Pierre, S.D. – A South Dakota bill to ban most abortions in a direct challenge to Roe vs. Wade appeared dead Wednesday after a state Senate committee rejected it.
The 8-1 vote marked the third time in four years that measures to bar abortion in South Dakota were defeated. The Legislature passed an even stricter ban last year, but it was rejected by voters in November.
Supporters had hoped to use the new law to prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its 1973 ruling declaring the right to an abortion. The bill would have allowed abortions only in cases of rape, incest, a threat of severe injury to a woman’s health and to save a woman’s life.
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PROVIDENCE, R.I.
AG seeks to recognize Mass. gay marriages
Rhode Island should recognize state employees’ gay marriages that are performed in neighboring Massachusetts and extend benefits to their partners, the state’s attorney general said in an opinion released Wednesday.
Rhode Island prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and also extends benefits such as health insurance to domestic partners of state employees, Attorney General Patrick Lynch noted in the opinion, requested by the Board of Governors for Higher Education.
He said that with the absence of a law banning gay marriage, there’s no strong reason to deny recognition to gay marriages performed in Massachusetts, the only state where such unions are legal.
WASHINGTON
Gallaudet in danger of losing accreditation
The nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf could lose its accreditation unless it addresses concerns about weak academic standards, ineffective governance and a lack of tolerance for diverse views, an education oversight group warned.
Gallaudet University was rocked by student demonstrations last fall that shut down the university for several days and forced the board to revoke the appointment of a new president.
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education said it was delaying a decision on whether to renew the school’s accreditation because of concerns raised during the protests and because of a 2005 federal report that rated Gallaudet “ineffective.” The federal Office of Management of Budget this month gave Gallaudet an improved evaluation, to “adequate.”
Gallaudet receives more than $100 million annually from the federal government. Its graduation rates have consistently been below 50 percent.
Accreditation, which is voluntary, signals that a school meets certain basic standards and is required for students to be eligible for federal financial aid.
EL TIGRE, Venezuela
Argentine chief vows friendship to Chavez
Argentina’s president pledged on Wednesday to deepen ties with Venezuela, snubbing a U.S. diplomatic effort to counter the influence of leftist President Hugo Chavez in South America.
President Nestor Kirchner offered wholehearted support to Chavez less than two weeks after meeting with top U.S. State Department officials who expressed concern that the Venezuelan leader was steering his country toward authoritarianism.
“It cannot be that it bothers anyone that our nations become integrated,” Kirchner said during a one-day visit to Venezuela in which the two countries signed a series of economic cooperation agreements.
In a visit partly seen as an attempt to counter Chavez, President Bush plans to travel to several Latin American countries next month, including Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.
BANGKOK, Thailand
Insurgents suspected in motorcade ambush
Suspected Muslim insurgents ambushed the motorcade of a confidante of Thailand’s queen in the country’s restive south Wednesday, police said.
The attack, in Yala province, wounded a policeman protecting the convoy of Wiriya Chawakul, the head of a prominent foundation, said police Lt. Col. Dechawut Jehteh, the deputy police chief in Bannang Sata district. It came just a few hours after other suspected insurgents set fire to a large warehouse for rubber – a cornerstone of the region’s economy.
Queen Sirikit was not in the area, and it was unclear if the attackers knew who their target was. The queen has taken an active stand against the insurgents’ violence. Wiriya heads a foundation backed by the queen to support military, police and village defense volunteers.
Muslims, who are the majority in the far south, have long complained of being treated as second-class citizens in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.
