MEXICO CITY -- Angela Alfarache and Ivonne Cervantes met at a party 16 years ago and have been a couple ever since, filling their lives with books and writing and friends. After their daughter, Constanza, was born six years ago, they became a family.

Mexican law never saw it that way. Only Constanza's biological mother -- the pair will not say which one gave birth to her because, as they explain, they are both her mothers -- is her legal parent. The law does not recognize the other mother.

In a few weeks, that will change. A new Mexico City law goes into effect March 4 that will allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, propelling the city to the forefront of the global gay rights movement.

"We want society to change its chip that says there is only one kind of family," said Ms. Alfarache.

But fierce opposition erupted almost as soon as the law was passed on Dec. 22. In his final homily of the year in Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera said, "Today the family is under attack in its essence by the equivalence of homosexual unions with marriage between a man and a woman." Roman Catholic groups asked the conservative federal government to intervene.

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. (AP) -- Crews waded through thigh-high mud to check for gas leaks and survey damage in the foothills north of Los Angeles Sunday as evacuated residents waited to find out if they could return to their homes and start digging out.

Forty-three homes in La Canada Flintridge were damaged and 500 more evacuated Saturday after mud and water overflowed basins and surged into streets, taking furniture, cars and concrete barriers with it. About 70 homes remained evacuated Sunday morning.

''In my 20 years of fire service, this is the first time I've seen this much devastation caused by a weather system,'' Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief Mike Brown said while walking past suburban homes with thigh-deep mud in their yards.

Los Angeles County public works crews were using bulldozers and other heavy machinery to move boulders, scoop out catch basins and clear roads.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was scheduled to tour the area later Sunday.

The sun was shining Sunday on barren mountaintops scarred by last summer's wildfires, but forecasters say more rain could arrive by Tuesday.

(NaturalNews) In response to an environmental lawsuit filed against the oil giant, Chevron has fortified its defenses with at least twelve different public relations firms whose purpose is to debunk the claims made against the company by indigenous people living in the Amazon forests of Ecuador. According to them, Chevron dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste in the Amazon between 1964 and 1990, causing damages assessed at more than $27 billion.

The company is being criticized by people and organizations from across the social and political spectrum for its unethical behavior in regards to the case. Originally filed in U.S. federal district court back in 1993, the lawsuit was eventually moved to courts in Ecuador at Chevron's behest. Having initially lauded Ecuador's legal system in an effort to have the case moved there, Chevron later changed its mind and began attacking the system when that system found the company liable for damages.

Shareholders are also upset with Chevron for its gross mismanagement of the case in which it has sidestepped the rule of law and employed guerilla-style tactics in a last ditch effort to fend off an unfavorable ruling. Part of this includes hiring Hill & Knowlton, the same firm that represented the tobacco industry during its indictment over tobacco causing cancer, to perform the same task concerning toxic oil contaminants.

Evidence presented at Chevron's trial included over 50,000 chemical samples taken by the company itself which proved that all of its former oil drilling sites are contaminated with toxic byproducts that cause cancer. Many of these wells have contaminated rivers, streams, and other water sources which natives use for drinking water. Despite all the undeniable evidence, Chevron is working hard to cover up the facts and dismiss its responsibility in the matter.

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's almost a cliche these days that San Francisco and its sister to the east, Oakland, stand as the primary incubators of some of California's infamously wacky but later transformational social and political ideas.

From the Silicon Valley to Oakland and Berkeley to the Napa Valley -- if it was at first weird, untested, illegal and/or controversial, it probably got its start right here.

Now a small but determined coalition of Bay Area activists and politicos are on a mission to have California be the first state in the union to fully legalize, regulate and tax the use of marijuana - and they're approaching that goal from several different angles.

A 16-year-old Spanish matador has killed six bulls in one afternoon, pulling off a feat normally attempted only by seasoned veterans and winning trophies for his skill--ears from animals he had just slain.

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Jairo Miguel said bullfighting gives him an irresistible rush from a cocktail of fear, adrenaline and applause from the crowd. Still, sometimes he feels sorry for the animals he kills.

"I feel quite bad when the bull has been good, and you see the expression on his face, the innocence. He has given you his bravery, he has collaborated so that you win praise and people stand in ovation," he said.

A Christian group in Michigan has filed a lawsuit alleging that a package of hate crimes laws named after murder victim Matthew Shepard is an affront to their religious freedom.

Far from the intended purpose of severely punishing criminals who commit unspeakable acts against a persecuted minority group, the religious activists claim the laws are a guarded effort to "eradicate" their beliefs.

Filed by the Thomas More Law Center -- which bills itself as the religious answer to the American Civil Liberties Union -- the complaint claims that protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people "is an effort to eradicate religious beliefs opposing the homosexual agenda from the marketplace of ideas by demonizing, vilifying, and criminalizing such beliefs as a matter of federal law and policy

Officials have moved to seize the properties of more than 300 fathers who have defaulted on child maintenance payments, in a marked toughening of the approach towards serial non-payers.

More than 200 parents not living with their children ‑ almost all of them men ‑ have also had their bank accounts frozen in the five months since the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) was given powers to do so.

The measures reflect the commission's determination to improve the record of the much-criticised Child Support Agency, which it took over in 2008 and which it intends to replace over the next four years. The latest figures show that the number of children benefiting from maintenance payments through the agency is exceeding 800,000 for the first time.