USA

An investigation into a fatal police shooting incident outside a New York nightclub continued Monday, after the Rev. Al Sharpton and an angry crowd gathered for a vigil and to demand answers as to why police targeted three unarmed men. Sean Bell, who was killed, was attending a stag party in the hours before his scheduled wedding Saturday. Police accounts of the incident during an undercover operation are at variance with that of an eyewitness.

The Supreme Court let stand Monday a ruling that threw out a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA in a lawsuit that accused the Altria Group Inc. unit of misleading consumers about the risks from smoking so-called "light" cigarettes. The justices rejected an appeal by the plaintiffs to dismiss a class-action lawsuit.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has signed an agreement with India's top telecommunications company to jointly open hundreds of stores across India, Bharti Airtel Ltd. announced Monday in New Delhi. No financial terms were divulged. It wasn't clear whether Wal-Mart has given up on efforts to set up its own stores in India.

Massachusetts announced Tuesday it will sue several companies that worked on Boston's $15 billion Big Dig roadway project for "gross negligence" in the tunnel roof collapse that crushed a woman to death this summer. The tunnel opened to traffic less than four years ago.

A new study of American neighborhood dynamics counters the assumption that suburban sprawl leads to isolation, according to a Los Angeles Times report. It said the research of California economist Jan Brueckner and an Irish co-author indicates that people are proportionately more likely to talk with their neighbors for every 10 percent drop in population density. The reason: People in crowded living conditions want privacy more.