Toronto

Bill approved to legalize same-sex marriage

Canada’s House of Commons passed landmark legislation Tuesday to legalize gay marriage, granting same-sex couples legal rights equal to those in traditional unions between a man and a woman.

The bill passed as expected, despite opposition from Conservatives and religious leaders. The legislation drafted by Prime Minister Paul Martin’s minority Liberal Party government was also expected to easily pass the Senate and become federal law by the end of July.

The Netherlands and Belgium are the only other two nations that allow gay marriage nationwide.

Some of Martin’s Liberal lawmakers voted against the bill and a Cabinet minister resigned Tuesday over the legislation. But enough allies rallied to support the bill that has been debated for months, voting 158 to 133 to approve it.

Mexico City

Lawmakers approve absentee voting

Lawmakers overwhelming approved on Tuesday a law allowing millions of Mexicans living abroad to vote by mail in next year’s presidential election – a measure that could reshape the country’s leadership race.

To chants of “Viva Mexico,” the lower house of Congress passed an absentee voting proposal 455-6 with six abstentions. The bill was already approved by Mexico’s Senate and now only needs to signed by President Vicente Fox to become law- something he has promised to do.

An estimated 11 million Mexicans, as much as 14 percent of the country’s electorate, live overseas, most in the United States. Expatriates are legally allowed to vote and hold dual citizenship, but have been effectively barred from participating in elections because of the lack of an absentee ballot system.

Pakistan

Court orders re-arrest of rape defendants

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the re-arrest of 13 men acquitted in the gang rape of a villager whose plight has cast a glaring light on the treatment of women in this conservative Muslim nation.

The ruling came a day after an emotional appeal by the victim, Mukhtar Mai, who was raped in 2002 on orders from a village council, allegedly as punishment for her 13-year-old brother’s illicit affair with a woman from a higher-caste family. Mai and her family deny any affair ever took place, saying the brother was in fact sexually assaulted by members of the other family.

A lower court in March acquitted five of the men who allegedly raped her, and commuted the death sentence of another to life in prison. Eight other men, most of them members of the village council, were acquitted three years ago.

Outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday, dozens of women hugged and congratulated a relaxed and smiling Mai.