Ireland takes a big step from its Catholic past, The UN reinstates genocide charges from the 1990s war that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia, and an Aussie self-professed “Robin Hood” is going to jail for an unusual bank robbery in America.

Ireland’s Parliament passed a groundbreaking law to legalize abortion in cases of medical emergencies as well as the risk of suicide.  Despite threats of excommunication from Roman Catholic cardinals and bishops, the privately devout PM Enda Kenny wrangled enough votes to pass it 127-31.  The bill does not cover women who became pregnant because of rape, and challenges from both sides of the debate are expected.

Insurgents in Iraq launched two days of bloody assaults at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that left at least 31 people dead.  Most of the dead were members of the security forces trying to protect Sunni areas.  The latest wave of bloodshed has killed more than 2,600 people since the start of April, and it’s raising fears that Iraq’s Sunnis and Shiites are on the verge of civil war.

Myanmar has jailed 25 Buddhists for their roles in sectarian violence that killed 36 Muslims in the town of Meikhtila in March.  Sentences ranged from 10 to 15 years in prison.  The clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims started about a year ago.  A 1982 law does not recognize the Rohingya as Myanmar citizens.

Genocide charges are reinstated against former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic.  A United Nations appeals court ruled that prosecutors showed possible “genocidal intent” in a drive to remove Croats and Muslims from towns and villages claimed by the Serbs in 1992.  The decision is expected to draw out Karadzic’s trial for his involvement in ordering the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

The family of Lee Rigby say they are profoundly grateful for the support they have received from the public after the British Soldier was killed on a London street by two men claiming Islamist motives, their rant recorded for posterity (and evidence) on video.  The Drummer’s private funeral and burial are to take place on Friday, in his regiment’s town of Bury, Northern England.  Thousands are expected to line the streets and pay their respects to Rigby as his casket is carried through the center of the town.

War is keeping 50 million children from their education, according to a new report from UNESCO and the group “Save the Children”.  It states that 48.5 million children between the ages of six and 15 living in conflict areas are out of school.  Of that number, 28.5 million are aged between six and 11 and more than half of them are girls.

Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been found guilty of tax fraud by a Moscow court, despite being entirely too dead to have attended his trial.  Magnitsky blew the whistle on corruption in the Vladimir Putin government, was arrested on tax charges, and died in 2009 in prison after a beat down by jail guards and a lack of medical care, according to human rights advocates.  It is believed to be the first time in Soviet or Modern Russian history that a defendant was tried posthumously.

A court in the American state of Wyoming sentenced Australian Corey Donaldson to 5 years in prison for bank robbery.  On New Year’s Eve in 2012, Donaldson claimed that bombs were rigged around the bank and demanded the cash, making off with $140,000.  In his trial, the Macclesfield native told the judge he distributed the cash to the poor, in retaliation for the US banking industry’s predatory practices.  Most of the money was not recovered, and authorities did find a receipt for a donation to the Salvation Army.  But some cash was found in envelopes addressed to Donaldson’s family back in Oz.  He’ll get to see them when he’s deported after finishing his prison term.