NATION IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Judge Drops Charges in Wedtech Case

A federal judge in New York has dismissed charges in the Wedtech scandal against lawyer E. Robert Wallach, who was accused of taking bribes to influence his longtime friend, former Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III. U.S. District Judge Richard Owen threw out the charges after the jury could not reach a decision after 3 1/2 days. Wallach, a former Wedtech adviser, had been convicted in 1989 of receiving payoffs from the now defunct military contractor, but the verdict was thrown out in 1991 by an appeals court that found a key government witness had lied.