BEIRUT

Adhering to U.N. cease-fire, Syrian forces halt attacks

Syrian government forces appeared Thursday largely to have ended their attacks on anti-government strongholds, adhering to a United Nations-brokered cease-fire.

But the United States, France and others seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad said the government has yet to implement a provision in the U.N. plan that called for the country’s military to return to its barracks, and the U.S. repeated calls for Assad to step down.

Anti-Assad activists reported at least three deaths at the hands of Syrian security forces on Thursday, along with a number of arrests..

BRASILIA, Brazil

Court OKs abortions in cases of fetuses without brains

Brazil’s supreme court has voted to authorize abortions in cases of fetuses with no brains.

Abortion is illegal in Brazil except when a pregnancy threatens the life of the mother and in cases of rape. The Supreme Federal Tribunal’s 8-2 vote Thursday now decriminalizes abortions involving anencephalic fetuses.

Such fetuses develop without brains and cannot survive outside the womb for more than a few minutes. Most die before birth. Brazil has a high rate of such cases, with 10 out of every 10,000 pregnancies.Brazil is the world’s most populous Roman Catholic country and religious groups staged vigils outside the court and in other cities opposing a ruling to allow such abortions

PARIS

European space agency says satellite still silent

The European Space Agency says it has lost contact with its Earth observation satellite Envisat.

Efforts to resume communications have been unsuccessful since it fell silent April 8.

ESA said Thursday that Envisat remains in a stable orbit around Earth and scientists are still trying to re-establish contact with what it called “the world’s most complex Earth observation satellite.”

Envisat was launched in 2002 to provide information on land, oceans, ice and the atmosphere. It has long exceeded its expected life span of five years.

ESA had hoped to keep the satellite going until the first of a new generation of Earth observation satellites called Sentinel is launched next year.

— From news service reports