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 [...]

A Yemeni businessman was captured in Egypt and was secretly held by US authorities for over a year before being sent to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, according to a report Tuesday from Human Rights Watch . The human rights watchdog group released details of the previously unreported case of 'Abd al-Salam 'Ali al-Hila, a Yemeni [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday morning in MGM Studios v. Grokster , 04-480, a case questioning when technology providers can be held secondarily liable for copyright infringement. During the one-hour hearing, the justices appeared critical of both the entertainment industry's proposed liability rule and the file-swapping companies' business model. In criticizing P2P [...]

AP is reporting that the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Oil-for-Food Program has cleared UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan of wrongdoing in the scandal, although it remained critical of his actions. The committee was looking into the employment of Annan's son Kojo by a Swiss company that was awarded a contract in the oil-for-food program [...]

AP is reporting that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Title IX gender equity law protects whistleblowers who claim discrimination by academic institutions. 10:45 AM ET – In Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Ed., 02-1672, the Court extended whistleblower protection to those alleging discrimination at academic institutions. Justice O'Connor delivered the opinion for a [...]

Iraqi lawmakers Tuesday failed to nominate a parliament speaker in a raucous second session of the country's National Assembly, as the role of Sunni Arabs in the new Iraq government remained a question. Assembly members had promised an agreement on a Sunni candidate for the position during the session, but negotiations quickly broke down after [...]