Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday it's not wise to speculate about what caused an explosion and massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and he defended his use of the term "act of God" to describe the disaster.

Perry said Tuesday the phrase — which he used in a speech in Washington, D.C., on Monday when discussing the spill — is a legal definition and that his point is "nobody knows what happened" at the oil rig off the Louisiana coast. The undersea well has been spewing 200,000 gallons of oil a day.

The giant oil slick is threatening the Gulf Coast from southeastern Louisiana to Florida. Rig operator BP PLC has been trying unsuccessfully to cap the leak, which began April 20.

"If you will go look up the definition of 'Act of God,' we've used it in legal terms for a long time in this state," Perry told reporters outside the Texas Capitol.

"It may be an accident and it may be something else," he said.

The Democratic group Lone Star Project criticized the Republican governor's remarks as "detached arrogance."

"Eleven men died when the drilling platform exploded. Hundreds of miles of coastland could be damaged for years and even decades. The families of those who died and the victims of the environmental damage deserve a full accounting for the human errors that caused the failure at the rig, the death of loved ones and the spoiling of our Gulf coastline," said Matt Angle, director of Lone Star Project.

A French court on Wednesday turned down a U.S. request for the extradition of an Iranian engineer who is accused of violating an export embargo by purchasing U.S. technology for military firms involved in Iran's nuclear program.

The United States says Majid Kakavand, 37, bought sensitive American electronics over the Internet and disguised that their final destination was Iran by routing them through Malaysia, where he had set up a front company.

Kakavand's case and several others have showcased how the United States is doggedly going after people accused of procuring technology or weapons for Iran's military, in many cases seeking help from foreign countries.

Yet the court's ruling shows that such cooperation is not simple. Kakavand's case has dragged on for 14 months since his arrest as officials tried to determine if his business dealings violated French law as well as U.S. law. The court could not hand him over merely for breaking U.S. laws that have no counterpart in France.

The case has sensitive diplomatic implications in three countries — especially in France, which has taken a tough stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions but nonetheless has business and oil interests there. Another source of diplomatic tension is the case of a young French academic in Iran who pleaded innocent to spying charges at a mass trial.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday it is "within the realm of possibility" that the state will sue BP PLC over any damage the Gulf oil spill causes.

Crist made the comment after meeting with workers at the Escambia County emergency operations center. He said a decision would come soon. BP announced Tuesday that it was giving the state an initial $25 million to cover costs its incurred preparing for the oil's arrival.

Crist said that while it remains unclear when the spill might reach Florida or what its affect would be, the state needs to be prepared. The state Department of Environmental Protection says no landfall is expected in Florida through Thursday. The department is taking air and water samples and about 20 miles of boom has been laid off the Panhandle coast to protect environmentally sensitive areas.

Crist has declared a state of emergency in 19 counties from Escambia in the Panhandle to Sarasota in southwest Florida.

Over the years, Hogan & Hartson has made no secret about its intention to expand. In 1990, the Washington law firm opened its first international outpost, in London.

After Chairman Warren Gorrell took the helm in 2001, firm revenue doubled as he supervised the acquisition of offices in Munich, Beijing and Abu Dhabi.

But the firm's growth has mostly occurred in fits and starts by snapping up smaller offices in the United States and abroad -- until May 1 when the already big firm doubled in size after formally completing its merger with Lovells, a London-based firm with a similar growth strategy and 29 offices worldwide.

The combination is likely to propel the longtime D.C. firm into the top three among U.S. firms in both the number of attorneys and gross revenue.

The justices denied Delaware's petition for judicial review without comment, leaving in place a ruling by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that limits sports betting in Delaware to multi-game, or parlay, bets on National Football League games.

The appeals court heard arguments last August on a request by the NFL and other sports leagues for an injunction to prevent Delaware from starting sports betting with the launch of the NFL season. But instead of ruling on the injunction, the appeals court turned directly to the leagues' claim that Delaware's proposal to allow single-game bets on a variety of professional and collegiate sports would violate a 1992 federal ban on sports wagering.

The court declared that the state's new sports betting lottery had to be similar to the betting scheme used in a failed 1976 National Football League lottery that allowed Delaware to be one of only four states to receive grandfathered exemptions from the federal ban.

The ruling stunned attorneys for the state, who were not given the opportunity to defend the merits of the sports betting proposal. Gov. Jack Markell subsequently approved an appeal to the Supreme Court that was funded by Delaware's three slot-machine casinos, which have exclusive rights to offer sports betting.

Hartford-based Shipman & Goodwin today opened an office in Washington -- and the launch came with a major new client: The Hartford.

The Washington office will start with six lawyers, all formerly with Hogan and Hartson in Washington. It will be led by partner James P. Ruggeri, longtime national counsel for insurance coverage for The Hartford Financial Services Group.

"We join a strong existing litigation group and gain talented colleagues in Connecticut that will allow us to grow the practice and continue to provide first-rate service to The Hartford on a national basis," said Ruggeri.

Shipman and Goodwin, founded in 1919, has 140 lawyers. Besides Hartford and Washington, the firm has offices in Stamford, Greenwich and Lakeville.

"Our presence in D.C. will also be a further boost to other current firm practices with national reach, including health care, government investigations, petroleum marketing, export-import compliance and bankruptcy," said Scott Murphy, the firm's managing partner.