SAMAC, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — A new calamity emerged Tuesday in the flood-hit Balkans as rescue workers battled overflowing rivers: tons of drowned livestock posing a health hazard.

With the rainfall stopping and temperatures rising, the withdrawing floodwaters revealed a harrowing sight: thousands of dead cows, pigs, sheep, dogs and other animals left behind as their panicked owners fled rapidly advancing torrents.

"There are tons of dead animals that we must dispose of," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told a government meeting Tuesday.

In the northern Bosnian town of Samac, troops were using ropes to pull nearly 400 dead cows out of a barn and driving the carcasses away on trucks. In Samac, like many Bosnian and Serbian towns, waters rose within hours, racing into yards and homes without warning. Farmers did not always have time to unleash their livestock or let them out of barns to try to swim to safety.

Some dead animals were still hanging over the metal fences they tried to jump over when the water rushed in.

"Dead animals are a special problem and those have to be removed and destroyed properly," said Bosnia's chief epidemiologist, Dr. Zeljko Ler.

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People ride a boat during heavy floods on a main street in Bosanski Samac May 19, 2014. Bosnia said …

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Serbian state television showed army teams spreading out Tuesday to decontaminate and disinfect flooded areas to prevent possible diseases.

Residents in both countries were told not to return to their homes before teams disinfect the area and not to eat any food from flooded gardens, orchards or barns.

Ler warned that acute stomach ailments and other diseases — including hepatitis and typhoid — often occur after flooding.

"We are warning the population to drink only boiled or bottled water," he said. "There are still no mass infections (yet) but for some diseases the incubation period is 14 to 21 days."

The record flooding in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia in past week has forced half a million people out of their homes and led to at least 43 deaths: 20 in Serbia, 21 in Bosnia and two in Croatia. Authorities say the death toll still could go higher.

Bosnia declared Tuesday a day of mourning while Serbia said it would hold three days of mourning from Wednesday to Friday.

In villages and towns along the Sava River, which forms the border between Bosnia and Croatia, water was still over one meter (yard) high Tuesday. Volunteers were still evacuating people and distributing aid to those who decided to wait out the flood on higher floors. The flooding was still threatening Serbia's biggest power plant in the hard-hit town of Obrenovac.

Water levels in the mighty Danube were also rising Tuesday, prompting Serbian authorities to order the evacuation of two villages along Europe's second-largest river.

In Bosnia, army helicopters dropped iron bars onto collapsed river barriers for the second day, aiming to later drop sandbags on them to try to close the gaps. Many areas faced land mine dangers after thousands of landslides hit, shifting mine fields left over from the country's 1992-95 war.

Bosnia's presidency said it will organize an international donor's conference and asked commercial banks to reprogram the mortgages of those who had lost property in the flooding.

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Aida Cerkez reported from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Jovana Gec from Belgrade, Serbia.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pennsylvania's ban on gay marriage was overturned by a federal judge Tuesday in a decision that legalized same-sex unions throughout the Northeast and sent couples racing to pick up licenses.

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III called the plaintiffs — a widow, 11 couples and one couple's teenage daughters — courageous for challenging the constitutionality of the ban passed by lawmakers in 1996.

"We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history," the judge wrote.

The judge declined to put his ruling on hold for a possible appeal by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, so it went into immediate effect. The governor, who opposes gay marriage, did not issue a statement or indicate whether he would appeal. However, his state party chairman complained that an "activist" judge had usurped the power of the Legislature.

Amid a frenzy of celebration across the state, county offices in Philadelphia stayed open late to handle marriage applications, while officials in Pittsburgh were closed for election day but accepting them online. Couples must wait three days before getting married, unless a sympathetic judge grants a waiver.

Joe Parisi told his partner to "jet out of work" and get to Philadelphia City Hall.

"We didn't want to take the chance of having this be challenged and missing out on our opportunity," said Parisi, a Philadelphia resident who plans to marry Steven Seminelli.

They were among the first to get a license Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the judge's ruling.

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Maureen Brodoff, right, and Ellen Wade, center, kiss while after a marriage ceremony at City Hall in …

The judge also ordered Pennsylvania to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.

Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which pursued the case, said of the ruling: "It's everything we had hoped for."

"There's nothing that the government can do that's more intrusive than standing in the way of two people who love each other and want to get married," Walczak said.

State marriage bans have been falling around the country since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. If Tuesday's decision stands, Pennsylvania would become the 19th state to legalize gay marriage and 43 percent of Americans would live in a state with full marriage equality, according to the advocacy group Freedom to Marry.

The ACLU had argued that the bans deprive same-sex couples and their families of the legal protections, tax benefits and social statuses afforded to married couples.

Corbett's office was left to defend the law after Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Kane refused to do so. A spokesman for Corbett's office said it was reviewing the legal issues presented in the opinion.

The Pennsylvania lawsuit, filed July 9, was the first known challenge to the state ban. At least five later test cases emerged, including one over a suburban county's decision last year to issue 174 marriage licenses to same-sex couples, before a court shut them down. Officials in Montgomery County were trying Tuesday to have that order lifted.

Oregon became the 18th state to recognize same-sex marriage on Monday, when jubilant couples began applying for marriage licenses immediately after a U.S. District Court judge invalidated its voter-approved same-sex marriage ban.

Also Monday, a federal judge in Utah ordered state officials to recognize more than 1,000 gay marriages that took place in the state over a two-week period before the U.S. Supreme Court halted same-sex weddings with an emergency stay.

Jones, a Republican and an appointee of then-President George W. Bush, was previously known for a 2005 decision in which he barred a Pennsylvania school district from teaching intelligent design in biology class, saying it was "a mere re-labeling of creationism."

The torrent of celebration from Democrats and supporters Tuesday was met by criticism from state Republicans, who as recently as 2012 endorsed a platform defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

"An activist judiciary has substituted its judgment in place of the law created by the elected representatives of Pennsylvania," chairman Rob Gleason said, "and has stifled the ongoing debate of people with differing points of view."

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Associated Press writers Kathy Matheson and JoAnn Loviglio in Philadelphia and Marc Levy in Harrisburg contributed to this report.

If a federal judge's ruling stands, Pennsylvania will become the 19th state to allow gays to marry.
The case

Obrenovac (Serbia) (AFP) - The roar of an armoured vehicle ploughing through muddy water was the only sound on the deserted streets of Obrenovac, a Serbian town hit by some of the worst flooding of the past week.

The trucks, carrying journalists and foreign envoys, made their way past smashed and overturned cars floating along the central streets, where waters had receded but were still a metre high.

Signs of near-apocalyptic devastation were everywhere.

On the outskirts of town, teams of health experts in olive-green protective clothing were carrying out the grim task of dragging dead animals out of abandoned farmyards in a bid to prevent outbreaks of disease.

On the main street, doors forced open by the rushing tide had left whole shops drowned in dirt. The mannequins of one fashion boutique were totally submerged in grey mud.

An open-air market, its stalls underwater, had become a make-shift marina for rescue teams.

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Serbian rescue workers drive their way through the flooded town of Obrenovac, 40 kilometers west of …

A football pitch had become a swimming pool. At its worst, the water had reached "above the goals and up to the higher rows of seats," a local policeman told AFP.

In some areas, the tops of lampposts were the only indication that a street lay somewhere beneath the stinking waters.

Obrenovac was a town of 20,000. More than half were evacuated during the four days of torrential rains.

It could be weeks before they are allowed to return. Debris must first be cleared and the town declared disease-free, health experts have warned.

- 'My heart broke' -

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A girl plays on a matress in a shelter for people evacuated from the flooded town of Obrenovac on Ma …

Veselin Rankovic, a 78-year old farmer from a nearby village, first knew about the floods when his cows started mooing.

He fled with his family to seek shelter in Obrenovac before being evacuated to a shelter in Belgrade later that day.

"My heart broke. I left everything, my cows, pigs, dogs, chickens. But I am blessed that my family is alive," he told AFP.

The town was mostly home to working class families, and many face an anxious wait to discover how much they have lost to the rampaging waters.

Marko Obojcic, a 44-year-old carpenter, was evacuated to the capital, but has applied to return with clean-up teams soon.

"Nights were the worst. All you could hear was the howling of dogs unable to swim across the water," he said.

With temperatures rising suddenly after the worst rains in 120 years, a few dry patches had started to appear. A group of men were trying to dry their vehicles, stuck in a mud after the water receded.

"Have you brought us some food?" a shoeless woman in her 40s wearing muddy jeans shouted at reporters and foreign envoys touring the town.

But most houses and buildings were completely abandoned. Some were quit in a rush -- garage doors left open to reveal half-submerged cars inside.

In one garden, a pink tricycle awaited its young owner, probably sheltered in one of many evacuation centres hastily set up in Belgrade.

Just a few metres away, a small flock of sheep who had somehow survived the disaster, quietly and calmly grazed a patch of ground where the waters had finally drawn back.

'I am blessed that my family is alive'

As floodwaters recede, residents of Obrenovac, Serbia, describe the devastation around them.
Health concerns

SHANGHAI (AP) — President Vladimir Putin met Tuesday with China's president in a diplomatic boost for the isolated Russian leader but the two sides had yet to agree on a widely anticipated multibillion-dollar natural gas sale.

Putin, shunned by the West over Ukraine, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a start of a two-day meeting on Asian security with leaders from Iran and Central Asia. The Russian leader is hoping to extend his country's dealings with Asia and diversify markets for its gas, which now goes mostly to Europe.

Russia has been negotiating for more than a decade on a proposed 30-year deal to supply gas to China. Officials said they hoped to complete work in time to sign a contract while Putin is in Shanghai. But Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday it wasn't finalized.

"Significant progress has been reached on gas, but there are issues that need to be finalized regarding the price," Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies. He said a contract could be signed "at any moment."

A deal would give Moscow an economic and political boost at a time of Western sanctions, while pressure on Moscow is thought to give Beijing leverage to push for a lower price.

The U.S. treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, appealed to China during a visit last week to avoid taking steps that might offset sanctions. However, American officials have acknowledged China's pressing need for energy.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and China's President Xi Jinping review an honor guard dur …

In a joint statement, Putin and Xi urged Ukrainians to start "broad nationwide talks" on ending their country's crisis. Russia has been pressing for such talks and they are an element of a peace plan proposed by European mediators. The Ukrainian government has refused to invite separatist rebels in the country's east to participate.

The statement appealed for global rules to limit use of computer technology to hurt state sovereignty, a reference to efforts to curb the spread of online opposition to authoritarian governments. Beijing tries to block material that criticizes one-party rule, while Moscow has tightened controls. An official said last week Russia might block access to Twitter.

Putin and Xi attended the signing of 49 cooperation deals in fields including energy, transport and infrastructure, but no details were given at the ceremony.

The price of gas is the sticking point in the proposed agreement between Russia's government-controlled Gazprom and state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.

A deal looked more likely after Washington and the European Union imposed asset freezes and visa bans on dozens of Russian officials and several companies.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and China's President Xi Jinping review an honor guard dur …

The deal to pipe Siberian gas to China's northeast would help Russia diversify export routes away from Europe. It would help to ease Chinese gas shortages and heavy reliance on coal.

Putin told Chinese reporters ahead of his visit that China-Russia cooperation had reached an all-time high.

"China is our reliable friend. To expand cooperation with China is undoubtedly Russia's diplomatic priority," Putin said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Xi and Putin were scheduled to kick off a joint exercise between their two navies in the northern part of the East China Sea.

The two countries developed a strategic partnership after the 1991 Soviet collapse, including close political, economic and military ties in a shared aspiration to counter U.S. influence, especially in Central Asia.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin, center, and China's President Xi Jinping, left, review an honor g …

A tentative agreement signed in March 2013 calls for Gazprom to deliver 38 billion cubic meters of gas per year beginning in 2018, with an option to increase that to 60 billion cubic meters.

Plans call for building a pipeline to link China's northeast to a line that carries gas from western Siberia to the Pacific port of Vladivostok.

A gas deal would mean China would be in a "de facto alliance with Russia," said Vasily Kashin, a China expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow.

In exchange, Moscow might lift restrictions on Chinese investment in Russia and on exports of military technology, Kashin said in an email.

"In the more distant future, full military alliance cannot be excluded," Kashin said.

"It will, however, take years for China to start playing in the Russian economy a role comparable to that of the EU," he said. "After that happens, both China and Russia will be much less vulnerable to any potential Western pressure and that, of course, will affect the foreign policy of both these countries."

In a joint statement after their talks, Putin and Xi said the two sides voiced serious concerns over the political crisis in Ukraine, and urged Ukrainian regions, people and political groups to start "broad nationwide talks," according to Russian state news agency ITAR-Tass. Their statement also said that any external attempts to forcibly interfere in Syria would be unacceptable.

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AP Writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed.

The Russian president, facing isolation in the West over Ukraine, hopes to boost ties with Asia.
Talks on multibillion-dollar gas deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — On the eve of a critical Senate vote and under court order, the Obama administration signaled it will publicly reveal a secret memo describing its legal justification for using drones to kill U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism overseas.

Two administration officials told The Associated Press that the Justice Department has decided not to appeal a Court of Appeals ruling requiring disclosure of a redacted version of the memo under the Freedom of Information Act. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The decision to release the documents comes as the Senate is to vote Wednesday on advancing President Barack Obama's nomination of the memo's author, Harvard professor and former Justice Department official David Barron, to sit on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had vowed to fight Barron's confirmation, and some Democratic senators were calling for the memo's public release before a final vote.

Wednesday's expected procedural vote would allow the Senate to move ahead with a final vote on Barron on Thursday. "I think we'll be OK," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said earlier Tuesday.

Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaida leader born in the United States, was killed after being targeted by a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. Some legal scholars and human rights activists complained that it was illegal for the U.S. to kill American citizens away from the battlefield without a trial.

Some senators, including those in Obama's own party, have called for the public release of the memo before the final confirmation vote. The White House agreed under the pressure to show senators unredacted copies of all written legal advice written by Barron regarding the potential use of lethal force against U.S. citizens in counterterrorism operations.

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This undated photo released Thursday, May 30, 2013 by aerospace technology company Northrop Grumman …

Until now, the administration has fought in court to keep the writings from public view. But administration officials said that Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. decided this week not appeal an April 21 ruling requiring disclosure by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York and that Attorney General Eric Holder concurred with his opinion.

The release could take some time, since the redactions are subject to court approval. And the administration also is insisting that a classified ruling on the case also be redacted to protect information classified for national security, but not the legal reasoning, one of the officials said.

The drone strike that killed al-Awlaki also killed another U.S. citizen, Samir Khan, an al-Qaida propagandist. Al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, was killed the following month in another drone attack.

The American Civil Liberties Union and two reporters for The New York Times, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane, filed a FOIA suit. In January 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen McMahon ruled that she had no authority to order the documents disclosed, although she chided the Obama administration for refusing to release them.

But a three-judge appeals court panel noted that after McMahon ruled, senior government officials spoke about the subject. The panel rejected the government's claim that the court could not consider official disclosures made after McMahon's ruling, including a 16-page Justice Department white paper on the subject and public comments by Obama in May in which he acknowledged his role in the al-Awlaki killing, saying he had "authorized the strike that took him out."

The ACLU urged senators in a letter Tuesday not to move forward on the confirmation vote until they have a chance to see any Barron memos on the administration's drone program, not just those involving U.S. citizens.

Paul issued a statement Tuesday saying he still opposes Barron's nomination. "I rise today to say that there is no legal precedent for killing American citizens not directly involved in combat and that any nominee who rubber stamps and grants such power to a president is not worthy of being placed one step away from the Supreme Court," Paul said in remarks prepared for delivery on the Senate floor Wednesday provided by his office.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has been pushing for public disclosure of Barron's writings and was one of several Democrats who had been refusing to say whether he'd vote for confirmation without it. "That's certainly very constructive," Wyden said when told of the decision not to appeal.

The administration's decision won over at least one senator, Mark Udall, D-Colo., who had been opposed to Barron because of the memo's secrecy. "This is a welcome development for government transparency and affirms that although the government does have the right to keep national security secrets, it does not get to have secret law," Udall said.

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Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

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Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.