Exit polls point to landslide vote to relax Irish abortion laws
Two surveys for Irish Times and RTÉ indicate clear victory for yes campaign
Ireland has voted by a landslide to lift the ban on abortion that had been enshrined in its constitution for three decades, the first exit polls from a historic referendum suggest.
If confirmed at Saturday’s count, the shock result – three years after Ireland became the first country in the world to approve same-sex marriage by a popular vote – would underline the speed and scale of change in a country that is still majority Catholic.
Exit polls from the Irish Times and the national broadcaster RTÉ showed a clear two-thirds of the country supported change. Dublin, as expected, had voted overwhelmingly to end the abortion ban (77%), but so too did rural areas that anti-abortion activists had counted on to form a bulwark of conservative support for the restrictive status quo.
Harvey Weinstein’s PR machine means the battle for justice is far from over
Expect his lawyers to spend time in court trashing reputations and implying his accusers are nothing more than slutsJanet Street-Porter
Harvey Weinstein has finally turned himself into the police in New York and been charged with two cases of serious sexual misconduct. What took him so long?
To date, more than 70 women have accused the once-lauded film producer of assault – but he has remained silent since the allegations first aired in the New Yorker. The accusers’ stories are eerily similar – and yet most of these women have never met. They share a common theme – a powerful man abusing his position and then threatening his victim with career suicide if she went public.
Weinstein has spent months in a clinic being treated for sex addiction – and at the same time assembling a detailed game plan to maximise his chance of evading jail and financial ruin. In this battle of the sexes, the odds are unevenly stacked.Brazil's president authorizes military to clear major highways of striking truckers
Protesting truck drivers have brought much of Latin America's biggest economy to its knees in objection to rising fuel costs. The government has authorized the army to clear Brazil's major roads.
Brazil's President Michel Temer on Friday authorized the army to move thousands of trucks that have been blocking the country's major roads for five consecutive days, leading to chaos.
Gas stations across the country ran out of fuel because of the blockades. The airport in the capital Brasilia canceled 30 flights on Friday. Sao Paulo, the region's biggest business hub, declared a state of emergency due to scarce fuel supplies. Consumers hit supermarkets in a panic in several areas, emptying shelves. Prices for fruit and vegetables doubled in other areas due to supply issues.
Fear and failure: How Ebola sparked a global health revolution
Updated 0732 GMT (1532 HKT) May 26, 2018
It is what fear sounds like.
No buzzing sales banter and gossip, no sputter of yellow and white taxis or boda boda taxi bikes. No gumbe or hip-hop music blaring from the market stalls.
Just a dreadful silence.
It was August 4, 2014, and the government of Sierra Leone had ordered more than 7 million citizens to shelter at home and pray. The Ebola epidemic was out of control, and it was time for desperate measures.
Government officials knew that the shutdown wouldn't curb the spread, but they wanted to shock the entire population into taking notice. They put in place temperature checks at roadblocks, isolation wards and emergency burial teams, anything to stop the dying.
Palestinians risk losing Jerusalem ID over Israel loyalty law
Israel revoking residencies of Jerusalemites over 'breach of loyalty' is rendering them stateless, rights groups say.
"Exile is like death," Ahmad Attoun, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), told Al Jazeera. "I can't explain my relationship to Jerusalem. It is part of my soul."
"Jerusalem is now just a few metres away from me, but I can't enter. There are no words to describe the pain we are feeling," he said.
Attoun, along with PLC members Mohammad Totah, Mohammad Abu Teir and former Palestinian minister Khaled Abu Arafeh, were forcibly deported from occupied East Jerusalem in 2011 after Israel's interior minister revoked their Jerusalem residencies over allegations of "breaching loyalty" to the Israeli state.
Zhao Kangmin: The man who 'discovered' China's terracotta army
When archaeologist Zhao Kangmin picked up the phone in April 1974, all he was told was that a group of farmers digging a well nearby had found some relics.
Desperate for water amid a drought, the farmers had been digging about a metre down when they struck hard red earth. Underneath, they had found life-size pottery heads and several bronze arrowheads.
It could be an important find, Zhao's boss said, so he should go and have a look as soon as possible.
A local farmer-turned-museum curator in China's central Shaanxi province, Zhao - who died on 16 May at the age of 81 - had an inkling of what he might find. He knew figures had in the past been dug out of the earth in the area near the city of Xian, home to orchards of persimmon and pomegranate trees, and not far from the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.
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