A Zimbabwean court on Monday freed on bail four Americans arrested and accused of treating AIDS patients without proper medical licenses.

A magistrate ordered the six health workers, who included a New Zealand national and a Zimbabwean, to pay a $200 bail and to reappear in court on Sept. 27. They could face a fine and deportation if convicted. The court ordered them to surrender their passports and live at their Mother of Peace Orphanage outside Harare until their trial.

The six are also accused of distributing AIDS medications without a pharmacist's supervision or a license.

U.S. embassy officials said the group pleaded innocent to the charges related to their work at two clinics, one in Harare and the other in Mutoko, 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Harare.

The California church that sponsors their work says the church has been working in Zimbabwe for more than a decade and that this is the first time licensing questions have been raised.

American citizens Gloria Cox Crowell, 48, Dr. Anthony Eugene Jones, 39, Gregory Renard Miller, 64 and David Greenburg, 62, were thronged by children and family members from their Christian congregation as the left the courthouse. In emotional scenes, children ran up to hug the six health workers. Earlier inside the hearing, patients' faces were wet with tears.

A blind, self-taught activist lawyer who documented forced abortions and other abuses was released from a Chinese prison Thursday and promptly locked down in his rural village with no access to communication, a relative said.

Chen Guangcheng, 39, is a charismatic, inspirational figure for civil liberties lawyers who have fought to enforce the rights enshrined in China's Constitution but often breached by the authoritarian government and police. Chen was imprisoned in 2006, marking the start of a government crackdown on activist attorneys.

Chen was escorted to his village Thursday morning as family members were preparing to leave to meet him at the Linyi city prison, relative Yin Dongjiang said. The family has been under heavy surveillance in recent days and authorities cut off the mobile and landline phone service for several relatives, he said.

"There's a lot of people in the village right now and the family isn't allowed to leave their home," said Yin, whose sister is married to Chen's older brother.

Chen's brother used Yin's phone, which still worked, to send a message to lawyer Teng Biao saying Chen was at home and that all telephones had been cut. Yin said he had not seen Chen and did not know what his physical condition was after the four-year prison term.

Five men in plain clothes blocked the road into Chen's village with a van and six more came running after Associated Press journalists who tried to enter the community surrounded by cornfields. After a brief scuffle with the journalists, the men jumped into their van and chased the journalists' car at high speed as they left the area.

In a landmark ruling Wednesday, an Indian court said Vodafone Group Plc is liable for an estimated $2.6 billion in taxes for its 2007 acquisition of one of India's largest mobile phone companies.

The decision sets a precedent that could impact hundreds of foreign transactions and have a chilling effect on foreign investment, tax experts say.

"We will very seriously consider an appeal," a Vodafone executive said Wednesday after the verdict.

The Bombay High Court said Vodafone won't have to pay any tax for at least eight weeks, while it considers an appeal to the Supreme Court, the nation's highest court. The tax amount due is also up for negotiation.

"We expect them to pay the tax unless the Supreme Court stays it," Tax Department attorney B.M. Chatterjee told The Associated Press after the verdict.

In May 2007, Vodafone International Holdings BV — a Dutch subsidiary of the British telecom giant — acquired a 67 percent stake in CGP Investments Ltd., a Cayman Islands company, which held the India telecom assets of Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd.

Vodafone maintains that it did not owe tax on the $11 billion transaction because it took place between two foreign entities.

The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed that eBay was liable for a counterfeiting conviction for selling on its website imitation Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey (LVMH) products between 2001 and 2006.

EBay’s actions were in violation of the authorized selective distribution networks of LVMH. Other brand names mentioned by the decision included Christian Dior, Guerlain, Givenchy, and Kenzo perfume.

The current ruling verifies the decision by the Paris Commercial Court on June 30, 2008, which established the principles of eBay’s liability for engaging in the sale of counterfeit products as well as products reserved for selective distribution. This decision also dismissed eBay’s claim for exemption on the grounds that it was acting merely as a provider of hosting services.

Moreover, the court concluded that eBay was guilty from direct or indirect violation of selective distribution networks in the future.

The court’s decision ordered eBay Inc. and eBay AG to pay penalties amounting to $7 million. This amount falls short of the original $49 million in damages sought by LVMH.

The European Union's high court temporarily exempted Inuit hunters in Canada and Greenland on Friday from the bloc's new trade ban on seal products, while asking European Parliament and EU governments to justify the ban.

Indigenous people had argued their livelihoods depend on their ability to hunt seals and export products such as seal meat, pelts, blubber, organs and oil used in producing omega-3 fatty acid supplements.

They said the EU ban on seal products, which went into effect Friday, disproportionately impacted their traditional way of life.

EU governments have argued that Canada's annual seal hunt was inhumane in allowing pups to be clubbed to death so their pelts would not be damaged by bullets or blades.

The Inuit account for only 1 percent of Canadian seal imports into the EU. These amounted to euro4.1 million last year, according to EU data.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, which lobbied intensely for the ban, said it hoped Friday's exemption was short-lived.

"We expect this to be a brief delay in the full implementation of the EU seal ban," group spokesman Adrian Hiel said.

Mexico's Supreme Court voted Monday to uphold a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples.

The justices voted 9-2 against challenges presented by federal prosecutors and others who had argued the law fails to protect adoptive children against possible ill effects or discrimination, or to guarantee their rights to a traditional family.

Justices voting with the majority argued that once same-sex marriages had been approved, it would be discriminatory to consider those couples less capable of parental duties than heterosexual couples.

The court voted earlier this month by the same margin to uphold same-sex marriages themselves under a Mexico City law enacted March 4.

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples have married under the law, but city officials have not yet reported any applications by those couples to adopt children.