Most notably, the decades-old ban on companies owning cable systems and broadcast stations in the same market was struck down by the District of Columbia appeals court in 2002.

Israel Puts Wagner on Hold The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra postponed plans for a Wagner concert until its subscribers are polled on whether to end a decades-old ban on the German composer.

The Council is expected, nevertheless, to vote today to lift a decades-old ban on the garbage disposal, a convenience allowed in every other major American city.

The Church of England said Friday it had lifted its decades-old ban on investing its cash in South Africa, following the country's first non-racial elections.

The adoption has encountered opposition from Malawian human rights groups who contend that it violates a decades-old ban on adoptions by nonresidents.

In 1991 the Albanian government lifted the decades-old ban on private-vehicle ownership.

The United States-India nuclear pact, announced in March 2006, would allow India access to civilian nuclear technology, overturning a decades-old ban that resulted from India's refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Only since 1996, when the United States liquor industry lifted a decades-old voluntary ban on television and radio, have distillers been able to buy commercial time on the electronic media.

The purveyors of spirits complain that the decades-old ban doesn't apply to beer and wine, and cite this as the reason why grapes and hops have been gaining market share against the hard stuff.

In short order, the Japanese government reinterpreted the Constitution to allow it to dispatch troops to Iraq and effectively abandoned the decades-old ban against arms exports by joining the American missile defense shield.