In brief: U.N. Security Council OKs arms embargo in Yemen

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council stepped up efforts Tuesday to thwart a Houthi rebel takeover of Yemen, imposing an arms embargo on the leaders of the Shiite group, along with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son.

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been pushed to the brink of collapse by ground fighting and Saudi-led airstrikes in support of current President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia. Observers say the fighting in the strategic Mideast nation is taking on the appearance of a proxy war between Iran, the Shiite powerhouse backing the Houthis, and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia.

The Security Council resolution was approved in a 14-0 vote, with Russia abstaining. Moscow had insisted on an arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, and Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin also complained that the resolution did not require all sides to the conflict “to swiftly halt fire.”

The resolution demands that all Yemeni parties, especially the Houthis, end violence and return swiftly to U.N.-led peace talks aimed at a political transition. It makes no mention of the airstrikes.

Iraqi leader seeks better weaponry

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama announced $200 million in additional humanitarian aid to Iraq on Tuesday but was noncommittal on the request from visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for more sophisticated weapons to fight Islamic State militants.

Obama said Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led military coalition have made “serious progress” in pushing the Sunni militants out of Iraq. He said “about a quarter of the territory” the group seized in northern and western Iraq last year has been recovered, although the militants still hold several major cities.

The two leaders spoke to reporters after they met for 38 minutes in the Oval Office. Al-Abadi is making his first official visit to Washington since the White House began launching airstrikes against the group that has declared an Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

The war is likely to intensify as Iraqi forces backed by U.S. airstrikes seek to recapture Mosul, a city in northern Iraq that the militants have declared their capital.

Guam official OKs same-sex marriage

HAGATNA, Guam – Guam’s attorney general today directed officials to immediately begin processing same-sex-marriage applications, putting the island on course to be the first U.S. territory to allow gay marriage.

Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson’s instructions came two days after a lesbian couple filed a legal challenge to the territory’s marriage laws after they were barred from submitting an application for a license to wed.

But Leo Casil, the acting director of the Department of Public Health and Social Services, told the Pacific Daily News that officials won’t accept applications “until further notice.”

Casil said he just received a letter from Barrett-Anderson, not a legal opinion.

Guam’s governor’s office said it would issue a statement on the matter later today.

Barrett-Anderson cited a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision as the basis for her directive.