Fridae

Australian government again thwarts local gay marriage law
Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock announced Tuesday night that the Commonwealth would override the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government Bill for a second time.

It would be the second time Conservative Prime Minister John Howard's government is invoking special powers to invalidate a territory's law that had been the first in Australia giving legal recognition to same-sex relationships.

ACT, which includes the national capital Canberra, has twice drafted laws that would make it the first of Australia's six states and two territories to legally recognise gay and lesbian relationships which will accord same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual partnerships under proposed "civil partnership" laws.

"It remains the government's opinion that the Civil Partnership Bill would still in its amended form be likely to undermine the institution of marriage," Ruddock said in a statement.

Ruddock was also worried that a formal ceremony to mark a same-sex union would undermine the traditional marriage ceremony.

"We're not about to make same sex relationships a formal marriage," Ruddock told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Wednesday.

ACT Attorney General Simon Corbell said he hoped the conservative federal government would lose power in elections this year so that the ACT could make its own laws.

Calling the Federal Government's reasons for overturning the Bill weak and vague, he said to ABC Radio today: "It just beggars belief that we have a Commonwealth Government that really isn't able to give any substantive argument and just says, `well we think it offends the institution of marriage,' well, what does that mean?"

Officials in Howard's center-right coalition amended federal marriage laws in 2004 to ensure that only men and women can marry.

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French blogger charged with inciting murder for allegedly writing anti-gay blog
A man in the Caribbean island of Martinique, a French territory, has been charged with incitement of murder for advocating the killing of gay people on his blog.

Prosecutor Claude Bellanger said that the suspect, who is identified only as a 38-year-old man from Fort-de-France, was held in jail for two days after surrendering to authorities last Friday

Bellanger said the suspect told investigators that he created the blog which called for "death to (homosexuals) ... death without exception" while on vacation in the US city of Atlanta.

On his blog, he called for the killing of certain media personalities and government officials whom he alleged to be gay.

Alerted by the authorities in Martinique, an investigation conducted by the Atlanta police led to his identification. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a �45,000 (US$58,200) fine. No court date has been set for the case.

Martinique, a French island in the southeast Caribbean, is home to 436,000 people.

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Haggard pronounced 'completely heterosexual'
Just after three weeks of intense counseling, disgraced former minister Ted Haggard is now "completely heterosexual," pronounced one of the four pastors on the board overseeing his counseling.

Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur was quoted by The Denver Post as saying: "He is completely heterosexual. That is something he discovered. It was the acting- out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."

Ralph said the board after investigating Haggard's claim that his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the board found no evidence to the contrary.

"If we're going to be proved wrong (about Haggard only having contact with Mike Jones), somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly. We're into this thing over 90 days, and it hasn't happened," said Ralph.

Haggard, who is married and a vocal opponent of gay marriage, resigned as the pastor of his 14,000-member New Life Church that he founded and president of the National Association of Evangelicals last year after publicly admitted to ''sexual immorality.''

Haggard, 50, sent an email to members of his New Life church saying that he and his wife plan to pursue master's degrees in psychology and was considering Missouri and Iowa.