“Liberte, egalite, fraternite” is coming to marriage rights in France;  Voters restore democracy in one South American nation by electing a reputed thug;  185 people are dead after soldiers and insurgents don’t bother to watch out for civilians.  Ugh.  That and more in your World news Round-Up:

France’s National Assembly will likely legalize Gay Marriage this week.  The Upper House will take up legislation on Tuesday, after the lower house had earlier passed it.  Supporters rallied at Place de la Bastille a Paris.  Opponents backed by the Roman Catholic Church gathered on Denfert Rochereau Square on the Left Bank for a demonstration against Equality, insisting they weren’t fascists but as usual didn’t explain how exactly Gay Marriage was going to destroy the world.  Polls say that around 55-60 percent of French people support equal marriage rights.

Voters in Paraguay chose a wealthy tobacco magnate as their new president, but critics from within and without South America say conservative millionaire Horacio Cartes is a money launderer, drug-trafficker, and counterfeiter.  He comes from the tiny elite that controls everything in the impoverished, landlocked, and notoriously corrupt South American nation.  This weekend’s elections in Paraguay were supposed to be a crucial step in restoring Democracy, after most neighbors ostracized it for the “congressional coup” that deposed that President Fernando Lugo last year.

A court sentenced each member of a group of Brazilian Police to 156 years in prison for their roles in a notorious prison massacre.  In 1992, prisoners rioted in the Carandiru prison in Sao Paulo.  Authorities didn’t bother to negotiate before moving in and opening fire on the prisoners.  111 were killed.  The police colonel who commanded the operation was convicted in 2001 but acquitted on appeal in 2006 on grounds he was “just following orders”.

The London Marathon went off without significant trouble.  There were hundreds of extra cops watching over it, after what happened in Boston last Monday.  36 Thousand runners paused for a 30 second moment of silence before the race, ran before a record 700 thousand spectators. 

Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo won the Women’s race, moving to the front when her closest competition Olympic Champion Tiki Gelana collided with a wheelchair racer and fell.  Gelana recovered and rejoined the pack but couldn’t regain first place.  In the men's race, Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede took first, repeating his 2010 victory.

At least 185 people are dead in a fishing community in Nigeria after fighting between Islamic militants and government troops.  The attack in Baga was marked by indiscriminate actions by undisciplined fighters:  Insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers spray machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians.

The head of China’s Administration of Religious Affairs says people need to banish superstitious beliefs about things like sickness and death.  In very rare comments about the officially Marxist government’s policy towards religion, Wang Zuoan said, “we need to help people establish a correct world view and to scientifically deal with birth, ageing, sickness and death, as well as fortune and misfortune, via popularizing scientific knowledge.”