For the third consecutive year, Louisiana lawmakers rejected a bill that would have allowed young victims of rape to get an abortion.

In an emotional and religious-laced legislative committee meeting on Tuesday legislators objected to adding rape, in cases where the girl is under the age of 17 and impregnated as a result of the sexual offense, to the narrow list of exceptions for one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.

“If we’re truly pro-life, we should also be fighting for the life of those children who are raped and molested,” said the author of the bill, Democratic Rep. Delisha Boyd, who argued that under Louisiana’s current law young victims of rape are forced to carry babies to term.

Among those who opposed the proposed exception was Democratic Rep. Patricia Moore, who spoke publicly about being conceived after her mother was raped as a young teenager. While speaking against the bill, Moore discussed her religious beliefs and said she has struggled with her decision on the measure. Even ahead of the meeting she said she asked God to “show me something in the Bible that can address this.”

The bill failed 3-9, with two Democrats siding with Republicans on the committee.

Newark mayor sues U.S. atty. over arrest

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka sued New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor on Tuesday over his arrest on a trespassing charge at a federal immigration detention facility, saying the Trump-appointed attorney had pursued the case out of political spite.

Baraka, who leads New Jersey’s biggest city, is a candidate in a crowded primary field for the Democratic nomination for governor next Tuesday. The lawsuit against interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba coincided with the day early in-person voting began.

The lawsuit seeks damages for “false arrest and malicious prosecution,” and also accuses Habba of defamation for comments she made about his case, which was later dropped.

The suit also names Ricky Patel, the Homeland Security Investigations agent in charge in Newark.

Emails seeking comment were left Tuesday with Habba’s office and the Homeland Security Department, where Patel works.

Far-right Dutch leader disbands government

The governing coalition in the Netherlands collapsed Tuesday after populist leader Geert Wilders withdrew his party over a dispute about migration policy, ending a rocky 11-month rule by the country’s first far-right government and triggering early elections.

The move by Wilders shows how the debate over unauthorized migration continues to roil European politics, a decade after a large-scale influx of people fleeing wars or seeking better economic opportunities unsettled the region.

The coalition’s collapse was confirmed by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, who said he would present his resignation to King Willem-Alexander. He said he would stay on as the leader of a caretaker administration, without Wilders’ party, until elections and the formation of a new government.

“I think it’s unnecessary and irresponsible,” Schoof said of Wilders’ decision.

It was not immediately clear when new elections would take place, but they appeared unlikely to happen before October., plunging the country into political uncertainty for at least the rest of the year.

200 escape prison in Pakistan during quake

More than 200 inmates escaped from a prison and at least one was killed in a shootout in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi overnight after they were temporarily moved out of their cells following mild earthquake tremors, officials said Tuesday.

Kashif Abbasi, a senior police official, said 216 inmates fled the prison in the capital of Sindh province before dawn. Of those, 78 had been recaptured. No one convicted or facing trial as a militant is among those who fled, he said.

One prisoner was killed and three security officials were wounded in the ensuing shootout, but the situation has been brought under control, Abbasi said, adding that police are conducting raids to capture the remaining escapees.

Ziaul Hassan, the home minister of Sindh province, said the jailbreak occurred after prisoners were evacuated from their cells for safety during the earthquake.

The inmates were still outside of the cells when a group suddenly attacked guards, seized their weapons, opened fire and fled.

20 killed in separate Nigeria attacks

At least 20 people have been killed during simultaneous attacks by unidentified gunmen on several communities in Nigeria’s north-central Benue state, police said on Tuesday.

The attacks occurred late Sunday, said Udeme Edet, spokesperson for the Benue police.

Local reports suggest the death toll may exceed 30. Five people who survived the attacks are currently receiving medical treatment in a local hospital, she added.

Sudan aid convoy attacked, 5 dead

An attack on an aid convoy in Sudan’s Darfur region left five people dead and several wounded, the United Nations said Tuesday, and the warring parties in the northeast African nation traded blame for the attack.

The attack on the 15-truck convoy carrying desperately needed food and nutrition supplies came Monday night near the Rapid Support Forces-controlled town of Koma in North Darfur province. It was trying to reach besieged el-Fasher city, according to a joint statement from the World Food Program and UNICEF. Both agencies called for an investigation into the attack.

Sudan was plunged into a war more than two years ago, when tensions between Sudan’s army and its rival paramilitary RSF exploded with street battles in the capital of Khartoum that quickly spread across the country.

Monday night’s attack burned many trucks and damaged the aid they were carrying, the statement said. It didn’t say who was responsible for the attack.

Dozens killed at Mali military base

Extremists have killed dozens of soldiers in an attack on a military base in Mali, civil society and military sources said Tuesday, in the latest militant violence in West Africa’s restive Sahel region.

The attack on Sunday on the base in Boulkessi, near the border with Burkina Faso, killed at least 60 soldiers and wounded 40 more, a civil society activist in the area told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The al-Qaida-linked JNIM group claimed responsibility.

Mali’s army acknowledged the attack in a statement Monday, adding that soldiers had fought “to their last breath.” It did not provide an exact death toll.

French officer charged in teen’s 2023 killing

A French police officer will face trial next year on charges of voluntary homicide over the killing of a 17-year-old of North African descent, a death that triggered nationwide riots.

The prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where victim Nahel Merzouk grew up and was killed in 2023, announced in a statement that magistrates decided Tuesday to send the police officer to trial after a two-year investigation.

The officer, identified in legal documents only as Florian M., was initially detained but released a few months later pending further investigation. He is expected to face trial in the third quarter of 2026, the prosecutor’s office said.

— From news services