WASHINGTON (AP) — In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court is turning to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples. A section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act says marriage may only be a relationship […]

BERLIN (AP) — Work crews backed by about 250 police removed parts of the Berlin Wall known as the East Side Gallery before dawn today to make way for an upscale building project, despite demands by protesters that the site be preserved. Residents of the area expressed shock at the move, which followed several protests […]

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria’s increasingly isolated president appealed today to the leaders of a five-nation economic forum meeting in South Africa to help end his country’s two-year conflict. Bashar Assad’s appeal came a day after the Arab League endorsed Syria’s Western-backed opposition coalition, delivering another blow to the regime in Damascus. Assad sent a […]

PARIS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed for home today after making clandestine journeys to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he delivered a stern warning to Iraqi leaders about Syria and sought to patch up differences with Afghanistan’s president. Kerry was flying back to Washington from Paris, having piggy-backed off President Barack Obama’s […]

PARIS (AP) — The father of a 16-year-old West Paris girl killed in a car crash last year has sued the driver and three others. Rebecca Mason’s father this week filed suit in Oxford County Superior Court against 19- year-old Kristina Lowe, the driver of the car in which his daughter was a passenger. Mason […]