(Toronto, Ontario) The despair that set in after the failure of the latest effort to develop an AIDS vaccine has given way to a renewed determination on the part of the scientific community, says the Canadian scientist leading an international effort to maximize global activity in the field.

(New York City) Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction.

(Boston, Massachusetts) Allowing a convicted killer to get a sex-change operation would pose insurmountable safety and security problems for the state prison system, the Massachusetts corrections chief said.

(Providence, Rhode Island) A lesbian seeking a divorce has returned to court despite a ruling by Rhode Island Supreme Court that said same-sex divorce cannot be decided by Family Court.

(Canberra) The Australian Capital Territory has passed legislation creating civil unions for gay and lesbian couples, but without a provision that would allow for couples to have ceremonies after the federal government it would veto the bill if the section remained in the legislation.

(Oxnard, California) The arraignment of a 14-year old charged with murder in the shooting of a gay classmate has been postponed until June so that his lawyer can prepare a motion challenging the constitutionality of charging the youth as an adult.

(Elizabeth, New Jersey) Former Gov. James E. McGreevey and his estranged wife have settled custody issues for their only child as they moved closer to dissolving their marriage, their lawyers said.

(Washington) Sen. Barack Obama got a front-runner's welcome back at the Capitol, pressing congressional "superdelegates" to support him in a visit that had the look and feel of a campaign victory lap.

(Washington) Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says that Republican rival John McCain tried to smear him and was "losing his bearings" with the suggestion that Hamas preferred Obama for president.

(Washington) Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.

(Washington) Rep. Vito Fossella of New York ran a red light, and wrecked his life. A

(Toronto, Ontario) A provincially funded Christian group says it will appeal part of a tribunal ruling that found it violated the rights of a worker who was forced to quit after revealing she was gay.

(Toronto, Ontario) Four years after it was passed unanimously by Parliament, a bill drafted to allow low-cost Canadian-made AIDS drugs to be exported to developing countries may be on the verge of finally producing results.

(Falls Church, Virginia) Lawrence Webb has become the first gay African American elected to office in Virginia.

(Santa Ana, California) Same-sex partners who believe they are registered as domestic partners but are not have the same rights as people whose relationships are registered under the state partnership law an appeals court has ruled.

(Providence, Rhode Island) A House committee room was packed well into the night Wednesday in what has become an annual debate in Rhode Island over same-sex marriage.

(Washington) Apart from George McGovern, a plainspoken man who knows something about losing elections, not a single Democrat of national stature publicly urged Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday to end her campaign for the White House.

(Chicago, Illinois) Barack Obama's campaign on Wednesday sought to increase pressure on Hillary Rodham Clinton to wrap up the drawn-out Democratic nomination race as it mapped out a general-election strategy that will involve early campaigning in battleground states that have already held primaries.

(Denver, Colorado) A jury of six women on Wednesday found a lesbian couple guilty trespassing after the couple refused to leave the Denver City Clerk's office when the pair was refused a marriage license.

(Okeechobee, Florida) A lawsuit against a Florida school district that banned a gay student group from meeting on campus should not be reinstated attorney's for the Okeechobee school district have told a federal judge.