A Polish appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court's decision to hand over to Germany an alleged Mossad agent wanted in the slaying of a Hamas leader.

The decision means that the alleged agent, known as Uri Brodsky, must be handed over to Germany within 10 days. The decision is final and cannot be appealed.

Brodsky was arrested in Warsaw in June on a European warrant issued by Germany and charging him with espionage and helping to falsely obtain a German passport. The passport was allegedly used in connection with the Jan. 19 slaying of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

A three-judge appeals panel upheld a July ruling by Warsaw's district court that Brodsky be extradited to Germany on the forgery charges solely. That means he can only be tried in Germany for forgery and not spying, which would spare Israel a possibly embarrassing espionage trial. It would also mean a lesser penalty if he is found guilty.

The lower court's ruling was appealed by Brodsky, who hoped to be freed and returned to Israel, and by state prosecutors seeking to have him extradited on both forgery and espionage charges.

Still, Thursday's decision appeared to be a compromise with something for both sides: Poland will extradite him to Germany but has ensured that he will face lesser charges.

"The decision of the court seems to be satisfying to all sides," said Anna Mika-Kopec, Brodsky's defense lawyer.

A Bolivian man charged with killing a nun in a car crash in Virginia had at least two previous drunken driving convictions and had been released twice by immigration officers who took him into custody because he was in the United States illegally.

Carlos A. Martinelly Montano, 23, was charged in Sunday's accident in Virginia's Prince William County. Sister Denise Mosier, a nun with the Benedictine Sisters of Virginia, died in the crash, and two others, Sisters Charlotte Lange and Connie Ruth Lupton, were injured. They remained in critical condition on Wednesday, a spokeswoman, Sister Glenna Smith, wrote in an e-mail.

A wake for Mosier was planned for Thursday evening and a funeral Mass and burial for Friday, both at the nuns' Bristow, Va., monastery, according to its website.

The accident occurred as the nation has become divided over how much authority police should have to check the immigration status of people they stop. Some in Virginia would like to expand that authority, similar to a tough law Arizona recently passed. That law is under review in federal court.

In a statement on their website, the nuns said they're upset that the tragedy is being politicized and "become an apparent forum for the illegal immigration agenda."

A state juvenile court judge on Tuesday rejected the request of a Christian convert's Muslim parents to order their daughter to continue chemotherapy for uterine cancer.

The request from the parents of Rifqa Bary does not meet the legal requirement of a medical emergency needing immediate treatment, Franklin County Juvenile Court Magistrate Mary Goodrich said during a hearing.

Goodrich made the ruling at the beginning of what's expected to be the final court appearances by Bary, who remains in foster care in state custody until she turns 18 next week.

Bary wants Goodrich to determine that reconciliation with her parents is impossible. The stakes are higher than a family reunion. If the judge agrees with Rifqa Bary, an undocumented immigrant from Sri Lanka, the girl could also receive a special status allowing her to stay in the country.

Bary underwent successful cancer surgery in May and then was scheduled for 45 weeks of chemotherapy , which would give her an "80 to 90 percent chance" she'd be fine, Omar Tarazi, an attorney for Bary's parents, told the judge.

Instead, Bary stopped the chemotherapy after two or three rounds, deciding she'd been healed, Tarazi said. In a court filing last week, the girl's parents claimed she stopped after visiting a faith healer.

The first word on whether California's same-sex marriage ban passes scrutiny under the U.S. Constitution is scheduled to come down Wednesday when a federal judge issues his ruling in a landmark case.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has reached a decision on whether to uphold or overturn the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8 and plans to publish his opinion in the afternoon, court spokeswoman Lynn Fuller said.

His verdict comes in response to a lawsuit brought by two same-sex couples and the city of San Francisco seeking to invalidate the law as an unlawful infringement on the civil rights of gay men and lesbians.

Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriages in California five months after the state Supreme Court legalized them, passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008 following the most expensive campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.

Attorneys on both sides have said an appeal was certain if Walker did not rule in their favor. The case would go first to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then the Supreme Court if the high court justices agree to review it.

Anticipating such a scenario, lawyers for the coalition of religious and conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8 in 2008 filed a legal brief Tuesday asking Walker to stay his decision if he overturns the ban so same-sex couples could not marry while an appeal was pending.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says the prospect of three women on the Supreme Court is exhilarating, and she intends to stay around and enjoy it.

After the death of her husband and her own treatment for cancer, there was speculation that the 77-year-old justice would step down. But she told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she plans to remain on the court for the foreseeable future and still wants to match Justice Louis Brandeis, who retired at age 82.

Ginsburg talked with the AP as the Senate began debate on the all-but-assured confirmation of high court nominee Elena Kagan, chosen by President Barack Obama to replace John Paul Stevens. Last year, Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined the court after David Souter retired.

A new law firm, Walters & Wasylyna, LLC, is opening in Dayton, which will focus on intellectual property cases, according to an Aug. 2 statement by the legal group.

The new firm is a joint endeavor by attorneys Lindsay M. Walters and Victor J. Wasylyna, who both earned their law degrees from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Walters is a litigation attorney who specializes in business and trademark disputes in both federal courts and before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Wasylyna, who has practiced both in the U.S. and internationally, has experience in numerous aspects of intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Before joining forces with Walters, Wasylyna studied chemical engineering and practiced with Thompson Hine LLP.

Federal regulators say a company shut down a Michigan pipeline for planned maintenance hours before 911 calls about odors in the area where a massive oil spill was reported the next day.

National Transportation Safety Board officials told reporters Monday that Enbridge Inc. shut down its Calhoun County oil pipeline about 6 p.m. July 25. About three hours later, calls started coming in about gas odors in the Marshall area.

But NTSB officials say they can't link the shutdown to the pipeline rupture that dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into a Kalamazoo River tributary. It hasn't found the cause.

Federal officials say a Consumers Energy worker found oil on the ground on the morning of July 26. Enbridge says it detected the leak that day.