World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- Barack Obama to make long-awaited appeal for Britain to stay in EU
- Hundreds feared dead in migrant shipwreck off Libya
- Jerusalem bus bomber named as Hamas militant
- Anders Breivik’s human rights violated in prison, Norway court rules
- Obama's chilly reception in Saudi Arabia hints at mutual distrust
- Hong Kong newspaper editor sacked in wake of Panama Papers report
- Stop aid to Honduras, says murdered campaigner's daughter
- US drone strikes outnumber warplane attacks for first time in Afghanistan
- Australian mother and TV crew released in Lebanon kidnap case
- Dilma Rousseff takes fight against impeachment to UN's global stage
- MPs unanimously declare Yazidis and Christians victims of Isis genocide
- Indian drought 'affecting 330 million people' after two weak monsoons
- China sets its sights on the Northwest Passage as a potential trade boon
- Russia announces anti-doping reforms in bid to avoid Rio Olympics ban
- Russia's 'cold turkey' approach highlights global divide over drug treatment at UN
- French students wear headscarves for 'Hijab Day'
- Israeli police investigate suspected £45m diamond fraud at world's largest exchange
- Hopes for Afghan peace talks sink as Kabul attack death toll doubles
- 'Jewish extremist cell' arrested in West Bank
- E-stonia: country using technology to rebrand itself as the anti-Russia
- Oversupplied oil market to rebalance by next year, says IEA
- Mitsubishi share price crashes as officials raid offices
- Brexit plays into the hands of Islamic State, Alastair Campbell warns
- Story of cities #27: Singapore – the most meticulously planned city in the world
- Gay clubbing and stoic activism in Russia’s homophobic heartland
- Normality not the extreme: this is everyday Africa in pictures
- Chernobyl disaster 30 years on: what do you remember?
- A mentor in shamelessness: the man who taught Trump the power of publicity
- Ched Evans wins appeal against rape conviction
- Cannes on high alert as security ramped up ahead of film festival
- A generation of artists were wiped out by Aids and we barely talk about it
- The retired cops investigating unsolved murders in one of America’s most violent cities | Christopher Pomorski
- US agents find major Mexico drug tunnel covered by bin in California
- Malcolm Turnbull expected to reject Bill Shorten's demand for 'pre-election' briefings
- What's next for Sally Faulkner and the full cast of Lebanon kidnapping drama?
- Panama Papers: prominent Australians call for action in open letter to Turnbull
- New Zealand's largest bus company to retrofit fleet with electric engines
- Belgian minister defends claim many Muslims 'danced' after Brussels attacks
- Ultimate owners of UK property may be forced into spotlight
- UK spy agencies have collected bulk personal data since 1990s, files show
- Canadian Netflix users outraged over blocked access to US services
- The migrants in Calais used to be British | Letters
- Sally Faulkner, Tara Brown and 60 Minutes crew released – in pictures
- Barack Obama to discuss efforts to combat Isis with European leaders
- Brussels bombings suspect charged with role in Paris attacks
- Paris and Brussels: the links between the attackers
- Canada to introduce legislation to decriminalize recreational cannabis
- Nato-Russia Council talks fail to iron out differences
- Council of Europe condemns EU's refugee deal with Turkey
- Migration between poor countries rising faster than to rich ones – study
- Indigenous health: wealthy nations not always better than developing countries
- Six British soldiers killed in first world war are reburied in Belgium
- Poles apart: Gdansk divided as city grapples with immigration and identity
- Kashmir's first female chief minister: the start of a new chapter? | Amrit Dhillon
- 'Unbridled violence' in Gambella leaves Ethiopia searching for answers | William Davison
- Colombia's City of Women: a haven from violence | Sibylla Brodzinsky
- Inside Colombia's City of Women – podcast transcript
- Inside Colombia's City of Women – podcast
- Cruz gets snarky after losing to Trump in New York primary – video
- 'World’s oldest dog' Maggie dies age 30 – video report
| Barack Obama to make long-awaited appeal for Britain to stay in EU Posted: 20 Apr 2016 11:00 PM PDT US president to visit UK amid growing confidence in Downing Street that the intellectual tide has turned away from Brexit Barack Obama is expected to make a calm but emphatic call this week for the UK to remain inside the European Union, using his status as Britain's firmest ally to counsel that the country's prosperity and influence will be irreversibly diminished outside the EU. The US president will make his appeal, which the remain campaign are counting on to tip the balance decisively, both in a newspaper article and remarks at a Downing Street press conference on Friday afternoon. Continue reading... |
| Hundreds feared dead in migrant shipwreck off Libya Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:24 AM PDT Up to 500 people may have drowned after overloaded boat sank in Mediterranean Hundreds of people are feared to have drowned in the southern Mediterranean last week, in what would be the deadliest migrant shipwreck in months. A repurposed fishing boat overloaded by smugglers with up to 500 Africans hoping to reach Italy from eastern Libya sunk as passengers from smaller boats were trying to board it, survivors told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The survivors' accounts described panicked passengers desperately trying to stay afloat by jumping between vessels. Continue reading... |
| Jerusalem bus bomber named as Hamas militant Posted: 21 Apr 2016 01:30 AM PDT Israeli hospital spokesman and pro-Hamas website confirm death of man whose bomb wounded 16 people on commuter bus A Palestinian militant from the occupied West Bank who was wounded when his bomb exploded on an Israeli commuter bus in Jerusalem has died, an Israeli hospital spokeswoman and a pro-Hamas website have said. A spokeswoman for the Jerusalem hospital where the man was treated confirmed he had died. Israeli authorities have placed a gag order on the investigation and declined to release any details. Continue reading... |
| Anders Breivik’s human rights violated in prison, Norway court rules Posted: 20 Apr 2016 07:03 AM PDT Court says mass killer's conditions breach article in European convention on human rights prohibiting degrading treatment Norway has violated the human rights of the rightwing extremist Anders Breivik by exposing him to inhuman and degrading treatment during his imprisonment for terrorism and mass murder, a Norwegian court has ruled. Breivik, who killed 77 people in July 2011 in the country's worst acts of violence since the second world war, took the Norwegian authorities to court last month, alleging that the solitary confinement in which he had been held for nearly five years breached the European convention on human rights. Continue reading... |
| Obama's chilly reception in Saudi Arabia hints at mutual distrust Posted: 20 Apr 2016 01:02 PM PDT US president's low-key arrival and meeting with King Salman underscores tension that has deepened over US policy towards Iran and the war in Syria Barack Obama arrived to a noticeably low-key reception in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday against a background of mutual irritation in a relationship tested by a turbulent Middle East, plummeting oil prices and economic and political uncertainty. The US president was greeted at the airport by the governor of Riyadh, Prince Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud, and the event was not broadcast live on Saudi TV, as is routine with visiting heads of state – quickly generating talk of a snub. Continue reading... |
| Hong Kong newspaper editor sacked in wake of Panama Papers report Posted: 20 Apr 2016 09:57 PM PDT Unions 'deeply disturbed and worried' by dismissal of Keung Kwok-yuen from Ming Pao on same day it ran a front-page report on figures linked to leaks The veteran editor of a Hong Kong newspaper that published a report on the Panama Papers document leak has been dismissed, sparking outcry from journalists' unions and exposing new concerns about press freedoms in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Related: Panama Papers: US launches criminal inquiry into tax avoidance claims Continue reading... |
| Stop aid to Honduras, says murdered campaigner's daughter Posted: 20 Apr 2016 12:00 PM PDT Berta Cáceres's daughter urges Europeans to suspend aid and investment in hydro projects until human rights are respected The daughter of murdered environmental leader Berta Cáceres has called for a suspension of European aid to Honduras and investment in its hydro projects until the country complies with human rights norms. Cáceres was shot as she slept on 2 March, after her family say that Honduran authorities failed to adequately respond to a slew of escalating death threats. Continue reading... |
| US drone strikes outnumber warplane attacks for first time in Afghanistan Posted: 20 Apr 2016 06:35 PM PDT US Air Force data shows unmanned aircraft released 56% of bombs and missiles deployed in 2015, and the trend is rising Drones are firing more weapons than conventional warplanes for the first time in Afghanistan and the ratio is rising, previously unreported US Air Force data for 2015 show, underlining how reliant the military has become on unmanned aircraft. Related: Kabul car bomb reminds us this bloody conflict is no nearer an ending Continue reading... |
| Australian mother and TV crew released in Lebanon kidnap case Posted: 20 Apr 2016 07:30 PM PDT Sally Faulkner, arrested in Beirut with 60 Minutes crew for allegedly kidnapping her own children, freed after deal struck Sally Faulkner, the Australian mother at the centre of a botched child recovery operation, journalist Tara Brown and three television crew members have been released from a Beirut jail after a deal was struck to dismiss kidnapping charges against them in exchange for compensation. However, the British "child recovery agent" Adam Whittington and two others implicated in the alleged attempt to kidnap Faulkner's two children from her estranged Lebanese husband will remain in custody. Continue reading... |
| Dilma Rousseff takes fight against impeachment to UN's global stage Posted: 20 Apr 2016 09:44 AM PDT The embattled Brazilian president opts to focus on political survival during New York visit and cancels trip to sign Paris agreement on climate change Brazil's beleaguered Dilma Rousseff has changed her plans and will attend a UN event on Friday in New York to make her case against an impeachment process that could remove her from office within weeks, her office said. The Brazilian president lost a crucial vote in the lower house of congress on Sunday and faces impeachment by the senate on charges of breaking budget laws. She maintains the charges are groundless and trumped up to illegally oust her and end 13 years of rule by her leftist Workers party. Continue reading... |
| MPs unanimously declare Yazidis and Christians victims of Isis genocide Posted: 20 Apr 2016 12:59 PM PDT British parliament defies government to condemn barbarity of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq A government attempt to prevent MPs from declaring that Islamic State's treatment of Yazidis and Christians amounted to genocide was crushed on Wednesday, when the Commons voted unanimously to condemn their treatment and refer the issue to the UN security council. It is almost unprecedented for MPs collectively to declare actions in a war as genocide. Continue reading... |
| Indian drought 'affecting 330 million people' after two weak monsoons Posted: 20 Apr 2016 04:07 AM PDT Government says quarter of the population suffering, as NGO asks supreme court to order Modi government to do more to help About 330 million people are affected by drought in India, the government has said, as the country reels from severe water shortages and desperately poor farmers suffer crop losses. A senior government lawyer, PS Narasimha, told the supreme court that a quarter of the country's population, spread across 10 states, had been hit by drought after two consecutive years of weak monsoons. Continue reading... |
| China sets its sights on the Northwest Passage as a potential trade boon Posted: 20 Apr 2016 01:15 PM PDT Shipping guide published by maritime safety administration outlines nautical charts and descriptions of ice conditions despite country's lack of territorial claim China is looking to exploit the Northwest Passage, the fabled shortcut from the Pacific to the Atlantic, according to state-run media, with the world's biggest trader in goods publishing a shipping guide to the route. The seaway north of Canada, which could offer a quicker journey from China to the US east coast than via the Panama Canal or Cape Horn, was sought by European explorers for centuries, including by the doomed Franklin expedition of 1845. Continue reading... |
| Russia announces anti-doping reforms in bid to avoid Rio Olympics ban Posted: 20 Apr 2016 03:52 AM PDT • Russia suspended last year accused of 'state-sponsored' doping Russia has announced reforms it hopes will repair the credibility of its anti-doping body and will enable its athletics team to compete at the Rio Olympics. Russia was suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federation last November after being accused of "state-sponsored" doping in a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Continue reading... |
| Russia's 'cold turkey' approach highlights global divide over drug treatment at UN Posted: 20 Apr 2016 03:22 PM PDT Russian representative suggests methadone and heroin are the 'same narcotic drug' as outside experts condemn country's take on treatment: 'They're the world leader in denying the science' As international leaders debated global drug law at the United Nations, a bizarre panel on heroin treatment showed just how divided countries are over how to treat addicts. Related: UN backs prohibitionist drug policies despite call for more 'humane solution' Continue reading... |
| French students wear headscarves for 'Hijab Day' Posted: 20 Apr 2016 08:08 AM PDT Organisers at prestigious Sciences Po say event will encourage understanding of stigmatisation faced by Muslim women Students at Sciences Po, one of France's top universities, have invited people to wear the headscarf for a day, saying that by covering their hair participants could "better understand … the experience of stigmatisation" of some Muslim women. The event came a week after Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, suggested universities should ban the headscarf and claimed that a majority of French people believed Islam was incompatible with the values of the Republic. Continue reading... |
| Israeli police investigate suspected £45m diamond fraud at world's largest exchange Posted: 20 Apr 2016 05:38 AM PDT Suspect claims business problems rather than criminality are reason for dealers' complaints of missing cash and diamonds Israeli police are investigating claims of massive theft from the world's leading diamond exchange, amid reports that at least a dozen dealers may be facing bankruptcy over the affair. According to initial reports, the value of the diamonds and cash involved in the alleged fraudulent activity at the Israel World Diamond Exchange in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, could amount to up to $65m (£45m). Continue reading... |
| Hopes for Afghan peace talks sink as Kabul attack death toll doubles Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:38 AM PDT Taliban truck bomb and gunfight at elite guard unit's HQ killed 64, making it the deadliest assault in the capital in 15 years The death toll from a Taliban truck bomb in Kabul has more than doubled to 64, making the attack on an elite guard unit the deadliest in the Afghan capital since the insurgent group was toppled from power 15 years ago. The suicide assault by a bomber and at least one gunman was a blow to the government and is likely to bury fading hopes of a negotiated end to Afghanistan's violence. Continue reading... |
| 'Jewish extremist cell' arrested in West Bank Posted: 20 Apr 2016 05:48 AM PDT Israeli security officials say members of cell tried at least once to burn Palestinian house with family inside Israeli security officials have announced the arrest of an alleged Jewish extremist cell said to be operating in the occupied West Bank, which had tried unsuccessfully on at least one occasion to burn a Palestinian house with the family inside. The six-strong cell – according to the Israeli domestic security agency the Shin Bet – included a 19-year-old Israel Defence Forces soldier as well as two teenagers. Continue reading... |
| E-stonia: country using technology to rebrand itself as the anti-Russia Posted: 21 Apr 2016 01:00 AM PDT Toomas Henrik Ilves spent 10 years building nation's vision of open government and says it wants to make it 'impossible to do bad things' on the internet It's not often that a European head of state uses the "radical postmodernist philosophy" of Jacques Derrida and Jean Baudrillard to bash a hostile superpower. But then Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Estonia's defiantly erudite president of nearly 10 years, is no ordinary head of state. Ilves is trying to reinvent Estonia as the brightly lit antithesis of Russia, and in today's confessional age of Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks and the Panama Papers, claims he is baking transparency and accountability into a new kind of digital civic operating system. Continue reading... |
| Oversupplied oil market to rebalance by next year, says IEA Posted: 21 Apr 2016 12:56 AM PDT International Energy Agency expects production outside Opec cartel to fall sharply this year The International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expects the oversupplied oil market to rebalance by next year, as non-Opec production records its biggest decline in a generation. An oil glut has prompted a slump in crude prices from a peak of $115 (£80) a barrel in June 2014, but the IEA executive director, Fatih Birol, said on Thursday that production outside tOpec would fall sharply this year, by almost 700,000 barrels a day. He expects oil markets, and prices, to rebalance at the turn of this year, or by 2017 at the latest. |
| Mitsubishi share price crashes as officials raid offices Posted: 21 Apr 2016 12:41 AM PDT Corporate scandal forces share price to all-time low after carmaker admits it falsified fuel efficiency data for 600,000 cars The scandal engulfing Mitsubishi Motors has intensified after government officials raided one of its offices and shares in the Japanese carmaker plunged to an all-time low. Panicked by the revelation that Mitsubishi had overstated the fuel efficiency of more than 600,000 cars traders rushed to dump the stock, prompting a temporary suspension of shares. Continue reading... |
| Brexit plays into the hands of Islamic State, Alastair Campbell warns Posted: 20 Apr 2016 11:56 PM PDT Former No 10 spin doctor appeals to Irish people to help swing vote for Britain to stay within EU Britain voting to leave the European Union would play into the hands of Islamic State terrorists, ex-Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell has warned. Other international figures hoping for a Brexit are the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, he claimed. Continue reading... |
| Story of cities #27: Singapore – the most meticulously planned city in the world Posted: 20 Apr 2016 11:30 PM PDT Lee Kuan Yew's vice-like grip on power helped create a byword for cleanliness, efficiency and safety. What lies beneath this 'Disneyland with the death penalty'? On 12 May 2015, a Singapore court sentenced Amos Yee, an outspoken 16-year-old video blogger who had been tried as an adult, to four weeks in jail. Yee had been hauled up six weeks earlier on charges related to materials he had posted online: one for violating Section 298 of the country's penal code by making "remarks against Christianity, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of Christians in general"; another for obscenity; and another for violating the Protection from Harassment Act 2014 by making "remarks about Mr Lee Kuan Yew which were intended to be heard and seen by persons likely to be distressed". Continue reading... |
| Gay clubbing and stoic activism in Russia’s homophobic heartland Posted: 20 Apr 2016 07:59 AM PDT Coda Story report from the industrial city of Samara where the one remaining LGBT rights organisation provides invaluable support – discreetly It is late in Samara, an industrial hub in central Russia and the city's only gay nightclub is proving difficult to find. In a dark car park there are none of the telltale signs: no queue, no music, no crowds of smokers. Andrei, the host for the night, approaches the solid metal door of the office-like building and rings the buzzer as a security camera eyes him from above. Continue reading... |
| Normality not the extreme: this is everyday Africa in pictures Posted: 20 Apr 2016 06:17 AM PDT Tired of a one-dimensional narrative of a vast and diverse continent a collective of photographers have dedicated four years to showing the world that day-to-day life – from barber shops to workers' traditions – is the real story Continue reading... |
| Chernobyl disaster 30 years on: what do you remember? Posted: 20 Apr 2016 04:00 AM PDT Share your stories and contribute to our coverage marking the anniversary of the biggest nuclear catastrophe in history On 26 April 1986 one of the four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. It was the biggest accident of its kind in history – a human and environmental disaster that triggered a political storm that has lasted for decades. Related: Chernobyl 30 years on: former residents remember life in the ghost city of Pripyat Continue reading... |
| A mentor in shamelessness: the man who taught Trump the power of publicity Posted: 20 Apr 2016 09:53 AM PDT Roy Cohn, the lawyer who embraced infamy during the McCarthy hearings and Rosenberg trial, influenced Donald Trump to turn the tabloids into a soapbox Donald Trump is a man who likes to think he has few equals. But once upon a time, he had a mentor: Roy Cohn, a notoriously harsh lawyer who rose to prominence in the mid-1950s alongside the communist-baiting senator Joseph McCarthy. His tactics would often land him in the papers, but Cohn was unafraid of being slimed by the press – he used it to his advantage. A devil-may-care-as-long-as-it-gets-a-headline attitude was Cohn's trademark in life. Trump, in our time, has made it his. His careful manipulation of negative attention is something that Trump noticed immediately when the two met in 1973. Trump and his father had just been sued for allegedly discriminating against black people in Trump's built-and-managed houses in Brooklyn, and sought out Cohn's counsel. Among other things, Cohn advised that Trump should "tell them to go to hell". Cohn was hired, and one of his first acts as Trump's new lawyer was to file a $100m countersuit that was quickly dismissed by the court. But it made the papers. Continue reading... |
| Ched Evans wins appeal against rape conviction Posted: 21 Apr 2016 01:34 AM PDT Former Sheffield United footballer spent two-and-a-half years in jail after his 2012 conviction for raping 19-year-old woman Former Sheffield United footballer Ched Evans has won an appeal against his conviction for rape and faces a retrial. Ahead of the ruling the prosecution had said it would seek an immediate retrial if Evans won his appeal. Continue reading... |
| Cannes on high alert as security ramped up ahead of film festival Posted: 21 Apr 2016 01:12 AM PDT A terror attack simulation will take place in preparation while screenings will be scaled back due to security concerns after the 13 November attacks in Paris Related: Emir Kusturica: Cannes rejected my film because I support Putin The Cannes film festival is staging a terror attack simulation this morning to prepare for this year's event, and it has emerged that a long-running parallel event, the Directors' Fortnight, is to be scaled back over security concerns. Continue reading... |
| A generation of artists were wiped out by Aids and we barely talk about it Posted: 20 Apr 2016 11:29 AM PDT A new film about the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe is a shocking and brilliant reminder of the devastation HIV and Aids wreaked – and still does There are many shocking images in the brilliant new documentary Robert Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, made by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. You probably know many of them already. Some are just seared into our culture and no longer disturb anyone. The cover of Horses with Patti Smith was as much of a statement as her music. His celebrity pics of Eurotrash and rich collectors, or actual celebs such as Debbie Harry and Bianca whispering in Mick Jagger's ear remain fascinating. Their beauty blasted by his light into timelessness; his naked flowers, the sex organs of plants in all their glory. As he said himself, he could perfect a bowl of carnations just as well as "a fist up someone's ass". Then there was the documentation of his S&M activities and his fetishisation of the black body – so many of these images remain, to use the word du jour, "problematic". Good. His life was an artwork. He would pick up guys, do drugs, have sex and then get down to work. He would photograph them. When you see these pictures, you wonder why – with sexual imagery everywhere all the time – these pictures linger, hanging somewhere in a dark part of the collective memory. You keep looking because he kept seeing. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:00 PM PDT A former murder capital of the US, Camden, New Jersey has created its first cold case squad. Can solving old killings help restore an embattled community's trust in law and order? On the evening of Sunday 2 November 1997, in the hours before her death, Robin Hall waited for the mail. Robin, who was 33, lived on the outskirts of Camden, New Jersey, the post-industrial city where she had grown up. Her home, a one-bedroom garden unit that her younger sister Tracey was renting for her, was largely empty – she owned no fridge and little furniture. Lately, Robin had borrowed money from friends. She had assured them that when her social security cheque arrived, on Monday, all debts would be paid. Robin was living in a complex called the Ferry Station Apartments: a handful of pale brick buildings capped by low, shingled roofs, with brief lawns of crabgrass and mangy shrubs, set beside the unkempt grounds of the New Camden Cemetery. The development stood a few blocks from Tracey's home, and Tracey, a police officer, had been keeping close tabs on Robin. Despite its stark appearance, Ferry Station seemed to her a vast improvement over the drug-wracked neighbourhood where her sister had holed up that August, while their mother was dying from cancer. Continue reading... |
| US agents find major Mexico drug tunnel covered by bin in California Posted: 20 Apr 2016 07:45 PM PDT Tonne of cocaine and seven tonnes of marijuana seized after discovery of metre-wide tunnel running between Tijuana and San Diego US agents have uncovered a narrow cross-border tunnel complete with rail system that was used to transport tonnes of cocaine and marijuana from Mexico to an exit covered by a trash bin in California. US authorities said on Wednesday the tunnel that ran 800 metres (874 yards) from a house in Tijuana was equipped with a large elevator to a lot in San Diego which was advertised as a wooden pallet business. The discovery resulted in the seizure of more than a tonne of cocaine and seven tonnes of marijuana. Continue reading... |
| Malcolm Turnbull expected to reject Bill Shorten's demand for 'pre-election' briefings Posted: 21 Apr 2016 01:14 AM PDT Labor leader asks for public service briefings given to oppositions in election campaigns but PM anticipates tactic Bill Shorten has written to Malcolm Turnbull demanding the public service briefings afforded to oppositions in election campaigns, because the prime minister has effectively named the election date – a tactic last tried by Tony Abbott when Julia Gillard "named the date" for the 2013 election eight months in advance. Turnbull anticipated the tactic and for that reason was careful this week to say he "expected" the election to be held on July 2 but that the final decision would be taken by the governor general. It is understood the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will reject the opposition leader's request. Continue reading... |
| What's next for Sally Faulkner and the full cast of Lebanon kidnapping drama? Posted: 21 Apr 2016 01:28 AM PDT The Brisbane mother and the Channel Nine crew may face criminal charges despite being freed, while the man who carried out the botched Beirut kidnapping still languishes in jail
Wednesday's deal to secure the release of Sally Faulkner and four Channel Nine staff is a major development in the sorry story of a custody dispute gone global. What next for its cast? Continue reading... |
| Panama Papers: prominent Australians call for action in open letter to Turnbull Posted: 20 Apr 2016 07:13 PM PDT Tim Costello, Cassandra Goldie and Robert Manne are among more than 40 prominent Australians to voice frustration over lack of response to leak More than 40 prominent Australians have voiced their frustration at the government's silence over the Panama Papers leak, signing an open letter to the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull imploring him to act. "Prime minister, you can outlaw the use of shell companies with concealed ownership and other means of tax avoidance," the letter, released on Thursday, says. |
| New Zealand's largest bus company to retrofit fleet with electric engines Posted: 20 Apr 2016 05:43 PM PDT Significant part of 1,000-strong fleet will have combustion engines removed and be refitted with an electric motor, battery pack and gas turbine generator New Zealand's biggest urban bus company will soon be running its vehicles on electric engines after signing a deal with Wrightspeed, a company founded by Ian Wright, a Kiwi and co-founder of Tesla. NZBus runs more than 1,000 buses across New Zealand, carrying more than 50m passengers each year. The US$30m deal will result in a "significant number" of those buses having their combustion motors removed, and replaced with two powerful electric motors, a battery pack, and a gas turbine generator, that will charge the batteries when needed. Continue reading... |
| Belgian minister defends claim many Muslims 'danced' after Brussels attacks Posted: 20 Apr 2016 05:27 PM PDT Jan Jambon rejects stigma accusations after remark echoing US presidential candidate Donald Trump's claim Muslims celebrated 9/11 attacks The Belgian interior minister on Wednesday denied stigmatising Muslims after he said many of them danced in celebration after the Brussels terror attacks. Related: Brussels bombings suspect charged with role in Paris attacks Continue reading... |
| Ultimate owners of UK property may be forced into spotlight Posted: 20 Apr 2016 04:07 PM PDT Government wants to stop offshore companies buying property to launder illicit funds and evade tax Offshore companies buying UK property could be forced to reveal their ultimate owners under plans being considered by ministers to crack down on tax evasion and money laundering. The proposals would shine a spotlight on the foreign firms that hold billions of pounds in British property without having to declare who is behind them. It could also require foreign companies bidding for public sector contracts to do the same. Continue reading... |
| UK spy agencies have collected bulk personal data since 1990s, files show Posted: 20 Apr 2016 04:01 PM PDT Agencies privately concede that 'intrusive' practices can invade privacy and that data is gathered on people 'unlikely to be of interest' Britain's intelligence agencies have been secretly collecting bulk personal data since the late 1990s and privately admit they have gathered information on people who are "unlikely to be of intelligence or security interest". Disclosure of internal MI5, MI6 and GCHQ documents reveals the agencies' growing reliance on amassing data as a prime source of intelligence even as they concede that such "intrusive" practices can invade the privacy of individuals. Continue reading... |
| Canadian Netflix users outraged over blocked access to US services Posted: 20 Apr 2016 01:13 PM PDT The video-streaming company seemed to have blocked proxies and servers Canadian subscribers use to watch thousands of programs not available for them Canadian Netflix users have cried foul after the video-streaming giant appeared to have made good on its pledge to block access for customers using unauthorized services to view more varied American content. Canadian customers have access to less content on the service, with one website estimating Canadians could see 4,000 TV shows and movies, compared with 7,000 in the United States. Continue reading... |
| The migrants in Calais used to be British | Letters Posted: 20 Apr 2016 11:10 AM PDT What an excellent piece by Emmanuel Carrère (Don't mention the 'Jungle', 20 April). He might have made another point, laden with irony. The lace-making industry in the Calais district of Saint-Pierre, to which he refers, was founded, and largely manned, after the Napoleonic wars by economic migrants from Nottinghamshire and neighbouring counties. Furthermore, by 1840 the number of Brits living in Calais was on a scale comparable to "the Jungle" today. Many were economic migrants of another sort: runaway debtors seeking, and finding, refuge from their creditors. Proximity to the UK has been a mixed blessing for the town. If our policymakers have any conscience at all it is a story they should be aware of. They can read about it in my forthcoming book Gone to the Continent: the British in Calais, 1760-1860. • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading... |
| Sally Faulkner, Tara Brown and 60 Minutes crew released – in pictures Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:52 AM PDT Sally Faulkner, Australian television presenter Tara Brown and three members of the 60 Minutes TV crew were released on bail after a deal was stuck to dismiss kidnapping charges against them in Lebanon in exchange for compensation Continue reading... |
| Barack Obama to discuss efforts to combat Isis with European leaders Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:49 AM PDT Migration, Nato, Ukraine and Libya also on agenda for Monday meeting between Obama, David Cameron, Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Matteo Renzi Barack Obama will meet the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Monday to discuss the next phase of the war against the Islamic State. The US president will hold talks with David Cameron, François Hollande, Angela Merkel and Matteo Renzi in the German city of Hanover, the White House announced. Continue reading... |
| Brussels bombings suspect charged with role in Paris attacks Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:43 AM PDT Charges against Osama Krayem, who grew up in Sweden, show growing links between one group that planned both atrocities A Swedish man who is a key suspect in last month's suicide bomb attacks on Brussels has been charged with taking part in November's Paris attacks. Osama Krayem, 23, who grew up with his Syrian family on an estate in Malmö, was charged earlier this month over the 22 March suicide blasts which killed 32 people in the Belgian capital's airport and metro. Continue reading... |
| Paris and Brussels: the links between the attackers Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:40 AM PDT Investigations into suspects in the November 2015 attacks in Paris and March 2016 attacks in Brussels reflect growing links between one overarching terror group that planned both atrocities Continue reading... |
| Canada to introduce legislation to decriminalize recreational cannabis Posted: 20 Apr 2016 09:38 AM PDT Country will bring forth laws to decriminalize and regulate recreational weed in spring of 2017, health minister announced at UN general assembly in New York Canada's Liberal government will introduce legislation to decriminalise and regulate recreational marijuana in spring 2017, according to the health minister, Jane Philpott. The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, promised during last year's election campaign that his government would legalise recreational marijuana, following the US states of Washington and Colorado, but the time frame has been unclear. Continue reading... |
| Nato-Russia Council talks fail to iron out differences Posted: 20 Apr 2016 08:35 AM PDT Secretary general Jens Stoltenberg says two sides have 'profound disagreements' after first meeting in nearly two years Nato and Russian officials held the first meeting for nearly two years of a joint council on Wednesday but failed to make any apparent progress in resolving increasingly dangerous military tensions. The meeting of the Nato-Russia Council (NRC) overran by more than an hour but ended without any agreement on the most urgent issue: reducing the risk of close military encounters between the two sides. Continue reading... |
| Council of Europe condemns EU's refugee deal with Turkey Posted: 20 Apr 2016 08:32 AM PDT Human rights body says agreement at worst breaks international law and progress on integrating refugees is 'shamefully slow' Europe's leading human rights body has issued a stinging indictment of the EU's refugee deal with Turkey, which it said at worst exceeds the limits of what is permissible under international law. A report from the Council of Europe's assembly listed numerous concerns on human rights, from keeping migrants in overcrowded and insanitary detention centres on the Greek islands to inadequate legal protection for people seeking to appeal against rejection of an asylum claim. Continue reading... |
| Migration between poor countries rising faster than to rich ones – study Posted: 20 Apr 2016 08:24 AM PDT IOM says figures are reminder to wealthy nations that others are coping with bigger influxes with fewer resources The number of people migrating between poorer countries in 2015 rose faster than the number migrating from poor to rich countries, despite the high number of people trying to reach Europe. "South-south" migration – or movement between poorer countries – accounted for 37% of all migration last year, two percentage points more than "south-north" migration, according to a report from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Continue reading... |
| Indigenous health: wealthy nations not always better than developing countries Posted: 20 Apr 2016 08:00 AM PDT Exclusive: The Lancet journal and Australia's Lowitja Institute release landmark report on health in the world's indigenous populations Being indigenous in a wealthy country like Australia, the US or Canada does not necessarily lead to better health outcomes compared to indigenous people living in disadvantaged countries, a landmark study has found. The health and wellbeing of almost half of the world's indigenous and tribal peoples has been captured in what is the most comprehensive indigenous health report ever compiled. Continue reading... |
| Six British soldiers killed in first world war are reburied in Belgium Posted: 20 Apr 2016 07:53 AM PDT Troops discovered in makeshift graves beneath mud of Flanders fields in Ypres have been relocated to a cemetery Six British first world war soldiers have been reburied more than 100 years after dying in battle on Flanders fields. Related: Ypres in the first world war ... and now – interactive Continue reading... |
| Poles apart: Gdansk divided as city grapples with immigration and identity Posted: 20 Apr 2016 06:36 AM PDT Refuge cities In a country where xenophobia is increasingly rife, Poland's longest-serving mayor is intent on building a safe haven for his city's 'invisible' immigrants. After all, he says, integration is in the town's DNA Judging by the behaviour of some of its football fans, Gdańsk might not be expected to extend a warm welcome to any refugees arriving in this port city on Poland's Baltic coast. One infamous banner unfurled at a Lechia Gdańsk match showed a black man kneeling in front of a robed Ku Klux Klan character; another displayed a picture of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. In February, the city's Jewish cemetery was desecrated. Continue reading... |
| Kashmir's first female chief minister: the start of a new chapter? | Amrit Dhillon Posted: 20 Apr 2016 09:00 PM PDT Can Mehbooba Mufti's 'healing touch' tackle the anger and frustrations within India's Jammu and Kashmir? One of the first decisions Mehbooba Mufti made during her inaugural cabinet meeting as chief minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was to increase the number of police stations designated for women from two to six. Women across India are daunted by the idea of walking into a police station full of male officers to report a crime, particularly a sexual crime. This means many offences go unreported. As a solution, India now has about 500 police stations staffed exclusively by women. Jammu and Kashmir has only two to support a female population of about 6 million. Continue reading... |
| 'Unbridled violence' in Gambella leaves Ethiopia searching for answers | William Davison Posted: 20 Apr 2016 06:48 AM PDT Why did a group of South Sudanese people cross the border into western Ethiopia and start shooting mothers and abducting their children? The South Sudanese attackers arrived on foot before dawn. In the Nuer villages in the grasslands of Gambella in western Ethiopia, people woke to the sound of gunshots and tried to flee, but armed men stopped them. Mothers were shot when they tried to stop the raiders taking their children. Bol Choul, 26, tried to run away but one of the attackers caught him in his hut and they fought. Bol injured his hand but managed to get out. He had to leave without his wife and children, and his blind father, who was shot but survived. Continue reading... |
| Colombia's City of Women: a haven from violence | Sibylla Brodzinsky Posted: 20 Apr 2016 03:01 AM PDT Women who had lost everything to conflict came together in their struggle for survival, learning the skills to build a neighbourhood of 102 homes As with most Colombian cities, the roads of the busy northern town of Turbaco are laid out in a grid of numbered streets and avenues. But in one particular neighbourhood the main thoroughfare has a special name: Street of the Women Warriors. The designation is a fitting tribute to the indomitable spirit of the women – all victims of Colombia's decades-long internal conflict – who came together, organised themselves and built the neighbourhood of 102 homes with their own hands. Continue reading... |
| Inside Colombia's City of Women – podcast transcript Posted: 20 Apr 2016 02:58 AM PDT Kary Stewart meets women who suffered rape, murder and violence during Colombia's years of conflict, who came together and built their own community Reporter and presenter: KS Kary Stewart Continue reading... |
| Inside Colombia's City of Women – podcast Posted: 20 Apr 2016 02:56 AM PDT Kary Stewart meets women who experienced rape and violence during Colombia's years of conflict, who came together and built their own community Kary Stewart visits La Ciudad de las Mujeres – the City of Women – in Turbaco, on the outskirts of Cartagena, in northern Colombia. In 1999, lawyer Patricia Guerrero set up the League of Displaced Women (La Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas), to support the many women severely affected by the country's many years of conflict, suffering forced displacement from their homes, sexual violence and murder of their loved ones. Working with the league, Guerrero began fundraising for a city of houses built by and for displaced women, and by 2007, the City of Women was completed. Today the neighbourhood houses almost 500 people, with its own school and a few informal shops, all built by the women. Continue reading... |
| Cruz gets snarky after losing to Trump in New York primary – video Posted: 20 Apr 2016 10:43 AM PDT Ted Cruz on Wednesday downplayed his Republican rival Donald Trump's landslide victory in the New York primary, sarcastically saying Trump winning his home state was 'truly a remarkable achievement'. Cruz, speaking in Hershey, Pennsylvania, said Trump's win in New York had been overblown and that it was too soon to write off the race for the Republican nomination Continue reading... |
| 'World’s oldest dog' Maggie dies age 30 – video report Posted: 20 Apr 2016 05:32 AM PDT A kelpie thought to be the world's oldest dog has died at home on a dairy farm in the Australian state of Victoria. Maggie, a black-and-tan kelpie, was thought to be 30 years old, however her owner, Brian McLaren, had no papers to prove it. McLaren confirmed the death on Wednesday morning Continue reading... |
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