Michael Registe is accused of the July 20, 2007 execution-style killings of two college students in Columbus, Georgia's third-largest city. His St. Maarten-based attorney, Remco Stomp, claims he would not be treated fairly in Georgia's courts because he is black.

"Registe will not get a fair trial in Georgia as a black man suspected of killing two white college kids. We will do everything possible to guarantee his human rights," Stomp said in this Dutch Caribbean territory.

Allegedly killed by Registe were Randy Newton Jr., 21, and Bryan Kilgore, 20.

Registe fled the U.S. and was captured Aug. 27 in St. Maarten, where he has been jailed in Pointe Blanche Prison.

Prosecutors have not said what they believe Registe's alleged motive was for the slayings.

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands has ruled that Registe can be returned to the U.S. from St. Maarten. As a requirement for extradition, former District Attorney Gray Conger of Columbus had to agree not to pursue the death penalty.

But Stomp does not believe that pact would be honored, and wants a trial in the Dutch Caribbean.

"If he is tried in our system he would have a lot more guarantees," the defense lawyer said.

Frits Goedgedrag, governor of the Netherlands Antilles, a chain of islands that includes St. Maarten, is expected to make an announcement about the pending extradition in coming days.

The U.S. Supreme Court said yesterday that it would hear an appeal by Merck & Co. Inc. seeking to block a shareholders' lawsuit over its withdrawn pain reliever Vioxx.

A federal appeals court ruling in Philadelphia reinstated the class-action securities lawsuit in 2008 after a U.S. district judge in New Jersey dismissed it on grounds that the claims had been filed too late under statutes of limitations.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments during its term that begins in October.

Merck, which employs about 12,000 people in the Philadelphia area, contends that investors waited more than two years to sue after the first warnings that Vioxx might be unsafe.

The investors' suit is unrelated to the $4.85 billion Merck agreed to pay in November 2007 to settle thousands of lawsuits filed by patients and their survivors over Vioxx.

To date, more than 48,000 plaintiffs have filed claims relating to injuries or economic loss under the settlement.

The article, "Statehood and the Equal Footing Doctrine: The Case for Puerto Rican Seabed Rights," was published in the Yale Law Journal in 1979, when it appeared that Puerto Rico might pursue statehood. Sotomayor was an editor of the Ivy League publication before receiving her law degree from Yale that year.

Sotomayor notes that other states didn't maintain rights to sea floors before joining the union. But she argued for a new historical analysis of the equal footing doctrine that prevents states from receiving powers other states do not have.

"The island's dearth of land-based resources and its ongoing economic stagnation and poverty, coupled with the possibility of offshore oil and mineral wealth, will create political pressures for Puerto Rico to demand exclusive rights to exploit its surrounding seabed in an area ranging from nine to 200 miles into the sea," Sotomayor wrote.

"The American experience with colonialism in the early half of this century has left the United States with responsibility for several small, economically poor dependencies," Sotomayor wrote. "Some of these, like Puerto Rico, may seek statehood unless they are accorded a greater measure of self-government. Accommodations between the federal government and an incoming state such as Puerto Rico, involving, inter alia, rights to the seabed, could help the new state to overcome its economic problems."

Sotomayor wrote that Supreme Court decisions about the equal footing doctrine "retain their precedential value," but argued that the court never explicitly decided whether the doctrine prevents Congress from granting disproportionate seabed rights to an incoming state.

President Barack Obama noted Tuesday as he introduced Sotomayor as his nominee that her parents had moved from Puerto Rico during World War II.

GM has until Monday to complete a government-ordered restructuring that includes debt reduction, labor cost cuts and plant closures. But a Chapter 11 reorganization is likely after the company said its offer to exchange $27 billion in unsecured debt for 10 percent of the company's stock had failed. GM has received $19.4 billion in federal loans.

The move came as crosstown rival Chrysler LLC headed to court Wednesday to ask bankruptcy judge for permission to sell the bulk of its assets to a group headed by Italy's Fiat Group SpA in hopes of saving itself from liquidation. Attorneys for Chrysler maintain that the Fiat deal is the company's only hope to avoid being sold piece by piece, but car dealers, debtholders, former employees and others are protesting.

Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection April 30, after the government ended talks with a group of holdout debtholders. Both automakers were pulled down by overwhelming debt, high pension, health care and other labor costs relative to competitors, a global auto sales slump and a dismal U.S. housing market that pulled down demand for pickup trucks, their top-selling vehicles.

News of the failed GM bond exchange offer sent its shares down 12 cents, or 8.3 percent, to $1.32 in morning trading.

John Pottow, a professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in bankruptcy, said GM evading Chapter 11 now is almost impossible.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said higher trading revenues at big banks helped the industry earn a $7.6 billion profit in the January-March period, compared with a record loss of $36.9 billion in the fourth quarter. The profit was 61 percent below the $19.3 billion earned in the year-ago period and followed the first quarterly loss in 18 years.

U.S. banks and thrifts set aside $60.9 billion in the first quarter to cover potential loan losses, up from $36.2 billion a year earlier.

The number of troubled banks jumped to 305, the highest number since 1994 during the savings and loan crisis, from 252 in the fourth quarter, according to the FDIC.

Thirty-six federally-insured institutions already have failed and been shut down by regulators this year, extending a wave of collapses that began in 2008. This year's tally compares with 25 in all of 2008 and three in 2007.

The failures sliced the amount in the deposit insurance fund to $13 billion in the first quarter, the lowest level since 1993. That compares with $17.3 billion a year earlier.

"Troubled loans continue to accumulate" and the costs to banks from soured loans "are weighing heavily on the industry's performance," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said. "Nevertheless, compared to a year ago, we see some positives."

The decision from the Court of Appeals in Washington upholds a Federal Communications Commission ruling that banned the exclusive agreements as anticompetitive.

The deals involved a provider exchanging a valuable service like wiring a multiunit building for cable in exchange for the exclusive right to provide service to all the residents.

The commission said cable operators could no longer enter into such deals and existing ones could not be enforced.

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and a pair of affiliated real estate groups sued, saying the FCC did not justify the change in policy, consider the retroactive effects or have the authority to regulate the deals. But the appeals court sided with the FCC and said it acted well within the bounds of the law.

A spokesman for the cable association had no immediate comment on the ruling.

Seconds after Obama named U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his choice to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans would treat the nominee fairly, but would closely examine her record.

"We will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences," McConnell said.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the number two ranking Senate Republican quickly followed saying the nominee should be "neither pre-confirmed nor prejudged."

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said he looked forward to ensuring that Sotomayor "has the qualifications and temperament necessary" to be the next Supreme Court justice.

Shelby doesn't sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee which will hold the confirmation hearings, but the entire Senate must vote Sotomayor's confirmation.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate Republican congratulated Obama for "nominating a well qualified woman."

In his announcement, Obama said he hoped Sotomayor would be on the bench by the time the Court's fall term begins.

Senate Republicans are going to have a difficult time attempting to block Sotomayor's nomination to the High Court.

The Democrats control 59 seats in the Senate, and this could increase to a 60-seat supermajority by the time a confirmation vote occurs if Al Franken ultimately defeats Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., in that state's still-contested Senate race.

Sen. Arlen Specter changed parties this spring, leaving the Republicans for the Democratic majority, giving them their 59th seat. He had been the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and would have led the GOP scrutiny of Sotomayor.

Tuesday, he said he "applauded" Obama's choice.

"Her confirmation would add needed diversity in two ways: the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the high court," Specter said.

The fact that Sotomayor is the first Hispanic to be nominated to the Supreme Court would make any challenge to her being confirmed politically difficult for Republicans.

Given the increasingly large proportion of the voting electorate that Hispanic Americans account for, it would be difficult for the GOP to oppose her selection.

In November's presidential election, Obama made double-digit gains among Hispanic voters compared to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the 2004 election.

That didn't stop conservative groups from quickly noting their opposition to Sotomayor's nomination.

"Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written," said Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, a coalition of conservative groups.

Hispanic groups on the other hand greeted Sotomayor's nomination warmly.

"Judge Sotomayor is an outstanding nominee with three decades of judicial experience who will be a brilliant Supreme Court justice who serves the nation well," the League of United Latin American Citizens said in a statement.