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Australian fashion retailers have supply chains that risk exploitation, audit finds
'Your kids behead people', Muslim woman told on Sydney train – video
Teenage surfers in Hermosa Beach, California - in pictures
Pollution, traffic, stray dogs: the hardiness of Cairo's long-distance runners
BP dropped green energy projects worth billions to focus on fossil fuels
UN envoy to Yemen resigns after criticism of failed peacemaking
From the archive, 16 April 1959: No pubs on new motorway
New Zealand prime minister joins Australian defence minister in failing to name Isis leader – video
Grief and anger on first anniversary of South Korea’s Sewol ferry disaster
World Bank lending: how the organisation rode roughshod over its own rules – interactive
World Bank breaks its own rules as 3.4 million people are forced off their land
Why the Mundra power plant has given Tata a mega headache
Backlash as Belarus imposes ‘social parasite’ law to fine unemployed
Dispatch from the North Korean border: what do you want to know?
Britt Lapthorne: Croatian police investigation was a debacle, says father
Texas executes Manuel Garza for shooting murder of police officer
Hillary Clinton evolves on gay marriage, just in time for presidential campaign
Amnesty warns human rights abuses ‘unabated’ before Bahrain Grand Prix
SpaceX rocket nearly sticks landing before tipping and exploding - video
Stuck in low global growth and India overtaking China – is this the 'new normal'?

Australian fashion retailers have supply chains that risk exploitation, audit finds

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 01:04 AM PDT

Some clothing companies lack transparency and do not have full knowledge of where their raw materials come from, Australian Fashion Report says

'Your kids behead people', Muslim woman told on Sydney train – video

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 12:37 AM PDT

A woman in a hijab has been abused for being Muslim by another female passenger on a Sydney train. A third woman, who filmed the video, told the Sydney Morning Herald she witnessed 10 minutes of abuse from a passenger who can be be heard telling another hijab-wearing passenger that her kids 'behead people'. Stacey Eden came to the woman's defence, telling the first woman to 'have some respect' Continue reading...

Teenage surfers in Hermosa Beach, California - in pictures

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 12:10 AM PDT

Life is swell for one group of friends in Hermosa Beach, California. Carlos Price Gracida, 13, Luke Personius, 12, Kieran Walls, 13, Kevin Elliott, 12, Reid Inskeep, 13 and Shane Moseley, 13, surf at sunrise before school most days

Pollution, traffic, stray dogs: the hardiness of Cairo's long-distance runners

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 11:00 PM PDT

In spite of an unforgiving climate, litter-strewn streets and verbal harassment, running is gaining popularity among the residents of Egypt's capital

In Cairo, the hazards of running are legion. The air is polluted. The traffic is dense. The sidewalks are uneven or nonexistent. Summer temperatures climb to 35 or 40 degrees. Women runners face catcalls, stares, or worse. Some recount harrowing stories of encounters with stray dogs.

But in spite of the litany of annoyances, runners in Cairo say their sport is growing. A number of neighbourhood groups organise weekly runs and later this week, a group called Cairo Runners is holding its third half marathon, for which 3,500 people have registered.

BP dropped green energy projects worth billions to focus on fossil fuels

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 10:00 PM PDT

Oil firm invested billions of pounds in clean and low-carbon energy in the 80s and 90s but later abandoned meaningful efforts to move away from fossil fuels and locked away the research

BP pumped billions of pounds into low-carbon technology and green energy over a number of decades but gradually retired the programme to focus almost exclusively on its fossil fuel business, the Guardian has established.

At one stage the company, whose annual general meeting is in London on Thursday, was spending in-house around $450m (£300m) a year on research alone - the equivalent of $830m today.

UN envoy to Yemen resigns after criticism of failed peacemaking

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:55 PM PDT

Jamal Benomar to be replaced, United Nations announces, as Saudi-led air strikes continue against Houthi rebels

The UN has announced its special envoy to Yemen is stepping down after four years of efforts at a peaceful political transition in the Arab world's poorest country fell apart amid a Shia rebel uprising and Saudi-led airstrikes.

A statement on Wednesday night said Jamal Benomar "has expressed an interest in moving on to another assignment" and that his successor will be named "in due course".

From the archive, 16 April 1959: No pubs on new motorway

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:30 PM PDT

Alcoholic drinks to be served only with meals in motorway service areas

New Zealand prime minister joins Australian defence minister in failing to name Isis leader – video

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:10 PM PDT

New Zealand prime minister John Key fails to name the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, when questioned in an interview for 3 News. After admitting he would get it wrong, he says 'it's al-Jaberi something but whatever'. Australian defence minister Kevin Andrews also faltered over the name in an interview the night before. Both countries have recently committed to sending additional troops to combat Isis in Iraq Continue reading...

Grief and anger on first anniversary of South Korea’s Sewol ferry disaster

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:06 PM PDT

Relatives of the 304 people who died block prime minister Lee Wan Koo from memorial site in Ansan in protest at government handling of the sinking

Tributes have been paid to the 304 people, most of them school children, who died one year ago when the ferry Sewol sank off the southwestern South Korean coast.

But the country's prime minister, Lee Wan Koo, was turned away from a mourning site in Ansan – the city that lost nearly an entire class of high school students on a field trip to a southern resort island – by angry relatives of some of those who died, in protest at what they say is the government's poor handling of the tragedy.

World Bank lending: how the organisation rode roughshod over its own rules – interactive

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:01 PM PDT

World Bank data shows that, between 2004 and 2013, the organisation made loans worth $60bn to poor countries, resulting in the displacement of millions

World Bank breaks its own rules as 3.4 million people are forced off their land

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:01 PM PDT

Review of World Bank documents reveals electricity, water and transport projects contravened safeguards designed to protect rights of indigenous people

Why the Mundra power plant has given Tata a mega headache

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:01 PM PDT

The birth pains of 'ultra mega power projects' in India have pitched a conglomerate against a small fishing community – and put the World Bank on the defensive

Backlash as Belarus imposes ‘social parasite’ law to fine unemployed

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:00 PM PDT

New rules that effectively criminalise those out of work have been criticised as a Soviet-era throwback. RFE/RL report

Dispatch from the North Korean border: what do you want to know?

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 09:00 PM PDT

NK News are crowdfunding to send an investigative reporter to the North Korea–China border, and they want you to shape what they'll cover

Britt Lapthorne: Croatian police investigation was a debacle, says father

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 08:54 PM PDT

Victorian coroner formally closes inquest into backpacker's death in Croatia in 2008, and says it was unlikely she had committed suicide

Texas executes Manuel Garza for shooting murder of police officer

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 05:42 PM PDT

'See you on the other side' says prisoners as state draws on dwindling supply of pentobarbital for lethal injection

Hillary Clinton evolves on gay marriage, just in time for presidential campaign

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 04:04 PM PDT

After dodging questions and facing Bill Clinton's legacy, team shifts support from state-by-state decisions to federal right ahead of supreme court arguments

Hillary Clinton evolved on same-sex marriage within the first 72 hours of her presidential run, as her campaign said Wednesday that the former secretary of state now backs marriage equality as a US constitutional right.

Amnesty warns human rights abuses ‘unabated’ before Bahrain Grand Prix

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 04:04 PM PDT

• Amnesty International report details 'chilling' crackdown on dissent
• 'Notion that Bahrain respects freedom of expression is pure fiction'
• Leading Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab arrested for highlighting prison abuse

A major report from Amnesty International released to coincide with this weekend's Formula One grand prix has warned that human rights abuses in Bahrain continue "unabated" despite repeated assurances from the authorities that the situation is improving.

The Bahrain Grand Prix has become a prism through which human rights groups have sought to focus attention on the situation in the country after protests in the capital by pro-democracy campaigners in 2011 caused the race to be cancelled.

SpaceX rocket nearly sticks landing before tipping and exploding - video

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 03:49 PM PDT

An unmanned SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida on Tuesday but failed to land on a platform floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The 208-foot (63-meter) Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Dragon capsule, thundered off its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral air force station to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station. The rocket made a hard but survivable landing on the return platform, but teetered and ultimately fell over Continue reading...

Stuck in low global growth and India overtaking China – is this the 'new normal'?

Posted: 15 Apr 2015 03:42 PM PDT

The IMF has cut its predictions for world GDP growth in 2015 from 3.9% to 3.5% and for the first time since 1999, India is projected to grow faster than China