World News

BELFAST -- Northern Ireland's power-sharing government will soon face a human rights legal case over its refusal to allow gay couples to marry, warns Amnesty International and local LGBT rights organization the Rainbow Project. [ Read more → ]

PARIS -- Paris riot police fought back crowds who pushed their way onto Paris' landmark Champs-Elysees avenue as part of a huge protest against a draft law allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. [ Read more → ]

ASUNCION, Paraguay - A Paraguayan married, gay couple are demanding to be recognized as spouses under the law. [ Read more → ]

A young British man has been sentenced to 3 ½ in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter charges in the death of an openly gay, autistic teen at his birthday party last year by dousing him in oil and setting him on fire. [ Read more → ]

LONDON — Britain's High Court ruled Friday that the mayor of London acted lawfully when he banned bus ads from a Christian group suggesting that homosexuality can be cured. [ Read more → ]

LONDON — The new archbishop of Canterbury was formally enthroned Thursday — and questions about the Church of England's opposition to same-sex marriage greeted his promotion. [ Read more → ]

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Cameroon prosecutes people for consensual same-sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world, four human rights organizations said in a report released Thursday. [ Read more → ]

Reports by an LGBT activist group in Africa that a gay Somalian teenager was stoned to death last week as a punishment for the crime of homosexuality, and widely reported by LGBT bloggers on Wednesday, may prove to be false. [ Read more → ]

OTTAWA -- Canada's House of Commons on Wednesday passed a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against transgender people. The bill now goes to the Senate, which is unelected and is expected to approve it. [ Read more → ]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico's government is supporting an effort to overturn a ban on gay adoption in the U.S. island territory. [ Read more → ]

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — While the appointment of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope has filled many in this deeply Catholic country with pride, members of the gay community are unsurprisingly less than enthusiastic with the Vatican's choice. [ Read more → ]

AMSTERDAM — A Dutch lesbian couple have gone into hiding with their foster son after the boy's biological parents said on television in Turkey that they object to the pair taking care of their child. [ Read more → ]

VATICAN CITY — Argentine Jorge Bergoglio has been elected pope, the first ever from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium. He chose the name Pope Francis. [ Read more → ]

WARSAW, Poland — Polish prosecutors say they will not charge former President Lech Walesa with hate crimes for recent remarks deemed offensive to gays. [ Read more → ]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill allowing same-sex marriage Wednesday, all but assuring that it will soon become law. [ Read more → ]

LONDON -- Debate is raging between LGBT advocates over whether Queen Elizabeth II supports gay rights following a ceremony Monday in which the 86-year-old monarch signed a charter which calls for an end to discrimination across the 54 Commonwealth nations. [ Read more → ]

LONDON -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II on Monday will sign a charter calling for an end to discrimination across the 54 Commonwealth nations, according to a statement by Buckingham Palace. [ Read more → ]

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada -- A Canadian foreign affairs official acknowledged Friday that there are ongoing efforts to fund grassroots Ugandan LGBTQ advocacy organizations who are battling efforts by the Ugandan Parliament to pass that country’s proposed anti-homosexuality bill. [ Read more → ]

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's Supreme Court has ruled that two homophobic words commonly used in Mexico to humiliate gay men are not protected as freedom of expression under the constitution, allowing those offended by them to sue for moral damages. [ Read more → ]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A lesbian whose adoption request was recently denied by Puerto Rico's Supreme Court is appealing the ruling. [ Read more → ]