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From The Associated Press

<b>Brewer wants state to help on ID laws</b><br>PHOENIX  Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer urged state Attorney General Terry Goddard to file a brief with the Supreme Court supporting the upholding of an Indiana Voter s ID Law.

The High Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether these laws unfairly deter the poor and minorities from voting, stepping into a contentious partisan issue in advance of the 2008 elections.

Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona and Michigan, but struck down Missouri s. Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed a challenge to Georgia s voter identification law, saying the statute does not impose a significant burden on the right to vote.

The justices will hear arguments early next year in a challenge to an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo ID before casting their ballots. The state has defended the law as a way to combat voter fraud.

The state Democratic party and civil rights groups complained that the law unfairly targets poor and minority voters, without any evidence that in-person voter fraud exists in Indiana. The party argued that those voters tend to be Democrats.

Election law experts had urged the court to take the Indiana case to instruct courts on how to weigh claims of voter fraud versus those of disenfranchisement. The court better resolve this question before ballots start getting counted next fall,  said Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan.

The court is expected to issue a decision by late June, in time for the November general election.

<b>Episcopal leaders promise restraint on electing gays </b><br>NEW ORLEANS  Episcopal leaders, pressured to roll back their support for gays to keep the world Anglican family from crumbling, affirmed Tuesday that they will exercise restraint  in approving another gay bishop.

The bishops also pledged not to approve an official prayer for blessing same-gender couples and insisted a majority of bishops do not allow priests to bless the couples in their parishes.

The statement came in the final hour of an intense six-day meeting and at a crucial moment in the decades-long Anglican debate over how the Bible should be interpreted.

The Anglican fellowship has been splintering since 2003, when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Anglican leaders had set a Sept. 30 deadline for the Americans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for same-gender couples.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, took the unusual step of attending the meeting for the first two days, pushing bishops to make concessions for the sake of unity. Anglican lay and clergy representatives from overseas also participated, chastising Episcopal leaders for the turmoil they ve caused. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States.

<b>Iranian president says nuclear issue now closed </b><br>UNITED NATIONS - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Tuesday that the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed,  and indicated that Tehran will disregard U.N. Security Council resolutions imposed by arrogant powers  and demanding suspension of its uranium enrichment.

Instead, he said, Iran has decided to pursue the monitoring of its nuclear program through its appropriate legal path,  the International Atomic Energy Agency which is the U.N. s nuclear watchdog.

The U.S. delegation was absent during the speech except for a note taker.

In Washington, D.C.  Congress signaled its disapproval of Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government.

The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers  long-standing nervousness about Tehran s intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel  a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick,  said Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It is my hope that they will take the carrot. But today, we are putting the stick in place. 

The House passed, by a 397-16 vote, a proposal by Lantos, D-Calif., aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran, in particular its lucrative energy sector. The bill would specifically bar the president from waiving U.S. sanctions.

In the Senate, Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., proposed a nonbinding resolution urging the State Department to label Iran s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

Kyl and Lieberman said the proposal does not authorize military force against Iran, but encourages the U.S. to cut off its financial support.

<b>Myanmar rulers ban assembly in two cities </b><br>YANGON, Myanmar  Myanmar s military leaders imposed a nighttime curfew and banned gatherings of more than five people Tuesday after 35,000 Buddhist monks and their supporters defied the junta s warnings and staged another day of anti-government protests.

The country s hard-line military rulers have not used force so far to stop the biggest anti-government demonstrations in nearly two decades, led by the monks. But soldiers in full battle gear were deployed Tuesday in the country s largest city, setting the stage for a showdown with a determined pro-democracy protest movement.

Earlier Tuesday, President Bush announced new U.S. sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, accusing the military dictatorship of imposing a 19-year reign of fear  that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.

<b>Equipment failure grounds aircraft flights</b><br>MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Communications equipment failed Tuesday at a regional air-traffic control center, shutting down all airline traffic within 250 miles of Memphis and causing a ripple effect across the country that grounded dozens of passenger and cargo flights.