Nation in brief

Same-sex marriage dispute heads to high court in La.

NEW ORLEANS - A judge blocked a Sept. 18 vote on a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages on Friday, but suspended his order so the state can appeal directly to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Civil District Judge Christopher Bruno's temporary order struck down the balloting on grounds that Sept. 18 is not a statewide election date as the Constitution requires.

In nine parishes, the amendment would be the only thing on the ballot.

However, a state lawyer said after the hearing that Louisiana law defines elections in September and November as statewide elections.

"Under the statute, the September date is the statewide primary," Assistant State Attorney General Roy Mongrue said after the hearing.

Mongrue said he would immediately appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

The judge scheduled a trial Aug. 20 on whether to make his order permanent.

WASHINGTON - A federal court judge Friday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit against a national program that matches medical residents with jobs in teaching hospitals around the country.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that legislation signed into law in April by President Bush effectively exempted the program from antitrust claims.

Three medical students filed a lawsuit in 2002 alleging that the match system violates antitrust laws by denying residents the freedom to negotiate wages and working conditions with prospective employers.

Friedman rejected arguments that the provision - inserted into a pension bill - was passed "furtively" in an effort to avoid public opposition. The court, he said, must interpret the laws, not second-guess the lawmakers. The measure was retroactive and specifically said match programs do not violate antitrust laws.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Two convicted murderers on Kentucky's death row claim the state's methods of execution - chemical injection or electrocution - amount to torture and should be declared unconstitutional.

Their lawsuit to prevent the state from setting execution dates for them says the state is legally obliged to devise an execution method "that does not inflict unnecessary pain and suffering."

Inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling and Ralph Baze "will . . . be tortured to death" if the state executes them under current procedures, the lawsuit alleges.

Bowling was convicted of murdering a Lexington couple and wounding their infant son in 1990. The U.S. Supreme Court has to decide whether to hear Bowling's final appeal.

Baze ambushed and killed a sheriff and deputy in Powell County in 1992. His appeal is at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one step behind Bowling's appeal.

WASHINGTON - Federal officials said Friday the Census Bureau is reporting demographic data about Arab-Americans to a Homeland Security agency but only population numbers and not names, addresses or other private details.

Responding to requests over the past couple of years from the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, the Census Bureau has provided files that included a count of U.S. residents of Arab descent in certain ZIP codes. Names or street addresses were not included.

Customs and census officials say no rules were violated. Such requests are common, and the data already were available on the bureau's Web site, Census Bureau deputy director Hermann Habermann said Friday.

FORT SMITH, Ark. - Arkansas has agreed it will not seek to execute a Mexican man whose attorneys say he is mentally retarded, and in return the inmate will drop appeals of his murder conviction.

A federal judge approved the agreement Thursday between state prosecutors and attorneys for Raphael Camargo, 39, who was convicted of killing a young mother and her son.

His lawyers argued that he had an IQ of only 55 and should not be executed under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that executions of mentally retarded criminals were unconstitutionally cruel.

Camargo was convicted of killing Deanna Petree, 18, and her 15-month-old son. He was sentenced to death in 1995 and again in 1997, after the state Supreme Court upheld the conviction but ordered resentencing.

NEW YORK - A freight elevator suddenly shot upward, crashing into top bulkhead of a 37-story office building in Times Square, killing one person.

Security guard and elevator operator Carl DeClercq, 63, was declared dead at the scene Thursday afternoon, police said.

DeClercq was going down in the elevator at the end of his shift when it shot up and crashed into the bottom of the roof at the 37th floor. After the accident, another elevator carrying two people dropped to the ground floor but the passengers were not injured.

The building is headquarters for the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

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