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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a 31-year-old Los Angeles law that bars people from living in parked vehicles, saying the vaguely written statute discriminates against the homeless and poor.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involved a 1983 law that prohibits the use of a vehicle "as living quarters either overnight, day-by-day, or otherwise."

The court said the law was unconstitutional because its ambiguous wording does not make clear what conduct would constitute a violation and "criminalizes innocent behavior."

The decision came in a case brought on behalf of four people who were cited and arrested in the Venice area by Los Angeles police officers who concluded the numerous belongings in their RVs and cars meant they were violating the law.

"Is it impermissible to eat food in a vehicle? Is it illegal to keep a sleeping bag? Canned food? Books? What about speaking on a cellphone? Or staying in the car to get out of the rain?" Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the panel. "These are all actions plaintiffs were taking when arrested for violation of the ordinance, all of which are otherwise perfectly legal."

The officers were part of an LAPD homelessness task force charged with enforcing the ordinance in response from community complaints about people living in their cars.

The panel's ruling overturned a lower court judge who had sided with the city and dismissed the case without a trial.

Carol Sobel, the lawyer for the three men and one woman who sued to overturn the law in 2011, said Los Angeles' ban on living in cars was exceptionally broad. One of her clients was cited while waiting outside a church that served meals and another while driving her RV through Venice on her way to sell her work at a local art fair.

Even so, the ruling might force other western cities within the 9th Circuit's territory to amend statutes that outlaw sleeping in vehicles, Sobel said, citing the city of Palo Alto as an example.

"People living in their vehicles is one of the great unidentified homeless groups in this country — formerly middle-class people who lost everything during the recession and are trying to maintain the appearance of stability so they can go to work," she said.

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, whose office defended the law before the 9th Circuit, said the city would not appeal. Instead, Feuer said he would work with other officials to write a replacement ordinance "that respects both the rights and needs of homeless individuals and protects the quality of life in our neighborhoods."

"We need to make a break from the past, recognize that the civil and criminal justice systems alone can't effectively address homelessness, and commit ourselves to grappling with the issues that create homelessness in the first place," he said.

Pregerson did not make clear in the panel's opinion what, if anything, city lawmakers could do to make the law pass constitutional muster.

"The city of Los Angeles has many options at its disposal to alleviate the plight and suffering of its homeless citizens," he wrote. "Selectively preventing the homeless and the poor from using their vehicles for activities many other citizens also conduct in their cars should not be one of those options."

WASHINGTON (AP) — Holding back from more robust options, President Barack Obama on Thursday said he was dispatching up to 300 military advisers to Iraq to help quell the rising insurgency in the crumbling state. He called on Iraqi leaders to govern with a more "inclusive agenda" to ensure the country does not descend into civil war.

Obama left open the option of "targeted" military action in the future, and he said the U.S. also would increase its intelligence efforts in Iraq and was prepared to create joint operations centers with Iraqis. But he was adamant that U.S. troops would not be returning to combat in Iraq.

"We do not have the ability to simply solve this problem by sending in tens of thousands of troops and committing the kinds of blood and treasure that has already been expended in Iraq," Obama told reporters in the White House briefing room. "Ultimately, this is something that is going to have to be solved by Iraqis."

BANGKOK (AP) — The jailed activist who helped organize protests against last month's military takeover in Thailand has some advice for his followers: The coup is an accomplished fact, so concentrate on keeping the junta honest.

Sombat Boonngam-anong, speaking Thursday to an Associated Press reporter at a prison in Bangkok's northern outskirts, also had some words for the ruling military: don't expect to achieve reconciliation among the country's sharply polarized people by continuing to suppress free speech.

Sombat, 46, is a veteran social activist who used social media to spearhead the "Hunger Games"-inspired three-finger salute campaign to protest the May 22 coup, even as he was in hiding.

"The more that protesters keep up overt resistance, the longer it will give an excuse for the military to keep martial law in the country," Sombat said.

He had to shout through a window to speak to his prison visitors, so his voice was hoarse and he had to pause briefly a few times as he was interviewed. It was not clear if he felt he could speak frankly.

Sombat was arrested on June 5 in eastern Thailand after being one of a handful of people — among hundreds summoned — to defy an order to report to the military authorities.

Under regulations imposed by the military, people who don't report in as ordered are subject to prison terms of up to two years and a fine of 40,000 baht ($1,250). They are also threatened with up to seven years in prison under an existing statute against causing public disorder. Sombat's political activity leaves him open to additional charges as well, including under a broadly defined law covering online activity.

Sombat was captured after organizing groups of demonstrators to come together on Sundays for peaceful anti-coup protests despite a ban on political gatherings of five people or more. The numbers of protesters have now dwindled in the face of a massive show of force by police and soldiers.

"My message for supporters is that now that the coup is a done deal, they should stop their resistance and instead focus on the issue of transparency for the junta's actions. Promote more checks and balances for their projects," he said.

The junta has announced a raft of measure that it says will fight corruption and cronyism and clean up society. Some of their proposals involve massive spending, and with no legislature in place, there is no oversight.

The coup came after months of sometimes violent protests demanding that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra make way for an appointed government to institute reforms and remove her powerful family's influence from politics. Although the army said it stepped in to curb violence, its agenda is nearly identical to that of the protesters.

Like other detainees, Sombat was first held at an army camp, where he was interrogated and told the military's line on political developments.

"They came to talk to me a lot and asked a whole host of questions to see whom I have contacted and what kind of activities I was doing," Sombat recalled. "I agreed with the soldiers about the part about the conflict, that the country was divided and that it could turn out badly," he said. "What I don't understand is how they think there could be reconciliation when they haven't allowed anyone to speak freely."

The army closed down many television and radio stations, allowing them to reopen only on the condition they do not broadcast controversial political material. Newspapers face the same restrictions.

"No matter what, you have to open up for participation from people from every level and every side. People need to talk. Reconciliation cannot succeed if you don't allow people to talk openly," Sombat said.

Sombat was one of the first people to organize protests against Thailand's previous coup, in 2006, and became known for his imaginative and non-violent tactics. He was loosely associated with the so-called Red Shirt movement, which supported Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister who was ousted in 2006, and more recently his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was forced out of office by a court ruling last month slightly ahead of the coup.

Sombat's first 12-day detention period ends Monday and he may ask for temporary release, although another arrest warrant involving allegations of anti-monarchy comments — which could carry 15 years' imprisonment — means his time in prison might be prolonged.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An investigator says the next phase of the seabed search for the missing Malaysian plane will focus on an area of the Indian Ocean hundreds of kilometers (miles) south of the first suspected crash site.

Chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Martin Dolan, said Friday that an announcement will be made next week on where a 60,000 square kilometer (23,000 square mile) search of the ocean floor for wreckage using powerful sonar equipment will be focused.

Dolan says he expects the most likely crash site will be hundreds of kilometers (miles) south of where a remote-controlled underwater drone scoured the seabed where acoustic signals suspected to have come from the plane's black boxes were thought to have come from. The Malaysia Airlines flight vanished March 8.