Same-sex couples began marrying in Alabama on Monday, defying an attempt by the chief justice of the state's Supreme Court to block probate judges from issuing marriages licenses to gays and lesbians.
A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday helped clear the way for Alabama to become the 37th state to allow same-sex couples to marry. Justices refused a request by Alabama's attorney general to keep such marriages on hold until the court rules whether laws banning them are constitutional.
Same-sex couples marry in Alabama after U.S. Supreme Court refuses stay
Police: Two children only survivors in shooting that kills five
Police say two children are the lone survivors of a shooting in a Georgia home that killed five others.Seven victims were found inside and outside the Douglas County home at about 3 p.m. Saturday, according to police. Some died on the scene and others on the way to the hospital, including the shooter, who expired from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while being transported for medical care.
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Slovak vote on gay rights curbs not binding due to turnout
A nationwide referendum on restricting gay rights in Slovakia has failed to produce a legally binding result after the required number of eligible voters did not turn out.
In Saturday's vote, Slovaks were asked whether they agree to three points: that marriage can only be called a union between a man and a woman; that same-sex partners must be barred from adopting children; and that it's up to parents to decide whether their children receive sex education.
Activist nun held in 'unfair conditions,' supporters say
Meghan Rice, the 85-year-old nun who broke into a nuclear facility and was sentenced to nearly three years in prison last February on charges of interfering with national security and damaging federal property, is being held in “unfair conditions,” advocates say.
Undeterred by the prison sentence, she has been continuing her activism from behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to a report by NPR, dedicating some of her time in custody to her fellow inmates.
GOP lawmakers push EPA to rethink clean water rule
In a year the Republican-controlled Congress is expected to take a significant whack at President Barack Obama’s environmental agenda, GOP lawmakers on Wednesday told top environmental officials they should scrap what was once a fairly obscure proposal to define what is and isn’t considered a body of water by federal law.
In an unusual joint hearing involving the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Republican majority that now controls both houses of Congress showed it is intent on trying to derail the president’s environmental agenda in his last two years in office.
September 11 conspirator Moussaoui says Saudi royals backed al Qaeda
A former al Qaeda operative imprisoned for life for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has told lawyers for victims of the attacks that members of the Saudi royal family supported the Islamic militant group.
Zacarias Moussaoui made the statements in testimony filed in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday by lawyers for attack victims who accuse Saudi Arabia in a suit of providing material support to al Qaeda.
What the Warren Commission Didn’t Know
Half a century after the Warren Commission concluded there was no conspiracy in John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the commission’s chief conspiracy hunter believes the investigation was the victim of a “massive cover-up” to hide evidence that might have shown that Lee Harvey Oswald was in fact part of a conspiracy.
In new, exclusive material published today in the paperback edition of a bestselling history of the investigation, retired law professor David Slawson tells how he came to the conclusion, on the basis of long-secret documents and witness statements, that the commission might have gotten it wrong.
Lead U.N. investigator of 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict resigns over bias allegations
William Schabas, the head of a United Nations investigation into the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, has resigned due to bias allegations for his previous work with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The investigation seeks to determine if potential war crimes were committed in the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The panel's inquiries, sanctioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council, are set to be released in March.
Israel has refused to cooperate with the investigation and accused Schabas of "clear and documented bias."
S&P paying $1.38B to settle charges over crisis-era ratings
Standard & Poor's is paying about $1.38 billion to settle government allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The settlement with the U.S. government, 19 states and the District of Columbia covers ratings issued from 2004 through 2007 by the McGraw-Hill subsidiary. It resolves a court fight that began with a government lawsuit two years ago and involved dozens of depositions and hundreds of millions of documents
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