The FCC this week appealed a ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, saying that court was wrong to throw out the case and a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp. in July.

The appellate court cited the FCC practice of not considering objectionable images indecent if they are "fleeting."

In Jackson's halftime show at the 2004 Super Bowl, which spawned the case, she briefly flashed a breast as she performed with Justin Timberlake.

The FCC said the court incorrectly applied a rule — since changed — regarding expletives that required a profanity be repeated before it is deemed indecent. The FCC contends the rule didn't apply to images.

Reaction to the appeal was swift from the Media Access Project, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the appellate court on behalf of a group of TV writers, directors and producers.

"The impact of the FCC's decision on the creative process is very profound," said the group's chief executive, Andrew Jay Schwartzman. "The FCC's decisions in this area have made it very difficult for creative artists to exercise their craft."

At the time, broadcasters did not employ a video delay for live events, a practice that changed within a week of the game.

The FCC also has an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court in a New York case involving profanity uttered by Cher during a December 2002 music awards show and by Nicole Richie during a December 2003 awards show, both carried on Fox stations.

The agency has asked the court to rule in that earlier case before taking on the Jackson incident.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted three lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8. The amendment passed this month with 52 percent of the vote. The court did not elaborate on its decision.

All three cases claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

Louis Bressler, 25, was convicted Wednesday in connection with the Dec. 1 death of Kevin Shields. He could be sentenced to as many as 24 years in prison and is to stand trial next month in the slaying of another soldier.

Jurors acquitted Bressler of first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder in furtherance of a felony and aggravated robbery.

Bressler's lawyer argued that no physical evidence linked him to Shields' slaying and that two co-defendants, also Iraq war vets, conspired to frame him. The co-defendants have reached plea agreements in Shields' slaying and are serving prison terms.

Bressler is one of at least five Fort Carson soldiers who served in Iraq with the 4th Brigade Combat Team and who later were accused of various slayings at home over the past 15 months. A sixth team veteran faces attempted murder charges. An Army task force is investigating whether there are any common factors in the slayings.

Prosecutors said Bressler killed Shields because Shields knew too much about robberies that Bressler and fellow veterans Bruce Bastien Jr. and Kenneth Eastridge planned to commit. They also said Shields had beaten Bressler in a fight before the slaying. All four had been drinking heavily.

Shields' family said he was out celebrating both his birthday and news that his wife was pregnant with their second child.

The prosecution's case suffered a blow when co-defendant Bastien refused to testify against Bressler, in violation of his plea agreement. El Paso County District Judge Theresa Cisneros refused a request by Deputy District Attorney Jack Roth that Bastien be compelled to testify.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo alleged the rebel commanders planned and led an attack in September 2007 by about 1,000 heavily armed rebels on the Haskanita camp in Sudan's Darfur region that left 12 peacekeepers dead and eight wounded.

He has accused the rebels of committing war crimes, including murder, pillaging and deliberately attacking peacekeepers.

Rights groups welcomed the announcement as a sign that the international community will not tolerate attacks on peacekeepers.

"Civilians rely on peacekeepers for protection, and any hope for restoring security for civilians in Darfur depends on peacekeepers being able to do their job," Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Quan-Sheng Shu, 68, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the federal Arms Control Act and one count of bribery at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

Shu is president of AMAC International Inc. of Newport News. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Shanghai.

Prosecutors said Shu, an expert in cryogenics, sold technology to China for the development of hydrogen-propelled rockets.

The Chinese government is developing a space launch facility in the southern island province of Hainan that will house liquid-propelled launch vehicles designed to send space stations and satellites into orbit.

Shu also was charged with bribing Chinese officials to award a $4 million hydrogen liquefier contract to a French company acting as an AMAC intermediary.

Shu received more than $386,000 in commissions for securing the contract, authorities said. He already had agreed to forfeit that money. His company also has offices in Beijing.

The scientist and his wife refused to comment as they left the courtroom. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to prosecute his wife for the role she allegedly played in the scheme.

Shu faces up to 10 years on each arms count and five years for the bribery charge and fines of up to $2.5 million. Sentencing is scheduled for April 6.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan M. Salsbury said Shu's conviction was the result of an ongoing FBI investigation, but he declined further comment after the hearing.

Federal authorities in recent years have prosecuted more than a dozen cases of either traditional spying or economic espionage related to China. U.S. officials have warned in the last year of increasing espionage efforts by Beijing.

Former state Sen. Wayne Bryant was found guilty on all 12 counts alleging he took a "low-show" job at a branch of the scandal-ridden University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey as a bribe for directing state money to the institution.

Later, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said Bryant was more brazen than other elected officials on the take.

"He stole in plain sight," Christie said of the Democrat who was one of the state's most powerful politicians. "He thumbs his nose at the public."

The scam was uncovered by a federal monitor assigned to investigate UMDNJ after it was discovered that UMDNJ double-billed for services covered by Medicare.

Prosecutors said Bryant had almost no legitimate responsibilities at UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, which is in the southern New Jersey legislative district he represented.

Witnesses testified that he showed up on some Tuesday mornings and was seen reading the newspaper and talking on the phone in his office — but doing no other work.

But between 2003 and 2006 — when he worked for the school — officials said he boosted its funding from the state by at least $10.5 million.

Michael Gallagher, the dean who hired Bryant for the $35,000-a-year job at the school, was also convicted on one bribery charge and five mail fraud charges. He was acquitted on one mail fraud charge. His lawyers, Ralph Jacobs and Jeremy Frey, said they expected to appeal.

Bryant was also convicted of boosting his pension by taking another public-sector job at the Gloucester County Board of Social Services. Associates at his law firm did thousands of hours of work there, but he received pension credit for it, authorities said.

The five charges dealing with the pension were more complicated because there is no law against New Jersey elected officials holding other public-sector jobs or getting pension credit for work done by subordinates.