Germany condemned Wednesday the jailing of a 79-year-old prominent human rights lawyer by a Syrian court and demanded his immediate release.

The German government's human rights commissioner, Markus Loening, said he was "shocked" by the sentencing of Haytham al-Maleh to three years in prison Sunday on charges of "publishing false information".

"Mr Maleh is considered a leader of the Syrian human rights movement who has committed himself for decades at great personal risk for the protection of human rights in his country," Loening said.

"I call on the Syrian government to comply with its international commitments, in particular in implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and, in light of Mr Maleh's advanced age and his precarious health, release him immediately."

Maleh was arrested in Damascus on October 14 last year, and investigated by the military court over articles he had written.

The lawyer had been imprisoned from 1980 to 1986, along with a large number of trade unionists, activists and political opponents, for demanding constitutional reforms.

He has worked with Amnesty International since 1989 and, in 2001, helped to establish the Syrian Human Rights Association, whose activities have been frozen for more than three years.

A Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to writing and posting on a white supremacist website a poem threatening the assassination of President Barack Obama.

Johnny Logan Spencer Jr. of Louisville entered an open plea — admitting guilt without a deal with prosecutors — Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

The 28-year-old Spencer's sentencing is set for Nov. 2. The charge carries a maximum of five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Stephan M. Pazenzia said in an affidavit that Spencer wrote and posted the poem, titled "The Sniper," on a page called NewSaxon.org.

The poem describes a gunman shooting and killing a "tyrant" later identified as the president, setting off panic.

A Phoenix man accused of trying to use the government's Cash for Clunkers program to ditch his BMW after a fatal hit-and-run crash last year has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Maricopa County prosecutors say 24-year-old Timothy M. Kissida was driving his luxury car shortly after midnight Aug. 8 when he hit a bicyclist. Phoenix police say 52-year-old Charles Waldrop's bike had lights and reflectors.

Later that day, Kissida allegedly tried to use the Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, to trade in his car. Police say he told a dealer his BMW was damaged when he hit a javelina, a pig-like desert mammal.

Kissida was arrested after a tip to police.

He also pleaded guilty Tuesday to leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence. A sentencing date has yet to be scheduled.

A judge ordered Australian band Men at Work on Tuesday to hand over a portion of the royalties from their 1980s hit "Down Under," after previously ruling its distinctive flute riff was copied from a children's campfire song.

But the penalty — 5 percent of the song's royalties — was far less than the 60 percent sought by publishing company Larrikin Music, which holds the copyright for the song "Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree."

"Kookaburra" was written more than 70 years ago by Australian teacher Marion Sinclair for a Girl Guides competition, and the song about the native Australian bird has been a favorite around campfires from New Zealand to Canada.

Sinclair died in 1988, but Larrikin filed a copyright lawsuit last year. In February, Federal Court Justice Peter Jacobson ruled Men at Work had copied their song's signature flute melody from "Kookaburra."

On Tuesday, Jacobson ordered Men at Work's recording company, EMI Songs Australia, and "Down Under" songwriters Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, to pay 5 percent of royalties earned from the song since 2002 and from its future earnings. A statute of limitations restricted Larrikin from seeking royalties earned before 2002.

A U.S. appeals court says an Algerian protesting his Guantanamo detention deserves a new lower court review. The review should determine whether he was part of al-Qaida.

The three-judge panel reversed a decision that concluded Belkacem Bensayah's imprisonment was legal because he was an al-Qaida supporter.

U.S. Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg said the government presented no direct evidence of actual communication between Bensayah and any al-Qaida member.

Patton Boggs LLP, which operates one of Denver's top 20 law offices, is acquiring the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a Washington firm that includes former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., as well as former Sen. John Breaux, D-La.

Lott and Breaux will join Patton Boggs' D.C. office as special senior counsel along with their sons, John Breaux Jr. and Chester Trent Lott Jr.; three public policy advisers; and three staff members.

"This acquisition is a strategic coup and a cornerstone for our bipartisan growth," said Thomas Hale Boggs Jr., chairman of Washington-based Patton Boggs in a statement.

Over the past year, the firm has added former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, former commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Suedeen Kelly and a veteran in the pharmaceutical and food and drug sectors, Dick Thompson.

Patton Boggs' core practice areas are public policy and regulatory, litigation, business and intellectual property. It has offices in Denver as well as New York, New Jersey, Dallas, Anchorage, northern Virginia and internationally in Doha, Qatar; and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The WTO on Wednesday dealt the European Union a painful blow in a transatlantic trade row over multibillion dollar subsidies for US and European aircraft, ruling some state support for Airbus illegal.

Rival US airplane manufacturer Boeing claimed a "sweeping legal victory" and said it would require Airbus to repay four billion dollars in illegal subsidies, a claim disputed by the European aerospace giant.

Bringing to a head one of the most bitter trade disputes between the two trading powers, the World Trade Organization disputes panel upheld parts of a US complaint in the marathon legal battle.

In a 1,200-page ruling made public for the first time, the global trade referee said EU states should halt some aid for the development and export of Airbus airliners.

It notably accepted three out of seven claims by Washington that key launch aid amounted to export subsidies, which are illegal under WTO rules.