World News Tonight Preview

May 17 -- Good afternoon.

Massachusetts today became the first state to grant gays and lesbians the right to marry legally. Couples had been lined up outside Cambridge city hall for more than a day to be the first to fill out marriage-license applications at the stroke of midnight. Back in November, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that towns and cities must begin allowing same-sex couples to marry today. The president issued a statement reiterating his belief that an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman is still "urgent." Ron Claiborne reports tonight from Boston on what is expected to be a flurry of ceremonies for gay couples and what impact it will have on the nation.http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/US/Goodridge_Same_Sex_Marriage_GMA_040517-1.html

In the Iraqi capital of Baghdad today, a suicide car-bomb explosion has killed the president of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. Izzedin Saleem, who held the rotating chairmanship of the IGC, was killed along with six others at a checkpoint outside the heavily guarded Coalition headquarters. Saleem is the second council member to be assassinated since the governing body was formed last July. Bill Redeker reports tonight on the details of the explosion and the concern that Iraqi officials are not adequately protected.http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040517_1267.html

In other developments in Iraq, U.S. Military officials announced today that American troops in Baghdad detonated a roadside bomb containing deadly sarin nerve agent over the weekend. It is believed to be the first discovery of any of the banned weapons since the invasion of Iraq last year, though the chemicals were inside an artillery shell dating back to the Saddam Hussein era. Brian Ross will have more tonight on the deadly chemical agent, its history and what kind of damage it can do.http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040517_1180.html

Events planned across the country today are marking the 50th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision that desegregated the nation's schools and made the policy of "separate but equal" educations illegal. However, many still believe that even 50 years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision basic inequalities in education remain. For example, minority children make up the majority of the populations in inner city public schools, the same schools faced with low funding and declining test scores. Dean Reynolds takes a Closer Look tonight at our increasingly separate and unequal schools.http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/reuters20040517_235.html