Seven months after Michael Vick was sentenced to federal prison, the fallen Falcons quarterback found himself in a “precarious financial position” and filed for bankruptcy. One of his creditors is the Falcons.

In Chapter 11 documents filed in federal court in Virginia on Monday, Vick cites debts of between $10million and $50million. He also cites assets in the same range.

In the court documents, Vick lists seven creditors, including the Falcons, that are owed a total of $12.8million. The debt to the Falcons is for $3.75million, listed as a prorated signing bonus. The documents indicate the claim is disputed.

A Falcons spokesman said the team would not comment on Vick's bankruptcy.

Vick is serving a 23-month sentence in Leavenworth, Kan., for his guilty plea in federal court to felony charges related to dogfighting. His release date is July20, 2009.

The largest of Vick's creditors is Joel Enterprises with a claim of $4.5million. Andrew Joel, a Richmond, Va., sports agent, filed a lawsuit against Vick in 2006 claiming he reneged on an endorsement deal agreed upon after he left Virginia Tech early for the NFL.

Another creditor listed is Radtke Sports, of Woodstock, Ga., for $550,000. According to the attorney for Radtke Sports, which sells sports memorabilia, Vick had an exclusive autograph deal with the company and he can no longer fulfill his obligation because of his imprisonment.

"I will never back down in defending a woman's right to choose," the likely Democratic nominee said, drawing a sharp contrast with his GOP rival.

"That's what's at stake," Obama added as he campaigned with his half-sister and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the pioneering former first lady he toppled during the Democratic presidential primary, at a "Women for Obama" breakfast fundraiser.

Obama packed his day with female-focused events in New York and Virginia, a reminder of his need to win over women who include some still smarting from Clinton's loss. She had tried to become the first woman to win the White House, and women were her base voters. They took her defeat hard, so much so that even a few are promising to vote for McCain.

Thus, to underscore his differences with McCain on women's issues, Obama cited Senate legislation from the spring that sought to counteract a Supreme Court decision limiting how long workers can wait before suing for pay discrimination.

What is being dubbed here as "the iPod tax" has been tossed around for years. The tax would allow about 1 percent to 3 percent of the price of a digital recording device to go to recording companies, songwriters and artists.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs had hoped to submit legislation to Parliament as early as this fall.

But amid a flurry of criticism from electronics makers, a meeting of a panel studying the proposal failed to reach any agreement Thursday, agency official Masafumi Kiyota said.

"At this point, there is virtually no hope for getting the legislation passed," he said.

The panel agreed to continue talking, but no date has been set, Kiyota said.

Despite an aggressive push by the Japanese recording industry, a similar proposal to impose an "iPod tax" fell apart in December 2005.

The cultural agency proposed a compromise in May to charge only portable digital music players, such as iPods, and digital hard disk recorders. But the manufacturers resisted, saying more equipment could be added as a source for royalties.

Older devices, such as minidisk and DVD recorders, are already subject to copyright fees in Japan. The payments are included in the price tag so most shoppers aren't even aware they're paying it.

This prolongs a twisted legal saga over the legality of the 2004 merger after independent music companies complained that the EU's antitrust authority was wrong to allow the number of major record labels shrink from five to four.

The European Court of Justice on Thursday set aside a 2006 ruling from the Court of First Instance that largely backed the independents, telling the lower court to re-examine the case again.

The Court of First Instance ruling overturning the European Commission's approval for the deal forced regulators to examine it again to prove that it would not create or strengthen a dominant position in the music markets of Europe.

The European Commission cleared the deal a second time in November.

But Sony BMG appealed the 2006 ruling to an even higher court, the European Court of Justice, which said Thursday that judges had made "errors of law" in the 2006 ruling.

A group called the Mothers of Srebrenica was seeking compensation for the failure of Dutch United Nations troops to prevent the slaughter by Serb forces of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim males in the U.N.-declared safe zone.

The Hague District Court said the U.N.'s immunity — which is written into its founding charter — means it cannot be held liable in any country's national court.

"The court's inquiry into a possible conflict between the absolute immunity valid in international law of the U.N. and other standards of international law does not lead to an exception to this immunity," the judges wrote in their ruling.

A ruling lifting the U.N.'s immunity could have had far-reaching implications for the way the world body carries out its peacekeeping operations around the world.

At a hearing last month, Dutch government lawyer Bert Jan Houtzagers said that if a Dutch court decided it had jurisdiction in the case, "any court in any country could do so and that would thwart the viability of the United Nations."

Axel Hagedorn, a lawyer for the victims, said he would appeal Thursday's decision. The case could go to the European Court of Human Rights.

The second quarter of this year saw the pace of law firm mergers rise sharply in the U.S., according to a new report from legal consultancy Altman Weil Inc.

There were 26 new law firm mergers and acquisitions reported in April, May and June, compared to 18 during the first quarter of the year, according to Newtown Square, Pa.-based Altman Weil.

The largest of the latest law firm combinations was between K&L Gates, a 1,500-attorney firm, and Kennedy Convington Lobdell & Hickman, a 175-lawyer firm.

In Memphis there were no significant mergers reported for the quarter. However, in the previous quarter St. Louis-based Husch & Eppenberger LLC and Kansas City, Mo.,-based Blackwell Sanders LLP finalized their merger, which was first announced last September. Of the two, only Husch & Eppenberger had an office in Memphis.

In July 2007, Memphis-based Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC merged Atlanta-based Gambrell & Stolz LLP into the firm, adding 36 attorneys.

"Even in a deteriorating economy, law firms continue to pursue a growth strategy via merger and acquisition," said Altman Weil principal Tom Clay in a statement. "And based on our conversations with law firm leaders, we think the pace is unlikely to slow."