IRELAND: Magdalene Laundries survivor Mary Cavner has won a battle for compensation after spending six years in one of the notorious Catholic-run workhouses as a child.

She grew up in Cork and was placed in the care of nuns at the age of 11 when her father died. She was denied an education and left malnourished.

At least 10,000 young women passed through the Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1996. They were locked up and forced to work for no pay in collusion with the state.

CHINA: Beijing has threatened sanctions on US companies involved in the sale of fighter jets to Taiwan after Washington approved the biggest arms deal with the territory in decades.

The US signed a deal for 66 F-16 jets to the Chinese territory as Beijing warned against an escalation of tensions in the region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Geng Shuang urged the US to stop the arms sales and end military contact with Taiwan.

SWEDEN: A man was hospitalised after being bitten by Fidel Castro’s crocodile at an aquarium in Stockholm on Tuesday where he was giving a speech at a crayfish party.

Police said the crocodile snapped at the man after his arm was “on the wrong side of the security glass.”

The reptile is one of two crocodiles gifted by the revolutionary leader to Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov in the 1970s.