In the News

WORLD

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – South African lawmakers passed legislation recognizing gay marriages on Tuesday despite criticism from both traditionalists and gay activists.

The bill, unprecedented on a continent where homosexuality is taboo, was decried by gay activists for not going far enough and by opponents who warned it “was provoking God’s anger.”

South Africa’s constitution was the first in the world to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, providing a powerful legal tool to gay rights activists even though South Africa remains conservative on such issues.

The bill provides for the “voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union,” without specifying whether they are heterosexual or homosexual partnerships.

The National Assembly passed the bill 230-41 with three abstentions. The measure now goes to the National Council of Provinces, which is expected to be a formality, before being signed into law by President Thabo Mbeki.

The bill was drafted to comply with a Constitutional Court ruling last December that said existing marriage legislation was unconstitutional because it discriminated against same-sex couples. The court set a Dec. 1 deadline for parliament to change the law.

NATION

ATLANTA – US Airways made an $8 billion hostile bid for Delta Air Lines on Wednesday, despite Delta’s repeated statements it isn’t interested in a merger. The move could start a stampede of competing bids in a long-predicted industry consolidation.

The offer, however, faces many obstacles, and analysts questioned whether the deal to create what could be the nation’s largest carrier can be completed on US Airways’ compacted timeline. Delta, which said it would review the proposal but was pushing ahead with its goal to emerge from bankruptcy as a standalone company, has yet to file its own plan of reorganization, and it has the exclusive right to do so by Feb. 15.

The offer comes as US Airways and America West are still integrating their operations after their combination last year. To date, only 57 percent of America West planes have been painted over with US Airways’ logos, a spokesman said.

If the deal is completed, the combined airline would operate under the Delta name and serve more than 350 destinations across five continents. US Airways has not decided where the combined company would be based. The combined company would divest certain assets, including a shuttle that operates in the Northeast. US Airways also said it would optimize flights at its hubs, but did not say what further impacts the hubs could face.

STATE & LOCAL

RICHMOND – Nearly 95 percent of Virginia’s public high school seniors graduated this spring, the third year the state required them to pass standardized tests in order to earn regular diplomas, the Virginia Department of Education said Tuesday.

State figures show 94.9 percent of Virginia’s 74,878 public high school seniors graduated this year, slightly higher than in 2005, the second year that seniors had to pass Standards of Learning tests to earn a standard or advanced-studies diploma.

But this year’s figures still reflect the fact that more than a quarter of students who were in ninth grade four years ago failed to graduate with their class. According to the state, 73.8 percent of ninth-graders in 2002 made it to graduation in 2006, compared with last year’s four-year graduation rate of 73.5 percent. The state said the pattern isn’t unique to Virginia and predates SOL testing.

A state Board of Education committee is studying graduation rates with a goal of finding a way to determine graduation rates that more accurately account for students who transfer, drop out or are retained.