Following up on a JURIST report from earlier today, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has ruled out resigning after a new interim report by the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Oil-for-Food Program faulted him but cleared him of any wrongdoing. Asked if he would quit over the report's findings, Annan said "Hell, no." The report [...]

More than three dozen Pakistanis transferred to their home country from detention at Guantanamo Bay remain imprisoned, most without charge, Pakistani government officials have said. The prisoners include 32 transferred by the US in September 2004 and another seven released in the past six weeks. According to the government sources, the prisoners protested their continued [...]

Leading Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that regulators have called Warren Buffett to answer questions next month about his involvement in the insurance transaction between General Re Corp. , a unit of his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. , and American International Group Inc (AIG). At issue is a [...]

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor have appealed death sentences they received in Libya for infecting hundreds of children with HIV. The appeals court hearing the case said it would rule on May 31. The six medics have been imprisoned since 1999 on charges they deliberately gave 426 children tainted blood transfusions as part [...]

Ousted Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev said Tuesday that he would be willing to resign if given "relevant" legal protections. Akayev made the statement in an interview with a Russian television station while he is staying outside Moscow. The statement conflicted with an earlier message from Akayev that he remained the legitimate leader of Kyrgyzstan and [...]

US District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina on Tuesday approved a $16 million plea agreement between the Justice Department and Riggs Bank over Riggs' maintenance of secret accounts for South American dictators, including former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Urbina originally questioned whether the plea deal was not severe enough for Riggs, which he called a "henchman [...]

After resting their case, Russian prosecutors Tuesday asked a Russian trial court to convict ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky of tax and fraud charges, and asked that he receive the maximum 10 year sentence. Khodorkovsky has been the target of a lengthy court process stemming from the acquisition of shares in a fertilizer-component maker in 1994. [...]

Four suspected Islamic radicals began trial Tuesday in Paris for allegedly conspiring to kill Afghan resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masood . French prosecutors believe the four men helped two Tunisians travelling with fake Belgian passports. Posing as journalists, the Tunisians detonated a bomb hidden in a camera on September 9, 2001, killing Masood. Masood was [...]

Michael Schiavo attorney George Felos says that an autopsy will be performed on Terri Schiavo after she dies to show the extent of her brain damage. The chief medical examiner for Pinellas County, Dr. John Thogmartin, has agreed to perform the procedure. Felos said that Michael Schiavo wants definitive proof showing the extent of brain [...]

In Tuesday's international brief, the upper house of the Kyrgyzstan pre-election parliament has agreed to dissolve itself in order to allow government officials and OSCE experts a chance to resolve the nation's current constitutional crisis before violence returns to the tiny Central Asian nation, while ousted President Askar Akayev revealed his presence in Moscow. The [...]