The rights of more than 1,000 UK prisoners were breached when they were prevented from voting in elections, European judges have said.

European human rights authorities have been warned that the proposed abortion legislation will limit access to treatment and that requests for terminations should be decided within three days and not in a matter of weeks.

The Irish Government has been praised by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers for its progress on enacting abortion legislation.

TONY BLAIR, in a speech to a joint meeting of Congress in Washington (the Irish Examiner, July 18) said: “If you engage in the systematic and gross abuse of human rights in defiance of the UN charter, you cannot expect to enjoy the same privileges as those that conform to it.”

Police and soldiers involved in fatal shootings in Northern Ireland are to lose their exemption from giving evidence at inquests, it emerged today.