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UN says humanitarian situation in Syria is deteriorating and 10.8 million people need aid
• UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening and the number of people needing urgent help has reached 10.8 million -- almost half of Syria's population of 22 million, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.
• Ban's monthly report to the U.N. Security Council said the current estimate of 3.5 million people living in areas that are difficult or impossible for humanitarian workers to reach is also likely to have increased to 4.7 million people.
• The U.N. chief painted a grim picture of a country gripped by severe levels of violence, including the intensified use of barrel bombs by government forces against civilian areas and suicide attacks, reported executions and other acts of terrorism by extremist groups.
• As a result, Ban said, the number of people in need has increased by 17 percent -- from 9.3 million to 10.8 million.
• Ban said the rules that govern the conduct of war "are being flagrantly violated every day."
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Obama moves to expand government benefits for gay couples in states without same-sex marriage
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- A year after the Supreme Court struck down a law barring federal recognition of gay marriages, the Obama administration granted an array of new benefits Friday to same-sex couples, including those who live in states where gay marriage is against the law.
• The new measures range from Social Security and veterans benefits to work leave for caring for sick spouses. They are part of President Barack Obama's efforts to expand whatever protections he can offer to gays and lesbians even though more than half of the states don't recognize gay marriage. That effort has been confounded by laws that say some benefits should be conferred only to couples whose marriages are recognized by the states where they live, rather than the states where they were married.
• Aiming to circumvent that issue, the Veterans Affairs Department will start letting gay people who tell the government they are married to a veteran to be buried alongside them in a national cemetery, drawing on the VA's authority to waive the (Continued on page 29)
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