■ United States
Gay marriage upheld
A state judge declared California's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional in a decision issued on Monday. San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled that the state has no legal basis to refuse marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples, despite the long-standing concept of marriage between a man and a woman. He said that California's "protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional." The ruling has not legal effect outside the state. The case arose from a lawsuit filed last March, after San Francisco had issued marriage licences to same-sex couples before the California Supreme Court intervened to enforce state law.
■ United States
Hospital to end life support
Doctors at Texas Children's Hospital plan to take a critically ill 5-month-old baby off life support after a judge reaffirmed his decision lifting an injunction that prevented them from stopping care they believe is futile. Sun Hudson has been diagnosed with a fatal genetic disorder called thanatophoric dysplasia, a condition characterized by a tiny chest and lungs too small to support life. He has been on a ventilator since birth. His mother has been fighting the hospital, maintaining he just needs time to grow to be weaned off the ventilator. Texas law allows hospitals to end life support in cases such as this but requires that families be given 10 days to find another facility to care for the patient. No other hospital has been found.
■ Haiti
Disarmament bid criticized
Amid much fanfare, 300 former soldiers handed in a mere seven, antiquated weapons over the weekend in what government and UN officials described as a step toward disarmament. Analysts outside the country, however, dismissed the significance of the weapons handover. "They are weapons that have been hidden, they've corroded, they are viewed as being unsafe and command very little on the gun market," said Larry Birns, director of the Washington think tank, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "When you are trying to fill a quota or you want to give the appearance and not necessarily the reality of making a significant sacrifice, you turn these guns in."
■ Mexico
Another woman found dead
A construction worker found the battered, strangled body of a young woman on Monday in an empty lot in Ciudad Juarez, a city plagued by a decade-long string of similar killings. The body showed signs of heavy bruising in several places, and her pants had been pulled down, an official said. The body had not yet been identified.
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