Protest

Gay-marriage foes protest PARIS - Paris riot police fought back crowds who pushed their way onto Paris' landmark Champs-Elysees avenue as part of a huge protest against a draft law allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. Hundreds of thousands of people converged on the capital Sunday. The lower house of parliament approved the "marriage for everyone" bill last month with a large majority. A Senate vote is next month. Protests led by opposition conservatives in this traditionally Catholic country have eroded support for the draft law, and organizers hope Sunday's march will weigh on the Senate debate.

Gov. Corbett told reporters Monday in Philadelphia that he found it "disappointing" that municipal union protesters drowned out Mayor Nutter's budget address last week in City Hall. "It's disappointing when individuals will not allow a mayor or an official to give an address that he's supposed to give," Corbett said. "Individuals certainly have their opportunity to be heard, but it was certainly disappointing that he did not get to deliver his budget address. " Hundreds of chanting, whistle-blowing protesters drowned out the mayor Thursday as he attempted to present his annual budget proposal to City Council.

After performing the gubernatorial role of ribbon-cutter-in-chief at a science conference in Philadelphia Monday morning, Gov. Corbett told reporters he found it "disappointing" that Mayor Nutter's budget address last week was drowned out by municipal union members' loud protests in City Hall. "It's disappointing when individuals will not allow a mayor or an official to give an address that he's supposed to give," Corbett said. "Individuals certainly have their opportunity to be heard, but it was certainly disappointing that he did not get to deliver his budget address.

CAIRO - Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw, stripped them half-naked and hung them by their feet in a crowded bus station in the Nile Delta on Sunday, according to security officials. Both men died. A witness said some in the crowd of about 3,000 people who watched the lynchings egged them on with chants of "kill them!" The lynchings came a week after the attorney general's office encouraged civilians to arrest lawbreakers and hand them over to police.

BEIRUT - On the second anniversary of Syria's uprising, there were only small protests and a few firecrackers defiantly popping in the capital of Damascus - a grim contrast to the early days when crowds of demonstrators danced to the drums of rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. Syrians on Friday marked the start of the revolt by saying they feared for their country's future amid a grinding civil war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, wrecked whole neighborhoods in cities and towns, and turned neighbor against neighbor.

CITY COUNCIL President Darrell Clarke had a decision to make. Politically powerful municipal unions had been threatening for days to take over City Hall to stop Mayor Nutter from delivering his budget address. Nutter was adamant that he would deliver his speech to Council - an annual mayoral tradition. So Clarke split the difference. He let Nutter try to speak over the deafening din of angry union members for 10 minutes and then called it quits, recessing Council's session before Nutter realized what was happening - marking the first time in modern history that a mayor was unable to deliver a budget address.

CAIRO - The highest-level inquiry into the deaths of nearly 900 protesters in Egypt's uprising has concluded that police were behind nearly all the killings and used snipers on rooftops overlooking Cairo's Tahrir Square to shoot into the huge crowds. The report, parts of which were obtained by the AP, is the most authoritative account of the killings and determines that the deadly force used could only have been authorized by Hosni Mubarak's security chief, with the ousted president's full knowledge.

TOKYO - Thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park Saturday, demanding an end to atomic power and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan. Gathering two days ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that sent the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant into multiple meltdowns, demonstrators said they would never forget the world's worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl, and expressed alarm over the government's eagerness to restart reactors.

A unusual coalition of Philadelphia's diverse unions - bringing together everyone from firefighters and electricians to teachers and longshoremen - is organizing strong protests against the Nutter administration's handling of municipal labor negotiations. "We need to have the mayor understand that labor in general is upset with what he's doing in collective bargaining," said Patrick J. Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Council, AFL-CIO. "He's acting more like dictator than negotiator.

More than 70 shouting protesters disrupted Wednesday's meeting of the Delaware River Basin Commission, refusing to be quiet or sit during the business session. Eventually, after a brief recess greeted by cries of "Shame! Shame!" from the audience, the commissioners decided to move up a public comment session that had been scheduled for the end of the meeting. Advocates, including the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and more than 50 other environmental groups, have asked the commission to broaden its oversight of natural-gas pipeline projects.