***DUPLICATION ALERTS:
BUSINESS: NOTE MEXICO INFRASTRUCTURE BRIEF.
OHIO: AIR FORCE BRIEF ALSO MOVED AS A SEPARATE.
ATLANTA: NOTE PANDA BIRTH BRIEF.
SPORTS: SANDUSKY BRIEF. CHECK YOUR LINEUPS****
CALIFORNIA
Court declines to stop gay marriages
The California Supreme Court refused Monday to order the state to immediately stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. However, the court plans to consider whether the governor and attorney general correctly instructed county clerks that a voter-approved ban on gay marriages had become legally invalid statewide. The court denied a request made Friday by backers of the ban for an emergency order that would have required the state to keep enforcing Proposition 8 while they pursue a last-ditch legal effort to preserve it.
NORTH DAKOTA
Judge declares abortion law unconstitutional
A 2011 North Dakota law that outlaws one of two drugs used in nonsurgical abortions violates the state and U.S. constitutions, a state judge ruled Monday. After a three-day trial in April, East Central Judge Wickham Corwin said he’d rule in favor of the state’s sole abortion clinic, calling the 2011 state law “simply wrongheaded.” Corwin officially ruled on the case Monday. “No compelling state interest justifies this infringement,” Corwin wrote in his 58-page ruling. He already had granted an injunction preventing the law from taking effect.
BANGLADESH
Ex-Islamic leader gets 90 years
A Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal sentenced an aged but still powerful Islamist to 90 years in jail for crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan, drawing fury from those who found the punishment either too harsh or too weak. The Islamist, Ghulam Azam, who is 91 and in ill health, was convicted on all five major counts against him, including murder, conspiracy, and incitement and complicity to genocide. The tribunal concluded that a death sentence would have been appropriate for the charges but instead handed down what is effectively life in prison.
MEXICO
Major infrastructure plans announced
The Mexican government announced plans Monday to invest about $100 billion in rail, road, telecom and port projects over the next five years, including Mexico’s first high-speed rail links. Among the projects are the modernization or building of four airports, seven seaports and about 3,350 miles of highways. The government will strengthen fiber optic networks and expand broadband Internet access, and speed up freight train service.
VIRGINIA
Air Force combat craft flying again
Grounded since April because of budget cuts, many of the Air Force’s combat aircraft started flying again Monday, the military announced. The grounding affected about one-third of active-duty combat craft, including squadrons of fighters, bombers, and airborne warning and control craft. The popular Thunderbirds demonstration team also will resume training flights, but all 2013 shows will remain canceled.
CANADA
More bodies found in derailment wreckage
Police recovered two more bodies in the wreckage of a runaway oil train’s explosive derailment that killed 50 people in a Quebec town. Provincial police Inspector Michel Forget said Monday that 37 bodies have been recovered and 13 remain missing. The coroner’s office says two more bodies have been identified, bringing the total of those identified to 11.
ATLANTA
Giant panda gives birth to twins
A spokeswoman for Zoo Atlanta says a giant panda named Lun Lun has given birth to twins. Keisha Hines said Lun Lun gave birth Monday evening, surprising zookeepers with the first twins born at Zoo Atlanta. Lun Lun was artificially inseminated in March. Zookeepers weren’t sure of the genders of the cubs, and there was no immediate update on the condition of the mother or offspring.
PENNSYLVANIA
University gets federal Sandusky report
Penn State received a preliminary report from the federal government regarding whether its handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal complied with campus crime reporting requirements, the university said Monday. The school said that neither it nor the U.S. Department of Education was permitted under the law to release information about the report now but details will be made public after the federal agency finishes its review and makes a final determination.
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