The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Tampa district judge's ruling in the case of Youssef Samir Megahed, a former University of South Florida student charged with possession of a destructive device.

Megahed, 22, and a companion were arrested in South Carolina in August 2007 after deputies said they found explosives in the trunk of their car during a traffic stop. Defense attorneys have characterized the items as homemade fireworks.

Prosecutors had appealed the judge's decision to throw out the videos found on a computer at Megahed's home, saying they were essential to the case. They showed Qassam rockets, the type of rockets used by Hamas militants against Israel, and the use of improvised explosive devices and attacks against military forces in the Middle East.

"We're obviously pleased with the 11th Circuit ruling, and we hope to get this thing to trial finally," said Megahed's attorney, Adam Allen.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Steve Cole declined to comment.

Megahed's companion, Ahmed Mohamed, 27, pleaded guilty last year to aiding terrorists by making a YouTube video demonstrating how to make a remote detonator for a bomb. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The video was found on his laptop computer that was in the car when the men were stopped for speeding near Charleston, S.C.

Megahed is not charged in connection with that video.

In ruling unanimously for five officers attached to the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force, the court also abandoned a rigid, two-step test that it adopted in 2001 to guide judges in assessing alleged violations of constitutional rights.

Trial and appellate judges "should be permitted to exercise their sound discretion" in evaluating such claims, Justice Samuel Alito said in his opinion for the court.

Under the 2001 ruling, courts first had to determine whether an action amounts to a violation of a constitutional right and then decide whether the public official, often a police officer, should be immune from the civil lawsuit.

Officials can't be held liable in situations where it is not clearly established that their actions violated someone's constitutional rights.

The case grew out of a search of the home of Afton Callahan of Millard County, Utah, in 2002.

An informant contacted police to tell them he had arranged to purchase drugs from Callahan at Callahan's trailer home.

Judge Nancy Gertner postponed oral arguments set for Thursday in the copyright infringement lawsuit that pits a Boston University graduate student against the music recording industry. Proceedings will resume Feb. 24.

Gertner said the delay would give the First Circuit Court of Appeals time to resolve an extraordinary petition by the recording industry challenging how the court recording will be made and distributed.

Charles Nesson, a Harvard professor representing BU student Joel Tenenbaum, is challenging the constitutionality of the lawsuits and asked the court to authorize the webcast.

The case is part of an effort by the Recording Industry Association of America to stop online music sharing.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang gave the death sentence to Zhang Yujun. He was convicted of running a workshop that was allegedly China's largest source of melamine, the substance responsible for the health crisis.

A court spokesman said a second man, Zhang Yanzhang, was given a life sentence, also for endangering public safety.

The court is expected to hand down a sentence later Thursday for Tian Wenhua, the general manager of the dairy company at the heart of the scandal.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SHIJIAZHUANG, China (AP) — A Chinese court has handed down a death penalty to a man convicted of endangering public safety in the first sentencing connected with a contaminated milk scandal that shocked the country.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shijiazhuang gave the death sentence to Zhang Yujun. He was convicted of running a workshop that was allegedly China's largest source of melamine, the substance responsible for the health crisis.

A court spokesman said a second man, Zhang Yanzhang, was given a life sentence, also for endangering public safety.

The court is expected to hand down a sentence later Thursday for Tian Wenhua, the general manager of the dairy company at the heart of the scandal.

Some in the region were heartened by Obama's attempt to reach out to Muslims in his inaugural address Tuesday, saying he wanted to put relations on a new path. But he followed that overture immediately with a stern warning to those who foment violence.

"I would like to stress that the region has high hopes that your administration will deal with the Palestinian issue from its first day as an immediate priority and a key for solving other issues in the Middle East," Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in a congratulatory message to Obama.

But others were more pessimistic as newspaper editorials and political commentators laid out the challenges facing Obama, from rebuilding the wreckage in Gaza to ending the war in Iraq and confronting a strengthening Taliban in Afghanistan.

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy," Obama said Tuesday.

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist," he added.

The Luxembourg Fund Industry Association, or ALFI, named only three of the funds whose losses have been made public: LuxAlpha, Luxinvest and Herald (Lux).

Luxalpha board member Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet committed suicide last month when he lost $1.4 billion (euro1 billion) that he had invested with Madoff. Both Luxalpha and Luxinvest were promoted by Swiss bank UBS. HSBC and clients of Austria's Medici bank placed money with Herald.

In the U.S., hedge fund assets fell by $100 billion (euro77 billion) in October alone as investors withdrew their money and funds were forced to sell stock, exacerbating the severe volatility that pounded global markets during the month. Some funds have reacted by banning any more withdrawals.

France's government has pointed fingers at Luxembourg as the home of funds that lost money for many French investors. In an indirect attack last week, it called on EU regulators to check if all countries properly applied investor protection rules.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker shrugged off that allegation on Monday, saying France and Luxembourg had the same investor protection rules and the European Commission had never found problems with any EU nation on that issue.

Luxembourg's banking secrecy and low taxes attract investors and many billions of euros (dollars) — often irritating larger neighbors France and Germany.

ALFI said in a statement it would back any EU measure to improve supervision of the sector. "Even if the Madoff scandal is unprecedented by the proportions of the fraud and its international consequences, we should draw all the lessons to avoid such situations from happening again."

ALFI said the main blame for the scandal lay in the United States but checks should also be made to see if European advisers had taken enough care before telling clients to invest with Madoff.

It said the 16 funds affected by the fraud were a small proportion of the 12,300 active in the country and the money at risk was only 0.15 percent of the money managed by Luxembourg funds.

The Supreme Court said it won't consider reviving the Child Online Protection Act, which lower federal courts struck down as unconstitutional. The law has been embroiled in court challenges since it passed in 1998 and never took effect.

It would have barred Web sites from making harmful content available to minors over the Internet.

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that would violate the First Amendment, because filtering technologies and other parental control tools are a less restrictive way to protect children from inappropriate content online.

The act was passed the year after the Supreme Court ruled that another law intended to protect children from explicit material online — the Communications Decency Act — was unconstitutional.

The Bush administration had pressed the justices to take the case. They offered no comment on their decision to reject the government's appeal.

Five justices who ruled against the Internet blocking law in 2004 remain on the court.

The case is Mukasey v. ACLU. 08-565.