Japan court calls women’s sterilisation law ‘irrational’

A Japanese court said Tuesday that a law hugely restricting women’s access to sterilisation “lacks rationality”, a ruling hailed by plaintiffs as a “step forward”. The Tokyo District Court, however, stopped short of finding the decades-old “maternity protection” law — one of the world’s most restrictive barriers to sterilisation — to be outright unconstitutional or illegal. It […]

India arrests 7 foreigners

Indian investigators have arrested seven foreigners, including six Ukrainians and an American, on suspicion of illegally crossing into neighbouring Myanmar to train armed militia groups, the public radio broadcaster reported on Tuesday. Myanmar descended into civil war after a junta seized power in a 2021 coup, with pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic-minority armed groups fighting for […]

US piles pressure on Cuba

Washington piled pressure on Cuba’s communist authorities Tuesday to allow free market reforms as the impoverished island scrambled to recover from a nationwide electricity blackout. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba’s decision announced this week to let exiles invest and own businesses did not go far enough. “What they announced yesterday is not […]