Earthquake injures 15 in southwestern Pakistan

Earthquake injures 15in southwestern Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan -- An earthquake shook this southwestern Pakistan city early today, leaving 15 people with minor injuries, officials said.
The 4.7 magnitude temblor struck at 1:12 a.m. and was centered in southwestern Baluchistan province where Quetta is situated, said Salim Akhtar, an official at the Pakistan's Seismological Center.
Dr. Jamal Shah at Quetta's Civil Hospital said at least 15 people were injured, including one man who broke his leg as he tried to rush from his home. Others were hit by glass from shattered windows.
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake in 1935 flattened Quetta, killing 50,000 people.
Ban on drinking alcohol
KANO, Nigeria -- Lawmakers in a mostly Islamic Nigerian state have approved a law calling for Muslims to be whipped and Christians to be jailed if they are caught drinking alcohol, officials said Saturday.
At a time when tensions between Christians and Muslims are running high in the wake of deadly clashes last week, some expressed fear that attempts to enforce Islamic legal punishments could fuel further conflict.
The bill, which was passed Thursday, must be signed by the governor of northern Kano state before becoming law.
Lawmakers called for Muslims to be whipped with "eighty strokes of the cane" if caught drinking alcohol, the speaker of Kano's legislature, Saidu Balarabe Gani, said in broadcasts on local radio stations.
The penalty for Christians would be a $380 fine, a one-year jail term or both, Gani said.
Gay marriage foe dies
LOS ANGELES -- State Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight, who wrote California's gay marriage ban and took it directly to voters after twice failing to get it through the Legislature, has died of leukemia. He was 74.
Knight died of an acute form of the cancer Friday night at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, his communications director, David Orosco, said Saturday.
Knight, a Republican from Palmdale, had been absent from his seat since April 12 because of his illness.
Knight was best known as author of the state's Defense of Marriage Act, which says that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized as valid in California. After failing to get similar legislation through the Democrat-controlled Legislature, Knight took it to voters; the measure passed with 61 percent approval in 2000.
Associated Press