Iowa high court strikes down same-sex marriage ban

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that banned same-sex marriage. Iowa becomes the third state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut. Friday’s decision upheld a 2007 ruling by a lower court that Iowa’s 1998 law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples went against the state’s constitution.

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Malaysia swears in new prime minister

Malaysia swore in a new prime minister on Friday, the country’s state news agency reported. Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak became Malaysia’s sixth prime minister after taking over for from Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who stepped down after leading the country for more than five years, according to the Bernama news agency.

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Malaysia PM resigns; deputy to assume post

Malaysia will swear in a new prime minister Friday — one tasked with reuniting a multi-racial nation and shoring up an economy in dire straits. Until now, Najib Razak had served as the Southeast Asian country’s deputy prime minister. He succeeds Abdullah Badawi who turned in his resignation after five years as leader.

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Obama’s Budget: Earmarks Aren’t the Real Problem

When it comes to Congressional earmarks, it’s hard to decide who’s the biggest hypocrite. The current media favorite is President Obama, who sought earmarks as a senator, criticized earmarks as a candidate, and now plans to sign a spending bill stuffed with nearly 9,000 earmarks. But what about earmark-addicted Republicans, who oversaw an unprecedented explosion of earmarks when they controlled Congress, resisted efforts by Obama and other Democrats to inject accountability into the earmark process, and even grabbed over 40% of the earmarks in the current bill, yet have the gall to blast Obama’s cave-in

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Chavez orders nationalization of Cargill

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday he had ordered the nationalization of at least some of the operations of the U.S.-based food giant Cargill and threatened to do the same with the Caracas-based food maker Polar. “Begin the expropriation process with Cargill,” he said in a nationally televised speech in which he accused the company of growing specialized forms of rice in an attempt to evade price controls

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12 killed, 25 hurt in Slovakia bus-train collision

At least 12 people were killed and 25 were injured Saturday when a train collided with a bus in Slovakia, government officials said. “Having considered the matter, the government adheres to its previously articulated position,” said a Justice Department document filed in federal court in Washington.

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Catholic Judges and Abortion: Did the Pope Set New Rules?

Much has been made of the statement on abortion that Pope Benedict XVI issued earlier this week after meeting with Nancy Pelosi. But the Vatican’s choice of words as they related to the Speaker of the House was quite predictable, given her pro-choice stance and her position as a high-ranking Catholic Democrat. The Holy Father simply made clear their differences on the issue and reminded the American politician of her responsibilities as a Catholic to protect life “at all stages of its development.” What was quite surprising, and overlooked, had to do with a different branch of the U.S

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