NEWS RANKS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two big cases addressing marriage rights for gays and lesbians are on track to reach the U.S. Supreme Court as soon as this year, keeping the focus on an issue President Barack Obama reignited with his endorsement this week. The cases, originating on opposite coasts, go to the heart of a question that has churned for two decades: whether states and the federal government may refuse to recognize same-sex marriage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, has renounced his U.S. citizenship, according to an Internal Revenue Service report, just days before the company’s record initial public offering.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The leaders of congressional intelligence committees, who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan, urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday to immediately designate the militant Haqqani network as a “terrorist” group.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A tough-on-immigration Arizona sheriff, who resigned as co-chairman of Mitt Romney’s campaign in Arizona in February over allegations he threatened a male lover with deportation, announced on Friday he has dropped his bid to run for the U.S. Congress

NEW YORK (Reuters) – One night when Lynn McAfee was 5 years old, her psychologically troubled mother left her at the side of a road as punishment for a now forgotten infraction. In the minutes before her mother’s car returned, the terrified girl looked toward the nearby houses on the suburban Philadelphia street and wondered if she should walk over and ask for help. “But I didn’t,” said McAfee, 62, who is now the director of medical advocacy for the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination.

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – Lawyers for 15 Muslims in the United States barred from boarding commercial flights because they were on the U.S. “no-fly” list will on Friday ask a federal appeals court to reinstate their constitutional challenge of the anti-terrorism measure. The plaintiffs, who are U.S.

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) – Last week, President Barack Obama launched his re-election campaign in the university town of Columbus, Ohio. His hopes for a second term, however, likely lie not with the student-heavy crowd but in places like this small city, an hour’s drive south. Anchored by a paper mill in the foothills of Appalachia, Chillicothe has a knack for picking presidents.

ALPINE COMMUNITY, Mississippi (Reuters) – The most-wanted fugitive in America shot himself dead on Thursday, but the two girls he was suspected of kidnapping were found alive, ending a drama that began with the killing of the girls’ mother and older sister. Adam Mayes, 35, shot himself in the head after Mississippi state game wardens came across him and the girls hiding in the woods, said Union County Sheriff Jimmy Edwards, who arrived on the scene while Mayes was still alive but fatally wounded