to appear before them and answer questions about his case.

Texas representatives Joe Moody and Jeff Leach, who orchestrated Roberson's subpoena and have championed his cause, praised the Texas Supreme Court decision in a written statement.