Argentina today became the first country in Latin America to embrace same-sex marriage nationwide. Until now, only cities had legalized such rights, as did Mexico City in December.
A broad overhaul of the financial regulatory system cleared one last procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday as it headed for final Congressional approval later in the day.
BP said Thursday it had fixed an equipment leak on a new cap for the well in the gulf, allowing it to move ahead on a test that could halt the gusher of oil.
AP - BP engineers were back to the slow work of trying to choke the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher with an untested cap after replacing a leaky pipe Thursday, the latest delay in the uncertain fix.
AP - A sweeping crackdown on banking and high-finance broke through a Senate Republican blockade Thursday, setting the stage for Congress to send the massive regulation overhaul to President Barack Obama.
AP - The United States handed over the last detention facility under its control to Iraqi authorities on Thursday, a milestone in Iraq's push for complete sovereignty seven years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
The Iranian nuclear scientist who returned to Tehran today left behind some $5 million he was promised by the CIA as part of "benefits package" offered by the CIA's National Resettlement Operations Center, US officials tell ABC News. "Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the sanctions against Iran," one US official said. "We've got his information and the Iranians have him." When Amiri defected, the CIA offered him $5 million for information about the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Typically, the CIA places these kinds of funds in escrow so that an informant is only paid bit by bit, at the agency's discretion. Keeping the money in escrow prevents an asset from grabbing the money all at once.
The mammoth battle for Kandahar will test soldiers' basic fighting skills by combining tactics learned from the trenches in World War I, the close-quarter fighting of World War II, the jungle-like conditions in Vietnam and the urban warfare of Iraq.
BP says it has fixed an equipment problem that was holding up tests on its new well cap. The company hopes the cap will stop oil gushing from its blown-out well.
More than 1,000 Russians have drowned recently as they attempted to find relief from a stifling heat wave -- many of them after drinking alcohol, officials said.
![[logo]](http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/section/NytSectionHeader.gif "NYT > Home Page")
![[logo]](http://l.yimg.com/a/i/us/nws/th/main_142c.gif "Yahoo! News")
![[logo]](http://a.abcnews.com/images/site/abcnews_google_rss_logo.png "ABC News: International"){kind=logo}
![[logo]](http://image.guardian.co.uk/sitecrumbs/Guardian.gif "Guardian Unlimited")
![[logo]](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/1.0/logo/cnn.logo.rss.gif "CNN.com"){kind=logo}
