Gwinnett Daily Post

MEXICO CITY -- Two glowing brides in white gowns made history Thursday as they wed under Latin America's first law that explicitly approves gay marriage.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard was officiating five same-sex marriages in one day, despite harsh criticism from the Roman Catholic Church and a campaign against the measure launched by President Felipe Calderon's conservative National Action Party.

Mexico City's legislature approved the first law explicitly giving gay marriages the same status as heterosexual ones in December. The legislation also allows same-sex couples to adopt children.

Vatican upset over condom machines

ROME -- The decision by a Rome high school to install condom vending machines has set off a storm in Italy, with the Catholic Church charging the move will encourage young people to have sex and Rome's mayor saying it sends the wrong message.

But the Keplero high school vowed Thursday to go ahead with its experiment, billed as the first in the capital. While it's a relative novelty for Italy, schools in several other European countries have installed the machines in hopes of curbing teen pregnancy and HIV.

''This is not about stimulating the use of condoms or intercourse,'' Antonio Panaccione, the school headmaster, told The Associated Press. ''On the contrary, it's about prevention and education.''

Yemen holds NJ man after al-Qaida sweep

BUENA, N.J. -- Yemen counterterrorism authorities captured a U.S. citizen of Somali origin after he shot his way out of a hospital in the Middle Eastern country, where he was being held after a sweep of al-Qaida members, authorities said Thursday.

Authorities in Yemen are holding Sharif Mobley, 26, who was being treated in Republican Hospital in San'a when he got into a shootout with guards, killing one, as he attempted to escape, said Mohammed Albasha, spokesman for Yemen's embassy in Washington.

Mobley graduated from high school in 2002 in the southern New Jersey town of Buena, and records show he had previously lived in Philadelphia and Newark, Del. It wasn't clear when he went to Yemen, though his mother said he was there in January.