BRIEFS

WORLD

YANGON, Myanmar – The
military junta has rejected proposed
three-party talks that would have
included pro-democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, saying it refuses to bow
to “big power bullies.”

U.N. diplomat Ibrahim Gambari
is likely to leave Myanmar without
having met the junta’s chief.

It also seemed likely Gambari
would leave Myanmar Thursday
without having met with the country’s
most powerful figure – junta chief
Senior Gen. Than Shwe.
Seeking political reform and reconciliation
between the ruling military
and pro-democracy forces, Gambari
had proposed a meeting among Suu
Kyi, a regime representative and
himself.

Minister of Information Brig.
Gen. Kyaw Hsan, quoted in the
state-run New Light of Myanmar,
said Suu Kyi had yet to respond to
the government’s request that she
refrain from calling for international
sanctions against Myanmar – earlier
set as a condition for a dialogue
between her and the government.

In what observers said was an angry
lecture, Kyaw Hsan said: “I would like
you to know that Myanmar is a small
nation and if a big-power bullies her
… we will have no other way but to
face this and endure.”

Gambari was dispatched to Myanmar,
also known as Burma, after
the military stamped out prodemocracy
demonstrations in late
September by firing on the protesters.
Authorities said 10 people
were killed, but diplomats and dissidents
said the death toll was much
higher. Thousands of people were
detained.

NATION

LANSING, Mich. – A federal appeals
court has upheld the dismissal
of a lawsuit nicknamed “Roe v. Wade
for Men” filed by a men’s rights group
on behalf of a man who said he
shouldn’t have to pay child support
for his ex-girlfriend’s daughter.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision
released Tuesday, agreed with a lower
court judge that Matthew Dubay’s suit
was frivolous.

Dubay, 25, had said ex-girlfriend
Lauren Wells knew he didn’t want
to have a child and assured him
repeatedly she couldn’t get pregnant
because of a medical condition.

He argued that if a pregnant woman
can choose among abortion, adoption
or raising a child, a man involved in
an unintended pregnancy should have
the choice of declining the financial
responsibilities of fatherhood.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson in
Bay City disagreed, rejecting Dubay’s
argument that Michigan’s paternity
law violates the U.S. Constitution’s
equal protection clause because it
didn’t extend reproductive rights to
men.

The suit was prepared for Dubay
by the National Center for Men in
Old Bethpage, N.Y., which dubbed it
“Roe v. Wade for Men.” The nickname
drew objections from women’s rights
organizations.

State courts have ruled in the past
that any inequity experienced by men
like Dubay is outweighed by society’s
interest in ensuring that children get
financial support from two parents.

Dubay sued the Saginaw County
prosecutor and Wells in March,
contesting an order to pay $500 a
month in child support for a girl born
to Wells in 2005. Michigan Attorney
General Mike Cox intervened in the
case and argued for its dismissal.

LOCAL

RICHMOND – Democrats won
control of the Virginia Senate on
Tuesday, knocking the Republicans
from power by winning four of their
seats in the most expensive legislative
campaign in state history.

Democrats clenched a 21-seat
majority in the 40-member Senate with
newcomer George Barker’s slim victory
over Republican Sen. Jay O’Brien.

The race was one of three that
Democrats, emboldened after winning
two consecutive governor’s races and
an upset U.S. Senate victory last year,
had targeted in Northern Virginia.
Democratic former Delegate J. Chapman
Petersen won 55 percent of the
vote over Republican Sen. Jeannemarie
Devolites Davis.

In Hampton Roads, neurosurgeon
Ralph Northam defeated two-term
Sen. D. Nick Rerras and John C.
Miller defeated anti-tax Republican
Tricia Stall.

In a Northern Virginia race that
Democrats had targeted, Republican
Sen. Kenneth Cuccinelli led by 90 votes
out of more than 37,000 cast, according
to complete but unofficial results.
The margin, less than one-fourth of
1 percentage point, entitles Democrat
Janet Oleszek to a recount paid for by
the state if she requests it.

“We’ve made history tonight and
taken the state Senate,” a jubilant Gov.
Timothy M. Kaine said at a celebration
in Northern Virginia.

The races were critical in part
because it’s the last Senate election
before the General Assembly redraws
legislative and congressional districts in
2011. It establishes the critical foothold
the party needs to prevent the GOP
from minimizing Democratic seats as it
did with devastating effect in 2001.