World/Nation Briefs June 25, 2011

New York approves same-sex marriage

NEW YORK - Champagne corks popped, rainbow flags flapped and crowds embraced and danced in the streets of Manhattan's Greenwich Village on Friday night moments after the New York Senate gave final approval to same-sex marriage, igniting wild celebrations at the Stonewall Inn, considered the birthplace of the gay rights movement.

Hundreds gathered inside and outside the landmark bar, where protests over a 1969 police raid helped trigger the movement. Shortly before midnight, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill to make New York the sixth and largest state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Scott Redstone and his partner of 29 years, Steven Knittweis, were in the bar when the vote came in. Redstone, 57, said he and his 48-year-old partner hugged after the vote came in. "I said, 'Will you marry me?' And he said, 'Of course!'" He said they walked home and popped open a bottle of champagne.

On June 28, 1969, violent encounters between police and gay activists outside the bar known as the Stonewall riots helped spark the modern-day movement for equal rights for homosexuals.

"I am spellbound. I'm so exhausted and so proud that the New York State Senate finally stood on the right side of history," said Queens teacher Eugene Lovendusky, 26, who is gay and said he hopes to marry someday.

He then repeated a chant he had screamed during a protest at a fundraiser for President Barack Obama last night: "I am somebody. I deserve full equality."

House: Obama lacks Libya war authority

WASHINGTON - Challenging presidential power, a defiant U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Friday to deny President Barack Obama the authority to wage war against Libya. But Republicans fell short in an effort to actually cut off funds for the operation in a constitutional showdown reflecting both political differences and unease over American involvement.

In a repudiation of their commander in chief, House members rejected a measure to authorize the Libya mission for a year while prohibiting U.S. ground forces in the North African nation, a resolution Obama had said he would welcome.

The vote was 295-123 with 70 Democrats abandoning the president just one day after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had made an unusual appeal to rank-and-file members. A Senate committee is to consider the same resolution next Tuesday and is expected to support it, raising the prospect of conflicting messages from Congress.

Friday's votes showed lawmakers' concerns about an open-ended U.S. commitment to a civil war between Moammar Gadhafi and rebel forces looking to oust him - as well as growing weariness among Americans with drawn-out conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mob boss Bulger could out corrupt FBI agents

BOSTON - James "Whitey" Bulger's capture could cause a world of trouble inside the FBI.

The ruthless Boston crime boss who spent 16 years on the lam is said to have boasted that he corrupted six FBI agents and more than 20 police officers. If he decides to talk, some of them could rue the day he was caught.

"They are holding their breath, wondering what he could say," said Robert Fitzpatrick, the former second-in-command of the Boston FBI office.

The gangster was captured Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., where he apparently had been living for most of the time he was a fugitive. He appeared Friday afternoon inside a heavily guarded federal courthouse in Boston to answer charges he committed 19 murders.

Bulger, 81, wearing jeans and a white shirt, looked tan and fit and walked with a slight hunch at back-to-back hearings on two indictments. He asked that a public defender be appointed to represent him, but the government objected, citing the $800,000 seized from his Southern California apartment and his "family resources."

Syrians march demanding Assad ouster; 15 killed

BEIRUT - Defying government guns, thousands of Syrian protesters poured down city streets and a main highway Friday to press demands for President Bashar Assad's ouster. Security forces opened fire, killing at least 15 people, including two children, activists said.

Syria's streets have become the stage for a test of endurance between a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement, bloodied but resilient, and an iron-fisted but embattled regime. The latest round of protests and killings came as international pressure mounted on Assad. The Syrian opposition says 1,400 people have been killed.

Souris River soars nearly 4 feet in Minot

MINOT, N.D. - The Souris River's full weight hit Minot on Friday, swamping an estimated 2,500 homes as it soared nearly 4 feet in less than a day and overwhelmed the city's levees. City officials said they expected more than 4,000 homes to be flooded by day's end.

More than a quarter of the city's 40,000 residents evacuated earlier this week, packing any belongings they hoped to save into cars, trucks and trailers. Fed by heavy rains upstream and dam releases that have accelerated in recent days, the Souris surged past a 130-year-old record Friday and kept going.

- The Associated Press