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EU Fights for Treaty Despite Irish No Vote
 LUXEMBOURG — European Union foreign ministers insisted on Monday that the EU reform treaty was alive despite Ireland’s “No” vote but conceded they had no quick fixes for rescuing it. Their monthly meeting in Luxembourg was a first opportunity for EU officials to start picking up the pieces after Thursday’s Irish referendum cast doubt over the survival of a pact meant to bolster ... |
Marriage For Gays Now Legal In California
SAN FRANCISCO — Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin fell in love at a time when lesbians risked being arrested, fired from their jobs and sent to electroshock treatment. On Monday, more than a half-century after they became a couple, Lyon and Martin plan to become one of the first same-sex couples to legally exchange marriage vows in California. “It was something you wanted to know, ‘Is it really going to happen?’ And now it’s happened, and maybe it can continue to happen,” Lyon says. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom plans to officiate at the private ceremony in his City Hall office before 50 invited guests. He picked Martin, 87, and Lyon, 84, for the front of the line in recognition of their long relationship and their status as pioneers of the gay rights movement. Along with six other women, they founded a San Francisco social ... |
China Suffers Floods After Quake
BEIJING — Thousands of victims of China’s earthquake are moving to escape a new threat from rain-triggered landslides, officials said on Monday, while floods battered the nation’s southern trade powerhouse. The May 12 quake centered in the southwest province of Sichuan killed at least 70,000 people and shattered slopes in the mountainous region, parts of which have seen heavy rainfall. With continued tremors jolting hillsides, officials have decided to relocate 50,000 residents at risk of landslides in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the quake. “Continued tremors and multiple strong tremors have constantly caused shore collapses and mudslides on fragile slopes in Wenchuan County, and damaged houses have constantly collapsed in the tremors,” the Xinhua news agency reported. Last week, county officials told threatened ... |
