The Supreme Court has declined to take another look at Chrysler's bankruptcy.

The justices on Monday turned down an appeal from the state of Indiana pension funds that earlier challenged the automaker's bankruptcy proceedings. The bulk of Chrysler LLC's assets were sold to Italy's Fiat.

The court previously rejected the pension funds' effort to block the sale.

In the latest appeal, the funds argued that the arrangement worked out with Fiat, and approved by federal courts, violated federal bankruptcy law. The pension funds said they were not trying to reverse the bankruptcy sale, but instead wanted to recover money for themselves and other Chrysler creditors.

Police say a court in Thailand has approved a 12-day detention for the crew of a seized plane carrying 35 tons of weapons from North Korea.

Police spokesman Pongsapat Pongjaren said Monday that the Bangkok Criminal Court approved a request by authorities to keep the five-man crew detained for further investigation.

The crew includes four men from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus. They were arrested Saturday when their plane was impounded in Bangkok during a reported refueling stop.

Investigators found 35 tons of war weaponry apparently loaded in North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Thailand has not disclosed where the plane was headed. Local media has reported it was bound for Sri Lanka or Pakistan.

Many Romanians had hoped this election would lift the country out of political crisis, help it shake its reputation for corruption, and allow it to climb out of its worst recession in 20 years.

Instead, it has plunged the country into even deeper turmoil.

The opposition is charging the presidency has been stolen by fraud. A euro1.5 billion ($2 billion) international loan probably won't be delivered. And some in the business community fear the scandal will scare off the foreign investment the country so badly needs.

Results in Sunday's presidential runoff election showed that the incumbent, Traian Basescu, eked out the slimmest of victories: The Central Electoral Bureau said he took 50.33 percent of the vote to 49.66 percent for his challenger, former Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana.

Three exit polls had forecast a victory for Geoana, albeit a narrow one.

Geoana has charged he was robbed of the presidency by "deliberately organized massive fraud." He said his Social Democratic Party has evidence of ballot stuffing and multiple voting — both inside Romania and abroad, where he lost heavily to Basescu.

Thousands of fictitious personal identity numbers were created, Geoana said. He said his party has evidence that, in one instance, hundreds of voters shared one address — that of a small house in Bucharest.

The City of New York has accused several cigarette dealers on a Long Island Indian reservation of secretly defying a court order that was supposed to have shut them down.

The charge is the latest in a legal battle between New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and smoke shops on the Poospatuck Indian Reservation over the sale of millions of dollars in untaxed cigarettes.

In August, a federal judge ordered most of the largest shops on the reservation to stop selling untaxed packs to the general public, saying such sales were illegal, despite the state's tolerance of the practice.

Publicly, the shops promised to abide by the ruling, but in a motion filed in federal court on Wednesday, lawyers for the city said three dealers quietly continued to do business through newly formed cigarette stores not covered by the court order.

"It shows contempt for the court's authority," said Eric Proshansky, an attorney for the city.

The tribe's chief, Harry Wallace, didn't immediately return a phone and e-mail message from The Associated Press on Thursday, but told Newsday that the allegations are false.

The city has asked U.S. District Court Judge Carol Amon for thousands of dollars in penalties against the three dealers.

Lawyers for two of the dealers declined comment. Richard Levitt, a lawyer who represents dealer Wayne Harris, wouldn't discuss his client's case in detail but said, "the evidence will show that he is not in contempt of the court's order."

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and several state Supreme Court justices are planning a nationwide push during next year's state legislative sessions to end the practice of electing judges. Nevada already has such a proposal before voters on the 2010 ballot.

Many judges and the American Bar Association argue the legal system is tainted by judges seeking campaign donations.

"It doesn't support the fundamental principle of judges acting fairly and impartially," Ohio Chief Justice Tom Moyer told The Associated Press.

A judicial think tank at the University of Denver has assembled a group of prominent judges, including O'Connor, to push for the abolition of directly elected judges in the 33 states that have them.

They want state commissions made up mostly of non-lawyers to pick judges. Governors would appoint judges the commissions select, and voters would decide in future elections whether the judges keep their jobs.

Senators trying to craft bipartisan climate legislation offered a revised proposal Thursday that would add incentives for building nuclear power plants and open the way for expanded oil and gas drilling off the nation's coastlines in hopes of attracting wider support.

The new framework for a Senate climate bill would ease back requirements for early reductions of greenhouse gases. It calls for cuts in the range of 17 percent by 2020, instead of 20 percent, similar to reductions already approved by the House and what Obama will call for at an international climate conference in Copenhagen.

"We would like to underscore the fact that the framework we are releasing today is a starting point for our negotiations going forward," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

The framework provided only a broad view of what a compromise bill would include with details to emerge early next year. But it reflects a widespread view that the climate bill that advanced out of committee in early November would need to be significantly revised for any hope of getting bipartisan support from at least 60 senators.