PARIS - France will see its first gay weddings within days, after French President Francois Hollande signed a law Saturday authorizing marriage and adoption by same-sex couples and ending months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate.

Hollande's office said he signed the bill Saturday morning, a day after the Constitutional Council struck down a challenge to the law and ruled it in line with France's constitution.

Hollande, a Socialist, had made legalizing gay marriage one of his campaign pledges last year. While polls for years have shown majority support for gay marriage in France, adoption by same-sex couples is more controversial.

The parliamentary debate exposed a deep conservatism and attachment to traditional families in France's rural core that is often eclipsed by and at odds with libertine Paris.

But mostly, it tapped into deep discontent with the Socialist government, largely over Hollande's handling of the economy. Months of anti-gay marriage protests became a flashpoint for frustrations with Hollande, and occasionally degenerated into violence.

In addition, gay rights groups reported a rise in attacks on homosexuals as the parliamentary debate was under way. Protest organizers distanced themselves from the trouble-makers.

The opposition isn't ready to give up. It plans a protest May 26 that aims to parlay the success of the anti-gay marriage movement into a broader anti-Hollande one. Among those expected to attend is Jean-Francois Cope, the leader of the opposition UMP party, riven by divisions and struggling for direction since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the presidency last year.

Hollande warned that he wouldn't accept any disruption of France's first gay marriages.

One couple signed up Saturday to tie the knot on May 29 in the gay-friendly southern French city of Montpellier.

"We're very happy that today we can finally talk of love after all the talk of legislation and political battles," one of the future newlyweds, Vincent Autin, said on France-Info radio.

According to French law, couples must register to marry in city hall and wait at least 10 days before holding a ceremony so that anyone objecting to the union - such as an existing spouse - has time to intervene.

Marketing whizzes are already preparing lesbian and gay cake toppers, his-and-his wedding bands, and other services for France's gay weddings.

Despite the protests, the law passed easily in both houses of parliament, which are dominated by Hollande's Socialists. And the Constitutional Council said, "Marriage as a union between a man and a woman cannot be considered a fundamental principle."

France is the most populous country to have legal gay marriages, and the 14th country worldwide. In the United States, Minnesota became the 12th state in the country to legalize same-sex unions on Tuesday.

In neighboring Belgium, thousands of people took to the confetti-covered streets of Brussels to take part in an annual gay pride march on Saturday. Trucks blasting music and carrying dance floors made their way through cheering crowds. Belgium legalized gay marriage 10 years ago and permitted adoption for same-sex couples seven years ago.

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SANAA, Yemen - A suspected U.S. drone strike killed four al-Qaida militants Saturday in a southern Yemeni province once overrun by the group, according to security officials.

The officials said the attack took place around dawn in an area called Deyqa in Abyan province. Officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Yemeni forces battled al-Qaida in Abyan province last year, routing militants from major cities that al-Qaida had briefly ruled during the country's 2011 political turmoil. The militants fled to surrounding mountainous areas after Yemen's military, assisted by the United States, forced them to retreat.

According to several research groups and The Associated Press's own reporting, there has been a dramatic rise in such drone strikes in Yemen since the country's new U.S.-backed president assumed power early last year.

Washington says al-Qaida in Yemen is among the group's most dangerous and active branches worldwide.

The U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, met Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Saturday. Earlier this week, President Barack Obama extended an executive decision warning supporters of the country's former longtime ruler - ousted after more than three decades in power by protests - to stop hampering the political process or face having their assets frozen.

Hadi also told Yemeni state TV Saturday that tampering of the country's military jets over the past year is the work of either al-Qaida or those wanting to sabotage the army, a reference to supporters of Saleh still in government and security posts.

He vowed an investigation into the incidents.

Seven military aircraft have been sabotaged while still on the ground, including at least two that were torched.

Additionally, just five days ago a military plane on a training exercise exploded in midair over the country's capital, killing the pilot. It was the third such jet crash since Hadi took power.

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BAGHDAD - Police officials say gunmen have kidnapped eight Iraqi policemen who were guarding a post on the main highway to Jordan and Syria.

Two officials say the abductions happened Saturday on the desert road west of Baghdad.

Violence has spiked in Iraq in recent days, with bombings and other attacks killing scores of Sunni and Shiite civilians. Sunni discontent with the Shiite-dominated government is also high, raising fears of a return to the widespread sectarian bloodshed of 2006-2007 that brought the country to the edge of civil war.

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LONDON- Billionaire Donald Trump took legal action to challenge the Scottish government's decision to approve a wind farm near his luxury golf course near Aberdeen in northeast Scotland. The wind turbines would be just of the coast. Trump's organization says its filed a petition with Scotland's Court of Session asking for a judicial review of the decision to approve eleven wind turbines saying it will spoil the sea views for golfers at his resort. Trump contends the Scottish government appears to be biased because it has a financial interest in the wind farm and did not give his company a fair hearing in opposing it.

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BELIZE CITY, BELIZE- A pyramid built by the Mayans 2,300 years ago was reduced to rubble in Belize by a construction company that wanted to extract the rock and stones for a new road. Only a small portion of the pyramid mound was left standing. The head of the Belize Institute of Archeology says he was sickened by the destruction of the Nohuml pyramid and temple platform. The Nohmul complex is on private land but the law in Belize states any pre-Hispanic ruins are under government protection. Photos of the portion that remains show what appear to be a classic Mayan-arched chamber dangling above a clawed out section. The construction company used backhoes and bulldozers to get the rock and stones from the pyramid.

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CAIRO - Egypt's interior minister says security authorities have arrested three suspected al-Qaida militants who were planning to carry out suicide attacks on vital installations and an unspecified embassy.

Mohammed Ibrahim told a news conference Saturday that the men had been in contact with Dawood al-Assady, a leader of al-Qaida in southeast Asian countries such as Pakistan.

Ibrahim said authorities seized 22 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in homemade explosives, and discovered instructions issued by al-Qaida on one of the men's computers.

He said the suspected are also believed to have links with the so-called "Nasr City terror cell," which was broken up last year and its members arrested on accusations of plotting attacks against public figures in Egypt.

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RIO DE JANEIRO- Authorities in Brazil says a 28-year-old woman came within half an inch of her life when she was accidentally shot in the mouth with a spear-gun harpoon. The Rio De Janeiro State Health Department says her husband was cleaning his spear gun when it went off, sending the harpoon into her cervical spine. Elisangela Borborema Rosa was rushed to a hospital where a neurosurgeon says the spear came with a half inch of killing her but he expects her to make a full recovery.

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ZANZIBAR, Tanzania - A woman died and 44 people were seriously wounded when a bomb exploded in a Roman Catholic church in northern Tanzania, a Tanzanian police official said Sunday.

The woman died in hospital as a result of the bombing in the Arusha church just before Mass, which was attended by the papal envoy to Tanzania, said Magesa Mulogo, the regional police commissioner of Arusha.

Mulogo said eyewitnesses report that the bomb was thrown from a motorcycle into the church. Mulogo said the driver of the motorcycle has been arrested.

The Vatican's ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, was attending the official opening of the church when the explosion occurred. He escaped unhurt.

Mulogo said the motive of attack is not known but Tanzania has in the recent past experienced sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims.

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VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis is calling for courageous defense of children to protect them from abuse.

Francis made no mention of the church scandals in many countries in which clergy abused children and hierarchy covered up for them. At a Mass he celebrated Sunday in crowded St. Peter's Square, Francis said abuse victims are in his prayers.

He stressed that all must work with courage so that children, who are among the most vulnerable people, be always defended and protected.

Ignoring sometimes heavy rain, Francis toured the square in a popemobile, but left the vehicle to embrace disabled adults and children along his route.

In a surprise, he ventured beyond the Vatican's confines, riding the popemobile down a Rome boulevard to greet thousands of cheering faithful who couldn't fit in the square.

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YOLA, Nigeria - Police say at least 39 people have been killed in ethnic violence in a rural town in Nigeria.

The attack happened Friday in Wukari, a town in Nigeria's Taraba state.

A state health official and residents said Saturday that others were also injured in the violence that sparked during a funeral service that pitted the Jukun people against the Hausa Fulani. Taraba state police spokesman Joseph Kwaji later said at least 39 people had been killed.

Officials later placed the town on a 24-hour curfew, forcing everyone indoors.

A similar round of violence in February in the town killed more than 20 people.

Nigeria, home to more than 160 million people, has more than 250 different ethnicities. Violence can start over politics, business, grazing rights, religion and other issues.

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KABUL, Afghanistan - An official with the U.S.-led international military coalition says the five troops killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan were all Americans.

Capt. Luca Carniel confirmed that the troops killed on Saturday were U.S. service members.

The coalition did not disclose the location of the blast.

However, Javeed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said a coalition patrol hit the roadside bomb in Maiwand district of the province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

With the deaths, 47 members of the coalition have been killed so far this year - including 32 Americans.

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WASHINGTON - Members of Congress are expressing concerns that Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat to the U.S. after President Bashar Assad is forced from power and could end up targeting Americans at home.

Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (shuh-KOW'-skee) tells ABC's "This Week" that "the day after Assad is the day that these chemical weapons could be at risk" and the U.S. could be in "even bigger trouble."

Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," Sen. Lindsey Graham made reference to the Boston Marathon bombs, warning that the weapons must be protected or: "The next bomb that goes off in America may not have nails and glass."

U.S. officials last week declared that the Syrian government probably had used sarin gas twice last month.

Graham says the U.S. could safeguard the weapons without a ground force. Fellow Republican Sen. John McCain agrees that U.S. should not sent troops to Syria, but he tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that the U.S. should be part of an international force sent to safeguard Syria's chemical weapons.

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ROME - A prosecutor says Italian politicians were the intended target of a gunman who shot and wounded two policemen in a crowded square outside the premier's office in Rome.

The attack Sunday came just as Italy's new government was being sworn in elsewhere in the city. Italy has suffered political deadlock since an inconclusive February election.

Rome Prosecutor Pierfilippo Laviani told reporters he had questioned the alleged assailant, who was taken to a hospital with bruises after being wrestled to the ground.

Laviani says the "desperate" gunman had "lost work, had lost everything." He said the man "wanted to shoot politicians, but given that he couldn't reach any, he shot the Carabinieri" police at the edge of Chigi Square.

Laviani said the man "confessed everything" and didn't appear mentally unbalanced.

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KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban have announced the start of their spring offensive, signaling plans for an uptick in violence as the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and fighting easier.

Saturday's statement comes toward the end of a month that already has been the deadliest of the year.

The Taliban leadership promised "every possible tactic will be utilized in order to detain or inflict heavy casualties on the foreign transgressors."

U.S.-backed efforts to try to reconcile the Islamic militant movement with the Afghan government have so far failed.

Insurgents already have stepped up attacks this spring as they try to position themselves for power ahead of national elections and the planned withdrawal of most U.S. and other foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

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MOSCOW - The head of a Russian parliamentary committee says the legislature is ready to prevent adoptions by foreign same-sex couples.

In the wake of France's legalization of same-sex marriage this week, President Vladimir Putin said he supported moves to block such couples from adopting Russian children.

Elena Mizulina, the family committee chairwoman in the lower house of parliament, was quoted as saying Saturday by the Interfax news agency that "we support the president on this matter and are ready to carry out the relevant changes in the law."

Russia last year banned adoptions by Americans, a retaliatory move for a U.S. law imposing sanctions on Russians deemed human-rights violators. The measure sailed through parliament with only a handful of dissenting votes.

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TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian nuclear negotiator is saying that Iran's coming presidential election will not affect its stance in nuclear talks with world powers.

The Sunday report by the official IRNA news agency quotes Abbas Araghchi as saying "changes in domestic politics in Iran will not affect the trend in nuclear talks."

Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister, also said Iran is ready for further talks.

The remark is seen a message to permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany to return to talks after the last round in April made no breakthrough.

No date has been decided for further talks.

The West is trying to curb Iran's nuclear program since it suspects it has a military dimension. Iran is insisting its program is for peaceful purposes.

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