Court Eases \'No Knock\' Search Ban

rally on the steps of the State Capitol in November 2008 in Sacramento, California. Opponents of same-sex marriage in the US state of California, who won a referendum blocking the unions last month, said Friday they filed suit to annul thousands of gay marriages conducted in the state this year.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Max Whittaker)" border="0" />AP - The California attorney general has changed his position on the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.

day of legal same-sex marriages in San Francisco, California June 17, 2008. (Erin Siegal/Reuters)" border="0" />Reuters - California's Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a legal challenge against the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage and let the ban stand in the meantime.

Turkey's highest court pulled the country back from the brink when it narrowly rejected calls for the ruling party to be shut down and its leaders banned from politics for allegedlyundermining the secular state.

American Floyd Landis has lost his last battle to retain his 2006 Tour de France crown after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) confirmed his two year suspension for doping on Monday.

Landis tested positive for artificial testosterone during the 2006 Tour, in which he had taken a spectacular victory largely thanks to a long breakaway over several Alpine climbs.

Stripped of his title and given a two-year ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Landis made a final appeal to CAS against the sanctions.

Yesterday (Monday’s) verdict marks the final act of a two-year saga and one of the most high-profile anti-doping cases in the history of sport during which Landis has consistently insisted on his innocence.

CAS however, have merely confirmed the original USADA sentence. At the end of a 53-page document outlining the case CAS stated that Landis had failed to show that - as he alleged - the laboratory that carried out the testing had been responsible for procedural errors that caused his positive for artificial testosterone.

Landis will now have to pay $100,000 to the USADA in costs and will remain barred from racing until January 30th 2009.

Defying the crackdown on the opposition by President Robert Mugabe's government, Zimbabwe's High Court yesterday overturned a police ban on rallies by the Movement for Democratic Change. Its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is challenging Mr Mugabe in the presidential election run-off on 27 June.

Defying the crackdown on the opposition by President Robert Mugabe's government, Zimbabwe's High Court yesterday overturned a police ban on rallies by the Movement for Democratic Change. Its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is challenging Mr Mugabe in the presidential election run-off on 27 June.