Saudi ambassador will step down
WASHINGTON -- Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, announced yesterday he was stepping down, ending more than two decades of unusual Oval Office access -- including huddling with presidents at moments of crisis and even once looking over battle plans.
CANADA
Measure to legalize gay marriage signed
TORONTO -- Canada legalized gay marriage yesterday, becoming the world's fourth nation to grant full legal rights to same-sex couples. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin signed the legislation making it law, hours after it was approved by the Senate late Tuesday night despite strong opposition from Conservatives and religious leaders. The bill gives homosexual couples the same rights as those in traditional unions between a man and a woman, something already legal in eight of Canada's 10 provinces and in two of its three territories. The legislation drafted by Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal Party government easily passed the Senate. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain are the only other nations that allow gay marriage nationwide. (AP)
UNITED NATIONS
Annan seeks to boost Lebanese authority
The United Nations wants to help the Lebanese government expand its military presence in the south, with Syrian forces no longer in the country, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday. Annan's special envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, ''will discuss with the government the next steps in preparing for an expansion of its authority in the south, and the support the United Nations can provide to achieve this," Annan said in a report to the Security Council. Annan and the 15-nation council have been pressing the government to extend its authority across the south since Israel pulled out of the region in May 2000, ending two decades of occupation. Since the Israeli withdrawal, Hezbollah has dominated the area. But Hezbollah this week entered into the Lebanese government, the first formed since Syria pulled the last of its troops out of Lebanon in late April. Roed-Larsen said in Brussels this week that Syria's troop withdrawal had opened new opportunities and Hezbollah should now join Lebanon's army. (Reuters)
US opposes widening of Security Council
A senior US State Department official yesterday urged nations pushing for changing the UN Security Council to vote against any proposal calling for a major expansion of the 15-member body. Japan, Germany, Brazil, and India, known as the Group of Four, are negotiating with African Union members to enlarge the 15-member UN Security Council to 25 or 26, including six new permanent seats. The first step in expanding the council goes through the 191-member UN General Assembly where Washington has only one vote. Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary for political affairs, said he was telling delegations that it was too early for such an expansion. (Reuters)
ARUBA
DNA samples taken in case of missing teen
ORANJESTAD -- Authorities have taken DNA samples from a jailed Dutch youth and two of his friends as investigators turn their focus to physical evidence in the case of a missing Alabama teenager, defense attorneys said yesterday. The samples were taken Tuesday, a day after investigators said they would conduct DNA tests on blond hair attached to duct tape that was found along Aruba's northeastern coast, in a possible break to the six-week-old disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Joran van der Sloot, 17, was taken to a hospital and submitted a saliva sample, his attorney Richie Kock said. Two Surinamese brothers, Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, who were detained in the case but released, also submitted saliva samples the same day, said Ruud Offringa, an attorney for the older brother. (AP)
