Obama on Monday announced that Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan is his nominee for solicitor general. Kagan worked on the University of Chicago Law School faculty at the same time as Obama served on the faculty during the 1990s and at Harvard has won praise for building consensus and for record fundraising.

Obama announced three other leading Justice Department nominations. Washington lawyers David Ogden and Tom Perrelli were chosen as deputy attorney general and associate attorney general. And Indiana University School of Law professor Dawn Johnsen is his choice to be assistant attorney general for the office of legal counsel.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued the ruling Monday, reversing a lower court judge.

The appeals court found that the detainees and their families have a privacy interest in their identifying information. The government had argued that the detainees faced possible harm if their identities were revealed.

The appeals court said that The Associated Press, which sought the identities, had not shown how the public interest would be served by disclosing them.

A lawyer for the AP said he would comment after he studies the ruling.

Susan Markel, chief accountant in the agency's division of enforcement, is taking a job in the corporate investigations practice of AlixPartners LLP, a business advisory firm. Markel has been at the SEC since 1994, working on the agency's inquiries into Xerox Corp., Cendant, WorldCom and Cardinal Health Inc.

The SEC has come under fire for failing to heed warnings about Wall Street money manager Bernard L. Madoff, whose alleged fraud may end up costing investors $50 billion.

The Financial Services Committee will question the SEC's internal watchdog Monday, as lawmakers try to learn why the regulatory agency failed to detect an alleged $50 billion investment fraud by Madoff.

Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme will be a case study for a planned overhaul of laws regulating financial markets, said Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., who will chair the hearing.

Witnesses include H. David Kotz, the SEC inspector general. He's already is looking into the agency's failure to uncover the fraud despite several warnings.

Kotz previously said he will examine the relationship between a former SEC attorney and Madoff's niece, who are now married.

Bell was being treated for complications due to pancreatic cancer, and suffered from kidney disease for years.

A spokesman for Bell's law firm, Les Zucke, says Bell died at 9:40 a.m. Monday. Bell's firm, King & Spalding, is based in Atlanta.

Carter's choice of Bell, a longtime friend, as attorney general was considered the most controversial of his Cabinet picks after the 1976 election.

At the time, the NAACP and other civil rights groups complained Bell, as a federal judge, didn't force Southern schools to integrate quickly enough. But Carter called Bell's civil rights record superb, and many black Georgians came forward to support him.

Attorney Timothy Wright also tells the Chicago Tribune he plans to go to court if the Senate refuses to seat Roland Burris.

Blagojevich's action has draw criticism because he faces corruption charges that accuse him of trying to profit from the appointment. He denies that.

Wright's letter was dated Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has said that anyone picked by Blagojevich will be turned away.

Burris also has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to force Secretary of State Jesse White to certify the appointment.

Judge James Conlogue found the boy guilty after a hearing Friday in Cochise County Superior Court in the southern Arizona town of Bisbee. The boy is not being identified because he was charged as a juvenile.

Conlogue ruled that prosecutors had proved the boy acted intentionally and with premeditation when he shot Sara Madrid, 34, eight times on Aug. 1. The shooting happened after the boy had argued with his mother over his chores.

Madrid had left the family home after the argument, and the boy got a .22-caliber pistol from her bedroom closet, waited for her to return and then repeatedly shot her, according to court testimony.

Madrid's live-in boyfriend of 10 years, Alfonso Munoz, witnessed the shooting and said the boy gave him the empty gun afterward.

Munoz, who helped raise the boy, said he had taught the child how to use the weapon for emergencies and self-defense.

The boy's lawyer, Sanford Edleman, had argued that the boy did not intend to kill his mother but only wanted to get back at her for abusing him.