By Sam Cage DUBLIN (Reuters) - Thousands of people rallied in central Dublin on Saturday against the government's plan to allow limited access to abortion where a woman's life is in danger. Organisers said more than 40,000 massed outside government offices in the capital for the "National Vigil for Life", making it the largest anti-abortion demonstration in Ireland's history.

Lithuania's parliament took a first step towards banning abortions on Tuesday, voting for a bill that would prevent terminations except in case of rape, incest or health complications. Forty-six lawmakers voted in favour of the draft legislation, with 19 opposed and 25 abstentions, said a member of a Polish minority party that introduced the bill. Hailing the vote as a "success", Zbignev Jedinskij, one of eight MPs from the LLRA Polish minority party, said it had "shown that lawmakers are open to a debate on this matter which is important for society."

By Dan Whitcomb (Reuters) - A federal appeals court struck down an Arizona law on Tuesday that bans abortions from 20 weeks gestation, saying it violated "unalterably clear" U.S. Supreme Court rulings that women have a right to terminate pregnancies until a fetus is viable.

By Dave Warner PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Philadelphia doctor was found guilty on Monday of murdering three babies during abortions at a clinic serving low-income women in a case that cast a national spotlight on the controversial practice of late-term abortions. Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-shuttered Women's Medical Society Clinic, faces the possibility of the death penalty. The case focused on whether the infants were born alive and then killed.