The UN’s senior human rights official has castigated Israel, saying there was little evidence that the country’s armed forces had attempted to minimise casualties during protests by Palestinians earlier this week that saw dozens of protesters killed.

Speaking at a special session of the UN human rights council, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said that while 60 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured in a single day of protests on Monday, “on the Israeli side, one soldier was reportedly wounded, slightly, by a stone”. “The stark contrast in casualties on both sides is … suggestive of a wholly disproportionate response,” he told the council.

His comments came as the Egyptian president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, announced he had ordered the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza for the entire Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the longest length of time since 2013. Sisi wrote on his official Twitter account late on Thursday that the opening would “alleviate the burdens of the brothers in the Gaza Strip”. The Rafah crossing is Gaza’s main gate to the outside world. Egypt has kept Rafah largely sealed off since 2013, after Egypt’s elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted.(theguardian)…[+]

Moscow has demanded a meeting with Sergei Skripal, the Russian former spy poisoned by a nerve agent in Salisbury, following his discharge from hospital.

Russia’s ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko, welcomed Skripal’s release from hospital on Friday, more than 10 weeks after he was poisoned, but claimed the UK was breaking international law if it did not allow access to him and his daughter, Yulia, who was also poisoned and was discharged last month.

Yakovenko said nobody actually knew if the pair were alive and suggested that, if they were, they may have already left the country. Scotland Yard made clear that no details of the security arrangements for the pair would be given. Salisbury district hospital announced on Friday morning that Skripal had been discharged.

The chief executive, Cara Charles-Barks, said it was good news that Skripal was well enough to be discharged. “That he, Yulia and DS [Nick] Bailey have been able to leave us so soon after coming into contact with this nerve agent is thanks to the hard work, skill and professionalism of our clinicians, who provide outstanding care to all our patients, day in and day out,” she said.(theguardian)…[+]

Chile’s bishops have offered to resign en masse over a sexual abuse and cover-up scandal that has embroiled Pope Francis and has been highly damaging to the Catholic church. Thirty-one serving bishops and three retired bishops signed a letter of resignation on Friday. “We have put our positions in the hands of the Holy Father and will leave it to him to decide freely for each of us,” they said. “We want to ask forgiveness for the pain caused to the victims, to the pope, to God’s people and to our country for the serious errors and omissions we have committed.” There was no immediate indication of whether the pope would accept their resignations.

The bishops’ move came after Francis said the Chilean church hierarchy was collectively responsible for “grave defects” in handling sexual abuse cases and the resulting loss of credibility suffered by the church. He accused them of destroying evidence of sexual crimes, putting pressure on investigators to downplay abuse accusations and showing “grave negligence” in protecting children from paedophile priests.(theguardian)…[+]