World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk |
- 'Time was running out': Honduran activist's last days marked by threats
- Cruz and Kasich team up in deal to stop Donald Trump
- Obama's Hanover talks unlikely to yield new line on vexed issues
- Patience wears thin among Nepal quake survivors as calls for help go unheeded
- Egypt investigates Reuters journalist over report on Regeni murder
- Italian entrepreneurs hope diners will get their teeth into 'kissing garlic'
- Barack Obama to send more soldiers to fight Islamic State in Syria
- Serbia's PM wins election in endorsement of pro-EU policy
- Outside experts condemn Mexico's inquiry into 43 missing students
- Dutch journalist arrested in Turkey for criticising Erdoğan
- Austrian far-right party wins first round of presidential election
- Eight Ohio family members were killed in 'sophisticated operation'
- World heading for catastrophe over natural disasters, risk expert warns
- Ohio town shocked by killing of family members as manhunt continues
- Bernie Sanders explains his primary losses: 'Poor people don't vote'
- Obama rejects North Korea's nuclear offer: 'You'll have to do better than that'
- Pope Francis tells teens 'happiness is not an app you can download'
- Former PwC employees face trial over role in LuxLeaks scandal
- Anzac Day 2016: commemorations and controversy – as it happened
- I thought it's now or never, says student who came out as non-binary to Obama
- MPs to debate planning bill to protect UK homes from surface flooding
- Ohio killing of eight family members was 'pre-planned execution' – video
- Nepal earthquake one year on – video
- The ninth Napoleonic historical festival - in pictures
- Game of Thrones: latest episode leaks online before TV premiere
- Arctic blast could bring snow to UK this week, say forecasters
- EU referendum: Gove and Johnson launch Brexit fightback - Politics live
- 'I'd kill my kids if they took drugs' says Philippines presidential favourite
- Nick Xenophon stands by candidate who advocates genital acupuncture
- The moment a student told Barack Obama they were non-binary – video
- Comment: Doubts about European political union - archive, 25 April 1962
- Norwegian fighter jet mistakenly machine-guns control tower
- India revokes passport of Vijay Mallya who fled to London owing $1.3bn
- Globo’s duty to report on the Brazilian crisis | Letter from João Roberto Marinho, editorial board chairman, Globo Group
- Leaving refugee babies hungry is despicable | Letters
- Patricio Aylwin obituary
- Eyewitness: San Francisco, US
- British father and two children killed in crash on French motorway
- Two Britons freed in Iraq on way home from fighting Isis
- Harriet Tubman: the woman, the myth, the legend muddied by $20 bill plaudits
- Atheist pastor sparks debate by 'irritating the church into the 21st century'
- British ground troops could go to Libya, says Philip Hammond
- Story of cities #29: Los Angeles and the 'great American streetcar scandal'
- The world's humanitarian burden is too big. How can we lessen it? | Robert Glasser and Stephen O'Brien
- Bernie Sanders: ‘we are the future of the Democratic party’ – video
| 'Time was running out': Honduran activist's last days marked by threats Posted: 25 Apr 2016 01:08 AM PDT Berta Cáceres, the environmental advocate shot dead in her home in March, told friends of a hitman boasting about his plans as she 'worked frantically' In her final days, Berta Cáceres was bombarded with texts and calls warning her to give up the fight against the Agua Zarca dam, or else. The Honduran indigenous leader told trusted friends and colleagues that some of the death threats were from a suspected sicario – or hitman – who was terrorizing community members near the dam and openly boasting of his intention to kill her. Continue reading... |
| Cruz and Kasich team up in deal to stop Donald Trump Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:06 PM PDT The Ohio governor will give the Texan senator a free run in Indiana in exchange for the same favor in Oregon and New Mexico Ted Cruz and John Kasich have announced that their campaigns will cede certain states in an attempt to keep Donald Trump from reaching the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination. In a pair of coordinated statements released on Sunday night, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns said that the Texan senator would concentrate his resources in Indiana while the Ohio governor would put all his effort into Oregon and New Mexico. Continue reading... |
| Obama's Hanover talks unlikely to yield new line on vexed issues Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:00 PM PDT US president expected to discuss Syria, Isis, the refugee crisis and Libya with French, German, Italian and British leaders After two days spent wandering the Alice Through the Looking Glass land of Brexit, Shakespearean make-believe and magical Windsor Castle mystery tours, Barack Obama gets back to the real world on Monday at a summit in Hanover to tackle a host of intractable international problems. Heading the list of issues facing the US president and this EU top-table group – comprising Britain's prime minister, David Cameron; Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel; France's president, François Hollande and Italy's prime minister, Matteo Renzi, plus Obama – are Syria's civil war, the resulting refugee exodus and the associated rise of Islamic State terrorism. Continue reading... |
| Patience wears thin among Nepal quake survivors as calls for help go unheeded Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:00 PM PDT A year after Nepal's worst earthquake since 1934, and with aid from government and agencies scarce, villagers in Sindhupalchowk are turning to relatives abroad The villagers gather on top of a mountain in Nepal's Sindhupalchowk district, on the sun-spotted ground in the canopy of two trees, to make a last-ditch cry for help. A year after the worst earthquake in 80 years hit Nepal, their patience with the government and international agencies has all but vanished. Clutching a pink smartphone with a patchy internet connection, connected to a loudspeaker so everyone can listen in, Ram Krishna calls the people they know they can count on: relatives and friends overseas, who will send home remittances. Continue reading... |
| Egypt investigates Reuters journalist over report on Regeni murder Posted: 24 Apr 2016 10:00 PM PDT Head of police station where Reuters claimed Italian was taken has filed complaint naming Cairo bureau chief The Reuters news agency is in the crosshairs of authorities in Egypt after it published a report last week claiming that Giulio Regeni, the Italian researcher who was tortured and murdered in Cairo, was detained by Egyptian police on the night he disappeared. Press freedom groups have strongly criticised reports that a Cairo-based Reuters journalist is under scrutiny by police and prosecutors following publication of the report, which was staunchly denied by Egypt. Continue reading... |
| Italian entrepreneurs hope diners will get their teeth into 'kissing garlic' Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:00 PM PDT Giant variety known as aglione is milder, odourless and easy to digest, say pair who have spent three years cultivating crop Help is on the way for cooks and diners who love the taste of garlic but hold back from eating it for fear it will cause bad breath and indigestion. An unlikely Roman duo, a construction engineer and a commercial lawyer, have spent the past three years cultivating a special giant variety of garlic that used to be prevalent in Tuscany but has not been produced in large quantities for 40 years. The garlic, known in Italian as aglione, has a milder flavour, is odourless and easy to digest, say the two entrepreneurs, Alessandro Guagni and Lorenzo Bianchi. Continue reading... |
| Barack Obama to send more soldiers to fight Islamic State in Syria Posted: 24 Apr 2016 07:21 PM PDT US president expected to give details of new deployment during visit to Hanover Barack Obama is expected to announce a plan to send another 250 US soldiers to Syria to help local forces fight Islamic State militants, it has been reported. Related: 'My soul is in Damascus': portraits of life on the refugee trail Continue reading... |
| Serbia's PM wins election in endorsement of pro-EU policy Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:57 PM PDT Aleksandar Vučić's Serbian Progressive party increases both share and vote in general election despite years of austerity Serbia's pro-western prime minister, Aleksandar Vučić, won a resounding endorsement in Sunday's general election for his policy of pursuing European Union membership, securing four more years in power with a parliamentary majority. But he will have to contend with a resurgent ultra-nationalist opposition that rejects integration with the EU and demands closer ties with Russia. Continue reading... |
| Outside experts condemn Mexico's inquiry into 43 missing students Posted: 24 Apr 2016 04:12 PM PDT Inter-American Commission on Human Rights cites errors and omissions in official investigation and points to signs of torture used against suspects Outside experts investigating the September 2014 attacks on 43 trainee teachers delivered a devastating final report on Sunday, finding inconsistencies, errors and omissions in the government's official investigation, along with evidence of suspects being tortured. The five-member expert team from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also accused the federal government of failing to fully cooperate with their investigation and of allowing a smear campaign to assail their work in an attempt to discredit the final report and harass them out of the country. Continue reading... |
| Dutch journalist arrested in Turkey for criticising Erdoğan Posted: 24 Apr 2016 02:52 AM PDT Ebru Umar blocked from leaving country after facing judge over tweets deemed critical of president A Dutch journalist was blocked from leaving Turkey on Sunday following her arrest on Saturday night for tweets deemed critical of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. "Police at the door. No joke," wrote Ebru Umar on her Twitter account. Continue reading... |
| Austrian far-right party wins first round of presidential election Posted: 24 Apr 2016 02:28 PM PDT Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party takes 36.7% of the vote as candidates from the two governing parties fail to make runoff Austria's government was licking its wounds on Monday after a historic triumph for the anti-immigrant far-right Freedom party in a presidential ballot. It won more than a third of the vote in Sunday's election and will face an independent in next month's run-off, dumping the country's two main parties from the post for the first time. Continue reading... |
| Eight Ohio family members were killed in 'sophisticated operation' Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:18 PM PDT Officials say the killer or killers tried to cover their tracks and urged other residents to arm themselves for protection Eight family members found shot dead at four homes in rural Ohio were targeted for execution in a planned "sophisticated operation", authorities have said as their investigation entered a third day. They said that remaining members of the tight-knit Rhoden family and other residents of Pike county should arm themselves if they feared further attacks from the killers, who were still at large. Continue reading... |
| World heading for catastrophe over natural disasters, risk expert warns Posted: 24 Apr 2016 09:02 AM PDT With cascading crises – where one event triggers another – set to rise, international disaster risk reduction efforts are woefully underfunded The world's failure to prepare for natural disasters will have "inconceivably bad" consequences as climate change fuels a huge increase in catastrophic droughts and floods and the humanitarian crises that follow, the UN's head of disaster planning has warned. Last year, earthquakes, floods, heatwaves and landslides left 22,773 people dead, affected 98.6 million others and caused $66.5bn (£47bn) of economic damage (pdf). Yet the international community spends less than half of one per cent of the global aid budget on mitigating the risks posed by such hazards. Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Ohio town shocked by killing of family members as manhunt continues Posted: 24 Apr 2016 09:26 AM PDT Eight 'execution-style' murders leave Piketon searching for answers as police try to find out who targeted the seven adults and teenage boy and why Residents of the rural southern Ohio community of Piketon have been shocked by the killing of eight members of a tight-knit family known in the area as hard workers. Authorities were on Sunday trying to find out who targeted the seven adults and teenage boy and why. Their bodies were found Friday at four different homes near Piketon, about 60 miles south of Columbus. Continue reading... |
| Bernie Sanders explains his primary losses: 'Poor people don't vote' Posted: 24 Apr 2016 07:54 AM PDT 'That's a sad reality of American society,' Sanders tells NBC News on Sunday after losing to Hillary Clinton in 16 states with high income inequality Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders reframed his role in the race on Sunday and explained that he has lost primaries in 16 states with high income inequality "because poor people don't vote". Without wavering from his campaign's insistence that he has a "path to victory", the senator from Vermont said his goal was to increase voter participation in politics. Continue reading... |
| Obama rejects North Korea's nuclear offer: 'You'll have to do better than that' Posted: 24 Apr 2016 12:17 PM PDT President says it will continue to stress ties to Japan and the South until North gets more serious about denuclearization than talk 'based on a press release' Barack Obama said on Sunday that he does not believe North Korea is sincere in its offer to halt nuclear tests if the US suspends military exercises with South Korea, and that Pyongyang would "have to do better than that". On Saturday, North Korea's foreign minister, Ri Su Yong, defended his country's right to maintain a nuclear deterrent and warned that Pyongyang won't be cowed by international sanctions. He also said the North's regime would not soon collapse. Continue reading... |
| Pope Francis tells teens 'happiness is not an app you can download' Posted: 24 Apr 2016 05:51 AM PDT At Vatican's celebration of youth, pontiff warns against pursuit of possessions and latest fashions Teenagers will not find happiness by downloading a smartphone app or acting like a movie star, Pope Francis has said as part of the Vatican's weekend celebration of young people. "Your happiness has no price. It cannot be bought. It is not an app that you can download on your phones, nor will the latest update bring you freedom and grandeur in love," the pope told Catholic youth gathered under grey skies in St Peter's Square on Sunday. Continue reading... |
| Former PwC employees face trial over role in LuxLeaks scandal Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:26 AM PDT Pair charged with theft of documents that revealed how Luxembourg sanctioned tax avoidance by world's largest businesses Two former employees of PricewaterhouseCoopers accused of being behind the biggest ever leak of confidential corporate tax deals face criminal trial in Luxembourg on Tuesday. Antoine Deltour and a second man, who is expected to be named in court this week, are charged with carrying out the LuxLeaks theft, violating the Grand Duchy's strict professional secrecy laws and other offences. Their criminal prosecution follows a complaint to Luxembourg's public prosecutor by PwC. Continue reading... |
| Anzac Day 2016: commemorations and controversy – as it happened Posted: 24 Apr 2016 10:54 PM PDT Former SBS reporter Scott McIntyre, who was sacked by the broadcaster over 2015 tweets, again draws attention to alleged atrocities by Anzacs, as crowds gather around the country for commemorations
Thank you for following our live coverage of Anzac day 2016. To recap:
It's the 10th year of the Coloured Digger march, the hundreds A welcome to country acknowledges that we're gathered on Gadigal land Wreaths laid at Redfern Park for Coloured Digger March. About 600 Aboriginal + Torres Strait Islanders fought in WW1 pic.twitter.com/YDOkGyA9C4 Continue reading... |
| I thought it's now or never, says student who came out as non-binary to Obama Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:48 AM PDT Maria Munir says 'the blood ran cold' after picking up the microphone at Q&A, but parents' response has been positive The parents of a student who came out to Barack Obama as non-binary have reacted positively, the student has said. Maria Munir, 20, a politics and international relations student from Watford, was given the microphone during a question and answer session with Obama attended by 500 young people on Saturday in London. Continue reading... |
| MPs to debate planning bill to protect UK homes from surface flooding Posted: 25 Apr 2016 01:17 AM PDT Government faces a possible defeat over proposal to require all new houses to have sustainable drainage to prevent surface flooding and sewer overflows Moves to protect more households from the threats of surface flooding and sewer overload will be debated in parliament on Monday, with the government facing possible defeat in a key vote. Surface flooding is a growing problem, with at least 20,000 sewer overflows occurring in the UK a year. It is caused by the overloading of Britain's antiquated sewer and drainage networks, and the concreting over of large swaths of land which leaves water with nowhere to be absorbed. Continue reading... |
| Ohio killing of eight family members was 'pre-planned execution' – video Posted: 25 Apr 2016 01:17 AM PDT The killing of eight family members, found shot dead at four homes near Piketon in Ohio, was a 'pre-planned execution', authorities said. The killings were 'a sophisticated operation,' Attorney General Mike DeWine told the community that has been on edge since seven adults and one teenage boy were found shot in the head Eight Ohio family members were killed in 'sophisticated operation' Continue reading... |
| Nepal earthquake one year on – video Posted: 25 Apr 2016 01:02 AM PDT On 25 April 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Kathmandu, killing almost 9,000 people, and leaving tens of thousands more homeless. One year on, the Nepalese are still struggling to recover from the devastation, and progress to rebuild rural areas is painfully slow Continue reading... |
| The ninth Napoleonic historical festival - in pictures Posted: 25 Apr 2016 12:34 AM PDT Vichy in France goes back in time each April to the golden age of the Second Empire to pay tribute to Napoleon III, nephew and heir of Napoleon Bonaparte. who visited the town for treatments in the second half of the 19th century. Participants dress in period costumes for the festival, which opens at the Opera-Casino with a lyrical concert highlighting the songs and dances of the period Continue reading... |
| Game of Thrones: latest episode leaks online before TV premiere Posted: 25 Apr 2016 12:31 AM PDT Fans post plot spoilers and screengrabs after season six opener makes its way on to the internet ahead of official broadcast It was one of the most highly anticipated returns in television history – but fans of Game of Thrones were let in on the plot sooner than expected after the latest episode was mistakenly made available online hours before the premiere. The first episode of season six of the fantasy series, based on George RR Martin's books, was broadcast simultaneously on Sky Atlantic at 2am in the UK and on HBO in the US. But before it aired, fans posted plot spoilers on websites including Reddit and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) after footage made its way online early, according to the Telegraph. Continue reading... |
| Arctic blast could bring snow to UK this week, say forecasters Posted: 25 Apr 2016 12:50 AM PDT Scotland and north likely to get worst of the weather with low temperatures and gale force winds in exposed areas Britons face chilly temperatures and snow this week, thanks to a blast of Arctic air. Despite the approach of May, forecasters say that summer will feel a long way off. Continue reading... |
| EU referendum: Gove and Johnson launch Brexit fightback - Politics live Posted: 25 Apr 2016 01:11 AM PDT Rolling coverage of all the day's political developments as they happen, including speeches from Theresa May and Owen Paterson on the EU
Last week seemed to go very well for the Remain camp, but today Leave are mounting a sustained fightback. Here are the key developments. In the same vein, the EU response to the migration crisis is a Five Nations free-for-all with an invitation to Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Turkey to join the Union. Because we cannot control our borders — and because our deal sadly does nothing to change this fact — public services such as the NHS will face an unquantifiable strain as millions more become EU citizens and have the right to move to the UK. We cannot guarantee the same access people currently enjoy to healthcare and housing if these trends continue. There is a direct and serious threat to our public services, standard of living and ability to maintain social solidarity if we accept continued EU membership. If there is one thing that proves the folly of remaining in the EU – in the hope that we can change things from within – it is the tragic poverty of that deal. The Prime Minister asked to restore social and employment legislation to national control; for a complete opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental rights; to stop the European court adjudicating on UK criminal law; to ensure that immigrants have a job offer before entering the UK; to revise the Working Time directive to protect the NHS; to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and the structural funds; and full-on Treaty change. What did we get? Two thirds of diddly squat. In other words, the prime minister's 'special status' for countries outside of the Eurozone, will leave Britain as a colony of Europe if we vote to remain, with the prime minister reduced to a Roman governor handing down dictats from what Jose Manuel Barroso, former president of the European Commission, described as the "empire". Under this scenario the notional head of the UK government would be occasionally obliged to placate the natives with the pretence of independence, while in reality powerless over decisions made hundreds of miles away. Iain Duncan Smith defends Boris Johnson's Obama comments on @BBCr4today EU Referendum Live: https://t.co/KMNsMOnGbo pic.twitter.com/rPEIEQibvW Continue reading... |
| 'I'd kill my kids if they took drugs' says Philippines presidential favourite Posted: 24 Apr 2016 09:09 PM PDT Rodrigo Duterte shocks again, days after causing consternation by joking about the rape of an Australian missionary A tough-talking Philippines' presidential candidate has vowed to kill his children if they ever took drugs as analysts warned his scandalous remarks about raping a missionary could hurt his chances. Rodrigo Duterte has become the surprise favourite to succeed President Benigno Aquino after making a name for himself in a southern Philippine city infamous for vigilante death squads. Continue reading... |
| Nick Xenophon stands by candidate who advocates genital acupuncture Posted: 25 Apr 2016 01:17 AM PDT But senator says he doesn't agree with the infertility treatment claims made by Damian Carey, a Chinese medicine practitioner and candidate for Xenophon's party Nick Xenophon says he stands by a candidate on his federal election team who has advocated acupuncture of the genitals as a treatment for infertile women. A paper by Damian Carey, a candidate for the independent senator's team in the South Australian seat of Kingston, says the procedure would lead to "better social outcomes". Continue reading... |
| The moment a student told Barack Obama they were non-binary – video Posted: 24 Apr 2016 09:39 PM PDT Maria Munir, 20, a politics and international relations student from the UK, comes out as non-binary (as not identifying as male or female) to Barack Obama during a town hall in London attended by 500 young people. Munir told Obama: 'I'm about to do something terrifying, which is I'm coming out to you as a non-binary person … In the UK we don't recognise non-binary people under the Equality Act, so we literally have no rights.' Continue reading... |
| Comment: Doubts about European political union - archive, 25 April 1962 Posted: 24 Apr 2016 09:00 PM PDT 25 April 1962: British fears about the loss of sovereignty slow down its EEC entry The setback which the Six suffered last week in their attempt to build a European Political Union could, in the long run, be all to the good. But it is unfortunate that it arose over the question of Britain's participation in the discussions of the Six about the form their political union should take. That this was so was not entirely Britain's fault. But it may well appear to have been so in Paris, where the negative attitude of successive British Governments to questions of European unity has created a deep-rooted and almost automatic suspicion of British statements and actions in respect to such questions. Continue reading... |
| Norwegian fighter jet mistakenly machine-guns control tower Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:34 PM PDT It is the second time in six years the tower has been fired on in error by F-16 jets – no one was injured either time A Norwegian fighter jet on a training exercise jet mistakenly machine-gunned a control tower with three officers inside, who survived unhurt, the military said Sunday. Related: Norwegian fighter jet helps save dying patient Continue reading... |
| India revokes passport of Vijay Mallya who fled to London owing $1.3bn Posted: 24 Apr 2016 07:41 PM PDT Delhi wants the Kingfisher drinks and airline tycoon – dubbed India's Richard Branson – to face creditors and seeks legal advice on his deportation from the UK India has revoked the passport of a flamboyant Indian businessman accused of fleeing to London in March while owing more than a billion dollars to Indian banks. Related: The rise and fall of Vijay Mallya: are India's boom times ending? Continue reading... |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:57 AM PDT David Miranda's article (The real reason Rousseff's enemies want to oust her, 22 April) paints a false picture of what is happening in Brazil. It fails to mention that everything began with investigation Operation Carwash, which revealed the largest corruption scandal in the country's history, involving members of the ruling Workers' party, as well as leaders of other parties in the government coalition, public servants and business moguls. The entire investigation process has been conducted under the strict supervision of the supreme court. Globo Group fulfilled their duty to inform and will continue to do so, no matter who may be affected by the investigation. Continue reading... |
| Leaving refugee babies hungry is despicable | Letters Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:55 AM PDT I was horrified to read your report that there are currently at least 25 babies under six months old locked up in a camp in Greece, sleeping on the floor, crying all day with hunger (Greece is failing to give refugee babies enough milk, aid workers say, 20 April). It is bad enough that we seem unable to take care of people fleeing war, but to fail to provide their babies with the milk they need (they are trying to survive on half a cup of milk a day when they need at least two cups) is despicable. This is not a temporary suffering – constant stress at such a tender age is likely to affect their brain development and to have long-term effects on their resilience and even their ability to learn. I imagine that there are many others like me who wonder: who will take responsibility for this failure? And while politicians dither and equivocate, surely there must be at least one humanitarian organisation out there which can provide daily milk for 25 babies right now? Give us their bank details and I'm sure many people will respond. |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2016 10:10 AM PDT Politician who became president of Chile after the shock defeat of Pinochet In 1988, the shock defeat of General Augusto Pinochet in a referendum on his rule of Chile opened the way to elections the following year. Patricio Aylwin, who has died aged 97, was thus inaugurated in 1990 as the country's first civilian president since the overthrow and death of Salvador Allende in 1973. It was Aylwin who led the transition of Chile back to full democratic rule during his four years in power, although many on the left criticised him for his cautious approach, and for allowing Pinochet and the armed forces to continue to exercise considerable influence. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:00 AM PDT Photographs from the Eyewitness series Continue reading... |
| British father and two children killed in crash on French motorway Posted: 24 Apr 2016 07:01 AM PDT Seriously injured third child and mother flown to hospital after car hit barrier between Lyon and Dijon A crash on a French motorway has killed a British father and two of his children. The driver's wife and their youngest child were flown to hospital following the crash, which happened after 7am on Sunday on the A39 in Beaurepaire-en-Bresse between Lyon and Dijon. Continue reading... |
| Two Britons freed in Iraq on way home from fighting Isis Posted: 24 Apr 2016 06:40 AM PDT Jac Holmes, Joe Akerman and Irishman Joshua Molloy were held in Kurdish area after crossing border from Syria Two Britons and an Irishman have been freed from jail in a Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq after being detained on their way home from fighting against Islamic State, the Foreign Office has confirmed. They are understood to have been with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), a force reported to have between 25,000 and 50,000 fighters trying to quell Isis in northern Syria. Continue reading... |
| Harriet Tubman: the woman, the myth, the legend muddied by $20 bill plaudits Posted: 24 Apr 2016 05:00 AM PDT Exaggerations and outright falsehoods have proliferated, with some arguing the knotted history of slavery and capitalism makes the decision inappropriate Not long after Harriet Tubman was named to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, the celebration that an escaped slave would be honored over a slaveowner president gave way to mixed feelings among her most ardent admirers, some of whom fear the myth may overtake the woman. The legend of Tubman, who escaped slavery as a young woman, held tight to her revolver into freedom and evaded bounty hunters for years, is in part what frustrates historians. "I am stunned and excited and thrilled that Harriet Tubman is having her day," said biographer Kate Larson, "but at the same time for so many years I have been working towards rewriting those myths." Continue reading... |
| Atheist pastor sparks debate by 'irritating the church into the 21st century' Posted: 24 Apr 2016 05:00 AM PDT Can a minister in a Christian church be an atheist? That's the question facing the United church of Canada as it wrestles with the case of Gretta Vosper There is not one mention of God during the 70-minute service at Toronto's West Hill United church. Bibles are nowhere to be seen. The large steel cross – one of the few remaining religious symbols in this church – is hidden behind a cascade of rainbow streamers. But that is perhaps to be expected in a church led by an avowed atheist. Continue reading... |
| British ground troops could go to Libya, says Philip Hammond Posted: 24 Apr 2016 01:10 AM PDT Foreign secretary says he cannot rule any action out, but the question of military force would be put to MPs British ground combat troops could go to Libya in the future, the foreign secretary has said. Philip Hammond told the Sunday Telegraph he could not rule anything out as he did not know how the situation in the north African country would evolve. Continue reading... |
| Story of cities #29: Los Angeles and the 'great American streetcar scandal' Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:30 PM PDT When LA was stripped of its beloved streetcar in the 1960s, the city was quickly thrust into a traffic-clogged world of private cars and diesel buses. But with the involvement of automobile and oil companies, was this the work of a conspiracy? The last train on the last line of greater Los Angeles' Pacific Electric streetcar network made its last run on 9 April 1961. You can see the final days of this once-robust public transport system for yourself in Ride the Last of the Big Red Cars. This footage of the remaining "red cars" (as the Pacific Electric's fleet was commonly known) strikes an elegiac tone, especially to modern Angelenos. They have little more than history books and the rose-tinted memories of old-timers from which to reconstruct the heyday of urban rail in Los Angeles, a city which spent decades after the disappearance of the red cars saddled with the reputation as a car-dependent, smog-choked, freeway-bound yet traffic-paralysed dystopia – and not without cause. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:00 PM PDT The school or hospital that ends up being most costly is the one that fails in a natural disaster. To manage disaster, we need to manage risk Twelve months have passed since the adoption by UN member states of the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction, a 15-year plan for reducing disaster losses from manmade and natural hazards. During that period, almost 100 million people have lost their homes, their livelihoods, been displaced or suffered injury or loss because of a wide range of natural hazards during the hottest year on record. Continue reading... |
| Bernie Sanders: ‘we are the future of the Democratic party’ – video Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:56 AM PDT Bernie Sanders tells CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday that he has no intentions to drop out of the race for the White House, and he plans to continue to outline the differences in views between himself and rival Hillary Clinton. Sanders will face voters in five states next Tuesday when Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island go to the polls Continue reading... |
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