Same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage

WASHINGTON

Both sides in the gay-marriage debate agree on one thing: It’s time for the Supreme Court to settle the matter.

Even a justice recently said she thinks so, too.

The emerging consensus makes it likely that the justices soon will agree to take up the question of whether the Constitution forbids states from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. A final ruling isn’t likely before June 2015, but a decision to get involved could come as soon as the end of this month.

“I don’t see a lot of reasons for them to wait,” says Dale Carpenter, a gay-rights expert at the University of Minnesota law school. “You have almost no one at this point opposed to certiorari,” the legal term for high-court review.

Officials in five states in which marriage bans were struck down by federal courts have rushed their appeals to the Supreme Court, in time for consideration by the justices when they meet in private Sept. 29.

Canada finds 1 of 2 explorer ships

TORONTO

One of two British explorer ships that vanished in the Arctic nearly 170 years ago during a search for the fabled Northwest Passage has been found, Canada’s prime minister announced Tuesday in a discovery that could unlock one of history’s biggest mysteries and swell Canadian pride.

Last seen in the 1840s while under the command of Rear Adm. Sir John Franklin, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror have long been among the most sought-after prizes in marine archaeology and the subject of songs, poems and novels.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office said the well-preserved wreck of one of the vessels was found Sunday with the help of a remotely operated underwater vehicle. It was near King William Island, about 1,200 miles northwest of Toronto.

5 children found dead in Alabama; father detained

CAMDEN, Ala.

Authorities say the father of five children whose bodies were found in Alabama has been charged with child neglect and that other charges are pending.

The Lexington County, S.C., Sheriff’s Department said it had obtained an arrest warrant for Jones on a charge of unlawful neglect of a child.

Mississippi authorities said in a news release Tuesday night that 32-year-old Timothy Ray Jones Jr. was already in custody in Raleigh, Miss., after being detained Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence.

They said Jones’ SUV was towed, and upon inspection of the vehicle, evidence of a crime was found. They said further investigation led them to the children’s bodies.

Wilcox County, Ala., District Attorney Michael Jackson said the father is suspected of killing the five children in South Carolina and dumping the bodies in Alabama.

UN says CO2 pollution levels at annual record high

GENEVA

Carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2013 as increasing levels of man-made pollution transform the planet, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday.

The heat-trapping gas blamed for the largest share of global warming rose to global concentrations of 396 parts per million last year, the biggest year-to-year change in three decades, the World Meteorological Organization said in an annual report.

That’s an increase of 2.9 ppm from the previous year and is 42 percent higher than before the Industrial Age, when levels were about 280 ppm.

Associated Press