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The United States reiterated Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should step down after a row over comments by newly appointed UN peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

The Reuters News website has been hacked for the second time this month, with a fake report that Saudi Arabia's foreign minister prince Saud al-Faisal has died, the news agency said Wednesday.

The battle for Syria is raging on the ground but also on social media, where people on both sides of the conflict are hacking, posting and spamming in a frenzied propaganda war.

Madonna broke a St. Petersburg law on Thursday night when she spoke out in favor of gay rights, a municipal lawmaker claims. ?Madonna broke a St. Petersburg law on Thursday night when she spoke out in favor of gay rights, a municipal lawmaker claims. ?We want to fight for the right to be free,? Madonna told the audience, most of whom were wearing pink wristbands distributed at the door. She urged them to ?show your love and appreciation to the gay community.? ?Do we live in fear?? Madonna asked the audience, who replied: ?No!? St. Petersburg Assemblymember Vladimir Milonov told Russia's Interfax news agency that either the pop star or concert organizers will be fined for violating the city's law which criminalizes ?public actions aimed at propaganda of pederasty, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors.? Milonov, who sponsored the law, stated that there were children as young as 12 present at the concert. ?Madonna or the organizers need to be brought to justice,? Milono

Madonna spoke out for gay rights at a concert in St. Petersburg, defying city authorities who had threatened to fine the pop star. ?Madonna spoke out for gay rights at a Thursday concert in St. Petersburg, defying city authorities who had threatened to fine the pop star. ?We want to fight for the right to be free,? she told the audience, most of whom were wearing pink wristbands distributed at the door. Madonna urged them to ?show your love and appreciation to the gay community.? Earlier this year, city leaders approved a law which criminalizes ?public actions aimed at propaganda of pederasty, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors.? St. Petersburg Assemblymember Vitaly Milonov, the bill's author, reportedly told the Interfax news agency that the gay icon would be punished if she violated the law. ?Do we live in fear?? Madonna asked the audience, who replied: ?No!? (Video is embedded on this page. Visit our video library for more videos.) Andre Banks, executive directo

Bryan Fischer has called for an 'underground railroad' to 'deliver innocent children from same-sex households'. Bryan Fischer has called for an ?underground railroad? to ?deliver innocent children from same-sex households.? ?Why we need an Underground Railroad to deliver innocent children from same-sex households,? Fischer tweeted on Tuesday along with a link to a post from Robert Oscar Lopez in which he praises his lesbian mother but blames her and her partner for his social issues. In a second message, Fischer described Kenneth Miller as the ?head? of the supposed underground railroad. Miller is the Mennonite minister on trial for helping Lisa Miller flee to Nicaragua with her daughter Isabella to evade a Vermont court order giving her former partner, Janet Jenkins, visitation rights to Isabella. (Related: Pastor arrested for aiding ex-gay mom Lisa Miller.) On his AFA-sponsored radio show Focal Point, Fischer told listeners that ?we are going to need this kind of underground railroad

Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll suggests gay women are unattractive in denying lesbian affair. In denying the accusation that she fired a staffer who caught her in ?a compromising position? with another woman, Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll suggested gay women are unattractive and single women cannot be trusted. The former aide, Carletha Cole, 49, made the accusation in the course of defending herself against charges she illegally leaked taped conversations of Carroll's staff to a Florida newspaper, Reuters reported. Cole denies she made the recording. In court filings, Cole claims she was fired shortly after she walked in on Carroll and the staff member. ?When she entered the office, she found the Lieutenant Governor and her travel aide, Beatriz Ramos, in what can only be described as a compromising position,? according to the filing. Carroll, Florida's first elected female lieutenant governor, is married and raising three children. Last year, the Republican

A panel of the Episcopal Church on Saturday approved a proposal which would allow transgender people the right to become ministers. ?A panel of the Episcopal Church on Saturday approved a proposal which would allow transgender men and women the right to become ministers. According to Reuters News, the Church's House of Bishops approved the measure at the Church's General Convention, which started Thursday in Indianapolis. The proposal seeks to add ?gender identity and expression? in the Church's ?non-discrimination canons.? That is, transgender people could not be excluded as candidates to ministry. The House of Deputies must now approve the resolution. The move comes sixteen years after the Episcopal Church approved the ordination of openly gay clergy and nine years after it approved its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Robinson's ordination created a deep divide between the 77 million-member Anglican Communion and its more liberal American branch, the

Governor Deval Patrick on Saturday officiated over the wedding ceremony of Congressman Barney Frank and Jim Ready. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on Saturday officiated over the wedding ceremony of Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank and Jim Ready. According to Reuters, Patrick amusingly added that Frank and Ready had vowed to love each other through Democratic and Republican administrations alike. ?Barney was beaming,? said Texas Congressman Al Green, who attended the Newton, Massachusetts ceremony. ?It was no different than any other wedding I've attended when you have two people who are in love with each other.? Frank was the first congressman to voluntarily come out of the closet in 1987. He now has the distinction of being the first sitting congressman to enter into a marriage with a member of the same sex. Frank, 72, and Ready, 42, have been involved since 2007. The couple married at the Boston Marriott Newton in suburban Boston. Also attending the ceremony were Minority

Bill White has shifted from supporting Mitt Romney to President Barack Obama over the issue of gay marriage. ?Bill White has shifted from supporting Mitt Romney to President Barack Obama over the issue of gay marriage. White, who is openly gay and previously donated $25,000 to the Romney campaign, has asked the campaign for a refund. ?I feel that I no longer wish to support your presidential campaign and ask that you please return the maximum contribution that I gave to you last year,? White wrote in a letter addressed to the Romney campaign and obtained by CNN. In 2008, White was touted by top retired military leaders and some Democrats in Congress to be the next secretary of the Navy. The former president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum currently serves as the chairman and CEO of the New York-based consulting firm Constellations Group. White married his husband Joseph Bryan Eure last October in a ceremony held at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York. Lawyer David Boies,

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday that repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' has had no impact on morale or unit cohesion. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday that repeal of ?Don't Ask, Don't Tell? has had no impact on morale, readiness or unit cohesion, Reuters reported. The military ended the policy which for 18 years banned gay and bisexual troops from serving openly last September. President Barack Obama championed scrapping the policy and has touted the accomplishment since. Supporters of keeping ban warned that repealing it in wartime threatened to hurt cohesion of troops or undermine morale. ?It's not impacting morale. It's not impacting on unit cohesion. It is not impacting on readiness,? Panetta said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, referring to the findings of an internal report he received on Wednesday. Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added: ?I have not found any negative effects on good or

Online news service Ongo, which launched last year as a paid "aggregator" for various newspapers, said Tuesday it would close down by the end of the month.

Director Lee Hirsch on Thursday said his documentary film 'Bully' would be released with a PG-13 rating after all. Director Lee Hirsch on Thursday said his documentary film Bully would be released with a PG-13 rating after all. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) originally gave the film an R rating due to six expletives heard in the documentary, which is being distributed by The Weinstein Company. To get a lower rating, Hirsch said he was forced to edit out three of the expletives, but a key scene in the film remained intact. ?I'm just glad that we held strong. I think this is a great resolution,? Hirsch told Reuters. ?We are getting so much interest to see the film, and this makes it much easier for schools to get behind it.? Bully looks at the lives of several victims of bullies, including 12-year-old Alex from Sioux City, Iowa and 16-year-old Kelby from Tuttle, Oklahoma. Kelby's ordeal began after she came out gay. The film opened last weekend in Los Angeles and New Yo

The Tehran bureau of international news agency Reuters has been "suspended indefinitely" because of a report it issued mischaracterising Iranian female ninjas as "terrorists," authorities said on Monday.

Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye will be charged with unlawful assembly after his arrest and subsequent release on bail following a demonstration, his lawyer said Thursday.

Human rights groups estimate that as many as 58 Iraqis who are either gay or perceived to be gay have been killed in the last six weeks alone. ?Human rights groups estimate that as many as 58 Iraqis who are either gay or perceived to be gay have been killed in the last six weeks alone, the AP reported. The young men appear to be targeted by Shi'ite militants who oppose Western-style ?emo? clothes and haircuts. The ?emo? look often includes tight-fitting jeans, t-shirts with logos and longer or spiky hairstyles. However, Emos are not necessarily gay. Last month, Iraq's interior ministry labeled the subculture ?Satanism.? The bodies of at least 14 people bearing the signs of having been stoned to death have been brought to 3 hospital in Baghdad, Reuters reported. ?Last week I signed the death certificates of three of those young people, and the reason for death I wrote in my own hand was severe skull fractures,? an unnamed doctor is reported as saying. ?A very powerful blow to the head c

Thailand will offer $250,000 in compensation to the family of a Japanese cameraman shot dead during a crackdown on protests in Bangkok two years ago, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Tuesday.

(Reuters) - U.S. drugs regulators failed to approve a combination cholesterol pill from Merck & Co Inc that includes a version of the blockbuster drug Lipitor, the company said on Monday.

DENVER (Reuters) - The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that students and employees with concealed weapon permits can carry handguns on University of Colorado campuses, overturning a ban by the school's regents.

(Reuters) - Opponents of Indiana's new "right to work" law have withdrawn a request for a court order to block the anti-union measure after the state said it will not enforce it retroactively.