The Republican contender in the US presidential race senator Ted Cruz has won the Wisconsin primary eroding the Republican front-runner Donald Trumps' lead. The Wisconsin result has been seen as a test for Mr. Trump whose campaign in the past week has been marred in controversy after comments about women including a disparaging remark about Mr. Cruz's wife. Gary O'Donoghue reports. Ted Cruz has now delivered a significant blow to the Donald Trump campaign after the Republican party establishment got behind the Texas senator to reverse the seeming inevitability of a Trump nomination. Mr. Trump still leads and by a significant margin, but reaching the magic 1237 delegates' count which would automatically makes him the party's choice is now a lot harder. In the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders beat the front-runner Hillary Clinton though this does little to significantly cut her overall lead.
The European Commission is to review its suggested reform to the way countries in the European Union handle asylum claims known as the Dublin Regulations later today. Damian Grammaticas reports. Under the current policy, it's the EU country a refugee first arrives in that must deal with their asylum claims, but that's left a couple of nations, Greece and Italy, to cope with hundreds of thousands of people seeking protection while some other countries have taken hardly any refugees in. The European Commission is likely to suggest either a modest change that preserves the current system, but adds a fairness provision or a second more radical option to scrap the existing rules and distribute refugees around Europe.
The human right group Amnesty International says there was a dramatic increase in recorded executions last year, the most for more than 1/4 of a century. Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are counted for almost 90% of the total. JillMc Givering reports. Last year, the number of executions recorded by Amnesty International rose by more than 50% compared with the previous year, its highest total since 1989. World news from the BBC.
Libya's self-proclaimed national salvation government has ceded power to the UN approved presidency council. The Tripoli based Islamist administration empowered since 2014, but never recognized internationally, says it's stepping down for the good of the country.
The governor of the US state of Mississippi has approved a law allowing businesses to refuse to serve same sex couples if it conflicts with the owner's religious beliefs. Peter Busch reports. The new law allows churches,religious charities and privately held businesses to refuse services to same sex couples on religious grounds. The Republican governor Phil Bryant said he signed the law to protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions of individuals, organizations and private associations. Protesters say the bill will allow for lawful discrimination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The governor of New York State has banned non-essential state travel to Mississippi. He said it was a sad hateful injustice against the LGBT community.
An anti-abortion activist from the American state of California says agents from the State's Department of Justice have raided his home and removed film footage and personal information. David Daleiden from the Center for Medical Progress described it as an attack on citizen journalism. Last year, he was involved in secret filming at Planned Parenthood clinics aimed at showing the abortion provider was involved in the sale of fetal body parts.
The Nigeria army has established rehabilitation camps for members of the Boko Haram sect who repent and surrender. The army says while in the camps, the former Boko Haram members will have training to enable them to reintegrate into normal life. In a statement, the military said the exercise called Operation Safe Corridor was in line with its government's commitment to the war against the insurgency in the northeast of the country. BBC news.