NPR News

The First Amendment protects the right of the Westboro Baptist Church to hold anti-gay protests outside military funerals, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The 8-1 ruling backs an appeals court decision to throw out a $5 million victory for Albert Snyder, who sued the fundamentalist church after its members picketed his son's funeral.

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects fundamentalist church members who stage anti-gay protests outside military funerals.

The court voted 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. The decision upheld an appeals court ruling that threw out a $5 million judgment to the father of a Marine killed in Iraq who sued church members after they picketed his son's funeral.

When the Food and Drug Administration raises an early warning flag about a drug, the bad news often piles up in a hurry.

But the agency has wrapped up a safety review of the HIV drug abacavir, suspected of raising the risk for heart attacks, and concluded the full body of evidence doesn't support the original concern.

The medicine is sold in pills with the brand names Ziagen, Trizivir and Epzicom.

Libyan rebels withstood ground and air attacks on the Mediterranean oil port of Brega on Wednesday, blunting a major counteroffensive by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in a seesaw battle that lasted much of the day.

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro said the port, home to one of the largest oil refineries in Africa, was bombed by Libyan jets.

"Huge plumes of smoke rose into the air" after the warplanes attacked, Garcia-Navarro reported from Brega. She said it appeared that Gadhafi was "pulling out all the stops" to regain large swaths of opposition-controlled eastern Libya.

Some women in Ukraine say their country has become a destination for sex tourism and instant brides. A New Zealand radio station sponsored a trip to Ukraine for a listener to find a wife. Nine Ukranian women, who protested topless, say they are not a commodity.