February (Web-only) 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

Nigerian militants raid town, kill 48 Christians
Militants, reportedly Muslims, raided the dominantly Christian Nigerian town of Yelwa, in Plateau State, yesterday. Four dozen people, including women and children attempted to take refuge in a Church of Christ in Nigeria church. The militants, armed with guns and bows and arrows, killed them all.

The attack seems to be the latest in a series of Muslim-Christian attacks. Christians have not turned the other cheek in the renewed violence: a Christian militia earlier this month launched a retaliatory attack against a Muslim village, killing 10. The Lagos newspaper This Day reports, "not less than 117 men, women, children, and policemen have been brutally killed in renewed hostilities in the Southern part of the state in the last two weeks."

Kerry endorses Massachusetts constitutional amendment against gay marriage
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told The Boston Globe that he supports amending the Massachusetts constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman—so long as the amendment wouldn't rule out civil unions, with all the benefits of marriage.

"If the Massachusetts Legislature crafts an appropriate amendment that provides for partnership and civil unions, then I would support it, and it would advance the goal of equal protection," Kerry said.

It's news, but it's not necessarily new news. On Tuesday, CNN covered a Kerry press conference where he made much the same point. CNN came into the conference just as Kerry was saying, "Because I believe, as a matter of belief, that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's my belief.'

The follow-up question was unintelligible, but Kerry responded,

If the amendment provides for partnership and civil ...