Gay-marriage foes in Mass. say ballot requirements met
Boston – Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment to put a stop to gay marriage in Massachusetts said Tuesday they have gathered almost twice the number of signatures needed to put it on the ballot in 2008.
Beyond the signatures, the proposal needs to be approved by two successive sessions of the state legislature before it can be placed before voters.
The Massachusetts Family Institute and its online counterpart, www.voteonmarriage.org, said they will submit more than 120,000 signatures before today’s 5 p.m. deadline. The measure needed the support of 65,825 registered voters.
The proposed amendment seeks to undo a 2003 ruling by Massachusetts’ highest court that said gays are entitled to marry.
In May 2004, the nation’s first state-sanctioned gay marriages began taking place, and thousands of same-sex couples have since tied the knot.
The Massachusetts Republican Party and Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate, also supported the petition drive.
LANCASTER, Pa.
Lawyer: Girl was only “a witness” in slayings
A 14-year-old girl who ran off with her boyfriend after he allegedly gunned down her parents did not know that he was going to kill them, her lawyer said Tuesday.
“All she is is a witness. And a victim to the extent that her parents were killed,” the attorney, Robert Beyer, said in a telephone interview.
Beyer spoke out a day after prosecutors said Kara Borden had fled willingly with David Ludwig. He said Borden had no role in the shootings of Michael and Cathryn Borden inside their Lititz home on Nov. 13.
Prosecutors announced Monday that they would drop kidnapping charges against Ludwig after interviews with Ludwig and Borden determined she had gone with him voluntarily. The case initially had been treated as an abduction.
NEW YORK
Koppel bids farewell to ABC’s “Nightline”
In an understated farewell Tuesday to the ABC News broadcast he has anchored for more than 25 years, Ted Koppel asked “Nightline” viewers to give his successors a fair break.
“If you don’t,” he said, “I promise you the network will just put another comedy show in this time slot. Then you’ll be sorry.”
It was one last dig in retaliation for his show’s most harrowing episode, when ABC executives in 2002 secretly courted David Letterman to replace “Nightline.” Letterman decided to stay at CBS, and the attempt blew up in management’s face.
“Nightline” will continue Monday with a revamped format and hosts Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran.
PHILADELPHIA
Dance-contest dispute leads to fatal shooting
A man was shot to death in a dispute that began at a dance contest when his teenage stepson hit another boy while performing flailing dance moves, police said.
Donald Clyburn, 41, was shot in the head near his home in the city’s Kensington neighborhood.
Police issued a warrant for the mother of the boy who was hit in the contest. Patricia Hayward, 39, was wanted on murder charges.
The dispute started when Clyburn’s stepson, Alex Ledino, struck another boy with his elbow on Nov. 15 during an impromptu neighborhood contest. Ledino said that it was an accident and that he apologized.
Hayward then went to the Clyburn home, got into an argument and shot Clyburn, witnesses said.
TOKYO
Party proposal would increase military role
Japan’s ruling party marked its 50th anniversary Tuesday with a proposed constitutional change that could give the nation a more assertive international military presence.
The pacifist constitution’s first alteration since its adoption in 1947 would create an official role for the Japanese armed forces. The language of the revision would then allow those forces to assist military allies and help with armed international peacekeeping, according to outside experts and members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan maintains a small domestic self-defense force under the current constitution.
KABUL, Afghanistan
U.S. service member, Afghan die in blast
A roadside bomb tore through an American armored vehicle in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing a U.S. service member and an Afghan interpreter, the military said.
The vehicle was part of a military resupply convoy in Uruzgan province, an area racked by Taliban rebel violence, a military statement said.
