PARIS, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - One in five pregnancies worldwide ends in an abortion, amounting to a significant fall compared with the mid-nineties, but nearly half these terminations still take place in unsafe conditions, a study says.

In 2003, the latest year for which full figures are available, 42 million abortions were carried out around the world, compared with 46 million in 1995, according to the paper published by The Lancet next Saturday.

For every 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 in 2003, 29 had an abortion, down from 35 in 1997, it said.

NEW YORK, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - Few issues generate as much heat in the United States as the debate over abortion -- the subject of a powerful and graphic new documentary by controversial British filmmaker Tony Kaye.

'Lake of Fire,' currently on limited release in the United States, unwinds over more than two and a half hours of interviews with some of the leading figures from the pro-life and pro-choice camps.

But it is the graphic and disturbing depiction of termination procedures, filmed like the rest of the movie in black and white, that marks the film out.

NEW DELHI, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - US giant General Electric's healthcare unit, accused of helping fuel female abortions in India by pushing sales of ultrasound equipment, has said it will take steps to try to combat the problem.

GE Healthcare commands nearly 50 percent of the multi-million-dollar Indian market for ultrasound machines.

The machines are used widely to find out the gender of an unborn baby, even though the practice is banned under Indian law.

ROME, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - An Italian doctor who aborted a healthy twin by mistake and the obstetrician who performed a sonogram ahead of the bungle are under investigation for negligence by a Milan court, a report said Tuesday.

The operation, carried out in June, was intended to remove the other twin, who tested positive for Down's Syndrome.

The foetuses reportedly changed places after the sonogram and before the procedure.

If tried and convicted, the doctors face between three months and two years in prison, ANSA news agency said.

WASHINGTON, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - A US state supreme court ruled Wednesday against a woman who had brought a malpractice suit against her doctor for not telling her she was carrying 'a complete, unique, irreplaceable human being' before performing an abortion.

Plaintiff Rosa Acuna consulted her gynecologist, Sheldon Turkish, in 1996 in New Jersey, complaining of abdominal pain.

On examining Acuna, who has two daughters, Turkish told her she was around seven weeks pregnant.

VIENNA, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI slammed abortion as the 'very opposite' of human rights on Friday, in an address here at the start of a three-day visit to Austria.

'The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end,' the pontiff said at the meeting in the Hofburg, the seat of the Austrian presidency.

'Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right -- it is the very opposite,' he added, speaking in German.

LONDON, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland said Tuesday he will quit the human rights organisation Amnesty International in protest of its change of policy on abortion.

Cardinal Keith O'Brien said he was ending his membership due to Amnesty's new stance on abortion, backing the practice in certain circumstances.

He signalled his intention in a letter to John Watson, the director of Amnesty in Scotland.

The move follows a similar decision last week by a senior British Roman Catholic bishop.

ROME, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - The Vatican's official newspaper launched an attack Monday against the vanity of the masses as news of a botched abortion where a healthy twin foetus was terminated instead of its sibling with Down syndrome hit the headlines.

'It is the culture of perfection that imposes the exclusion of those who do not seem to be beautiful, positive, or a winner,' according to the l'Osservatore Romano, calling the mother's choice 'illegitimate even though it was authorised by law, like in Italy.'

ROME, Aug 27, 2007 (AFP) - A botched abortion in which a healthy twin foetus was terminated instead of its sibling with Down syndrome has reignited the abortion debate in Italy and raised allegations of eugenics.

'The time has come to re-examine the abortion law' that dates back to 1978, wrote leftist Senator Paola Binetti, who is close to the Vatican, in the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

ROME, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - Amnesty Italy said Wednesday it did not fear losing support among Catholics after a senior British bishop quit the parent group Amnesty International over its new position on abortion.

'The decision we took on abortion as a human right in case of rape was not approved on the spur of the moment but the result of months of discussions,' Amnesty Italy chief Gabriele Eminente told the Corriere della Sera in an interview published Wednesday.