Australian cattle exporters said they had suspended live shipments to Egypt Saturday after abattoir footage shot by animal rights activists showed "horrific" mistreatment of cows. The Australian Livestock Exporters' Council, the industry's representative body, said it had urgently halted shipments to Egypt after Animals Australia presented it with footage showing "vicious, cruel and clumsy" practices. "These acts are horrific. The outrageous cruelty has left me and my industry colleagues disgusted and horrified," said ALEC chief Alison Penfold, who said she was "distraught".

Syria's regime and rebels fighting to overthrow it have killed, arbitrarily arrested and tortured scores of journalists over the past two years, rights group Amnesty International said on Friday. A report entitled "Shooting the Messenger: Journalists targeted by all sides in Syria," details dozens of cases of journalists and media workers attacked or held since the 2011 uprising began. The report was issued to coincide with International Press Freedom Day.

Bangladesh's war crimes court on Thursday indicted a Bangladesh-born British Muslim leader for his alleged role in the murder of top intellectuals during the country's 1971 liberation war. "The court has taken into cognizance the charges of war crimes against Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and issued a warrant to arrest him," International Crimes Tribunal registrar Nasiruddin Mahmud told AFP.

Sexual violence and harassment is widespread in India and perpetuated in public places, in the family and in the workplace, a U.N. human rights official said Wednesday after undertaking a U.N.-commissioned study on violence against women in India. Rashida Manjoo, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women, said the Indian government's "inability and/or unwillingness" to acknowledge and address the core structural causes of violence against women is the main reason for the failure to prevent such incidents.