Lousiana judge refuses to marry interracial couple

A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, said it is his experience that most interracial marriages don't last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell said. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.

Bardwell's tendencies were exposed by Beth Humphrey, 30, who is white, and Terence McKay, 32, who is black, who plan to consult the U.S. Department of Justice about filing a discrimination complaint.

American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana attorney Katie Schwartzmann said: "It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009."

Part of Berlin's red-light scene is going green.

"It's very difficult to find parking around here, and this option is better for our environment," said Thomas Goetz, who owns the brothel Maison d'Envie, or House of Desire.

To qualify, customers must show the receptionist either a bicycle padlock key or proof they used public transit to get to the neighborhood. That knocks the price for 45 minutes in a room, for example, to $97 from $104.

Those who arrive on foot, however, are out of luck.

"We haven't found a way for people to prove they have walked here," Goetz explained.

A 6-month-old baby miraculously survived a train running over his stroller, which rolled onto the tracks when his mother let go for an instant.

The train pushed the stroller about 130 feet along the tracks before it stopped.

Paramedic Jon Wright said the baby, who was strapped into his stroller, received only minor injuries and was returned to his mother within a few minutes.

"Apparently he needed a feed and a nap," Wright was quoted as saying by the Sun Herald newspaper.

Police said they released the video to underscore the need for people to be safety conscious when using the train system

The body of a man slumped over patio furniture on his balcony in Marina del Rey, Calif., was mistaken for Halloween decor last week and remained undisturbed for five days.

"He looked fake," said Austin Raishbrook, 33, who lives nearby. "It looked like somebody had thrown a dummy over the back of a chair."

Sheriff's deputies believe that Zayed committed suicide, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "Our investigators don't think there was any foul play here," he said.

Neighbor Victoria Sepe, 61, said the most pressing security matters in the marina residential area are usually "seals jumping on the docks and making too much noise."

"This is a little creepy," she added.

Members of the Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on Earth.

With a backdrop of coral, the meeting was a bid to draw attention to fears that rising sea levels caused by the melting of polar ice caps could swamp this Indian Ocean archipelago within a century.

Its islands average 7 feet above sea level.

"What we are trying to make people realize is that the Maldives is a frontline state. This is not merely an issue for the Maldives, but for the world," Nasheed said.

As bubbles floated up from their face masks, the president, vice president, Cabinet secretary and 11 ministers signed a document calling on all countries to cut carbon dioxide emissions.