SACRAMENTO, May 15 (UPI) -- The California Supreme Court Thursday upheld 4-3 same-sex marriage, saying the city and county of San Francisco may issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

In a 172-page opinion, the seven-member court ruled there is no California law limiting marriage to a man and woman.

The court likened bans on same-sex marriages to interracial marriage bans, which have been determined unconstitutional.

"In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation …," Chief Justice Ronald M. George said in writing for the majority.

"We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians ..."

In his concurring and dissenting opinion, Justice Marvin R. Baxter said the decision goes too far.

"Nothing in our Constitution, express or implicit, compels the majority's startling conclusion that the age-old understanding of marriage -- an understanding recently confirmed by an initiative law -- is no longer valid," Baxter wrote.

The ruling stemmed from six cases that were consolidated before the court.

7 die in Sadr City fight

BAGHDAD, May 15 (UPI) -- Seven people were killed and 19 others wounded overnight Thursday in fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City district, Iraq government authorities said.

In other Iraqi violence, a roadside bomb struck the security detail of Baghdad's governor, killing one person and wounding six others, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

Gov. Hussain Tahhan was not traveling with the convoy in central Baghdad when the bombing occurred.

Also, another bombing killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded four others when a roadside bomb struck an Army patrol in western Baghdad on Thursday.

In the Sadr City fighting, clashes between U.S.-supported government forces and Shiite militias raged in the sprawling Baghdad slum area through the early morning hours.

The new fighting came despite an agreement reached between the Iraqi government and cleric Moqtada Sadr to halt the fighting in Baghdad. A security official in charge of enforcing the peace agreement told CNN the plan to bring calm to Sadr City was still at "square one."

McCain predicts Iraq war won by 2013

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 15 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., predicted Thursday the Iraq war will be won by 2013 but said he thinks the Taliban threat in Afghanistan will still be active.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee made his predictions in a Columbus, Ohio, speech in which he also forecast Osama bin Laden's capture or death by 2013, CNN said.

McCain, in going over some of the goals he hopes to accomplish during his first term if elected, said he believes the United States will have a smaller but mostly non-combat military presence in Iraq. Most of American military personnel will be home by January 2013, McCain said.

He also said he believes that in 2013, there still won't have been a "major terrorist attack in the United States since September 11, 2001."

McCain said he also hopes to see "a reluctant Russia and China" cooperating in "pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and North Korea to discontinue its own," because of "concerted action by the great democracies of the world."

Cindy McCain sells off Sudanese funds

WASHINGTON, May 15 (UPI) -- Cindy McCain, wife of the presumptive GOP nominee for president, has sold at least $2 million in funds from Sudanese investments, a campaign spokesman says.

The mutual funds are American Funds Europacific Growth and American Funds Capital World Growth and Income. Both have investments in companies with business in Sudan, to the Sudan Divestment Task Force, an advocacy organization told The New York Times. (NYSE:NYT)

"As soon as she was made aware, she sold it," campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said. "Senator and Mrs. McCain are committed to doing everything possible to end the genocide in Darfur."

U.S., Saudi Arabia to sign agreements

JERUSALEM, May 15 (UPI) -- A White House spokesman said the United States and Saudi Arabia will sign a number of bilateral agreements Friday.

Bush, in the Middle East to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary and consult with other regional leaders, travels to Riyadh from Israel.

"Tomorrow, the United States and Saudi Arabia will conclude a number of agreements in bilateral cooperation on nuclear energy, infrastructure protection and non-proliferation," Deputy White House Press Secretary Gordon Johndroe told reporters as Bush visited the Israel Museum in Jerusalem to see the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Taxpayers get wrong stimulus checks

MELVILLE, N.Y., May 15 (UPI) -- Thousands of U.S. taxpayers' economic stimulus checks have been directly deposited into the wrong accounts by mistake, federal officials said.

A New York man said he noticed an additional $1,800 in his account that the bank concluded was from someone else's Internal Revenue Service stimulus check, Newsday reported Wednesday.

"We do know of instances of problems; we've heard of situations where stimulus checks have gone to the wrong people's bank accounts," said Kevin McKeon, the IRS spokesman for New York.

The man said he was told by the IRS the check was among a group of 15,000 deposited into wrong bank accounts because of an electronic mistake.

The IRS told Newsday most stimulus checks are being distributed in an accurate and timely manner and the agency is "providing answers and resolving taxpayer-specific issues."