Small Press News

  IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Sarah Weddington also held office in the Texas House of Representatives and worked in the Jimmy Carter administration Sarah Weddington - a Texas lawyer who won the landmark 1973 court case to make abortions legal across the US - has died at her home in Austin aged 76. Susan Hays, Weddington's former student and colleague, said she passed away on Sunday morning "after a series of health issues". The Supreme Court case is widely known as Roe v Wade. By a vote of seven to two, the court justices ruled that governments lacked the power to prohibit abortions. Sarah Weddington also held office in the Texas House of Representatives for three terms in the 1970s and was later an adviser on women's issues in US President Jimmy Carter's administration. Weddington's death comes as the Supreme Court appears poised to accept a Mississippi law that would bar abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape or incest. An...

  ISLAMABAD -- The Taliban dissolved Afghanistan's two  election  commissions as well as the state ministries for peace and parliamentarian affairs, an official said Sunday. Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban-run government, said the country’s Independent Election Commission and Electoral Complaint Commission have been dissolved. He called them “unnecessary institutes for the current situation in Afghanistan.” He said if there is a need for the commissions in the future, the Taliban government can revive them. The international community is waiting before extending formal recognition to Afghanistan's new rulers. They are wary the Taliban could impose a similarly harsh regime as when they were in power 20 years ago — despite their assurances to the contrary. Both  election s commissions were mandated to administer and supervise all types of elections in the country, including presidential, parliamentary and provincial council elections. Karimi sa...