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London to Register Gay Couples Zimbabwean Gay Group Threatened |
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By Rex Wockner Moscow: Police Launch Raids on Gay Clubs
Plainclothes police raided two Moscow gay bars and a
gay sex club June 30, checking IDs and video-taping
patrons, activists said.
The intrusions occurred at the bars Central Station and Three Monkeys and at the Kazarma sex club. Some of the patrons were beaten and one man reportedly required medical treatment for a fractured rib.
Activists said they suspected the unidentified officers were from the drug-enforcement arm of the Russian Interior Ministry. Six patrons of the sex club were taken from the premises but later released after paying bribes of $10 to $20, activists said. "These unwarranted raids, irrespective of the authority of the involved agency ... violate the privacy clause of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia is a signatory, the Russian Constitution and the Federal Laws on Police and on Operative Investigative Activities, as well as internal police regulations," activist-journalist Nikita Ivanov wrote at www.gay.ru. London to Register Gay Couples The city of London, England, will begin offering gay-partnership registration and ceremonies in September, Mayor Ken Livingstone announced June 28. The London Partnerships Register is a "step on the road to equality," he said. "We have some way to go but [it] is a great start." The registry will not confer the rights of marriage but will be useful when disputes arise about the nature of a relationship in matters such as tenancy, pensions, intestacy, taxation, inheritance and immigration, Livingstone said. The ceremonies will be performed Wednesdays and Saturdays at the visitors center of the Greater London Authority, at a cost of about $125. Zimbabwean Gay Group Threatened
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