Niagara Falls: Same-sex couples readied Saturday for wedding bells in celebration of the state's legalization of gay marriage.
In Niagara Falls, about 150 guests gathered Saturday evening at a low-key reception and ate cupcakes before the planned midnight wedding of gay-rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd. The Buffalo couple, grandmothers with 12 grandchildren between them, have been together for more than a decade and had long been fighting for the right to marry. They wanted Mayor Paul Dyster to pronounce them married one second after midnight — the moment the law would take effect and make New York the sixth and largest state to sanction gay marriage.
The couple opened their ceremony to the public and invited some of the state lawmakers whose vote last month made it possible.
Planners said there would be speeches, entertainment and a candlelight procession to Luna Island at the foot of Niagara Falls, where the vows would be exchanged.
Lambert said in the days leading up to the event that she had told Rudd "way back that when this went through we won't wait a moment longer than we have to."
The wedding was to be among a handful of midnight ceremonies planned across the state.
In Albany, the state capital, Mayor Jerry Jennings planned to begin performing marriages at 12:01 a.m. Sunday in the Common Council's chambers. A state Supreme Court judge was ready to waive the state-mandated 24-hour waiting period between the time a marriage license is issued and when a couple can be legally wed, Jennings said.
New York's vote to allow gay marriage provided fresh energy to the national drive for same-sex weddings. New York joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, along with Washington, D.C.
Advocates and opponents, many of whom reject same-sex marriage on religious grounds, said the New York vote, propelled by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would invigorate both sides.
Protests were planned around the state for Sunday, including at the state Capitol.
Bureau Report Bomb rocks troubled northeastern Nigerian city Maiduguri: Several people were wounded in a bomb blast in Maiduguri on Saturday, a city in remote northeastern Nigeria which has been plagued by almost daily attacks from a radical Islamist sect.
"Three soldiers have been injured in the Saturday evening bomb blast that occurred close to the Palace of the Shehu of Borno," Hassan Mohammed, an officer in the Joint Task Force (JTF) told Reuters.
The Shehu is a traditional ruler in Borno state, one of the poorest regions in Africa's most populous nation, close to borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Witnesses at a local hospital said at least one body from the blast site had been brought to the mortuary.
Boko Haram, which wants sharia law more widely applied across Nigeria, has claimed responsibility for almost daily bombings and shootings in Borno, mostly targeting police, churches and drinking spots.
The JTF have been accused of using indiscriminate force in retaliation to the attacks, leading to the deaths of civilians and the destruction of homes. The government said there have been only isolated misdemeanors by soldiers.
The heightened clashes between the JTF and Boko Haram forced thousands to flee Maiduguri earlier this month. Violence has killed more than 150 people in the city this year.
Bomb blasts in the north have replaced militant attacks on oil facilities hundreds of kilometers (miles) way in the southern Niger Delta as the main security threat in Nigeria. The United States and European Union have condemned the violence.
Boko Haram strikes have spread farther afield in recent months, including a bomb in the car park of national police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, last month.
In Niagara Falls, about 150 guests gathered Saturday evening at a low-key reception and ate cupcakes before the planned midnight wedding of gay-rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd. The Buffalo couple, grandmothers with 12 grandchildren between them, have been together for more than a decade and had long been fighting for the right to marry. They wanted Mayor Paul Dyster to pronounce them married one second after midnight — the moment the law would take effect and make New York the sixth and largest state to sanction gay marriage.
The couple opened their ceremony to the public and invited some of the state lawmakers whose vote last month made it possible.
Lambert said in the days leading up to the event that she had told Rudd "way back that when this went through we won't wait a moment longer than we have to."
The wedding was to be among a handful of midnight ceremonies planned across the state.
In Albany, the state capital, Mayor Jerry Jennings planned to begin performing marriages at 12:01 a.m. Sunday in the Common Council's chambers. A state Supreme Court judge was ready to waive the state-mandated 24-hour waiting period between the time a marriage license is issued and when a couple can be legally wed, Jennings said.
New York's vote to allow gay marriage provided fresh energy to the national drive for same-sex weddings. New York joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, along with Washington, D.C.
Advocates and opponents, many of whom reject same-sex marriage on religious grounds, said the New York vote, propelled by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would invigorate both sides.
Protests were planned around the state for Sunday, including at the state Capitol.
Bureau Report Bomb rocks troubled northeastern Nigerian city Maiduguri: Several people were wounded in a bomb blast in Maiduguri on Saturday, a city in remote northeastern Nigeria which has been plagued by almost daily attacks from a radical Islamist sect.
"Three soldiers have been injured in the Saturday evening bomb blast that occurred close to the Palace of the Shehu of Borno," Hassan Mohammed, an officer in the Joint Task Force (JTF) told Reuters.
The Shehu is a traditional ruler in Borno state, one of the poorest regions in Africa's most populous nation, close to borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Witnesses at a local hospital said at least one body from the blast site had been brought to the mortuary.
Boko Haram, which wants sharia law more widely applied across Nigeria, has claimed responsibility for almost daily bombings and shootings in Borno, mostly targeting police, churches and drinking spots.
The JTF have been accused of using indiscriminate force in retaliation to the attacks, leading to the deaths of civilians and the destruction of homes. The government said there have been only isolated misdemeanors by soldiers.
The heightened clashes between the JTF and Boko Haram forced thousands to flee Maiduguri earlier this month. Violence has killed more than 150 people in the city this year.
Bomb blasts in the north have replaced militant attacks on oil facilities hundreds of kilometers (miles) way in the southern Niger Delta as the main security threat in Nigeria. The United States and European Union have condemned the violence.
Boko Haram strikes have spread farther afield in recent months, including a bomb in the car park of national police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, last month.
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