News4u – News Desk : A US judge in Boston has ruled that a federal gay marriage ban is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage.

US District Judge Joseph Tauro has ruled in favour of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to the 1996 Defence of Marriage Act, known as DOMA.

The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

Tauro agreed, and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens.

“The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state, and in doing so, offends the Tenth Amendment.

For that reason, the statute is invalid,” Tauro wrote in a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Ruling in a separate case filed by Gays & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Tauro found that DOMA violates the equal protection clause of the US Constitution.

“We’ve maintained from the very beginning that there was absolutely no basis for this law treating one class of marriedMassachusetts couples different from everybody else and the court has recognised that,” said Gary Buseck, GLAD’s legal director.

The Justice Department argued the federal government has the right to set eligibility requirements for federal benefits – including requiring that those benefits only go to couples in marriages between a man and a woman.

The law was enacted by Congress in 1996 when it appearedHawaii would soon legalise same-sex marriage and opponents worried that other states would be forced to recognise such marriages.

The lawsuit challenges only the portion of the law that prevents the federal government from affording pension and other benefits to same-sex couples.

Since then, five states and the District of Columbia have legalised gay marriage.

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News4u – News Desk : Karnataka Government on Thursday informed the state assembly that the H1N1 influenza has claimed 175 lives since May last year, but it has no vaccine for administering to the public.

The government, however, has been supplying Tamiflu tablets and testing kits to all its hospitals, besides private hospitals identified for treatment, Health Minister B Sreeramulu told Sharana Prakash Patil of Congress while replying to a calling attention notice.

While 135 people died between May 2009 and December 2009, from January 2010 to July six, 42 lives were claimed by the flu, he said.

The vaccine for swine flu was being supplied to doctors and para-medical staff who treat H1N1 infected patients now, he said adding that the Centre had not made the vaccine available to the public so far.

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News4u-News Desk- Beijing, (PTI) An explosion at a recently closed central China coal mine today left at least six people dead and 34 injured.

The blast at Fenghuangling Coal Mine of Zhanhe District in the resource-rich city of Pingdingshan, Henan Province, a city government official said.

Half of a two-storey building on the surface collapsed. Another 34 injured people, including two severely hurt, are being treated in a local hospital,official Xinhua newsagency reported.

The blast has left a hole 10 meters deep and more than 10 meters wide. Windows within 50 meters were shattered and the roof of a large warehouse was blown off.

Dozens of rescuers are working with excavators at the site. The blast site is about 30 meters from the entrance of a coal shaft. Three of the dead were mine security guards, said a spokesman with the rescue headquarters.

The others had not been identified yet.

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News4u-News Desk- Panaji, Goa’s former Tourism Minister Fransisco Mickey Pacheco, booked in connection with the death of his female friend Nadia Torrado, was arrested on thursday after he was declared medically fit and discharged from a hospital here.

Pacheco, who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of district hospital in Margao town was shifted to Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) which conducted his medical examination and declared him fit.

Torrado died after consuming poison on May 30.

A district court had on Wednesday dismissed Pacheco’s bail plea ordering the police to arrest him when he is medically fit or discharged by the hospital.

Police said Pacheco was shifted to Hospicio Hospital after the medical examination.

“The examination reports stated that Pacheco does not need active treatment and hence he was discharged,” officials stated.

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News4u-Entertainment Desk- agencies-Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan had the four letter- F word clearly written on her nail during the court hearing when she was sentenced to three months in jail for violating the terms of her probation in a 2007 drunken driving case.

Images of her brightly colored nails shows the F word etched on her middle finger. The Mean Girls star broke down during and after the hearing. But the new revelation has created another controversy for the 24-year-old actress forcing her to react, People online reported.

Lohan says her explicit fingernail message was not directed at the judge who sentenced her to 90 days in jail. “Didn’t we do our nails as a joke with our friend?” Lohan Tweeted to a pal. “It had nothing to do w/court.. it’s an airbrush design from a stencil,” she added.

Lohan was hauled up before the court because she failed to attend weekly alcohol education classes. The actress argued that she was following the court’s instructions to the best of her abilities and her failure to attend had more to do with her busy work schedule and not deliberately flouting the rules.

“As far as I knew I was in compliance with my programmes. I wasn’t trying to get special treatment. I have to provide for myself. I have to work,” Lohan told the judge.

“Having said that, I did everything to balance my jobs and showing up. I’m not taking this as a joke. It’s my life. It’s my career. I take responsibility for my actions. I’ve tried to do the best I can. It’s been such a long haul. I don’t want you to think that I don’t respect you,” she said.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel was not buying Lohan’s excuses and explanations. “It’s like somebody who cheats doesn’t think it’s cheating unless they get caught,” the judge scolded.

Following her jail sentence, Lohan will report to a court-ordered, in-patient substance-abuse program for 90 days.

Lohan’s current predicament relates to two drunk-driving arrests in 2007 after which she was sentenced to three years of probation but had to ask for a year long extension in October last year after she failed to complete her alcohol-education courses on time.

The actress repeatedly violated the terms of her probation and failed to turn up for a mandatory court appearance in Beverly Hills earlier this year. Later, photos of her partying at the Cannes Film Festival surfaced, angering the judge. Lohan maintained that she could not attend because someone had stolen her passport.

In May, an alcohol-monitoring bracelet was fitted on Lohan. During her hearing Lohan told the judge that the alcohol counselors were okay with her absence. “As far as I had known, I was in compliance. Had I been taken aside and told [otherwise] then, that would have been a different story,” she said.

Lohan was ordered to start serving her jail sentence July 20. She will probably go to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Calif, the same jail where Paris Hilton did a brief stint in 2007 for violating her probation on a reckless-driving conviction.

Whether Lohan completes her full term in prison is still up for speculation. US socialite Paris Hilton completed only 23 days out of the 45 days of her prison terms before being released.

Lohan burst into tears after the sentencing by Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel.

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News4u-News Desk- Islamabad, (PTI) Pakistan today dismissed India’s concern over a proposed Pakistan-China rail link through the disputed Gilgit-Baltistan region in PoK, saying New Delhi has “no locus standi” in the matter.

Abdul Basit, the Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman, dismissed India’s objections to the Pakistan-China proposed rail link through the disputed Gilgit-Baltistan region in the Karakoram ranges.

Amid concerns voiced by India over the rail link through the disputed Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), he told a weekly news briefing here that New Delhi has “no locus standi” in the matter and that its objections are “uncalled for and irrelevant”.

The rail link is a matter of concern to India as it passes through some of the disputed areas forming part of PoK.

According to experts, the rail link is part of plan by China to encircle India through cooperation with its “all weather” strategic partner.

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News4u-News Desk- Hyderabad, (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said there was a need to create “broad-based national consensus” on the issue of reservations to Muslim community.

Responding to a memorandum submitted by Jamiat Ulama-I- Hind, Singh in a letter to the organisation’s president Moulana Qari Mohammed Osman said the government is committed to the welfare of the minorities, according to a release issued by Jamiat Andhra Pradesh unit here today.

There was a need for “broad-based national consensus” to move forward on the issue of reservations to the Muslim community, the Prime Minister said.

Highlighting the measures taken up for the welfare of the Muslim community, Singh said the budget of the Ministry of Minority Affairs has gone up from Rs 500 crore in 2007 to Rs 2600 crore in 2010-11.

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News4u-News Desk- Bangalore, Two kg of heroin with a street value of Rs two crore was seized and four persons from Kerala were arrested for possessing the drugs here on thursday.

Crime Investigation Department (CID) Deputy Director General of Police D V Guruprasad in a statement said the four were attempting to sell the contraband in the city.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of CID officers raided a hideout and arrested them.

The four belonged to Kasargode in Kerala, he said.

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News4u-Entertainment Desk- He has danced his way to fame and has even coached and choreographed some of Bollywood’s biggest stars. However, well known choreographer Shiamak Davar seems to have had his fill with just choreographing and will soon be seen in a new avatar, that of a director.

Shiamak Davar, who started his career by choreographing for films with Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai, will be directing his film titled A Slumdog Millionaire Goes Dancing.

Though many wonder whether Yash Raj would be producing the film, but au contra, Percept Pictures has stepped in as producers. Apparently, the film itself is about a bunch of slum children being trained to participate in a dance competition.

Shiamak has been thinking of directing a film for a while now and there is no surprise that his first film revolves around dancing considering that he has made a career out of it.

Sources within Percept have confirmed the news saying that yes they will be producing the film which is being directed by Shiamak, while the kids who feature in the film will be chosen after auditions. Further it is also being said that good friends and former students like Shahid Kapoor and Ruslaan Mumtaz may make guest appearances in the film.

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