Campaigners have condemned a ban that will prevent pregnant teenage girls and young expectant fathers from attending formal schooling in Burundi, warning the country is violating its human rights obligations.

Burundi’s minister of education, Dr Janvière Ndirahisha, announced last week that pregnant teens and young mums, as well as the boys who made them pregnant, no longer had the right to be allowed into public or private schools. In a letter to the country’s provincial education directors, he added that such students could instead attend vocational or professional training. According to the UN population fund (UNFPA), 7% of girls aged 15-19 in Burundi have at least one child.The move has been called a “double punishment” for girls, and campaigners say it is unclear how schools will identify fathers for exclusion. “More often than not the boy will deny it,” said Naitore Nyamu-Mathenge, a human rights lawyer and programme officer for the organisation Equality Now. “Unless they have a way of proving it – I am sure they will not get into those details – this ban is definitely skewed towards violating the rights of girls accessing education.”(theguardian)…[+]

Najib Razak, the former Malaysian prime minister, has been arrested for his alleged role in the 1MDB scandal, in which billions were embezzled from a government fund.

Najib, who was toppled from power in May, was arrested in his Kuala Lumpur home on Tuesday afternoon and will be charged in court in the Malaysian capital on Wednesday morning, according to a statement from the team investigating 1MDB.

The former prime minster was picked up from his property using three unmarked cars and taken to the Malaysian anti-corruption agency (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya where he will be held overnight. His arrest came after the newly elected government, led by 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, reopened the investigation into 1MDB the moment it came into power in May and pledged to bring to justice all of those responsible for the multibillion dollar fraud.Mahathir said last week that authorities had an almost “perfect case” against Najib on charges including bribery, theft of government funds and embezzlement.(theguardian)…[+]

In a muddy clearing at the foot of Nang Non mountain, soldiers, medics and rescue workers chattered over the hum of generators and falling water, hoping for the next piece of good news. Hours before, 12 Thai schoolboys between the ages of 11 and 16 and their 25-year-old football coach were found alive by divers in the nearby cave known as Tham Luang Nang Non, which flooded while they were exploring it on 23 June.

In an instant, an anxious nine-day search operation transformed into a rescue mission, but those spending their days at the rescue camp say they never lost hope that the missing children would be returned to safety. “One thing I’d like to note about the mood in this camp is that we’ve all been in here as a family, working together, and I never sensed anyone being demotivated. In fact, I sensed a strong hope,” said US Air Force Captain Jessica Tait, a member of a unit of divers, medics, and survival specialists sent to the rescue site last week at the request of the Thai government.

“When we found out the good news, it felt like it was out of a movie. I get chills when I think about that moment and being able to work hard and have such a positive outcome, because you don’t always get that,” she said.(theguardian)...[+]