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For Minn. gay marriage sponsors, it's personal

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday signed a bill making gay marriage legal in Minnesota, the 12th state to take the step, as thousands of onlookers cheered.

What a day for Minnesota! Dayton, a Democrat, declared moments before putting his signature on a bill. And what a difference a year and an election can make in our state.

Rainbow and American flags flapped in a sweltering breeze during the ceremony, held on the Capitols south steps. The crowd, estimated by the State Patrol at 6,000, spilled down the steps and across the lawn toward downtown St. Paul.

Dayton thanked legislators for political courage before signing the bill just a day after it passed the state Senate. It passed the House last week.

The push for gay marriage was a rapid turnabout from just six months ago, when gay marriage supporters had to mobilize to turn back a proposed constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage. Minnesota already had such a law, but an amendment would have been harder to undo.

But voters rejected the amendment, and the forces that organized to defeat it soon turned their attention to legalizing gay marriage. Democrats takeover of the Legislature in the November election aided their cause.

The two main sponsors of the bill, Rep. Karen Clark and Sen. Scott Dibble, were among the onlookers as Dayton signed, capping their long and often discouraging struggle to advance gay rights.

Clark, 67, was first elected to the Legislature in 1980, a decade after she came out of the closet to her parents. In 1993, her by-then elderly parents marched with her in the Minneapolis gay pride parade a few weeks after she led the effort to extend Minnesotas civil rights protections to gay people.

But by 1997, the same Legislature passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which restricted marriage to only opposite-sex couples. A year later, Clark introduced a bill to repeal it and allow gay marriage.

It took 16 years to get to this week, which comes two years after the 2011 Legislature then controlled by Republicans put an amendment on the statewide ballot asking voters to cement the existing gay marriage ban in the state constitution.

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Israeli warplanes strike Gaza Strip

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, November 21, 2012.

Israeli warplanes have carried out three airstrikes on Palestinian targets in the Gaza Strip, witnesses say.

Palestinian witnesses said that the Israeli aircraft bombarded areas in the southern town of Khan Younis and near the town of Rafah in southern Gaza during the early hours of Sunday.

There have been no reports of casualties.

The Israeli military confirmed the airstrikes.

In early April, Tel Aviv also conducted airstrikes on Gaza for the first time since a truce ended an eight-day Israeli war on the Palestinian territory in November 2012.

Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and about 1,200 others were injured in the Israeli attacks from November 14 to 21.

Gaza has been blockaded by Israel since June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as adequate healthcare and education.

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Israeli warplanes strike Gaza Strip

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Tensions flare up in Gaza strip

Tensions flare up in Gaza strip

(Reuters) / 4 April 2013

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM Israel pressed Hamas on Wednesday to rein in rocket-firing militants in the Gaza Strip after the most serious outbreak of cross-border hostilities since the ceasefire that ended an eight-day war in November.

The flare-up, sparked by anger in Gaza over Tuesdays death from cancer of a Palestinian prisoner held by Israel, included the first Israeli air strike in the Hamas-run enclave since the truce.

By afternoon, the frontier had fallen quiet, an indication that Israel and Hamas were weighing their moves carefully after four months of relative calm that has enabled Gaza residents to rebuild and Israelis near the border to live without the familiar blaring of sirens warning of incoming rockets.

The Israeli military said two rockets fired from Gaza had struck southern Israel in a morning attack on Wednesday, causing no casualties, hours after its planes targeted two extensive terror sites in the north of the territory. Israel launched the air strike after three rockets hit its south on Tuesday. An Al Qaeda-linked group, Magles Shoura Al Mujahadeen, claimed responsibility for that attack and Wednesdays salvo, saying it was responding to the death of the 64-year-old prisoner, Maysara Abu Hamdeya.

Tuesday was the third time since the November truce that rockets from Gaza had struck Israel. But with a new government and defence minister now in place after weeks of coalition-building since a January election, Israel seemed keen to show resolve, putting the onus on Hamas to prevent any rocket fire. (Israels armed forces) decided to attack overnight in order to signal to Hamas that we will not suffer any strike on the south. And any shooting will meet a response, in order to restore quiet for the south soon, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, the chief military spokesman, said on Army Radio.

I assess that Hamas has no interest in seeing the situation deteriorate, he said. Our goal is to maintain the quiet.

Spillover from the civil war in Syria mortar and machinegun fire toward Israeli troops in the occupied Golan Heights has also heightened Israeli concern.

We will absolutely not allow any sporadic fire toward our citizens and our forces, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said in a statement, referring to the situations on the frontiers with both Gaza and Syria.

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Tensions flare up in Gaza strip

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Air strike launched on Gaza Strip

Israel has launched an air strike on the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the first such attack since an eight-day war in November, Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the territory, and Israels military said.

Occupation planes bombarded an open area in northern Gaza, there were no wounded, a statement from the Hamas Interior Ministry said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed there had been a strike in Gaza, but gave no further details.

Israel and Hamas agreed to an Egyptian-mediated truce in November, after eight days of fighting, in which 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed.

Israel launched the 2012 offensive with the declared aim of ending Palestinian rocket fire into its territory.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military said Palestinians launched three rockets at Israel. Two landed in Gaza and one hit an open area in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries.

No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rockets.

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COUNTERPOINTS: A closer look at Occupy Oakland

Published on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 Last updated on 11:31PM, Wednesday, March 27, 2013 Occupy Oakland is an easy target for criticism.

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COUNTERPOINTS: A closer look at Occupy Oakland

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Clinton Joins Other Dems in Backing Gay Marriage

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s embrace of gay marriage Monday signals she may be seriously weighing a 2016 presidential run and trying to avoid the type of late-to-the-party caution that hurt her first bid.

Her chief Democratic rivals endorsed same-sex marriage as much as seven years ago, and it’s widely popular with Democratic and independent voters.

By supporting gay marriage a full two years before the next presidential primary warms up, Clinton may render the issue largely settled among Democrats, should she decide to run.

But things could be vastly different in the November 2016 general election, regardless who wins the Democratic nomination. That nominee is virtually certain to support same-sex marriage, whereas there’s a strong possibility the Republican nominee will not.

That could be a problem for the GOP nominee if same-sex marriage becomes a prominent issue. A poll released Monday shows a dramatic shift in attitudes about legalizing gay marriage, with 58 percent of Americans now supporting it.

Three years ago, the figure was 47 percent, the ABC News/Washington Post poll reported.

Partisan breakdowns show why it’s virtually essential for a Democratic presidential hopeful to support same-sex marriage, and why it’s difficult for GOP contenders to do the same.

Seventy-two percent of Democrats, 62 percent of independents and 34 percent of Republicans support same-sex marriage, the ABC-Post poll found. Unless Republicans’ opinions change significantly in the next two years, a GOP presidential hopeful may struggle to win the nomination without opposing gay marriage, even if the position causes problems in the November general election.

For those who lived “through the long years of the civil rights and women’s rights movements, the speed with which more and more people have come to embrace the dignity and equality of LGBT Americans has been breathtaking and inspiring,” Clinton said in a six-minute video, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

In the video, released by the gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, Clinton says gays and lesbians are “full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship.”

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Clinton Joins Other Dems in Backing Gay Marriage

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David Harvey at Occupy London (12 November 2011) – Video


David Harvey at Occupy London (12 November 2011) David Harvey at Occupy London12 November 2011 youtube. duggyjoh1139 videos

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David Harvey at Occupy London (12 November 2011) – Video

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Demonstrators In West Bank Protest Imprisonment Of Palestinians

There were more demonstrations in the West Bank on Tuesday, after one young Palestinian man died in jail over the weekend. The anger is palpable on the street. But just as palpable is the desire to avoid a third Intifada, which would jeopardize the few gains that West Bankers have made. Meanwhile, the first rocket since the November attack was fired at Israel from Gaza.

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It was another day of protest in the West Bank. Palestinians are demanding the release of prisoners held in Israeli jails after one prisoner died on Saturday. NPR’s Larry Abramson reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF YELLING)

LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: Outside Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank, young men play cat and mouse with Israeli troops. They get as close as they dare, shoot a few rocks with slingshots, then retreat when the Israelis shoot tear gas canisters.

(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)

ABRAMSON: Palestinian authorities say this is popular resistance, a grassroots movement to bring about the release of prisoners at Ofer and other facilities. But one young man named Yousef says he has something else in mind. Why do you come here?

YOUSEF: To kill some Israeli people.

ABRAMSON: You want to kill some Israelis?

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Demonstrators In West Bank Protest Imprisonment Of Palestinians

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Rocket fired from Gaza Strip hits southern Israel

By: Agence France-Presse February 26, 2013 2:25 PM

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

JERUSALEM — A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed early Tuesday near Ashkelon in southern Israel, police said, in the first such strike since an Israeli operation in Gaza last November.

“The rocket fell early in the morning near Ashkelon and did some damage to a road, without hurting anyone,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. It was the first such attack since the end of the Israeli operation on November 21.

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Rocket fired from Gaza Strip hits southern Israel: police

JERUSALEM: A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed early Tuesday near Ashkelon in southern Israel, police said, in the first such strike since a November truce.

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