AP Posts

An openly gay Utah state senator didn't just give a speech at a party celebrating two Supreme Court victories for gay rights - he took to the stage to propose to his longtime boyfriend.

Democratic state Sen. Jim Dabakis popped the question to partner Stephen Justesen Wednesday at a rainbow flag-draped rally at Salt Lake City's Club Sound. The two met 26 years ago.

In December 2011, President Barack Obama signed a memorandum instructing federal agencies to promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people overseas. Here are some developments concerning anti-gay legislation in Africa since the memorandum was issued.

A 6-year-old transgender girl will be able to return to school after winning the right to use the girls' bathroom. The New York-based Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund announced the ruling in favor of Coy Mathis on Sunday. Lawyers plan to explain the ruling Monday in Denver.

The Supreme Court has sent a Texas case on race-based college admissions back to a lower court for another look.

The court's 7-1 decision Monday leaves unsettled many of the basic questions about the continued use of race as a factor in college admissions.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey asked the state's two legal abortion clinics on Monday to answer a series of questions about their practices and their policies for ensuring patient safety as he investigates whether any regulatory changes are needed.

President Barack Obama is calling for a one-third reduction of the world's nuclear stockpiles. Speaking at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate, a powerful symbol of the Cold War, Obama said it's possible to ensure American security and reduce nuclear weapons.

The former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs said in a new interview in Hong Kong on Wednesday that he is not attempting to hide from justice here but hopes to use the city as a base to reveal wrongdoing.

Edward Snowden dropped out of sight after checking out of a Hong Kong hotel on Monday. The South China Morning Post newspaper said it

Risking prosecution by the U.S. government, a 29-year-old intelligence analyst who claims to have worked at the National Security Agency and the CIA was revealed as the source of The Guardian's and The Washington Post's disclosures about the U.S. government's secret surveillance programs, the newspapers reported Sunday.

Britain's Guardian newspaper says the National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a secret court order.

The newspaper said Wednesday the order was issued in April and was good until July 19. The newspaper said the order requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.

Dozens of residents and property owners are suing ExxonMobil Pipeline Co. two months after a pipeline ruptured and spilled thousands of barrels of oil in the central Arkansas city of Mayflower.

The manager of the sexual harassment and assault response program at Fort Campbell, Ky., was arrested in a domestic dispute and relieved of his post, authorities said Thursday.

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has redeemed a political career sidelined by scandal by winning his old congressional seat. Sanford defeated Elizabeth Colbert Busch Tuesday in the state's 1st Congressional District.

A state Senate committee on Wednesday sent a bill authorizing same-sex marriage in Delaware to the full Senate for a vote next week. The measure, supported by Democratic Gov. Jack Markell, cleared the Senate executive committee Wednesday after a 90-minute hearing.

If the bills wins Senate passage and is signed by Markell, Delaware likely would become the 11th state to authorize same-sex marriage. A bill allowing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island was scheduled for a final and largely procedural vote Thursday, and Gov. Lincoln Chafee is expected to sign the bill into law quickly after it passes, making Rhode Island the 10th state to recognize same-sex marriage.

President Barack Obama strongly suggested Tuesday he'd consider military action against Syria if it can be confirmed that President Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons in the two-year-old civil war.

At a White House news conference, the president also defended the FBI's work in monitoring the activities in recent years of one of the men accused in the deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon two weeks ago.

The charge connects Velazquez to a highly damaging spy case. During the 16 years Montes was a U.S. intelligence analyst for the DIA, she revealed the identities of four undercover agents to Cuban officials.

Amid the celebration surrounding the opening of son George W. Bush's presidential library, former first lady Barbara Bush is brushing aside talk of a Jeb Bush run for the White House. Appearing in an interview Thursday on NBC's Today show, Mrs. Bush was asked how she felt about Jeb, the former governor of Florida, seeking the presidency in 2016.

The father of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing claims that his son who is still on the loose is a smart and accomplished young man.

Hundreds of jubilant gay-rights advocates celebrated at New Zealand's Parliament as the country become the thirteenth in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. Lawmakers voted 77 to 44 Wednesday night in favor of the gay-marriage bill.

The Vermont House has given final approval to a bill that would remove criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Instead of a criminal penalty, those caught with up to an ounce of pot would face a civil fine like a traffic ticket of up to $300.

Investigators appealed to the public Tuesday for amateur video and photos that might yield clues to the Boston Marathon bombing as the chief FBI agent in Boston vowed "we will go to the ends of the Earth" to find whoever carried out the deadly attack.

Two bombs blew up seconds apart Monday at the finish line of one of the world's most storied races, tearing off limbs and leaving the streets spattered with blood and strewn with broken glass. Three people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, and more than 170 were wounded.