Two men pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a ring that forced teenage girls to work as prostitutes in a half dozen states - Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Shaun Leoney, 28, of Boston, and Aaron Brooks, 25, of Quincy, were among six men who were indicted in 2007 for participating in a Boston-based prostitution ring that operated from 2001 to 2005.

Leoney and Brooks originally were charged with conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. Leoney also was charged with sex trafficking of children.

Both men pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy. Brooks reached a plea deal with prosecutors, who will recommend a sentence of four years. Leoney faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Sentencing for both men was scheduled for Dec. 15.

As part of their guilty pleas, Leoney and Brooks admitted they drove a teenager to Orlando, Fla., during Memorial Day weekend in 2005 for prostitution activity sponsored by Hoodlum Entertainment, a company owned by two convicted sex traffickers.

Brooks faced a maximum of 15 years if he had gone to trial on the original charges, said his attorney, Raymond O'Hara.

"He just wants to put this behind him," O'Hara said.

Leoney's lawyer, James Dilday, said Leoney faced a maximum of 40 years if he had been convicted of the original charges.

The U.N. Yugoslav war crimes tribunal on Monday found a former prosecution spokeswoman guilty of contempt for revealing confidential court decisions made by judges during the trial of Serbia's ex-President Slobodan Milosevic.

The court fined French national Florence Hartmann euro7,000 ($10,200) for disclosures she made in her 2007 book "Peace and Punishment," which she published after leaving her job, and again in a later magazine article.

She revealed that the court had decided in secret not to disclose Serbian military documents that could have linked the government in Belgrade to atrocities such as the Srebrenica massacre committed by Bosnian Serb forces.

The original documents — minutes of Serbia's Supreme Defense Council — are still not public. Serbia had given them to the court for Milosevic's case on the condition they be kept secret.

Some analysts believe the documents might have helped Bosnia in its failed attempts to sue Serbia for genocide. Observers of the war crimes court say it must show it is willing to enforce confidentiality agreements, otherwise states will never lend potentially sensitive documents in future cases.

Reading a summary of the ruling, Judge Bakone Moloto said Monday Hartmann had "knowingly and willfully interfered with administration of justice" by revealing the decisions.

He said that as a former spokeswoman, Hartmann was "well aware of what the confidentiality of a decision entailed."

Hartmann's lawyers had argued that the information was already common knowledge by the time she published it.

The Supreme Court on Friday turned down California's request to delay a federal court order related to state prison overcrowding.

The justices refused to extend a deadline beyond Sept. 18 for telling a special three-judge panel how California will reduce its inmate population by 40,000, roughly a quarter, over two years.

The judges called for the reduction so the state can improve medical and mental health care for inmates in its 33 adult prisons. The federal courts have found the care so poor that it violates inmates' constitutional rights.

While rejecting the state's plea for a delay, the court noted that the three-judge panel has agreed not to put a final order into effect until after the justices have had a chance to review its decree.

The special three-judge panel had rejected California's request for a delay earlier this month, sending the matter to the high court.

In addition to its failed request for a delay, the Schwarzenegger administration is appealing to the Supreme Court the panel's inmate-release order. It has been joined by Republican legislators and associations representing prosecutors, sheriffs, police chiefs and chief probation officers.

The administration argues that the federal courts are overreaching in their effort to direct the state's affairs and are violating a federal law that restricts judges' actions in inmates rights cases

The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that a pizza shop must pay for weight-loss surgery for an obese employee to ensure the success of another operation for a back injury he suffered at work.

The decision is raising concern among businesses bracing for more such claims.

Boston's The Gourmet Pizza cook Adam Childers of Schererville weighed 340 pounds when he was injured by a freezer door. Doctors said he needed back surgery, but it wouldn't be successful unless he had weight-loss surgery first.

Boston's argued it shouldn't have to pay because Childers' weight was a pre-existing condition.

But a workers' compensation board and the court said the company had to pay because his weight and the accident created a single injury.

Finally, auction day has come for the Phoenix Coyotes. It's two days, actually.

The NHL franchise is to be sold at auction in a two-day hearing that began Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown Phoenix.

Only two bids have been made.

One by Canadian billionaire James Balsillie is contingent on moving the team to Hamilton, Ontario, over the overwhelming opposition of the NHL.

The other is by the NHL, which says it will resell the team outside of the bankruptcy process, either to an owner who would keep the team in Glendale or, failing that, to someone who would relocate the franchise. Balsillie and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman were in the crowded courtroom when the hearing began.

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

PHOENIX (AP) — Finally, auction day has come for the Phoenix Coyotes. It's two days, actually.

The NHL franchise is to be sold at auction in a two-day hearing that begins Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown Phoenix.

Only two bids have been made. One by Canadian billionaire James Balsillie is contingent on moving the team to Hamilton, Ontario, over the overwhelming opposition by the NHL.

The other is by the NHL, which says it will resell the team outside of the bankruptcy process, either to an owner who would keep the team in Glendale or, failing that, to someone who would relocate the franchise.

The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit says Microsoft Corp. can keep selling its Word desktop software as it appeals an unfavorable patent ruling.

In May, a Texas district court said some versions of Microsoft's word processing software infringe on a Canadian technology company's patent. The dispute is over the way Word 2003 and Word 2007 let users customize document encoding.

The Texas judge had ordered Microsoft to pay Toronto-based i4i LLP $290 million and stop selling infringing versions of Word by the middle of October.

Redmond-based Microsoft has appealed the ruling and is set to present arguments on Sept. 23.

The Schwarzenegger administration on Tuesday asked the federal courts to delay an order requiring California to reduce its inmate population over the next two years.

Last month, a special three-judge panel gave California 45 days to decide how it will cut the number of inmates in its 33 adult prisons by more than 40,000, bringing the population to about 110,000. They found that reducing the number of inmates in California's 33 adult prisons was the only way to improve medical and mental health care, which the courts previously ruled was so poor it violated inmates' civil rights.

The administration maintains that the courts cannot order the state to release prisoners and plans to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the administration wants the three-judge panel to stay its decision ordering the prisoner release. That motion was filed Tuesday with federal courts in Sacramento and San Francisco.

If the three California-based federal judges will not delay their order, Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the administration will seek a stay from the nation's high court.