California court overturns ban on gay marriage
The state Supreme Court's 4-to-3 decision makes California only the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages.
- Gay couples celebrate California court ruling

German economy leads euro area to surprisingly robust quarter
Germany posted 1.5 percent growth in the first quarter, appearing to validate the path taken by the European Central Bank not to cut interest rates.

Food crisis looms in Myanmar
Tens of thousands of farming families lost their draft animals, their rice stocks and their seeds.
- Myanmar junta claims 92.4 percent approval for constitution
- Amid secrecy, tales of survival in Myanmar
- Myanmar junta warns people not to hoard aid
- Junta is stealing aid, relief groups assert
- Voters approve new constitution, Myanmar's junta says

Celebrity scandal fuels challenge to South Korean adultery law
The divorce lawsuit between Ok So Ri, a star actress, and Park Chul, a TV personality, has evolved into an attack on the constitutionality of South Korea's adultery law.

Medvedev tours Russian missile base
President Dmitri Medvedev made his debut Thursday as the commander in chief of Russia's armed forces, touring a missile base and promising to provide the necessary funding for nuclear forces to counter global threats.

Civil servants and teachers in France strike against cutbacks
Hundreds of thousands of French teachers and civil servants staged a one-day strike throughout the country Thursday to protest government plans to cut jobs in the public sector.
- Child obesity rates level off in France

Russian leaders pledge to stimulate oil production
The new Russian energy czar, Igor Sechin, says oil production will grow this year despite a decline since the start of the year and meager growth last year.
- OPEC, again, trims forecast for global growth in oil demand
- Despite expense, oil-producing countries keep subsidies in place

OPEC, again, trims forecast for global growth in oil demand
The second cut this year is latest sign that record high oil prices are slowing consumption in the industrialized world.

Billionaire investor moves to oust board of Yahoo and push for its sale
Carl Icahn moved to press Yahoo to restart talks to sell itself to Microsoft.

Along the Sadr City wall, cease-fire means nothing
The five-kilometer concrete barrier being built through the Baghdad slum of Sadr City is nearing completion, but militias are intent on blowing holes in it and killing the troops that guard it.
- Iraqi troops search for Qaeda fighters in Mosul
- 8 killed, 19 wounded in Sadr City

2 Buddhist teachers vow never to be more than 15 feet apart
Michael Roach and Christie McNally, Buddhist teachers with a growing following, took vows never to be more than about 15 feet apart.

Deal reached on truce in Sadr City
Shiite leaders in Parliament and in the Sadrist movement agreed to a truce that would end more than a month of bloody fighting in the Baghdad ghetto.