TODAY IN CRIME part two: November 23

1998 The four largest tobacco companies in the U.S.— Philip Morris Inc., R. J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard—signed the biggest civil litigation settlement in the country’s history with the attorneys general of 46 states, Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories. The $206-billion deal resolved remaining state claims for medical care for persons with tobacco-related illnesses.

1998 U.S. federal judge Leonie Brinkema rejected the efforts of Loudoun County, Virginia, to block pornography on a library computer, calling the attempt unconstitutional.

1998 Basketball star Dennis Rodman filed for an annulment from model-actress Carmen Electra. He claimed he was of "unsound mind" when they married nine days before.

1998 A California court sentenced businessman Donald Bohana, 61, to 15 years to life in prison for the drowning death of Delores "DeeDee" Jackson, the ex-wife of Tito Jackson of the Jackson 5. Jackson had been dating Bohana for only a few months when she drowned in his pool after a night of drinking. The coroner initially ruled her death an accident.

2001 Sixty-four parties signed the Convention on Cybercrime in Budapest, Hungary. It was the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime.

2003 Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigned following twenty days of mass protests over disputed parliamentary elections.

2006 Retired FSB member Alexander Litvinenko died in London from radiation poisoning after making a deathbed statement blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko is the first known victim of lethal polonium 210-induced acute radiation syndrome.

2009 In Maguindanao province on the island of Mindanao, Philippines, a private army hired by the powerful Ampatuan clan stopped and massacred a convoy of supporters of rival politician Esmael Mangudadatu. 58 Mangudadatu family members, journalists, and others were killed on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for Mangudadatu to run for governor against Andal Ampatuan Jr. Eventually, 28 people were convicted of 57 counts of murder and sentenced to 40 years, 15 were sentenced to 6-10 years as accessories to crime, and 55 were acquitted.

2011 Yemen's authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to step down amid a fierce uprising to oust him after 33 years in power. He ceded the office and powers of the presidency to Vice President 'Abd al-Rabb Mansour al-Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution.

2014 Abdikadir Mohammed, an adviser to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, claimed the slaughter of 28 people on a bus by the Somali militant Islamist group al-Shabab was intended to create a religious war in the country. Sixty people were traveling to the capitol of Nairobi when about 100 militants forced the bus off the road and shot dead passengers who failed to recite the Koran.

2015 President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia banned female genital mutilation, claiming it is not required in Islam, and threatened practitioners with a prison sentence of up to three years. According to UNICEF, 75% of women in the mostly Muslim country were subjected to the ritual of Khatna.

2016 British Justice Sir Alan Fraser Wilkie ordered life in prison for Thomas Mair, murderer of Labour MP Jo Cox. Mair, a right-wing extremist, shot and stabbed to death the representative for Batley and Spen a week before the EU referendum vote in June. He shouted, "Britain first, this is for Britain!" as he attacked the mother of two.

2017 After a three-week standoff, Papua New Guinea Police stormed the Manus Island refugee camp, forcibly removing asylum seekers.

2017 An Italian court sentenced Brazilian football star Robinho to nine years in prison for rape. He and five other males were convicted of sexual assault in the January 2013 gang rape of a 22-year-old Albanian woman at a Milan nightclub.