Costa Rica's top court has blocked the electoral tribunal from holding a referendum that would have let voters decide if same-sex civil unions should be allowed in the Central American country.

The Constitutional Court's 5-2 decision released Tuesday says such a referendum would put a minority at a disadvantage in a largely Roman Catholic country. It also says gay civil unions is a legislative issue and not an electoral one.

The court says it considers homosexuals a group that is at a disadvantage and the target for discrimination, requiring government authorities to protect their rights.

The electoral tribunal had planned to hold the referendum Dec. 5, when Costa Rica also is holding municipal elections.

Mexico's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a law allowing same-sex marriages in Mexico City is constitutional, rejecting an appeal by federal prosecutors who argued it violated the charter's guarantees to protect the family.

The justices' 8-2 ruling handed a legal victory to hundreds of same-sex couples who have been married in Mexico's capital since the landmark law took effect March 4. When approved last December, it was the first law in Latin America explicitly giving gay marriages the same status as heterosexual ones, including adoption.

The court, however, must still rule on the adoption clause and whether the ruling will affect states outside of the capital. It is expected to address adoption on Monday.

"We are very happy," said Mexico City lawyer Leticia Bonifaz, who argued Mexico City's case. "It fell to us to carry to a conclusion a struggle that has taken a long time."

Justices who voted on the majority side stressed that while Mexico's constitution enshrines protection for families, it does not define what a "family" is.

"It does not appear to me to be unconstitutional," Justice Jose Gudino said during Thursday's session. "The concept of the family established in the constitution ... is an open concept."

Jaime Lopez Vela, a leader of the group Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual and Transgender, was among a group of activists who celebrated the ruling outside the court.

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 British court fined five companies a total of 9.5 million pounds ($14.6 million) Friday for a massive 2005 explosion at a U.K. oil depot that sent a huge smoke plume drifting across the European continent.

Total UK, a subsidiary of French oil company Total SA, was found liable for negligence and ordered to pay most of it — 6.2 million pounds ($9.5 million).

The explosion at the Buncefield oil depot, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of London, was triggered when tens of thousands of gallons of gasoline were released in a huge vapor cloud. The blast injured 43 people, caused more than 1 billion pounds in damage and registered a magnitude 2.4 on earthquake monitors.

The explosion was the costliest industrial disaster in British history, Britain's Health and Safety Executive said Friday. Worse casualties were avoided only because the explosion took place early Sunday morning when few people were at work.

Judge David Calvert-Smith said the companies involved — Total UK Ltd., British Pipeline Agency Ltd., Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd., TAV Engineering Ltd. and Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd. — had shown "a slackness, inefficiency and a more or less complacent attitude to safety."

He said the problems at the site were so serious that the disaster could have happened "at almost any hour of any day" and said it was just "short of miraculous" that more people were not injured.

A Guantanamo Bay prisoner has been transferred to his homeland of Yemen, the U.S. Defense Department announced on Tuesday, after a U.S. district court ordered the longtime detainee's release.

The release of 26-year-old Mohammed Odaini after eight years at Guantanamo Bay was an exception to the Obama administration's freeze on prisoner transfers to the turbulent country after the failed attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the failed attempt.

"The suspension of Yemeni repatriations from Guantanamo remains in effect due to the security situation that exists there. However, the administration respects the decisions of U.S. federal courts," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Yemen, a poor country with a weak central government on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, has struggled to confront a growing al-Qaida presence.

American worries about Yemen's ability to fight al-Qaida heightened last year after several Yemeni detainees who had been released from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba resurfaced as leaders of an al-Qaida offshoot. Those concerns deepened in the wake of the failed Christmas attack.