World in brief: Myanmar allows nine U.N. copters

The United Nations has received permission from Myanmar to use nine helicopters to ferry relief supplies to stranded cyclone victims, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday as he warned that relief efforts are at a “critical moment.”

“We have received government permission to operate nine WFP (World Food Program) helicopters, which will allow us to reach areas that have so far been largely inaccessible,” Ban told reporters in New York before departing on a trip to Myanmar.

Reykjavik, Iceland

Whale hunting season begins

Whale hunting season began in Iceland on Tuesday as the country’s first whaling ship of the year set sail in defiance of a worldwide moratorium on the practice.

Despite condemnation from environmental groups and concerns by Iceland’s foreign minister that a resumption of whaling could damage the country’s popular whale-watching business, the government is allowing 40 minke whales to be hunted for their meat over the next six months.

Iceland stopped whale hunting in 1986 after the International Whaling Commission put a moratorium on the practice in an attempt to protect several vulnerable species. But Iceland resumed whaling in 2006, prompting protests from conservation groups and many other governments.

London

Stricter laws on abortion rejected

British lawmakers rejected attempts to restrict abortion laws Tuesday, opposing measures that would have reduced the amount of time a pregnancy could be terminated.

Legislators voted in favor of keeping the current law, which allows abortions during the first 24 weeks of a woman’s pregnancy. Several failed motions would have set the limit as low as 12 weeks.

Advocates of a lower limit claimed scientific advances mean fetuses born before 24 weeks now have a chance of survival; but backers of the existing law said there is no scientific evidence to support that claim.

Lawmakers rejected a series of attempts from individual legislators to set a new limit of 12, 16, 20 or 22 weeks.