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Prosecutors claim Araujo, who was born a boy named Edward but grew up to believe her true identity was as a woman, was murdered in a calculated revenge attack when the men discovered that the flirty girl that two of them had sex with was biologically male.

A previous trial last year ended in a hung jury. Magidson's attorney, Michael Thorman, had argued the case was not murder but manslaughter, a crime of passion provoked by "sexual fraud”a defense that angered Araujo's family.

In cross-examination June 9, attorney Tony Serra, who represents Cazares, tried to shake jurors' faith in Nabors.

Serra brought up instances where Nabors previously lied about the case and charged Nabors played a much bigger role in the attack than he has admitted.

Prosecutors say Araujo was beaten and strangled in a late-night confrontation at Merel's house in Newark, a San Francisco suburb.

The showdown was prompted after Merel and Magidson, who both had sexual encounters with Araujo, grew suspicious after comparing notes, Nabors said.

Later testimony from a forensic pathologist on the cause of death indicated that the beating could have been fatal, but wasn't.

Araujo was still breathing when she was tied and wrapped up before being taken to the desert and buried.

The trial could last until August. Custody given to dead mom's partner

Charleston, W.Va.-The state's highest court on June 17 gave custody of a five-year-old boy to his dead mother's lesbian partner, despite the protests of the woman's blood relatives.

Tina Burch had appealed to the West Virginia Supreme Court for custody of the son of her partner, Christina Smarr, who died in a 2002 car accident. Within hours of her death, Smarr's relatives had given the child to his grandparents.

A family court gave custody to Burch, but a circuit court ruled that she didn't have the legal rights to her former partner's child.

Jim Douglas, Burch's attorney, argued that the boy's biological father, who was not involved in the child's life, supported Burch having custody.

"Both of the child's biological parents not only acquiesced in, but actively fostered, the relationship," Justice Robin Davis wrote in the majority opinion.

The opinion said a "psychological parent" could be a biological, adoptive, foster or stepparent, as long as the parental relationship began with the consent of the legal parent or guardian.

The American Civil Liberties Union praised the ruling, saying it is the first time the court has recognized a gay person's right to be declared a "psychological parent.

Spain to pass marriage bill soon

Madrid, Spain-Approximately 500,000 people led by 20 Roman Catholic bishops and conservative opposition leaders clogged downtown Madrid on June 18 in a demonstration against the Socialist government's bill to legalize same-sex marriage and permit gay couples to adopt children.

A half hour into the demonstration, organizers were claiming 1.5 million people had attended. But media eyewitnesses found the estimate difficult to believe, with most putting the crowd size at 500,000. No police

figure was immediately available.

Earlier that day, Deputy Socialist Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega defended the law and accused protesters of discrimination, saying their actions meant they wanted the rights they enjoyed to be denied to others. The new law "does not oblige anyone to do anything they don't want to do," she said.

The Spanish Senate began debate this week on the gay marriage bill, with a vote expected by week's end. It has already been passed by the lower chamber of Parliament.

The bill is expected to become law in a matter of weeks. Opinion polls indicate a majority of Spaniards support it.

Episcopal Church affirms gay clergy

Nottingham, England The U.S. Episcopal Church on June 21 affirmed its support for gay clergy, and appealed for the contentious issue not to split the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion.

"We believe that God has been opening our eyes to acts of God that we had not known how to see before," the church said in a document prepared for the Anglican Consultative Council. It affirmed "the eligibility for ordination of those in covenanted same-sex unions."

Some Anglican conservatives said that stance made a schism inevitable.

The issue of homosexuality has opened a rift between Anglican liberals-many of them in North America and conservatives, who are strongest in Africa and Asia but include many North American traditionalists. Many fear it is unbridgeable.

In February, leaders of the 38 national Anglican churches chastised the U.S. Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, asking them not to attend this week's meeting of the Consultative Council, an international body of bishops, priests and lay people that meets every three years.

But Anglican leaders also asked the North American churches to send representatives to explain the theological reasoning behind the consecration of openly gay V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, and the decision by the western Canadian diocese of New Westminster to authorize the blessing of same-sex unions.

Compiled from wire reports by Brian DeWitt, Anthony Glassman and Patti Harris.

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