A college professor accused of organizing a swingers club and holding private orgies in China was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, officials said, in a case that touched off national debate about sexual freedom.

Ma Yaohai, 53, was convicted and sentenced on charges of group licentiousness for participating in group sex parties, said an official from the Qinhuai District Court in southeastern Nanjing. The official, who declined to give his name, refused to answer further questions.

Ma, along with 21 other people, was arrested and charged last year — the first time anyone has been charged under a 1997 law in a case that has snagged huge public interest with its titillating details. It also generated debate about sexual freedom in a nation trying to reshape its own modern morality.

Ma's attorney Yao Yong'an said his client, who was the only one to plead innocent, plans to appeal the verdict.

Prosecutors trying former Liberian president Charles Taylor for war crimes at a U.N.-backed court asked judges Thursday to subpoena supermodel Naomi Campbell to testify about being given uncut diamonds by Taylor.

Special Court for Sierra Leone Prosecutor Brenda Hollis filed a motion saying Taylor allegedly gave Campbell diamonds at a reception in South Africa in September 1997. Taylor denies prosecutors' allegations that he provided arms and ammunition to brutal rebels during Sierra Leone's civil war in exchange for so-called blood diamonds.

Campbell's testimony would provide "direct evidence of the accused's possession of rough diamonds from a witness unrelated to the Liberian or Sierra Leone conflicts," Hollis said in the motion.

She adds that Taylor "denied ever having possessed rough diamonds and the evidence clearly contradicts his testimony on this central issue."

Three of nine members of a Midwest militia accused of conspiring to overthrow the government were released from jail Tuesday until trial after prosecutors suddenly backed off an intense effort to keep the entire group behind bars.

David Stone Jr., 19, Jacob Ward, 33, and Tina Stone, 44, were released to family members after appearing in federal court in Detroit. They must wear electronic monitors and follow strict conditions first set by a judge earlier this month.

"It's a great start," said Stone Jr.'s attorney, Todd Shanker. "David Jr. is not a danger to anybody. He's going to work at a nearby farm and he's not going to bother anybody."

After the hearing, Tina Stone said she was happy to be going to her father's home in Hillsdale County but declined further comment. Asked what's ahead, her father, Tim Kelley, said with a laugh: "She's pickin' my strawberries. I know that."

The three are among nine indicted members of a southern Michigan-based group called Hutaree. All are charged with conspiring to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the government and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

Connecticut's secretary of state ended her bid for attorney general Tuesday, hours after losing a lawsuit she filed against her own office in an effort to prove that she is qualified to be the state's top prosecutor.

Democrat Susan Bysiewicz said in a statement she is tremendously disappointed with the state Supreme Court's unanimous decision that she is not legally qualified to hold the job now occupied by Richard Blumenthal. She said she strongly disagrees with the decision but that she respects the rule of law.

Connecticut law requires the attorney general to have worked 10 years as a lawyer. Bysiewicz had argued that her 11 years as secretary of the state and six years as a corporate lawyer in Connecticut should count.

Republicans maintain that Bysiewicz's tenure as secretary of the state should not count. A lower court had ruled that Bysiewicz had met the requirement. The state GOP then appealed to the state's highest court.

Microsoft Corp. sued Salesforce.com Inc. yesterday, accusing the company of infringing nine patents for ways to make software more efficient.

The complaint targets the customer-relationship management software that is the hallmark of Salesforce.com’s business. It seeks a court order that would prevent the San Francisco-based company from providing features that Microsoft claims it invented.

Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, sells subscriptions to Internet business software that runs marketing campaigns and tracks sales leads. It competes against Microsoft’s Dynamics programs and “has profited through infringement of the Microsoft patents-in-suit,” according to the complaint, filed in federal court in Seattle.

“More and more, we’re seeing Dynamics compete with Salesforce in deals,” said Ray Wang, an analyst with Altimeter Group in San Mateo, California. “Long term, Salesforce and Microsoft are on a collision course for all enterprise software.”

The U.N.'s highest court says Honduras has dropped a case accusing Brazil of meddling in its internal affairs by allowing ousted President Manuel Zelaya to stay at one of its embassies in 2009.

The International Court of Justice, widely known as the World Court, said Wednesday that Honduras asked to withdraw the case on April 30 and the request was granted May 12.

An intermim administration that came to power in Honduras after a coup filed the case back October 2009 while Zelaya was holed up at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Brazil then viewed Zelaya as Honduras' lawfully elected president.

Zelaya now lives in the Dominican Republic and is trying to negotiate a reconciliation that recognizes current Honduran President Porfirio Lobo.

The man accused of plotting to kill Americans with a car bomb in Times Square appeared relaxed and obedient in his first appearance in a Manhattan courtroom, where he was told by a magistrate judge that he had the right to remain silent.

Authorities say Faisal Shahzad's willingness to talk kept him out of court for two weeks, speeding up the progress of an investigation into his May 1 plot to set off a homemade car bomb on a spring Saturday evening amidst hundreds of people enjoying the tourist haven.

Authorities said shortly after Shahzad's May 3 arrest that he had admitted driving the SUV bomb into Times Square and told authorities he had received terror training during a recent five-month trip to Pakistan.

His cooperation did not eliminate the need to bring him to court Tuesday to face five charges, including attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, each of which carry potential penalties of life in prison.