The United Nations has again ruled that Ireland’s abortion laws have subjected a woman to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. It is the second time in 12 months that the UN’s human rights committee has denounced the abortion rules in the Irish Republic, which denies women with fatal foetal abnormalities the right to terminate pregnancies. The committee has found in favour of Siobhán Whelan, an Irish woman who was denied access to an abortion in 2010 despite being diagnosed with fatal foetal syndrome during her pregnancy, it was announced on Tuesday.

Fatal foetal abnormalities include where the foetus has under-developed vital organs such as the heart and brain, which would mean if the pregnancy went to full term the baby would either be stillborn or die within hours of birth. Whelan’s case mirrors that of Amanda Mellet, who was also forced to travel to Britain to end her pregnancy. Last year the UN ruled in Mellet’s favour, and she made history by becoming the first woman to be compensated by the Irish state over the trauma she suffered.  In the Whelan case, the UN committee held that Ireland must also provide her with reparations for the harm she suffered and reform its laws to ensure other women do not face similar human rights violations.(Guardian)…[+]

Thousands of children are languishing in “dangerous and harrowing” conditions in detention centres across south-east Asia, a report has revealed. Children, including babies, are being held in cells 24 hours a day, alongside dozens of unrelated adults, and are frequently separated from family members.

More than 2,290 young refugees were being held without proper access to food, adequate health facilities or education in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia at the end of 2016, according to a joint report (pdf) by Save the Children and the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network. The countries are key transit routes for hundreds of thousands of refugees seeking asylum in Australia after fleeing violence, poverty and conflict in countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

However, they are often intercepted during these journeys and treated as illegal immigrants by the authorities. They are detained for indefinite and sometimes lengthy periods without any judicial oversight, the report found. “These children should not be treated like criminals,” said Mike Novell, Save the Children’s interim director for Asia. “The impact this type of environment has on children is extremely damaging. It can lead to developmental delays and self-harm while putting children at the very real risk of violence, sexual abuse and exploitation.”(guardian)…[+]

A Qatari businessman is planning to airlift 4,000 Holstein dairy cows into the country as part of efforts to maintain milk supplies during the blockade by Qatar’s Gulf Arab neighbours. The proposal – described as the biggest airlift of cattle ever attempted – comes as Qatar moves rapidly to open an air and sea bridge via Iran, Turkey and port facilities in Oman.

The plan to fly in the cows was disclosed by Moutaz Al Khayyat, chairman of Power International Holding, to the Bloomberg news agency. Khayyat said it would take as many as 60 flights to deliver the cattle, which were bought in Australia and the US. He had originally planned to import the cows by ship for a newly completed dairy facility near Doha. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic, economic and transport ties with Qatar on 5 June, accusing Doha of supporting extremist groups.

Until then, Qatar had imported most of its dairy products from neighbouring countries – including Saudi Arabia. Riyadh closed the Qatari peninsula’s only land border, threatening the import of both fresh food and raw materials needed to complete a $200bn infrastructure project for the 2022 football World Cup. Turkey has replaced products that disappeared from supermarket shelves, including yoghurt and laban, while Morocco and Iran have pledged to supply the emirate with foodstuffs.(guardian)…[+]

Ivanka Trump said the president felt “very vindicated” by former FBI director James Comey’s testimony last week, in an interview with Fox News on Monday morning. She also said her father is “incredibly optimistic” following the congressional testimony, in which Comey claimed Trump had directed him to shut down an investigation into a former senior White House official, and lied to smear Comey after he was fired.

Trump’s comments to Fox and Friends echoed those made by her father last Friday, when he said the testimony was a “total and complete vindication”. But she said she was not prepared for the “viciousness” that came with working in the White House.

“It is hard. There’s a level of viciousness that I was not expecting,” Trump said. “I was not expecting the intensity of this experience, but this isn’t supposed to be easy. My father and this administration intends to be transformative, and we want to do big, bold things, and we’re looking to change the status quo. “I think some of the distractions and some of the ferocity, I was a little blindsided by on a personal level. For me, I’m trying to keep my head down and not listen to the noise, and just work hard to make a positive impact on the lives of many people.”(guardian)…[+]

Qatar’s foreign minister has rushed to London to urge Boris Johnson to condemn the air embargo imposed on the Gulf state, amid an unprecedented regional dispute with its neighbours. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who was due to meet the UK foreign secretary on Monday, said: “We are asking Britain, the US and all other countries to condemn the illegal measures such as the air embargo and the break-up of families. Families and kids are begin torn apart.”

Qatar is facing a diplomatic and economic embargo imposed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, over allegations – that it denies –of supporting terrorism. Thani said the allegations were a smokescreen for an attack on Qatar’s independent foreign policy. Only 0.3% of foreign fighters come from Qatar, and none have been involved in a terrorist attack in the Gulf or elsewhere.(guardian)…[+]

Hundreds of people including prominent opposition figure Alexei Navalny have been detained by police on a day of unsanctioned anti-Kremlin protests across Russia.

Navalny’s wife Yulia wrote on his Twitter feed that he had been arrested outside his house as he set off for a protest in Moscow that he had called in order to demonstrate the growing momentum behind his movement. Police later confirmed the arrest, saying he could get up to 15 days in jail on charges of failing to follow police orders and violating public order. Witnesses said more than 100 people were held at the Moscow demonstration and that police had used pepper spray. Reporters counted more than 200 detentions in St Petersburg, including that of Maxim Reznik, the city’s legislative assembly deputy. There were reports of further detentions in a number of Siberian cities.

Navlanly, a lawyer turned anti-corruption campaigner who wants to challenge Vladimir Putin for the presidency next year, is popular among a minority of the population, and his support is growing. A protest in March against alleged corruption linked to the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, drew an estimated 60,000 people to the streets in cities across Russia.  Navalny switched the location of Monday’s protest at the last minute to central Tverskaya Street, already closed off by authorities for military reenactments to mark Russia Day.(the guardian)…[+]

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced a man to death for allegedly committing blasphemy on Facebook, the latest step in an intensified crackdown on dissent on social media. A court in Bahawalpur handed out the verdict, the harshest yet for such a crime, after finding Taimoor Raza, 30, guilty of insulting the prophet Muhammad.

Raza was arrested last year after a debate about Islam on Facebook with a man who turned out to be a counter-terrorism agent. He was one among 15 people arrested by the counter-terrorism department last year, accused of blasphemy, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The verdict is part of a wider crackdown on perceived dissent on social media in a country where unfounded allegations of blasphemy can lead to mob vigilante justice.

Raza’s brother, Waseem Abbas, said the family was “poor but literate”, and belonged to Pakistan’s minority Shia Muslim community. “My brother indulged in a sectarian debate on Facebook with a person, who we later come to know, was a [counter-terrorism department] official with the name of Muhammad Usman,” he said.(guardian)…[+]

Detectives are preparing to interview the brother of Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi following reports the pair acted together to buy bomb-making equipment. Det Ch Supt Russ Jackson said Abedi and his younger brother, Hashem, travelled to Libya together on 15 April before the older sibling returned to carry out the attack on 22 May.Jackson said the police wanted to interview Hashem Abedi after the militia group holding him in Libya said he had confessed to buying bomb-making parts in Britain and knowing that Abedi was planning an attack.

The development came as police released the final two of 20 suspects detained in connection with the Ariana Grande concert bombing that killed 22 people and wounded 200 others. Detectives believe Abedi assembled the deadly nailbomb himself but have not yet established whether he acted alone in obtaining bomb-making materials before he left the country on 15 April. Jackson said detectives were “relentlessly pursuing” several critical lines of inquiry, including whether others knew that he was storing materials in a white Nissan Micra purchased by Abedi two days before he left for Libya. The car was later found in Rusholme, less than two miles from Abedi’s house in Whalley Range, south Manchester.(guardian)…[+]

A Libyan militia says it has freed Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the most prominent son of the country’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi, after more than five years in captivity.The Abu Bakr al-Sadiq Brigade, based in Zintan, said it released Saif under an amnesty law passed last year by the eastern-based parliament.

“We have decided to liberate Saif al-Islam Muammar Gaddafi. He is now free and has left the city of Zintan,” the militia said in a statement. However, it is unclear whether Saif has left Zintan, and his freedom in Libya is partial. While the eastern parliament in Tobruk, to which Zintan is aligned, says he is a free man, Tripoli’s UN-backed government still considers him a war criminal, after a court sentenced him to death, in absentia, in 2015 for crimes during the revolution. If Saif leaves Libya, he may also face arrest on an indictment from the international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His British lawyer, Karim Khan QC, said he was unable to confirm or deny reports of Saif’s freedom, but added he was in regular contact with his client, last visiting him in the autumn. “I met him in Zintan and I’ve been in contact with him in relation to this issue,” he said. “He was in good physical health, I had lunch with him in Zintan and sat for several hours.”(guardian)…[+]

Police investigating the death of a Russian whistleblower who died while jogging found “no evidence he was poisoned”, an inquest heard. Alexander Perepilichnyy, 44, is said to have been helping specialist investment firm Hermitage Capital Management uncover a $230m (£150m) Russian money-laundering operation before he collapsed near his home in Weybridge, Surrey, on the afternoon of 10 November 2012. The married father of two had taken out £3.5m worth of life insurance and applied for another £5m worth of policies. The inquest at the Old Bailey in London is examining whether he was poisoned or died of natural causes. On Friday, DS Ian Pollard of Surrey police told the court the original postmortem found no signs of third-party involvement or foul play. A later forensic postmortem did not identify the cause of death, but Pollard said: “It’s not uncommon, sometimes you don’t, particularly when there was absolutely no evidence of third-party restraint, assault, attack, hypodermic injection or alien bodies found.”(guardian)…[+]