Merck & Co. rested its defense Thursday in the first federal Vioxx case. Attorneys will give closing arguments Friday morning, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon told jurors.

Using a big black, red and yellow chart labeled "Merck Knew But No Warning" to emphasize his points, a plaintiff's attorney cross-examined a top scientific executive for the drug company.

The husbands of two women killed in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 65 more than three years ago have reached a settlement with a trucking company that employed the driver believed to have started the pileup.

An attorney for a woman whose husband died of a heart attack after taking Vioxx for a month told a jury Monday he will prove that the drug was to blame and that its maker hid the dangers.

Merck & Co. Inc. rushed the painkiller Vioxx to market despite knowing its potential health dangers, an attorney said on Monday in opening arguments of the latest lawsuit.

The next big battle over Vioxx takes place in New Orleans, a city mired in its own conflicts with nature, the government and itself.

The Garza family faces off against Merck this week in a Texas border town, in the fourth lawsuit to blame Vioxx, the market-pulled painkiller, for causing heart attacks.

The fourth Vioxx lawsuit against Merck & Co. will be held this month in a rural Texas court and a retrial of the federal case that ended in a hung jury will be held in February in New Orleans.

NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) -The first federal trial against Merck & Co and its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, which ended in a mistrial earlier this week, will be retried on February 6 in New Orleans, representatives of both sides said on Friday.

Round Two of the nation's first federal trial challenging safety of Merck & Co.'s drug Vioxx will be Feb. 6, 2006 in New Orleans.