A federal judge has cleared one of the last obstacles to a May trial for families of Nigerian environmental activists…In what will be one of the first times, if not the first time, that a corporation goes on trial for crimes against humanity, Southern District of New York Judge Kimba Wood rejected all but one motion to dismiss by Shell Petroleum, N.V. and other defendants in Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Petroleum…The claim alleges that executed Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activists were the victims of a campaign of terror launched by the Nigerian government because they fought oil exploration in the Ogoni region of Nigeria. The company, the plaintiffs allege, was complicit in the 1995 hanging of Saro-Wiwa and other activists and the torture, jailing and ultimate exile of Saro-Wiwa's brother, Dr. Owens Wiwa.