BOSTON - A federal judge in Boston yesterday struck down a major section of the 14 year old federal Defense of Marriage Act, declaring it unconstitutional to deny financial benefits to same-sex married couples.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro had two cases before him; both of which challenged section three of the 1996 measure. Referred to as DOMA, the bill mandates that only heterosexual married couples are eligible for federal health and other benefits.

Cambridge, MA - Outraged at the June 7 decision by an Indian local court to convict 7 former officials of Union Carbide of India Limited of criminal negligence in the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy rather than prosecute them on more serious charges for their roles in the deaths of thousands of residents of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India, over 30 local advocates held a protest in Harvard Square on Thursday. The advocates also expressed anger that former Union Carbide Corp. CEO Warren Anderson remains free despite having a standing warrant out for his arrest in India to this day.

The demonstration was one of many that have been held around the world since the verdict.

BOSTON/Government Center - Two Honduran activists presented the findings of a recent report by the Honduran human rights organization Committee of Relatives of Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) to an audience of over 30 concerned area residents at City Hall last Wednesday. The report accuses the recently-elected Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa of presiding over a dictatorship that is prosecuting grave human rights abuses on its own population. Lobo's election came after President Manuel Zelaya was forcibly ousted from the country by his own military last June in what has been widely recognized as a coup d'etat by the international community.

BOSTON/Bay Village - In response to the recent slaughter of indigenous activists who had been blocking highways in protest of recent government decrees that would have opened the Amazon rainforest to oil and mining companies - threatening their way of life - 25 human rights advocates from several local non-governmental organizations held a rally outside the Peruvian Consulate on Wednesday. At least 34 people were killed by elements of the Peruvian military on June 5 at blockades near the town of Bagua, Peru. Some sources indicate that many more were killed and the military threw their bodies into a nearby river to dispose of the evidence.

BOSTON/Copley - For three days this week, anti-poverty activist Kip Tiernan has been praying, fasting, and gathering with friends and supporters in the Old South Church in Copley Square. The public event, co-sponsored by the Church and Tiernan’s Poor People’s United Fund was called a “Moral Witness to the Injustice of Poverty and Hunger.” Somewhat ironically, the cavernous sanctuary of Old South, with its towering ceilings and huge edifices, stands as a graphic reminder of the enormity of the problem.

Cambridge, MA - Over 70 people representing a number of human rights organizations gathered next to the Harvard Square T stop yesterday evening for a vigil to protest the continued incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen - a noted human rights activist and physician for indigenous communities in Central India - and mark the second anniversary of his imprisonment on what activists say are false charges.

BOSTON/Government Center - Over 50 people held a late afternoon picket in front of the Federal Building on Wednesday to protest the U.S. role in continuing to fund and supply the Israeli military after its recent invasion of the Gaza Strip. The event was organized by the Emergency Gaza Coalition.

BOSTON/Copley Square - NEWS BRIEF: 400 protesters joined a solemn, silent funeral procession through the streets of Boston today.

Cambridge, MA - Over 100 people from the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights and several other human rights and pro-Palestinian organizations held a spirited protest Monday evening against the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. The action was the latest in a series of local demonstrations called over the last two days by numerous political and religious groups against the air strikes on the densely populated area. The attacks began on December 27th.