The Oregon Senate passed a bill Wednesday allowing same-sex couples to enter into contractual domestic partnerships with the same state benefits as married couples. The measure covers state benefits including inheritance, child custody, and hospital visitation rights, but does not affect federal benefits for married couples. The bill passed the state House last month and now goes to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who has said he will sign it. Kulongoski has also said he will sign a second piece of legislation protecting individuals against discrimination based on sexual orientation. That bill would ban discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, and create a civil cause of action for violations of the act.

Currently, Vermont, Connecticut, California, New Jersey, Maine and Washington are the only states that recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships. The Washington State Senate passed a domestic partnership bill in March. Late last month, the New Hampshire Senate voted in favor of a bill already passed by the state House allowing same-sex civil unions. Also in late April, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer introduced a bill to legalize gay marriage in New York.

Though most claims were dismissed by the judge, the families still intend to pursue claims left standing.

Adam Saleh today received the maximum sentence of 38 years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of the murder of Reynoldsburg model Julie Popovich.

The judge called Saleh a "shark" who might prey on other women if he is ever released. He also order that Saleh, 20, be labeled a sexual predator.

"Today we received justice for Julie because a very dangerous man is being removed from society," said Popovich's mother, Peggy White. "But I encourage young women to beware of the predators because they are out there waiting."

The jury of six men and six women found Saleh, an auto mechanic, guilty of murder, attempted rape, kidnapping and tampering with evidence for the 2005 slaying of the 20-year-old Popovich.

They acquitted him of aggravated murder charges, sparing him a possible prison sentence of life without parole. Jurors deliberated about seven hours over two days.

The jury told Assistant County Prosecutors James Lowe and Daniel Hawkins afterward that they didn't think Saleh intended to kill Popovich, as one inmate had testified.

"They said they believed that he choked her, but he wasn't trying to kill her," Lowe said. "The testimony was that he tried to make her pass out and then he realized she was dead."

"Only God can judge me," Saleh told Hogan before he was sentenced.

Hogan told Saleh: "I have come to the conclusion that you, sir, are a shark and I hope the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction never lets you out, because I am convinced that once you are out you will find a way to behave the same way again."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday slammed a Constitutional Court decision to annul the first-round vote in the presidential election as "a bullet fired at democracy," but then backed down saying his remarks were not aimed at the court.

"We respect the decision of the Constitutional Court, (but) it will be much debated from the legal point of view," Erdogan told members of his Justice and Development Party in parliament.

"The election of a president in parliament has been blocked, the election of presidents has been made almost impossible in future parliaments from now on.

"And you know what is it at the same time? It is a bullet fired at democracy," he said.

His remarks prompted a strong response from the Constitutional Court, which warned that the prime minister was committing a crime by criticising court rulings.

Erdogan's remarks are "irresponsible, go beyond their original intent and turn the institution into a target," the court statement said.

The court Tuesday cancelled the first-round vote in Turkey's turbulent presidential elections on the grounds that the 550-member parliament started voting without the required quorum of a two-thirds majority.

Questioned by reporters about the court's reaction, Erdogan said his words were aimed not at the tribunal, but at Deniz Baykal. Baykal is the chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which had petitioned the court to annul the vote.

Baykal had said ahead of the ruling that Turkey would plunge into conflict if the court did not cancel the vote.

"My words were directed completely at Mr. Baykal," the Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying. "Why would I otherwise say that I respect the ruling? ... The ruling has been made, we must respect it."

In its statement Wednesday, the court also criticised Baykal's remarks.

Both statements violated the independence of the judiciary and were crimes under the penal code, it said.

The CHP had petitioned the court with the intention of blocking the election of the sole presidential candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, and forcing early elections. They object to Gul because of his Islamist background.

Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), the moderate offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, holds the majority in parliament with 351 members. But it does not have the two-thirds majority of 367 that the court said was required for voting to begin in Friday's session.

The opposition had boycotted the vote.

Following Tuesday's ruling, the AKP called for early general elections in June and said it would also submit a package of constitutional amendments, including a far-reaching reform for a popular vote to elect the president.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton on Wednesday pledged to conduct an internal investigation to determine if police violated policy by using force to quell pro-immigration protesters.

Bratton said he had seen news footage showing a number of officers in riot gear striking protesters and some members of the media to the ground with batons, and others firing foam bullets into the crowd.

The incidents happened during a Tuesday rally in downtown Los Angeles.

"I regret and am, as are all of you, disturbed by the events so vividly depicted in the various news videos," Bratton told a press conference at the city hall.

"Police use of force in any context is always visibly and emotionally upsetting, even when necessary and lawful," the chief said.

"Our challenge in reviewing and investigating the actions of the police department ... and that of the public is to determine if that use of force was an appropriate response to the level of threat, disturbance and danger that they are encountering."

However, he is determined to meet the challenges, Bratton said.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) will create an "after-action report" to evaluate its handling of the event, and conduct a use-of-force investigation to determine if officers responded appropriately, he added.

Tuesday's rally by thousands of people calling for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants was peaceful until about about 6 p.m., when police tried to disperse some demonstrators who had moved off the sidewalk into Alvarado Street in the downtown area.

Some demonstrators responded by throwing plastic bottles and rocks at officers, police said. Several dozen riot police, wearing helmets and carrying batons, fired a few dozen volleys of foam bullets into the crowd.

The clashes injured 15 police officers and at least 10 demonstrators.

The Radio and Television News Association (RTNA) said earlier that "there is evidence that officers knocked reporters to the ground, used batons on photographers and damaged cameras, possibly motivated by anger over journalists photographing efforts by officers to control the movements of marchers."

Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, told the Times Giuliani's association with the law firm could cost him votes.

From clean air to mercury pollution to global warming policies, Giuliani's firm has been perhaps the most anti-environment voice in Washington, representing some of the biggest corporate polluters, Karpinski said.

Publicly however, Giuliani has advocated increased use of nuclear power, natural gas, Alaskan oil drilling and ethanol to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil, the report said.

"We are very encouraged by the Supreme Court's decision," Jeffrey Citron, chairman of Holmdel, New Jersey-based Vonage, said in a statement. The ruling "should have positive implications for Vonage and our pending patent litigation with Verizon," he said.

The high court devised a new test for determining when an invention is too obvious to warrant patent protection. The ruling makes it harder for those applying for patents, as well as patent holders seeking to win infringement lawsuits, to show they have developed a genuine innovation.

"There is no merit" to the Vonage request, John Thorne, New York-based Verizon's deputy general counsel, said in a telephone interview. "It's a delaying tactic to avoid final resolution of the appeal."

Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling concerning patent validity overturned a decades-old test used by the Federal Circuit. The case centered on the requirement that an invention be "non- obvious" and not simply combine prior inventions.

Vonage was ordered by U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton in Alexandria, Virginia, to stop adding customers after losing the patent ruling. On April 24, the company won its request in the appeals court to continue business as usual while it appeals.

The appeals court, which specializes in patent law, has set a June 25 hearing to consider Vonage's bid to reverse the jury verdict.