World News Roundup: Rights watchdog denounces Italy immigration law as 'inhumane'; Pakistan court orders Imran Khan's release on bail, lawyer says and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Rights watchdog denounces Italy immigration law as 'inhumane'

A new Italian law that narrows asylum rights in an effort to dissuade migrants from heading to Italy is repressive and inhumane, a leading rights watchdog said on Friday. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's nationalist government drew up the legislation after a shipwreck off southern Italy in February that killed more than 90 migrants.

Pakistan court orders Imran Khan's release on bail, lawyer says

A Pakistani court ordered former Prime Minister Imran Khan's release on bail for two weeks, his lawyer said on Friday, after his arrest ignited deadly protests and a tussle with the military. The arrest, which the Supreme Court ruled "invalid and unlawful" a day earlier, has fuelled instability in the nation of 220 million at a time of economic crisis, with record inflation, anaemic growth and delayed IMF funding.

Black mothers in the US speak of challenges and resilience

Ciara Clark, a Black doula, labored for more than nine hours at home before making a last-minute switch to go to the hospital to give birth. With her own Black doula and mother by her side, Clark had hoped to have her baby at home with no medical assistance at all. She wanted to have a "wild" pregnancy - one that is medically unassisted.

Embattled Thai PM Prayuth fights to stay on in vote on Sunday

Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is lagging behind the opposition in polls ahead of Sunday's general election but electoral rules written by his former military junta mean the retired army chief can't be counted out. Prayuth, 69, who first came to office in a 2014 coup, has survived a hotly disputed election in 2019, mass protests in 2020 and four no-confidence votes in parliament.

Ukraine plays down talk of Bakhmut gains being start of counteroffensive

Ukrainian forces have advanced by about 2 km around the eastern city of Bakhmut this week and have not given up any positions there in that time, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Friday. But she appeared to play down suggestions that Ukraine had already started a much-anticipated counter offensive and urged Ukrainians to disregard what she described as Russian disinformation about the situation in and around Bakhmut.

Legal challenges threaten Biden's border plan as Title 42 ends

The U.S. on Friday ended COVID-19 border restrictions that blocked many migrants at the border with Mexico, immediately replacing the so-called Title 42 order with a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings.

But several last-minute court actions added confusion to how the new border policies will play out in coming days.

Palestinian rockets fired towards Jerusalem, Israel keeps up strikes on Gaza

Palestinian militants on Friday fired rockets towards Jerusalem for the first time since fighting across the Israel-Gaza border intensified this week while Israel kept up air strikes on Gaza amid Egyptian efforts to forge a ceasefire. Rocket sirens sounded in the town of Beit Shemesh and elsewhere in the hills outside Jerusalem, ending a 12-hour lull in fighting. Brief explosions could be heard in Jerusalem, possibly from Israeli missile defences intercepting the rockets.

Factbox-Pakistan anti-graft agency that arrested Imran Khan has wide powers

Created by military dictator late General Pervez Musharraf and currently headed by a retired general, Pakistan's powerful anti-graft agency that arrested former prime minister Imran Khan in a land fraud case has a mandate to end corruption in the country. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has investigated, tried and jailed at various times all prime ministers since 2008 including current premier Shehbaz Sharif, former president Asif Ali Zardari, and other top political figures.

A week after Congo floods, volunteers dig through debris for bodies

With shovels, sticks and bare hands, Red Cross volunteers struggled to clear caked mud from around a body half buried in a landslide in Bushushu village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A week after torrential rains triggered deadly floods, the workers said they were exhausted and running out of equipment. But they keep finding corpses under piles of debris, buried in hillsides, floating in waterways and the nearby lake.

Communities torn as Ukraine turns its back on Moscow-linked church

As a crowd gathered outside the white-brick Orthodox church in the village of Karyshkiv in western Ukraine, raised voices quickly turned to shouting. Soon old women were crying.

The villagers were quarrelling over the affiliation of their parish church, which belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) that the government in Kyiv accuses of being under the influence of Moscow.