The high court agreed to hear a U.S. Justice Department appeal defending the 1999 animal cruelty law after it was struck down for infringing free-speech protections.

A U.S. appeals court declared the law unconstitutional and overturned the conviction of a Virginia man, Robert Stevens, who sold three videos of pit bulls fighting each other and attacking hogs and wild boars.

His conviction in 2005 was the first in the country under the law. Stevens had been sentenced to 37 months in prison.

By a 10-3 vote, the appeals court rejected the government's argument that, for the first time in more than 25 years, there was a new category of speech not covered by constitutional free-speech protections. Usually, videos and other depictions are protected as free speech, even if they show abhorrent conduct.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the U.S. Department of Justice must provide a copy of the doctor's report it used to determined Demjanjuk is healthy enough to safely travel. It also asks for the government's plans for the transportation of Demjanjuk to Germany.

Also, it wants Demjanjuk's attorneys to file papers addressing whether the court has jurisdiction.

The court's requests were filed Thursday. Lawyers have one week to respond.

Family of the retired autoworker have said flying him to Germany would amount to torture and that he might not survive the flight.

But McMaster said in a filing with the Supreme Court on Monday that he won't oppose the state Supreme Court taking up the challenge filed last week by a Chapin High School student.

McMaster says the timing may not be right to shift the issues raised in the case from a public policy debate to the courtroom.

Prosecutors had sought an 18-month prison term for Park Dae-Sung, 30 -- better known by his Internet alias "Minerva" -- while some media freedom groups criticised the decision to charge him.

Park was arrested in early January and charged with spreading online rumours that the government in late December ordered local banks not to buy dollars as part of efforts to stabilise the won.

Prosecutors claimed the December posting led to dollar hoarding, forcing the government hurriedly to inject two billion dollars to stabilise the currency market.

"Considering all the circumstances, it is hard to conclude that Park was aware the information was misleading when he wrote the postings," said Judge Yoo Young-Hyun of Seoul Central District Court.

The judge said that even if Park had realised the information was false, it cannot be concluded he intended to damage the public interest, considering the circumstances at the time or the special characteristics of the foreign exchange market.

Park wrote more than 200 economic commentaries in recent months and gained a major following after correctly predicting the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers last September.

"I love you all. May the Lord be with you. Peace. I'm done," Michael Rosales said in his brief, final statement.

Three of his brothers were among the witnesses at the injection. No friends or relatives of his victim were present.

Rosales was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

Rosales, 35, confessed to the 1997 slaying of Mary Felder a day after her body was found by her grandson, who routinely checked on her. Rosales told police he was high on cocaine and looking for money when he broke into her home as she slept. She was attacked when she woke up.

Rosales was the 13th Texas prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active capital punishment state.

About 90 minutes before Rosales was scheduled to be taken to the death chamber, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals to delay the lethal injection so Rosales could have more time to assemble a state clemency petition and press claims he may be mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for execution.

Prosecutors argued that deadlines for clemency petitions had passed and that the mental retardation issue already had been reviewed and rejected by the appeals courts, including a federal appeals court which in 2004 had stopped Rosales' then-scheduled execution.

Felder, a grandmotherly presence in the neighborhood where she was known lovingly as "Miss Mary," was pummeled and stabbed with a two-pronged fork and a steak knife. Records show she had 113 wounds, including some from needle-nose pliers.