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QUOTE OF THE DAY “It’s really immense and huge, almost like after an air assault or a bomb explosion.”Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, describing the scene of a suspected gas explosion in Prague that injured at least 35 people Article, this page Irish woman loses right-to-die appeal

DUBLIN - A terminally ill woman in the final stages of multiple sclerosis does not have the right to an assisted death, the Irish Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The woman, Marie Fleming, a 59-year-old former university lecturer, said she wanted to die peacefully at home at a time of her own choosing, but her condition had deteriorated to the extent that she would need help to do it.

Her partner, Tom Curran, 65, has said he would assist her.

Under Irish law, that would be illegal, and he would face up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

Fleming was contesting the absolute ban on assisted suicide on the basis that the law discriminates against severely disabled people. Suicide was decriminalized in Ireland in 1993, and Fleming argued she should have the same right as any able-bodied citizen to take her own life.

In delivering the judgment, Chief Justice Susan Denham said the Irish Constitution did not contain any “explicit right to commit suicide, or to determine the time of one’s own death.”Smugglers abandoning migrants at sea

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican navy said Monday it has detected a disturbing trend of migrant smugglers abandoning boatloads of people at sea off the coast of Baja California.

The navy said that each month it has been finding an average of 10 to 12 boats, with a total of about 150 migrants. It did not say when the discoveries began or why the smugglers might have adopted the tactic. However, smugglers sometimes demand payment for such trips upfront, leaving them little incentive to get passengers all the way to the United States.

The navy said the boats’ captains abandoned the vessels aboard other craft, telling migrants the motors or other equipment had broken down and they would be back.

The smugglers then left the migrants adrift, often in overcrowded boats without food or radios, putting their lives at risk.

Kosovars convicted of organ trafficking

PRISTINA, Kosovo - A court in Kosovo found two citizens guilty of human trafficking and organized crime Monday in a major trial against seven people suspected of running an international organ-trafficking ring that took kidneys from poor donors lured by financial promises.

A panel of two European Union judges and one Kosovo judge sentenced urologist Lutfi Dervishi to eight years in prison and his son Arban Dervishi to seven years and three months. Both also received fines, while Lutfi Dervishi was barred from practicing urology for two years.

A third defendant, Sokol Hajdini, was sentenced to three years in jail for causing grievous bodily harm. Two others received suspended sentences, while two were freed. The defendants can appeal the verdicts and they are not kept in custody.

Organ transplantation is illegal in Kosovo’s private clinics.

Seven donors who testified were from Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey. They described how they were flown into Kosovo from Istanbul and then quickly wheeled into surgery in a medical facility named “Medicus” on the outskirts of Kosovo’s capital, Pristina.

The victims were promised $10,000 to $12,000 in return for their kidneys, but many said they were never paid.

British police reopen child-abuse case

LONDON - A new investigation re-examining decades-old child abuse claims at 18 children’s care homes in north Wales has identified 140 possible victims, British police said Monday.

The probe collected “significant evidence of systemic and serious sexual and physical abuse of children” at the care homes, police said in a report. The alleged victims, mostly men, were from 7 to 19 years old when they say they were targeted between 1965 and 1992. The alleged offenses ranged from verbal abuse to indecent assaults and rape.

The number of care homes was larger and the timeline involved was longer than previously thought.

The new investigation, known as Operation Pallial, was set up in November after a BBC report alleged that a previous inquiry failed to uncover the full extent of the abuse against children in the homes. The earlier inquiry, which concluded in 2000, settled dozens of claims on behalf of the victims.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/30/2013

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