Dominican Republic’s top court reinstates total abortion ban

By Anastasia Moloney BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A decision by the Dominican Republic’s constitutional court to reinstate a total ban on abortion is putting women’s lives at risk, rights groups said. Reforms last year to amend the country’s criminal code to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, a deformed fetus or when a woman’s life is in danger, were passed by congress and approved by President Danilo Medina. The reforms, a result of years of debate over the abortion ban in the predominantly Catholic and socially conservative Caribbean country, were set to take effect on Dec. 27.
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Insight: Psychological first aid: Migrant trauma demands alternative therapies

File photo of migrant waiting to disembark from Coast Guard ship in Sicilian harbour of MessinaBy Kate Kelland London (Reuters) – Europe&;s migrant crisis is forcing the advancement of new psychological therapies that go beyond existing treatments to help victims not of one traumatic event, but of multiple traumas such as rape, war and torture. Among the hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and other war-torn areas, significant numbers are likely to have severe psychiatric illnesses, including complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals. PTSD plagues sufferers with flashbacks and panic attacks, and can render them sleepless, emotionally volatile and less likely to be able to settle into a new home.

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Torrential rains to continue in flood-hit Indian state

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Torrential rains that have caused heavy flooding in Tamil Nadu state in southern India will continue for the next three days, the national weather office said on Wednesday. “There will be no respite,” said Laxman Singh Rathore, director general of meteorology at the India Meteorological Department. The heaviest rainfall in over a century has caused massive flooding across Tamil Nadu, driving thousands from their homes, shutting auto factories and paralyzing the airport in the state capital Chennai. (Reporting by Mayank Bhardwaj; Writing by Krishna N. …
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