Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s far-right-led government scored a victory Tuesday with the Senate approving a law allowing anti-abortion groups access to women considering ending their pregnancies. The development revives tensions around the issue of abortion in Italy, 46 years after it was legalized in the overwhelmingly Catholic country. The Senate, where the government has a majority, voted 95-68, giving final approval to legislation tied to European Union COVID-19 recovery funds that included an amendment sponsored by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. MARCHERS IN ROME PROTEST ITALY'S ALLO ..read more

Skies over southern Greece turned an orange hue on Tuesday as dust clouds blown across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa engulfed the Acropolis and other Athens landmarks. Strong southerly winds carried the dust from the Sahara Desert, giving the atmosphere of the Greek capital a Martian-like filter in the last hours of daylight. WILDFIRE RESPONSE PLANS OVERHAULED IN GREECE AHEAD OF SUMMER FIRE SEASON The skies are predicted to clear on Wednesday as winds shift and move the dust, with temperatures dipping. On Tuesday, the daily high in parts of the southern island of Crete topped 86 degr ..read more

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she was confident water quality in the River Seine will be up to Olympic standards this summer — and that she’ll be able to prove it by swimming there, possibly alongside President Emmanuel Macron. The Seine is the venue for marathon swimming at the Games and the swimming leg of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons. AHEAD OF OLYMPIC GAMES, PARIS GRAPPLES WITH SECURITY, TRANSPORTATION PREPARATIONS Asked Tuesday about whether she’ll meet her promise to swim in the Seine before the Games, Hidalgo said "for sure, because water quality will be good." For decades, the ..read more

A legal challenge over the British government's role in allowing weapons to be sent to Israel can be heard at the High Court later this year, a judge said Tuesday. Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and the U.K.-based Global Legal Action Network filed the challenge in December, calling for the U.K. to stop granting licenses for arms exports to Israel. They said they acted after Britain’s government ignored their written requests to suspend arms sales to Israel following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the Israeli-Hamas war. OUTRAGE AT PRO-HAMAS PROTEST AS LONDON COP THR ..read more

Moroccan officials want to turn the country into an aviation hub, luring investors aiming to spread out their supply chains to more nations with available and affordable workers. The North African kingdom is among a longer list of countries vying for contracts with big manufacturers looking to speed up production and deliver more planes to meet demand. Companies like Boeing and Airbus — as well as the manufacturers that build their components — are outsourcing design, production and maintenance to countries from Mexico to Thailand. MOROCCAN AUTHORITIES PLAN NEW LAWS TO COMBAT ART FORGERIES IN ..read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a Russian missile strike that smashed a prominent skyline television tower in Kharkiv was part of the Kremlin’s effort to intimidate Ukraine’s second-largest city, which in recent weeks has come under increasingly frequent attack. The strike sought to "make the terror visible to the whole city and to try to limit Kharkiv’s connection and access to information," Zelenskyy said in a Monday evening address. ZELENSKYY PRAISES 'HEROIC' SOLDIERS IN PREVIEW OF BRET BAIER'S EXCLUSIVE FOX NEWS INTERVIEW: 'NO PLAN B' The northeastern Kharkiv region straddles ..read more

An Australian hospital urged snakebite victims to stop trying to catch the slithery culprits when seeking medical attention after one patient came in carrying a serpent in a loosely locked box. "We honestly don't want people interacting with snakes any more than they already have," Dr. Adam Michael, director of emergency medicine at Bundaberg Hospital near Brisbane, told the Australian Broadcast Company. "Any attempts to either get close to a snake to catch or to kill, or to photograph the snake, just puts people at risk." About 3,000 people suffer suspected snakebites each year in Australia ..read more

North Korea’s missile test on Monday was in fact a drill to test nuclear force preparedness, according to local media.  The incident raised alarms around the region after several short-range ballistic missiles were launched near Pyongyang and flew approximately 185 miles before falling in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.  The drill’s main purpose, however, was to "demonstrate the reliability, superiority, might and diverse means" of the country’s nuclear forces and the Haekbangashoe system that serves as "a clear warning signal to the enemies" of North Korea, accord ..read more

Spain on Tuesday approved a plan aimed at making reparation and economic compensation for victims of sex abuses committed by people connected to the Catholic Church. It also announced the future celebration of a public act of recognition for those affected and their families. The Minister of the Presidency and Justice, Félix Bolaños, said the plan was based on recommendations in a report by Spain's Ombudsman last year. From that report he said it was concluded that some 440,000 adults may have suffered sex abuse in Spain by people linked to the church and that roughly half of those cases were ..read more

Four Aboriginal spears that were taken to England by Captain James Cook more than 250 years ago were returned Tuesday to Australia's Indigenous community at a ceremony in Cambridge University. The artifacts were all that remain of some 40 spears that Cook and botanist Joseph Banks took in April 1770, at the time of the first contact between Cook's crew and the Indigenous people of Kamay, or Botany Bay. The spears were presented to Trinity College, Cambridge by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich the following year, along with other items from Cook’s voyage across the Pacific. The spears hav ..read more