TOKYO — Japan’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that requiring married couples to have the same surname is constitutional, dealing a blow to a longtime effort for gender equality in choosing names. The law does not say which partner must give ...

MACON, Ga. — A Georgia woman has been sentenced to 190 years in prison on child-cruelty charges after prosecutors said she confined her adopted daughter in a chicken coop and an outhouse, tied her by the neck to a tree, ...

PHOENIX — An Arizona court ruling says grandparents who could provide foster or adoptive homes for children in state custody don’t have a right to sue over placement decisions. The Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a juvenile court judge’s ...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Three couples filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging North Carolina’s law allowing officials to refuse to perform gay marriages based on their religious beliefs. Their attorney says the state is violating the First Amendment and using taxpayer money ...

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The 9-year-old Kentucky girl calls the woman “nommy” and bears her middle and last name. They lived in the same household until the girl was 4, and “nommy” once carried the child on her insurance plan. But ...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  — An Arkansas judge struck down part of the state’s law on birth certificates Tuesday, a move the plaintiffs’ attorney said clears the way for married same-sex couples to both be listed as parents. Pulaski County Circuit ...

HELENA, Mont. — U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs officers escorted two children off an American Indian reservation in Montana where their grandmother brought them amid a custody dispute, bringing the federal government into a clash between state and tribal courts. ...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Charleston divorce attorney whose license was once suspended is running for one of Kanawha County’s five Family Court judge seats. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that James Wilson Douglas, 64, said he plans to run for the ...

ST. LOUIS — Fifty years after a St. Louis gospel singer said she was told that her daughter died at birth — a claim disputed by authorities — and months after the 76-year-old woman learned that her daughter was still ...

PHILADELPHIA — Television personality and actress Sherri Shepherd has been found legally responsible for a child born to a surrogate she and her ex-husband hired before they divorced, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled this week in upholding the surrogacy contract. ...