■ Canada
Court OKs gay marriage
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that gay marriage was constitutional, a landmark opinion allowing the federal government to call on parliament to legalize same-sex unions nationwide. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has said he wants a national referendum on gay marriage. But Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin was cool to the idea of a national referen-dum on gay marriage and said parliament should decide the issue. "I think
that this is an issue that parliamentarians ought to decide," Martin said Sunday before addressing a brunch in Montreal. If approved by a majority of the House of Commons, as widely expected, Canada would become the third country -- along with Belgium and the Netherlands -- to embrace gay marriage.
■ Norway
Embassy move criticized
About 500 Norwegians staged a torchlight protest
on Sunday against a plan to move the US embassy from central Oslo to a leafy suburb where many residents fear they might get caught up in terror attacks. "The US embassy says that it's a terrorist target. It defies common sense to place it in a residential area," Margrethe Geelmuyden, an organizer of the protest representing 5,500 local households, told the crowd. Protesters planted flaming torches in the snow through the Huseby woods to mark the perimeter of the 4 hectare plot sold to Washington to build a new embassy about 5km from the city center.
■ United States
Bush and chimps don't mix
Artwork in an exhibition that drew thousands to New York's Chelsea Market for its opening last week was abruptly taken down over the weekend after the market's managers complained about a small portrait of US Presi-dent George W. Bush, which was fashioned from tiny images of chimpanzees. The piece was by Christopher Savido, a 23-year-old illustrator from Pittsburgh. Bucky Turco, publisher of Animal, said "When an organizer later saw it, "He flipped. If I didn't take the show down he was going to have me arrested, seize the art, and evict me from my office."
■ United States
Old man beats the sea
An 80-year-old diver spent 18 hours holding on to a buoy in the cold, rough waters of the Atlantic Ocean before a relative found him, ending an exhaustive search off the Florida Keys. Ignacio Siberio said he survived with the help of a wetsuit and instincts developed from more than 60 years of free diving and spear fishing. He did not require hospitalization, but was recovering in Tavernier. "I'm feeling OK, but I got back home pretty beaten up, because I was all night and all day in one spot without moving," Siberio told a reporter in a telephone interview.
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