IRELAND: Ministers finished the wording yesterday for the country’s referendum on scrapping a constitutional amendment that largely bans abortion.

It follows a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday that narrowly defined the rights due to a foetus. A more expansive ruling could have put the referendum in jeopardy.

Health Minister Simon Harris praised women who had fought for abortion rights and said he was “looking forward” to bringing the Bill to the Dail today.

IRAN: Authorities have stopped a Canadian woman, whose husband died in a Tehran prison in suspicious circumstances, from leaving the country.

Canadian officials confirmed yesterday that dual citizen Maryam Mombeini couldn’t leave and it wasn’t clear where she was.

Iran doesn’t recognise dual citizenship. It had accused Ms Mombeini’s dead husband, sociology professor Kavous Seyed-Emami, of spying on missile bases.

UNITED STATES: Left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders has demanded that Democratic Party leaders stop attacking candidates in its own primary elections.

The party’s congressional campaign wing had targeted activist Laura Moser before a selection vote in Texas this week.

Mr Sanders said it was “appalling” that party HQ had published a document calling Ms Moser “a Washington insider who begrudgingly moved to Texas.”

BRAZIL: The ongoing yellow fever outbreak is now the biggest in decades, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

So far there have been 846 confirmed cases of the disease and 260 of those people have died. The previous outbreak saw 777 cases and 261 deaths.

The outbreak is getting closer to major cities and the government has started a vaccination campaign.