■ United States
Gay marriage figures in vote
Each side says the fight was forced upon them by the other, and now the climactic showdown is at hand: Voters in 11 states will decide tomorrow whether to impose constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. Rarely in US history have so many voters -- close to one-fifth of the electorate -- had a chance on a single election day to express themselves on such a highly contentious social issue. Most, if not all, of the bans are expected to win approval, though national gay-rights groups are spending heavily in Oregon and a few other states in hopes of avoiding a shutout.
■ United Kingdom
Blair's wife rips Bush
Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has criticized the policies of the US President George W. Bush, attacking his stance on terrorist prisoners and gay rights, according to media reports yesterday. Blair, a lawyer on a lecture tour of the US, was condemned by supporters of the US president after a speech to Harvard law students in Massachusetts which contained a stinging rebuke to Bush, the Scotland on Sunday newspaper reported on its Web site. "She attacked the manner in which the White House has dealt with the human rights of UK citizens detained at the US-run Camp X-Ray prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba," according to the report.
■ United States
Whooping cough is back
Whooping cough is making a comeback 40 years after most industrialized countries started vaccinating children, and the culprit seems to be weakening effects of the shot, researchers said on Saturday. Known also as pertussis, whooping cough can kill infants and can cause a lingering but hard-to-diagnose cough in teens and adults, the experts told an American Society for Microbiology meeting. They recommend that countries start organized programs to provide booster shots to teens and said doctors need to keep an eye out for the infection when patients show up with coughs."
■ Serbia
`Jorga' gunned down
One of the last remaining men accused of organizing the murder of Serbian mafia boss and paramilitary leader Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan was gunned down late Saturday in Belgrade, police said. Branko Jeftovic, also known as "Jorga," was killed in the center of Belgrade in a typical mafia-style execution - seen dozens of times in Serbia over the past decade. The gunman immediately fled the scene. Two of the four suspects in Arkan's murder, which took place in early 2000, have been killed, but their assassins have not been identified.
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