Voluntary assisted dying will be legal in Victoria from 2019, after a landmark bill successfully passed through state parliament. The government-led, amended bill passed the Legislative Assembly after more than 100 hours of debate across both houses, including several overnight sittings.

It will make the state the first Australian jurisdiction to legalise assisted dying since the Northern Territory’s short-lived Rights of the Terminally Ill Act was overturned by federal parliament in 1997. Since then the Victorian legislation marks the first time in the world that a parliament has gone through an extensive process to introduce voluntary assisted dying. Other countries have introduced laws through referendum or a court process.

Upper house MP Fiona Patten,one of the key proponents of the legislation, told Guardian Australia she was overwhelmed that it had passed. While the upper house passed the legislation one week ago 22 votes to 18 after a marathon debate, a number of amendments were made which had to pass the lower house. “It’s very clear the vast majority of Victorians are happy the parliament has done this work,” she said.(theguardian)…[+]

BRIDGETOWN- It’s a makeover that is transforming lives and stimulating pride in 1,200 Jamaican students. At the Christiana Moravian Primary and Infant School, there were once as many as 46 students to one teacher in some classes. Now 10 new classrooms, the renovation of two existing school buildings and student bathrooms, and new programmes and materials have not only alleviated problems of overcrowding but are also enhancing the lives of students.

The Principal credits both funds with leaving an indelible mark on the school community through socially progressive programs such as the Special Education Needs Coordinators Training Project; the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme (WASH) and the Literacy and Numeracy Project (LNP). Through LNP, the school received teaching and learning aids to support the math and language curriculum, and academic staff participated in intensive training. As a result, students’ performance in national examinations improved, the school surpassed the national average for literacy, and there has been a marked improvement in numeracy.

Knowledge gained through WASH led to the creation of an action plan intended to address sanitation and hygiene issues within the school’s environment, and it stirred creativity among staff and students. In addition to creating Squeaky, a mascot who reminds students to “WASH”, they reworked “Nuh Dutty Up Jamaica”, a popular song, with new lyrics “nuh dutty up di school yaad.” Improvements made within the school’s Special Education Unit were particularly notable, with significant increases in the numbers of special education students reaching mastery levels in literacy and numeracy.(CDB)…[+]

Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, will go into next month’s crucial European summit on Brexit without the fear of a general election at home after one of his key allies resigned from the cabinet hours before a parliamentary vote that would have led to the collapse of the government in Dublin.

Varadkar’s deputy, Frances Fitzgerald, offered her resignation at lunchtime on Tuesday, thus averting a vote of no confidence that could have brought down the minority Fine Gael-led coalition. Fitzgerald’s decision to stand down brought Ireland back from the brink of a pre-Christmas election and gives Varadkar a freer hand to enter critical negotiations on Brexit, the Irish border and the future relationship between the EU and the UK at the summit in December. She has been under intense pressure over her handling of information about the treatment of a police whistleblower who made allegations of corruption and malpractice in the Garda Síochána.(theguardian)…[+]

The glow from a ring of incandescent red lava in the crater of Bali’s Mount Agung is clearly visible, as the likelihood of a large eruption on the popular holiday island continues to grow.

The burnt orange glow atop Mount Agung could be easily seen at night and in the thick ash column that Indonesia’s disaster agency said was being sent nearly two miles (3km) into the atmosphere. “We could see the magma tonight,” Nyoman Karyiarsa, a resident of Rendang village, told the Guardian on Monday evening. “From 7pm to 8pm, we could see a bright red colour from the crater, but it hasn’t come out yet.”The Rendang monitoring post registered powerful and continuous tremors at about 2pm on Tuesday in Bali, with locals and journalists told to evacuate. The last big eruption in 1963 was preceded by continuous tremors. The Balinese volcano, the highest point on the island, has grown increasingly restless over the past week, with the alert system raised to its highest level early on Monday, as the nature of the eruptions has shifted from phreatic, or steam-based, to magmatic.(theguardian)…[+]