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• Putin tightens security in Volgograd
• Jubilation as Israel releases Palestinian prisoners - video
• Michael Schumacher's doctors expected to give update on his condition
• Best theatre of 2013, No 1: The Events
• Charity begins on your phone: east Africans buoyed by novel way of giving | Claire Provost
• It's time to challenge the notion that there is only one way to speak English
• 2014 in film preview: blockbusters
• Romanian and Bulgarian migration stirs up ancient, dark parts of the brain | Paul Quinn
• Doctors fighting 'hour by hour' to save Schumacher
• Alexandria: The Last Nights of Cleopatra by Peter Stothard – review
• What's your wish for 2014? | Zoe Williams, Patrick Barkham, Aditya Chakrabortty, Lola Okolosie, Jonathan Freedland, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Polly Toynbee
• South Sudan: fresh fighting erupts around Bor
• Haiti minimum wage increase ignites competition row in textile industry
• Queensland swelters in heatwave with no relief in sight
• Train collision in North Dakota sets oil cars ablaze - video
• Our new year's resolutions for 2014
• Central America migrants flee turf wars and corrupt states for refuge in Mexico
• Antarctic rescue: helicopter to evacuate passengers from trapped ship
• North Dakota oil train crash sparks fireball
• Victorian police act against racial bias but say racism is not systemic
• Cyclone Christine still battering Pilbara nine hours after landfall
• Israel frees 26 Palestinian prisoners
• Tony Abbott’s top business adviser accuses IPCC of 'dishonesty and deceit'
• Australia’s dairy future is bright | Tyran Jones
• Harbin ice-sculpture festival – in pictures

Putin tightens security in Volgograd Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:36 AM PST Russian city under tight security after suicide bombing on trolleybus leaves 15 dead, one day after 18 people were killed at train station A second suicide bombing in as many days in the Russian city of Volgograd has killed at least 15 people, injured dozens more and shredded Kremlin claims to have security under control in a region that will host the winter Olympics in less than six weeks. President Vladimir Putin ordered a security clampdown in Volgograd and across the country after the bombing of a crowded trolleybus, which came less than 24 hours after 18 people were killed in a suicide attack at the city's main railway station. The latest blast ripped the rush-hour trolleybus apart, leaving behind a grotesque tangle of metal and glass. At least 40 people were injured, including a one-year-old child who was in critical condition. The explosion occurred as the trolleybus approached a stop near the hospital where many casualties from the railway station attack were taken on Sunday. Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency, said Monday's explosion involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday's attack at the city's main railway station. "That confirms the investigators' version that the two terror attacks were linked," Markin said in a statement. "They could have been prepared in one place." For the Russian authorities, the attacks represent the nightmare scenario of an orchestrated campaign of terror across a region too big to effectively secure before the biggest international event on Russian soil since the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The Chechen jihadist leader Doku Umarov warned in a video posted in July that his group would use "maximum force" to stop the Games. Sporadic attacks have hit home since, but nothing on the scale of this latest assault. The head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, wrote to Putin to express condolences and "our confidence in the Russian authorities to deliver safe and secure Games in Sochi". "I am certain that everything will be done to ensure the security of the athletes and all the participants of the Olympic Games," he wrote. "The Olympic Games are about bringing people from all backgrounds and beliefs together to overcome our differences in a peaceful way. The many declarations of support and solidarity from the international community make me confident that this message of tolerance will also be delivered by the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi." The White House sharply condemned the attacks and offered security assistance to the Kremlin as it considers whether to take additional steps to safeguard the Games. "The US government has offered our full support to the Russian government in security preparations for the Sochi Olympic Games, and we would welcome the opportunity for closer co-operation for the safety of the athletes, spectators and other participants," Caitlin Hayden, the chief spokeswoman for the US national security council, said. At the Pentagon, Army Colonel Steve Warren said he was "not aware of any requests for assistance from either the Russians or the Olympic Committee." He said the US military has "a long history of working with national organizing committees to assist with Olympic security whenever it's requested," though such a collaboration appears highly unlikely given current mutual mistrust. Police believe Sunday's attack was perpetrated by a male suicide bomber, possibly with the aid of an accomplice. Russian media reported that a doctor, Pavel Pechenkin, was a prime suspect; his father told reporters that he had been subjected to DNA tests to check whether it was his son's remains that were recovered from the Volgograd station. Pechenkin reportedly hails from the Mari republic on the Volga river, 500 miles east of Moscow. He reportedly converted to Islam a few years ago and went to Dagestan to join local militants. His parents went there to search for him, but in vain. Local news sites reported that people in Volgograd, a city of more than 1 million inhabitants, were avoiding public transport and walking to work. A small protest against the government's inability to prevent attacks appeared on Monday afternoon, but was quickly dispersed. "For the second day, we are dying – it's a nightmare," a woman near the scene told Reuters, her voice trembling as she choked back tears. "What are we supposed to do – just walk now?" Shockwaves from the attacks have rippled outward, as they did after Russia's other wretched terrorism incidents in Moscow (1999, 2002 and 2010), Budyonnovsk (1995) and Beslan (2004). Popular writer Sergey Minayev said on Twitter that the atmosphere reminded him of 1999, when a series of bombings at apartment blocks shook Moscow. "It's like someone has declared a war on us," he wrote. Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad, is also of great symbolic importance for Russians as the site of the bloodiest battle of the second world war – something that north Caucausian jihadist websites were quick to emphasise after the train station blast. Soviet symbol The city of Volgograd – formerly Stalingrad – was the scene of the bloodiest battle of the second world war. For Russians, it is synonymous with Soviet military glory and self-sacrifice. In August 1942, German armies unleashed a bombardment of the city, reducing most of it to rubble. There was furious fighting. By early November the Wehrmacht controlled 90% of it. Its defenders were trapped in two tiny pockets. The Soviet troops clung on. The Red Army then launched a spectacular counter-attack, encircling Hitler's Sixth Army, and in January 1943 forcing the surrender of its exhausted commander, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, and his starved forces. (The Führer expected Paulus to kill himself. He declined, and was instead taken prisoner.) Numerous films and books have immortalised this heroic victory, achieved through the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Soviet lives. The battle of Stalingrad inspired some brilliant war reporting, by writers such as Vasily Grossman who witnessed the slaughter from the frontline, and described it vividly in his diary. There have been recent attempts to revive the city's wartime name, not least during the 70th anniversary commemorations of Volgograd/Stalingrad's finest hour in February. North Caucasian jihadist websites were quick to point out that Volgograd may have been chosen for Sunday and Monday's attacks because of its obvious symbolic value. Luke Harding Russia Winter Olympics 2014 Europe Winter Olympics Leonid Ragozin theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Jubilation as Israel releases Palestinian prisoners - video Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:28 AM PST Israel releases another 26 Palestinian prisoners overnight

Michael Schumacher's doctors expected to give update on his condition Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:26 AM PST Schumacher spends second night in French hospital suffering from brain injury after off-piste skiing accident in the Alps Doctors in Grenoble treating Michael Schumacher are expected to give a second update on the condition of the former Formula One driver later on Tuesday. Schumacher spent his second night in hospital as doctors treating the former Formula One driver battle "hour by hour" to save his life after injuries sustained in an off-piste skiing accident in the French Alps. As his family continued to wait anxiously at his bedside, the university hospital of Grenoble, in eastern France, was expected to give a an update on Schumacher's condition at 10am GMT after warning on Monday that the next 48-72 hours would prove crucial. Speaking at a press briefing, doctors said that a brain scan carried out immediately after Schumacher's arrival at the hospital on Sunday afternoon had revealed internal bleeding and multiple lesions. Dr Jean-Francois Payen, the chief anaesthesiologist at the Grenoble hospital treating Schumacher, said: "He is in a critical condition … His condition is deemed very serious." He added: "For the moment, we cannot predict the future for Michael Schumacher." The seven-times Formula One champion was airlifted to Grenoble on Sunday after falling heavily and hitting his head while skiing on an unmarked slope at the chic resort of Méribel. It soon emerged that the accident, initially played down by a spokesman for the resort, had a devastating impact on Schumacher, who was in a coma by the time he arrived at Grenoble. "He is in a critical state of cerebral resuscitation," said Payen. "We are working hour by hour." Doctors said his ongoing treatment was aimed at oxygenating the brain and stopping the swelling. On Monday night, Schumacher, due to turn 45 on Friday, remained in a medically induced coma designed to help his recovery. The gravity of the retired champion's condition prompted figures from across the sporting world to express their shock at the accident and solidarity with a man regarded as one of the greatest racing drivers in Formula One's history. The current world champion and fellow German Sebastian Vettel, who has been dubbed "Baby Schumi" by his country's media, led a chorus of support and concern from the sport. "I am shocked and hope that he gets better as quickly as possible. I wish his family much strength." The British driver Jenson Button, another former world champion, said: "My thoughts are with Michael Schumacher at this tough time. Michael more than anyone has the strength to pull through this." Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she was "extremely shocked along with millions of Germans". Schumacher's wife, Corinna, and their two children, were with him in hospital on Monday. So too was Gérard Saillant, a leading brain surgeon from Paris who had rushed to Grenoble on Sunday to be with his former patient and friend. Asked about his chances of survival, Saillant told journalists: "Someone of 70 is less likely to survive this sort of accident than someone who is 45, and someone like Michael who is in top condition is more likely to survive than someone else." The doctors were clear that, if Schumacher had not been wearing a helmet at the time of his fall, he would not have survived. "Someone who had had this kind of accident without a helmet would certainly not have made it this far," said Payen. According to one French media report, the blow to Schumacher's head was so fierce that the helmet cracked. That could not be independently confirmed, but prosecutor Patrice Quincy, based in Albertville, the home of the 1992 Winter Olympics, said: "The victim lost his balance and banged his head extremely violently on small rocks concealed by the snow." Two ski patrollers arrived at the scene of the accident immediately, Quincy added, a rescue process which soon saw the sportsman taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital at Moûtiers. Schumacher is thought to have been skiing downhill between two marked pistes below the jagged peaks of the Dent de Burgin when he fell, hitting the right side of his head. Investigators from the gendarmerie based in the resort of Bourg St Maurice were on Monday on the mountainside attempting to establish the exact circumstances of the accident, which occurred at 2,100 metres. After the impact, Schumacher was conscious but "stunned", neurosurgeon Stephan Chabardes said. "He didn't respond to questions after the accident. He didn't have a normal neurological reaction," he told the news conference. By the time he was brought to the hospital at Grenoble, which has an internationally recognised trauma centre, Schumacher was in a coma. Tony Belli, a consultant neurosurgeon and reader in neurotrauma at Birmingham University, said that Schumacher's age, fitness and psychological strength would help his recovery. "He's got a lot of factors in his favour," he said. "He's more likely than not to make a good recovery, despite all the concerns that have been raised. From the description of his injuries, it will take weeks, even months to recover, but I do expect him to make a good recovery." Outside the hospital, fans mingled with television crews as the wait for a further update went on into the night. Dressed in a red Ferrari cap, jacket and T-shirt, Enzo Debar, 31, said he had come to the hospital "to be close to him, to do what is possible, as a fan. I hope he'll get better. I am sure he will get better, because he's a fighter." Sharing his hope was Patrick Amatucci, from Grenoble, who had come down with his son. He described Schumacher, whom he had followed from his days with Benetton, as "a great, good man", with greatness in his blood. Michael Schumacher France Europe Formula One Lizzy Davies theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Best theatre of 2013, No 1: The Events Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:06 AM PST Lyn Gardner: David Greig's quiet, moving drama was a thoughtful and bruisingly honest attempt to understand the repercussions of a mass shooting

Charity begins on your phone: east Africans buoyed by novel way of giving | Claire Provost Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST US charity GiveDirectly transfers unconditional cash from donors via mobile phone to some of the world's poorest families "We're totally different from other charities," enthuses Paul Niehaus, co-founder of GiveDirectly, a small, California-based non-profit that uses mobile money technology to transfer cash directly from donors to some of east Africa's poorest people. "We're the most stripped down, simplified model of giving help to poor people." These are big claims but GiveDirectly – which first started working in Kenya in 2011 and expanded into Uganda this year – has sent shockwaves through the charity sector. Forbes has dubbed its approach radical, while the Economist said it's as extraordinary as "throwing money out of helicopters". But what's so new or innovative about giving poor people money? Cash-transfer schemes are estimated to reach up to a billion people in developing countries. A 2011 paper from the UK Department for International Development said a "quiet revolution" over the past 15 years has seen such initiatives move "from the margins of development policy towards the mainstream". What GiveDirectly has done is to capitalise on the remarkable rise of mobile phone use in developing countries – and the growth of mobile money-transfer systems such as M-Pesa in Kenya – to give individual donors the ability to participate in such schemes too. But it is more than that. Many of the largest and best-known cash-transfer schemes attach conditions to the money people receive. In the case of Brazil's bolsa familia, which is a decade old this year, cash is paid on the condition that children go to school and get vaccinated. GiveDirectly attaches no conditions – its recipients can spend the money in any way they want. "People think this is radical and weird, but actually it is all the things we think of as conventional that haven't been tested," says Niehaus, who is uncomfortable about some of the attention GiveDirectly has received in this respect. Poor people, he says, know better than anyone what they need, and assumptions that they will waste the money they receive are not backed up by evidence. An evaluation by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year found recipients spent the cash on things such as food and healthcare, to replace thatched roofs with metal ones, buy livestock and invest in small businesses. It also found evidence to suggest the money reduced hunger and increased psychological wellbeing. The charity's no-strings approach, it's minimalistic website, and even its name, give the impression that it heralds the end of the middleman. But underneath, there are lots of moving parts. Recipients are identified, for example, using a combination of census data, satellite imagery and door-to-door visits looking for homes with thatched roofs – which the charity uses as an "objective indicator" of poverty. Far from wanting GiveDirectly to disappear once it has proved its point, Niehaus thinks it can help other NGOs, and even governments, to implement their cash-transfer schemes. "Right now, people think we're interesting and innovative, but in the future I think we'll be known because we do this well," he says. However, not everyone is convinced. Some point out the obvious: you can't use cash transfers to buy food or textbooks if they're not on sale. Others argue that such schemes do not directly tackle structural issues underpinning poverty and inequality. Indian economist Jayati Ghosh warns that "the current tendency is to see this as a further excuse for the reduction of publicly provided services, and replace them with the administratively easier option of doling out money". The debate about whether conditions should be attached continues, and the answer is probably: "it depends". For its part, GiveDirectly avoids casting cash transfers as a panacea. Instead it argues they should be the benchmark against which charities evaluate their work: groups that ask for money on behalf of the poor should be able to prove they can do more good with it than the poor themselves. At a time of budget pressures and concern about just how big and expensive some NGOs have become, it's no wonder this is a compelling challenge. Charities Africa Kenya Uganda Mobile phones Telecoms Claire Provost theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

It's time to challenge the notion that there is only one way to speak English Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST Why do we persist in thinking that standard English is right, when it is spoken by only 15% of the British population? Linguistics-loving Harry Ritchie blames Noam Chomsky Did you see that great documentary on linguistics the other night? What about that terrific series on Radio 4 about the Indo-European language family tree? Or that news report on language extinction? It is strange that none of those programmes happened, or has ever happened: it's not as if language is an arcane subject. Just as puzzling is the conspicuous lack of a properly informed book about language – either our own or language in general. There is, of course, Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct – a bestseller that seems to have ticked the box for publishers and public alike as the book on linguistics. But The Language Instinct has a very specific agenda – to support Noam Chomsky's theories about our language skills being innate; other areas of linguistics are glimpsed, if at all, fuzzily in the background. I'm not blaming Pinker. He ultimately failed to justify his title, but he did reach a keen, large audience with a well-written book fizzing with ideas and examples. I'm blaming someone else, the person who, inexplicably, doesn't exist – who should have written the book revealing how Pinker was so wrong and had a ding-dong with him on Newsnight; the ambitious, good-looking academic, who possibly had a spell in an indie band, with his or her own 13-part series about language on BBC2. I began to appreciate how little we know about our own language when I studied grammar to teach English as a foreign language. I looked for a linguistically informed grammar guide, but couldn't find one. Finally, I gave up on waiting and decided to have a go myself. As a layman with an amateur's adoration for his subject, I find it astonishing that hardly anyone outside university linguistics departments knows the slightest thing about it. Whether it is the new discoveries of neurolinguistics or the 150-year-old revelations of the scholars who traced the Indo-European language family tree, linguistics can offer zap-kapow findings that trump those of archaeology and even astronomy. Take the Proto-Indo-Europeans, that mysterious tribe whose homeland was recently located north of the Caspian Sea in about 3,300 BC. Their language somehow obliterated the hundreds of others then spoken in Europe and northern India, so that almost every language currently spoken, from Iceland to the Himalayas, is descended from one tongue. Dramatic enough, but, even more sensationally, much of that language has been reconstructed, so that we know, for example, their words for sky (dyeu) and father (pihter), and their chief god the Sky Father (Dyeu Pihter). Thanks to language, we know a great deal about the tribe – its kinship system, its beliefs, the feasts it held at which bards declaimed the long praise-poems that may well be the forerunners of the Sanskrit Vedic epics and The Iliad and The Odyssey of Homer. We even know that the tribe had two words for different sorts of farting. That few people have heard of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, or know about language evolution, children's language acquisition or the current process of language extinction, seems to me to be a crying shame. But the insights of linguistics are of social and political as well as intellectual importance. The modern study of language has shown that all native speakers are experts in their language. Almost all judgments about someone's language – the laziness of a glottal stop, the slowness of rural speech, the supposed ugliness of a particular urban accent – have no linguistic justification and reflect only the prejudice of the judger. However, very few people are aware of these basic findings. Linguistics has discovered that a language is created by a democratic collective of magnificently gifted experts – but has told nobody else about it. Frustrating as it is to hear discussions about the heinous abuse of "hopefully" or "disinterested", this public ignorance about language gets properly serious with the continuing discrimination against non-standard English. Non-standard English is linguistically the equal of the standard version – in fact, dialects tend to be more sophisticated grammatically than standard (as in the plural "youse" of many non-standard dialects where standard has just one confusing form). Yet standard continues – even now – to be prized as the "correct" form, and any deviation is considered to be wrong, lazy, corrupt or ignorant. This is most obviously the case in the education system. If a non-standard-speaking child persists in using non‑standard English, particularly non-standard grammar, that child will rarely progress. This is, of course, a class issue, standard English being the only dialect defined by socioeconomics rather than geography, and spoken by only 15% of the British population (the richest 15%). It is working-class children whose language is still marked as incorrect and who have to intuit the need to switch dialects – or fail.. In any formal, written context, only standard English is accepted. And in any informal, middle-class context, from office email to pub chat, non-standard usage will be noticed by standard speakers, who will judge that non-standard user to be at least unsophisticated, probably uneducated and very possibly a bit thick. Let me quote a letter-writer to the Scotsman newspaper last year, complaining about declining linguistic standards. "I remember one candidate in a job interview," the letter-writer reminisced, "saying, 'Oh, we done that in media studies.' End of interview," he finished, approvingly. Why has linguistics failed to counteract this discrimination? I put it down to the strange way that the discipline developed under the aegis of the man who has dominated and defined it since the late 50s, the father of modern linguistics, Chomsky. Chomsky's theories were based on his ingenious explanation for the phenomenon that is children's language acquisition. Toddlers, who are surrounded by the broken babble of ordinary speech and who can do little else for themselves, somehow master many, or even most, grammatical constructions – because, Chomsky reasoned, there has to be innate software providing babies and toddlers with the equipment to get them up and talking. This means, he concluded, that human languages have to be organised according to universal constraints and rules, "principles and parameters". These constitute a "deep structure", converted into the individual operations of a particular language by a series of "transformations". Chomsky first outlined this idea in 1967 and has spent his non-political career since hunting for the universal features provided by our innate programming. Brilliant – but wrong. Recent evidence from neurology, genetics and linguistics all points to there being no innate programming. Children learn language just as they learn all their other skills, by experience. The case against Chomsky is conclusive. The new empirical "connectionist" school and the various branches of cognitive linguistics have brought the subject back to scientific principles. Linguistics has undergone a revolution in the last 20 years, and Chomsky has been dethroned. However, the wholesale acceptance of Chomsky's rationalist assumptions has meant that the discipline has been hunting for unicorns while neglecting many key areas of language. There is still little research being carried out on, for example, environmental influences on children's language acquisition. Most pressingly of all, too little work is being done to record the languages currently facing extinction. By one estimate, 95% of the 7,000 languages now spoken in the world are in danger of dying out. Recording these should have been a priority. Chomksy also played a significant part in creating a subject that managed to avoid engagement with culture and society. He turned grammar into an technical subject full of jargon and algebra studied on whiteboards by men with beards, leaving everyone prey to the pernicious drivel of the traditional grammar guardians, who belong to the 15%. It is crazy that such an unfair social-exclusion system should go on operating, and still without censure. Linguistics has taught me many wonderful things, but it has also neglected many tasks, including telling the world about its discoveries. So if there is an academic linguist out there with good bone structure and a past career as a rhythm guitarist, please, for the love of God, get yourself a decent agent. • Harry Ritchie's English for the Natives: Discover the Grammar You Don't Know You Know is published by John Murray. Reference and languages Linguistics Noam Chomsky Language Harry Ritchie theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

2014 in film preview: blockbusters Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST Our pick of the ten films likely to pull in the crowds in 2014 • 2014 preview: thrillers • 2014 preview: comedy • 2014 preview: Oscar hopefuls • 2014 preview: science fiction • 2014 preview: romance • 2014 preview: drama Noah Darren Aronofsky's $130m Biblical epic arrives buffeted by Hurricane Sandy (which gatecrashed the production) and lashed by controversy (the director and studio have reportedly squabbled over the final cut). The omens are explosive and the anticipation is building. Russell Crowe looks on stentorian form as the pre-flood patriarch, reeling from portents of the apocalypse and determined to protect his wife (Jennifer Connelly), his adopted daughter (Emma Watson) and the animals of the world. But trouble is brewing; he's going to need a bigger boat. 28 March Godzilla British director Gareth Edwards scored a low-budget breakthrough with 2010's Monsters. Now he's surging up through the gears to tackle arguably the biggest beast of them all. His remastered Godzilla finds the behemoth battling man-made goliaths while Aaron Taylor-Johnson strives (one assumes in vain) to maintain order. The eclectic supporting cast finds room for Bryan Cranston, Elizabeth Olsen, Sally Hawkins and Juliette Binoche. 16 May Exodus Bible study, book two. Ridley Scott leads Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Paul and Sigourney Weaver through the wilderness with his story of Moses and the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Bale plays Moses, Edgerton is Ramses, while Almeria in Spain offers up the path to Mount Sanai. Likely epic, almost certainly bombastic. And - given it's a Scott film - bloody as hell. 12 December Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Director Kenneth Branagh grabs another fistful of popcorn with his first film post-Thor. Chris Pine takes up the mantle of Tom Clancy's super-spy, leaving past-Ryans Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck in his wake. Shadow Recruit has the young Ryan as a rookie analyst who stumbles upon a plot by sinister businessman Viktor Cherevin (Brannagh) to tip the world into economic crisis. Keira Knightley tags along for the ride as Ryan's wife, who has no idea that his desk job has evolved into something a little more punchy. 16 January Pompeii Remake of the cheeky British TV sitcom that saw the Carry On lot romp … oh hold on, that's not right. Let's try again … Huge CGI-riddled take on the decimation of the Roman city by the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Kit Harington of Game of Thrones plays Milo, a slave-turned-gladiator who must beat the arena and best mother nature to save his love, Cassia (Emily Browning). Plenty of bare flesh, loads of shonky special effects and a starring role for Keifer Sutherland as an evil senator. Perhaps this is borrowing Up Pompeii!'s enjoyable trashiness after all? 21 February Captain America: Winter Soldier America's old school superhero continues his re-invention from second world war propaganda tool to righteous modern age ass-kicker. Likeable lunk Chris Evans is back in the red, white and blue corner as Steve Rogers/Captain America, still struggling to adapt to the modern world after his abrupt resurrection in last year's Avengers Assemble. Over on the dark side is the Winter Soldier, a former pal of Steve's who has been turned into a brainwashed assassin. Superhero stories are still huge business (Iron Man 3 was 2013's highest-grossing film). No wonder Marvel keeps on churning them out. It'll be only a matter of seconds before another… Oh! Look! … 26 March Guardians of the Galaxy The tenth film in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Chris Pratt leads out a rag-tag band of superheroes that include a talking raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and a sentient tree (Vin Diesel). John C Reilly and Glenn Close are among the top brass of Nova Corps, the intergalatic police force that guides the Guardians through their very odd adventure. Less sleak than the X-Men, more risqué than the Avengers. The Guardians of the Galaxy promises to be Marvel's weirdest, riskiest maneuver yet. 1 August Transformers: Age of Extinction The transformers franchise folds itself into a new shape with a fourth installment featuring an honest-to-goodness star name - Mark Wahlberg - in the lead role. Age of Extinction has Wahlberg play an inventor and single dad powering down the Decepticons with the help of Optimus Prime and co. Nicola Peltz gets to play the woman who screams and runs away a lot, while Michael Bay returns to the director's chair. All together now: BOOOOOOM! CRRRRRRRRUNCH! ARGGHHHHH! 25 June The Amazing Spider-Man 2 The high school hero returns to take on Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and Electro (Jamie Foxx), the latest villains associated with shady tech company, OsCorp. Andrew Garfield dons the costume for his second swing at Marvel's friendly neighbourhood cash cow. Emma Stone is back as Gwen Stacy, while Dane Dehaan steps aboard the franchise merry-go-round as Harry Osborn, pal of Peter, eventual arch-enemy of the webslinger. Bleat on, those of you still miffed at this reboot, which arrives a mere ten years after Sam Raimi's original. Spidey's moving too fast to hear you. 17 April X-Men: Days of Future Past The clue's in the baffling title. Fresh from their adventure with Matthew Vaughn in X-Men: First Class, the students of Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters use a time machine to recruit their future selves to battle a time-hopping evil force, or something. It's an excuse to watch Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender scamper around in spandex again basically. Why should cinema aim any higher than that? 23 May More films to see in 2014 • 2014 preview: thrillers • 2014 preview: comedy • 2014 preview: Oscar hopefuls • 2014 preview: science fiction • 2014 preview: romance • 2014 preview: drama Action and adventure Science fiction and fantasy theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Romanian and Bulgarian migration stirs up ancient, dark parts of the brain | Paul Quinn Posted: 31 Dec 2013 01:00 AM PST Populist politicians' attempts to fan the flames of hatred rely on our hardwired suspicion of outsiders Romanians and Bulgarians will gain the same rights as other EU citizens to move to Britain from 1 January. But for months the British media have been running alarmist reports about the imminent influx from these countries. What is it about this group of people that makes them seemingly so dangerous and so undesirable? Are they really different from any other group we have "welcomed" into our country? Will our national life really change after 1 January? As somebody who has conducted research into the process of stigmatisation, I have found the reaction in the British press to be both fascinating and terrifying. Stigmatisation is a biosocial phenomenon, meaning it is a behaviour that can be attributed to both instinctual impulses and our cognitive ability to reason, using the information we are provided with. Many theorists suppose that our instinctual tendency to stigmatise evolved from the need to adapt to life in small bands or groups. This evolution may have occurred to prevent "free-riding" by individuals perceived as outsiders. As a consequence, in most societies and cultures throughout human history, certain groups have been susceptible to stigmatisation. These include the sick, the old, social non-conformists and, most important, individuals who are perceived as coming from another group or having outside loyalties. Our brains are, in other words, hardwired to suspect individuals who fall into such groups, and may urge us to act in a stigmatising manner towards them. American social history provides an illustrative example of this where successive waves of immigrants (ranging from Dutch, Irish, eastern European and, more recently, those of Hispanic origin) were marginalised until, with time, they came to be seen as an accepted part of society. This predisposition towards suspicion of immigrants means that reports that portray them negatively find fertile ground. We have been bombarded with stories of Roma who have kidnapped children and Romanian crime gangs on the loose. Often it is the political class that sets the tone. The Ukip leader Nigel Farage has recently spoken of a "Romanian crime wave" on its way to the UK. Stigmatising attacks are even more effective (for the stigmatiser) in times of material shortage, perhaps explaining why the reaction to increased Romanian and Bulgarian immigration appears to be so much more visceral than it was for other east Europeans who migrated in 2004. But potentially stigmatising behaviours are also influenced by conscious thought processes. This conscious cognitive process is shaped by the beliefs that we as individuals hold about the group in question. Civilisation, education and rational thought have helped us overcome a range of irrational negative impulses about other groups of individuals. We can see, for example, that disabled people are individuals who should be treated with dignity and equal respect or that all Muslims are not a threat to our society. It is such a capacity that allows us to live in large complex societies with individuals from different ethnic origins, despite the fact that we are essentially equipped with an innate suspicion of the different as a threat. Despite these advances, the basic underlying biological machinery remains. As a consequence, there will be an eternal availability of receptive terrain for populist political forces that wish to rally support via negative stereotyping of vulnerable groups. Succumbing to the temptation to cast aspersions on such groups is analogous to lighting matches in a hayfield. Not only are such actions morally wrong, they are also dangerous. History is replete with examples of those in power fanning the flames of hatred, exploiting the dark side of our human nature for their own benefit. False myths such as The Eternal Jew or the "baby-stealing Roma" should haunt our political class and teach it to beware of the risks of such opportunism. Let us hope these lessons remain with us after 1 January. Immigration and asylum European Union Europe Romania Bulgaria Paul Quinn theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Doctors fighting 'hour by hour' to save Schumacher Posted: 31 Dec 2013 12:45 AM PST Seven-times champion remains in critical condition after cracking his head on a rock during a skiing accident Doctors treating Michael Schumacher said on Monday they were fighting "hour by hour" to save the former Formula One driver's life after he cracked his head on a rock during an off-piste skiing accident in the French Alps. Dr Jean-Francois Payen, the chief anaesthesiologist at the Grenoble hospital treating Schumacher, said the next 48 hours would be crucial. A brain scan revealed internal bleeding and multiple lesions. "He is in a critical condition … His condition is deemed very serious," Payen told a news conference. "For the moment, we cannot predict the future for Michael Schumacher." The seven-times Formula One champion was airlifted to Grenoble on Sunday after falling heavily and hitting his head while skiing on an unmarked slope at the chic resort of Méribel. It soon emerged that the accident, initially played down by a spokesman for the resort, had a devastating impact on Schumacher, who was in a coma by the time he arrived at Grenoble. "He is in a critical state of cerebral resuscitation," said Payen. "We are working hour by hour." Doctors said his ongoing treatment was aimed at oxygenating the brain and stopping the swelling. On Monday night, Schumacher, due to turn 45 on Friday, remained in a medically induced coma designed to help his recovery. The gravity of the retired champion's condition prompted figures from across the sporting world to express their shock at the accident and solidarity with a man regarded as one of the greatest racing drivers in Formula One's history. The current world champion and fellow German Sebastian Vettel, who has been dubbed "Baby Schumi" by his country's media, led a chorus of support and concern from the sport. "I am shocked and hope that he gets better as quickly as possible. I wish his family much strength." The British driver Jenson Button, another former world champion, said: "My thoughts are with Michael Schumacher at this tough time. Michael more than anyone has the strength to pull through this." Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she was "extremely shocked along with millions of Germans". Schumacher's wife, Corinna, and their two children, were with him in hospital on Monday. So too was Gérard Saillant, a leading brain surgeon from Paris who had rushed to Grenoble on Sunday to be with his former patient and friend. Asked about his chances of survival, Saillant told journalists: "Someone of 70 is less likely to survive this sort of accident than someone who is 45, and someone like Michael who is in top condition is more likely to survive than someone else." The doctors were clear that, if Schumacher had not been wearing a helmet at the time of his fall, he would not have survived. "Someone who had had this kind of accident without a helmet would certainly not have made it this far," said Payen. According to one French media report, the blow to Schumacher's head was so fierce that the helmet cracked. That could not be independently confirmed, but prosecutor Patrice Quincy, based in Albertville, the home of the 1992 Winter Olympics, said: "The victim lost his balance and banged his head extremely violently on small rocks concealed by the snow." Two ski patrollers arrived at the scene of the accident immediately, Quincy added, a rescue process which soon saw the sportsman taken by helicopter to the nearest hospital at Moûtiers. Schumacher is thought to have been skiing downhill between two marked pistes below the jagged peaks of the Dent de Burgin when he fell, hitting the right side of his head. Investigators from the gendarmerie based in the resort of Bourg St Maurice were on Monday on the mountainside attempting to establish the exact circumstances of the accident, which occurred at 2,100 metres. After the impact, Schumacher was conscious but "stunned", neurosurgeon Stephan Chabardes said. "He didn't respond to questions after the accident. He didn't have a normal neurological reaction," he told the news conference. By the time he was brought to the hospital at Grenoble, which has an internationally-recognised trauma centre, Schumacher was in a coma. Tony Belli, a consultant neurosurgeon and reader in neurotrauma at Birmingham University, said that Schumacher's age, fitness and psychological strength would help his recovery. "He's got a lot of factors in his favour," he said. "He's more likely than not to make a good recovery, despite all the concerns that have been raised. "From the description of his injuries, it will take weeks, even months to recover, but I do expect him to make a good recovery." Outside the hospital, fans mingled with television crews as the wait for a further update went on into the night. Dressed in a red Ferrari cap, jacket and T-shirt, Enzo Debar, 31, said he had come to the hospital "to be close to him, to do what is possible, as a fan. I hope he'll get better. I am sure he will get better, because he's a fighter." Sharing his hope was Patrick Amatucci, from Grenoble, who had come down with his son. He described Schumacher, whom he had followed from his days with Benetton, as "a great, good man", with greatness in his blood. Michael Schumacher Motor sport Skiing Angela Merkel Europe France Germany Anne Penketh Philip Oltermann Lizzy Davies theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Alexandria: The Last Nights of Cleopatra by Peter Stothard – review Posted: 31 Dec 2013 12:00 AM PST When half of the book has nothing to do with the subject of its title, and yet none of the words are redundant, you have to salute a remarkable achievement If you have read Peter Stothard's last book, On the Spartacus Road, you will know not to expect anything in the way of a conventional history. That book, as much about his cancer as the rebellious slave, was half digression; and so is this. You will learn something about Cleopatra and Alexandria, unless you are an expert on these subjects, but you will also learn what it was like to be a grammar-school boy growing up in the 1950s, at Oxford in the 1960s, working for the not-exactly-impenetrably-pseudonymous "Big Oil UK" in the 1970s, and at the Times in the 1980s. That is, you will learn something about these things, but only tangentially; what you will learn, and again only obliquely, is what it was like to be Peter Stothard. I say "obliquely" because he is, after all, English, and what he gives away of himself he does so in prose that is feline, captivating, but also strangely distant, as if a mist has descended between himself and the events he describes. Which is only proper: that mist is time, and it would have been dishonest of him to have written as if these events were fresh and immediate. Towards the end, it turns out that many of his memories have been reconstituted with his old school and university friend, Maurice, who died of cancer – and Stothard's acknowledgment of Maurice's help within the body of the text gives this book an air of trustworthiness. Not that I would expect anything other than the highest standards from the editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Alexandria, where Stothard finds himself at the beginning of 2011, also had its glories, all vanished now: its library, its lighthouse, its queen. Stothard haunts its cafes, the Hotel Metropole, its bars and restaurants. His government-supplied guides Mahmoud (Muslim) and Socratis (Coptic Christian) – "gentle quarellers" as he endearingly calls them – are by turns hectoring, helpful, generous and vaguely alarming; this can perhaps be attributed to nervousness as Egypt shakes from a suicide bomb outside a Christian church just before Stothard's arrival, and the first stirrings in Egypt of its own version of the Arab spring. It cannot have been the best time to be a government employee. Stothard is in Alexandria to finish a project that had begun at school when he was between the ages of nine and 12: to write about the life of Cleopatra. "This is precisely the eighth time I have begun to write this book," he announces at the beginning. He was encouraged in his previous efforts by his friend Maurice, and by a woman referred to only as V, spiky and sardonically leftwing since their schooldays, who was on the other side of the ideological divide during the dispute that shut the Times titles down for long months in 1979. Another surprising help along the way was Marmaduke Hussey, of whom we are given a rather pleasing pen portrait. The stories of Stothard and Cleopatra are interleaved, with no attempt to graft one factitiously on to the other; the concern here is to make sure that each sentence is poised and precise. There is, for example, the description of a man stealing dust jackets and illustrations from a book, or, in Stothard's words, "transferring … from public ownership to his own". Do you see what I mean by "feline"? There is not a word in here that is redundant, which is remarkable when half the words are not about the subject in the title at all. It is a wonderful achievement, and I hope it is not Stothard's own valediction. History Travel writing Autobiography and memoir Biography Fiction Paperbacks Egypt Nicholas Lezard theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

What's your wish for 2014? | Zoe Williams, Patrick Barkham, Aditya Chakrabortty, Lola Okolosie, Jonathan Freedland, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Polly Toynbee Posted: 31 Dec 2013 12:00 AM PST We asked columnists what fills their dreams about the year ahead – share your wishes in the thread below Zoe Williams: 'A 2014 choreographed by Danny Boyle' It's an Anglo-Saxon disease, apparently – the tendency to see poverty and wealth as merely the outward signs of inner value. It is disastrous enough applied to rich people, leading to an overestimation of their intelligence that is both tragic and comic. Applied to poor people it feeds other, harsher attitudes about social security and safety nets, what our responsibilities are to one another and whether we resent them or feel OK about them. It does appear that the UK, though, unlike the US, has a natural point of retreat: when everybody sees their incomes fall and gets just poor enough to realise that it's systemic, and has nothing to do with how much effort they put in. At that point, generosity of attitude re-establishes itself, and people start ticking "disagree strongly" to Ipsos Mori statements like "I think the unemployed should just look harder for work". So my hope for 2014 is not for national poverty as such – rather, the re-establishment of the principles and ambitions of social justice, which have been at the wellspring of everything the country has ever done that had any meaning or value. I would like to see 2014 choreographed by Danny Boyle, in other words. And many of the years after that. Patrick Barkham: 'A piece of land not fracked, a badger not culled' Nature is uplifting and exhilarating, and yet writing about it is often a gloomy business of confronting the ways in which we are consuming and despoiling it. Each year brings small spits in the wind – a clean energy advance here, a new nature reserve there – but these gobbets of good news are blown away by the logic of global capitalism: nature is a finite public resource to be annexed by private individuals for short-term profit. After a 2013 of "green crap", species loss and ever-rising exploitation, a realist might wish for 2014 to be a bit less bad. But I would love to see just one glorious occasion where people choose nature over profit – a piece of ground not fracked, a runway not built, a badger not culled. A few such exercises of gentle restraint and voices in mainstream politics and the media may belatedly begin questioning our society's crazy fixation on economic growth as the source of all wellbeing and happiness. Reframing this miserable, myopic vision is too much to ask for 2014. It's probably too much to ask for 2041. But it's never too early to start trying. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett: 'An end to online hate' The wish closest to my heart would be to see an end to the sweeping cuts being made to disability benefits. These cuts are affecting disabled people and their families in heartbreaking and often tragic ways. Our government should be ashamed. It should also go without saying that I'd like to live in a kinder, more accepting society that treats individuals as human beings, whether it's allowing women to be fully clothed in music videos, refusing to stigmatise those on benefits or giving those with no quality of life the right to die. As I'm not going to get that, however, I'd settle for people being nicer to one another on the internet. My general rule is, if you wouldn't have the guts to walk up to someone in a room and say it, then don't say it online. From revenge porn to threats of violence against women to slut-shaming to feminists trashing each other, I'd like 2014 to be the year that people close their laptops instead of being nasty – and realise that very little of significance ever happens on Twitter. Aditya Chakrabortty: 'Policy on real benefit scroungers – employers' I kept running into a type in 2013: the impoverished worker, on wages too low to keep them afloat. University cleaners doing two or three jobs a day, or staff at high street banks forced to turn to payday lenders. And they told stories of colleagues who were worse off, begging from foodbanks. Impoverished workers are fast becoming the norm. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2013 was the first year that the majority of people in poverty were from working families. Something remarkable has happened in Britain. Employers are getting into the habit of giving their staff poverty pay – and leaving the government to top it up with benefits. British taxpayers are ultimately handing cash to miserly bosses. More effectively than any other contemporary figure, the impoverished worker punctures what the Westminster set thinks it knows about the jobs market. From New Labour workfare to Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne: for decades, the main parties have hammered the unemployed. But they won't face down firms who don't pay enough to live on. Ed Miliband so badly wants bosses to give the living wage that he's promised tax breaks to those who comply; in other words, a Labour government would continue to subsidise Scrooge employers. But we won't tackle poverty pay until we tackle the massive inequality of which it is part. Look at Lloyds Banking Group, which racked up £1.7bn pre-tax profits in the first nine months of this year. In 2012 its chief executive, António Horta-Osório, took £3.4m in cash, pension and perks. Yet 45% of his staff are on two salary bands that begin at £13,000 and £17,000 respectively. Unsurprisingly, most of them say they can't manage financially. So that's my hope for this year: that the politicians start talking about a different kind of benefits scrounger – the corporations who pay their staff misery wages, and expect the welfare state to step in. Lola Okolosie: 'Education policy made by teachers' I have one wish for 2014 – that the majority of those responsible for producing countless educational policies have at least two years' experience teaching at the chalkface. This is the case in Singapore, a country whose achievements we are repeatedly told to emulate; 2012 saw it come second in a rank of countries comparing maths, reading and science results. And if, as I suspect, that wish appears fantastical, I'll settle for something much more realistic – that teachers have more say in the policies that will affect us. A much closer interaction between educators and policy makers, one that does not merely pay lip service to teachers' ideas, would perhaps have saved us from the numerous policy rewrites and U-turns we have seen over the last year. The embarrassing debacle of the policy adviser appointed headteacher of a free school without a teaching qualification who then resigned after a few weeks teaches us one thing: working in a thinktank on education does not mean you understand how things actually work in the classroom. Jonathan Freedland: 'A breakthrough in Israel-Palestine talks' One of the unexpected breakthroughs of 2013 was the interim – and far from complete – deal struck between the world's leading powers and Iran over the latter's nuclear programme. My fond hope for 2014 is that the US secretary of state, John Kerry, will reach another breakthrough in an area which is, if anything, even more intractable: the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I say "fond" because the grounds for pessimism do not need spelling out. Both peoples are led by men who could hardly be described as visionaries for peace and who are, besides, badly boxed in: Mahmoud Abbas's writ does not run in Gaza, Binyamin Netanyahu presides over a coalition dominated by hawks ready to oppose the first sign of compromise. It's long been said that the most Israel could offer falls short of the least the Palestinians could accept. Unsurprisingly, the word that hovers around the Kerry talks is "stalemate". And yet the process is not over. Leaks have been intriguingly few, which suggests seriousness. Above all, Kerry is stubbornly committed to it, devoting more hours to face-to-face contact with the antagonists than any recent predecessor. He clearly believes he is not wasting his time and that some kind of breakthrough is possible. Let's hope that 2014 proves him right. Polly Toynbee: 'The sudden shaming of this government' The best hope for this year is the sudden shaming of this government and the unravelling of its plans. Let's hope that more eyes open to the fact that deficit reduction at this ruthless rate never was a fiscal necessity, but a gleeful Tory opportunity to diminish the public realm and shrink the state. The result has been services slashed and benefit cuts that reverse decades of social progress. Let this be the year Duncan Smith's "scrounger" attacks rebound on him. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies shows government plans for the years after 2015 would require yet deeper cuts, devastating the NHS. So far, many voters seem to believe the propaganda that deficit-cutting is worth the sacrifice, though economic growth has been sluggish and deficit-reduction delayed. As foodbank queues grow, let this be the year when most people start asking why the highest price is extracted from the lowest-paid half of the population, their incomes falling while the proceeds of growth only flow to the better off. Let this be the year scales fall from the eyes and a majority see beyond doubt that we were never all in this together. Israel Middle East and North Africa Benefits Welfare Internet Employment law Liberal-Conservative coalition Zoe Williams Patrick Barkham Aditya Chakrabortty Lola Okolosie Jonathan Freedland Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett Polly Toynbee theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

South Sudan: fresh fighting erupts around Bor Posted: 30 Dec 2013 11:34 PM PST Clashes still taking place as deadline looms for opposing sides to lay down arms or face intervention by African neighbours

Haiti minimum wage increase ignites competition row in textile industry Posted: 30 Dec 2013 11:00 PM PST Protest over small salary increase inflames workforce conflict with an industry concerned about being uncompetitive The issue of the minimum wage is inflaming employment relations in Haiti, as garment factory owners and workers unions argue about the optimum rate amid fears the country's textile exports may become uncompetitive if the bar is set too high. Garments constitute 90% of Haiti's exports, earning $800m (£485) a year, the biggest source of foreign exchange after diaspora remittances. The sector employs 31,000 people, a significant if small contribution to the organised jobs market in a poor, predominantly young workforce beset by unemployment rates of more than 40%. Ironically, the dispute was triggered by attempts to formally raise the minimum wage. On 10 December, a few hundred people took to the streets of the Haitian capital, Port au Prince, in protest against a scheduled increase in the minimum wage on 1 January. It might have been another demonstration against President Michel Martelly's government, except for what came next. Furious at the marginal pay rise – from 200 to 225 Haitian gourdes (£2.76 to £3.11) for an eight-hour day – some protesters vandalised garment factories in the main industrial park, prompting the owners to close them to close for a few days on the grounds of security concerns. The private sector's Association des Industries d'Haiti (ADIH) warned the closure and an increased reputation of instability risked grave damage to the garment sector. The 12% increase in minimum wage was recommended by the Conseil Superieur des Salaires, Haiti's high wage council, a recently constituted body mandated by law and comprising the government, private sector and trades unions. But the increase is considered derisory by the more militant and vocal of Haiti's 17 textile sector unions. Yannick Etienne, of Batay Ouvriye, the workers' rights organisation, described it as a "miserable" wage. Some of the unions are asking for a 150% increase to 500 gourdes per day. The demand has been dismissed as absurd and irresponsible by factory owners, government officials, Haitian economists and foreign observers. Haiti's minimum wage, they say, is already four times that of textile workers in Bangladesh. In an attempt to explain their opposition to too high a minimum wage, garment factory owners recently wrote an open letter exhorting workers to "keep Haiti competitive" in the race against "big rivals" – Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. Martelly's administration uses the slogan "Ayiti pare pou biznis" (Haiti ready for business) to push Haiti's readiness to trade but activists deride it as a race to the bottom. The apparel industry says it is a struggle to sell Haiti as a garment hub because energy costs are high and workers less skilled and productive compared with rival locations in Asia. "I'm amazed we still have a garment industry at all in Haiti. We are already so much less competitive than other countries," said a businessman speaking on condition of anonymity. Haiti's enviable advantage lies in a unique US gift called the Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (Hope) Act (pdf), which was signed into law in 2008 and provides duty-free apparel and textiles products quotas. The duty-free quota is generous. In the year starting 20 December 2012, Haiti was allowed to export 306,742,329 sq metres equivalent (SME) to the US regardless of the fabric's origin, so long as 50% of the garment was assembled in Haiti. From 20 December 2013, the annual duty-free quota rose to 322,629,971 SME. But Haiti found it hard even to meet last year's quota, exporting just 259m SME to the US up to October. Critics say this comes down to Haiti's inability to rise to the challenge of scoring an open goal. Henri-Claude Müller-Poitevien, of the Haitian presidential commission to implement the Hope Act, says time is running out for Haiti, as is the act, which expires in September 2020. Haiti needs "to improve pricing and provide quality – [such as] embellishments, embroidery and accessories because Bangladeshi labour is cheaper than Haitian," he warned. But there are no easy answers. The cost of living is high in Haiti with the consumer price index increasing 124% in the past decade, according to economists. Yet the minimum wage has barely gone up three-fold in the same period. According to some estimates, the typical Haitian family spends half its budget on food, but this is a great deal more expensive now than in 2003. To that extent, it may be compassionate common sense to align basic pay with a living wage. But that would mean fewer orders, even for the low end of the apparel sector, such as T-shirts. Some observers say it may be better to lower the cost of living rather than raise the minimum wage unsustainably. But they know this may be easier said than done. Haiti Americas Bangladesh Fashion industry International trade Economics Global economy Protest Rashmee Roshan Lall theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Queensland swelters in heatwave with no relief in sight Posted: 30 Dec 2013 10:22 PM PST State suffers as temperatures reach 48C, with Brisbane possibly facing its first day over 40C in five years

Train collision in North Dakota sets oil cars ablaze - video Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:48 PM PST A train carrying crude oil in North Dakota has collided with another train, setting off a series of explosions that left at least 10 cars ablaze

Our new year's resolutions for 2014 Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:36 PM PST Stop checking our emails after dark, meet more feminists and learn to play guitar. Here, women of all ages share their resolutions for 2014 – what are yours? Jeanette Winterson, author My new year's resolution is simple: you don't have to play by other people's rules but you have to play by your own. I want to be clear about what I believe and uphold those values in private and in public. This government is so shoddy and the ethos of the time so self-serving. It is important to work out what is important. Living consciously has never mattered more. Bridget Christie, comedian I have only one resolution this year: to reserve judgment on a thing or a person until I have tasted it, read it, heard it, seen it, used it, done it or met them personally. Things/people exempt from this are jellied eels, George Osborne, Katie Hopkins, Kim Jong-un, Boris Johnson, boiled rat and colonic irrigation. Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company Tens of billions of pounds is set aside to defend the country, but are we preparing for the right kind of war? When children at Kids Company were interviewed by UCL researchers, half said they had witnessed shootings and stabbings in the past year. They describe themselves as soldiers, surviving their childhood in violent neighbourhoods where firearms are as accessible as a cup of tea. Some 3.5m children fight a war on want. They lack the basics – a winter coat or a bed to sleep on. Guess my wish. Caroline Criado-Perez, campaigner My first new year's resolution is to know that it's OK to say no, to realise that I can no longer control my "image", but have to let it all go sometimes and not panic so much about the fact that people who don't know me hate me. My second resolution is more ideological. Over the past year there has been an increasing split in the feminist movement, accompanied by frenzied attacks on women who don't toe the arbitrary invisible line. This has led to feminists standing by as men verbally abuse the "wrong" feminists under the guise of progressiveness. My feminism is about recognising that all women are oppressed by virtue of being women, and that abuse from men is unacceptable under any circumstances. My feminism is not about denouncing other feminists, so I resolve to stop engaging with those who do. Suzanne Moore, columnist My new year's resolution is to get up. Yas Necati, campaigner and student This year I want to meet as many new feminists as possible. We all have different ideas about what feminism means to us. I hope to listen to, and understand, as many different perspectives as possible, because we're only going to win this battle if we all learn to accept one another's differences. That way we can all move forward together. Nicola Horlick, financier The only way that I can totally forget about work is when I am skiing. The beautiful vistas and fresh air leave me totally reinvigorated and mentally fitter to face all the business challenges that I have to deal with over the rest of the year. One year, I was too busy to get really fit for skiing and I managed to snap a ligament in my knee on the first day of a two-week holiday. Reconstructive surgery followed and my knee still aches at the end of a busy day. I have learned my lesson and the exercise regime that is necessary to get fit for skiing will be top of my agenda on 1 January. Natasha Walter, writer/director of Women for Refugee Women I always make new year's resolutions; I love feeling that I can make a new start. In 2014 I am going to be focused on challenging the detention of women who come to this country to seek safety from persecution. Thousands of women are being traumatised and tormented by being locked up in the UK for no reason. My resolution is to end the detention of women seeking asylum. Failing that, I'll settle for opening more people's eyes to this scandal. I am also resolving to spend more time with my children and my partner in the open air – in the park, by the sea, in the hills. No screens, no tweets, no headphones, just sun and rain and fun. Thandie Newton, actor My resolution is to help create a platform for One Billion Rising For Justice on 14 February – V Day's global day of action – in an effort to end violence against women and girls. Katharine Whitehorn, writer Having got a bigger and bigger handbag as time goes on, the time has come for reform. In the brave new year it will always have: my glasses in the pocket where they are supposed to be; the keys ditto, and that small disapproved-of tiny bottle of … oh well, you know. But also something – anything – to read. I want never again to have to borrow something on a train from a stranger in the next seat who has nothing but impenetrable stuff about things in the City going up or down. When you find yourself reading the stuff on the back of a sweet packet you know that, in the next year, Something Must Be Done. Bim Adewunmi, writer Mine is to do more, away from my keyboard, in the community. I want to get involved in literacy programmes in my east London neighbourhood, rather than just write about library closures and cuts. Harriet Harman, deputy Labour leader The same as everyone else's: take more exercise, drink less alcohol and eat more healthily. What's really good about these resolutions is that I can do the same again in 2015, as I won't have achieved any of them. Miriam O'Reilly, campaigner To continue campaigning with Labour's Commission on Older Women to get broadcasters to do more than just talk about the fair representation of women over 50 on our TV screens. Michele Hanson, writer I haven't bothered with resolutions for years, but time's running out, which adds a sense of urgency, so this year I'm going for all of it: practise piano and cello for hours every day, including tons of sightreading; then finish the history book I've been fiddling with for 30 years, with efficient notes and filing and cross-referencing, on screen and on paper. Quick, before I peg out. No more fiddling with Twitter, emails, the dog, no more afternoons and long evenings blobbing in front of the telly, no afternoon kips, no staring at nothing – off to the library instead, then sitting up properly at a desk. It's going to be work, work, work. Then the book on sex, quick, before I forget what it is, and in between, I'm going to prune, weed, fertilise and plant the garden properly, replace the lightbulbs, wash and tidy up regularly, and brush my hair at the back every day, so I no longer look bald, and last of all, I shall never, ever use the word "issue" instead of "problem". That's it. A breeze. I hope nobody doubts me. Justine Roberts, co-founder Mumsnet This year I'm resolved to go to bed earlier. They say an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after and that really we should all go to bed at sunset. Clearly at this time of year that would pretty much mean going to bed straight after lunch, tempting but not overly practical. So I'll stick with a midnight curfew, and never mind what my other half does. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty From Liberty founding member Vera Brittain to education activist Malala Yousafzai, women have proved extraordinary champions of human rights across time and continents. In 2014 I want to draw inspiration from amazing women like these to make Liberty's 80th year our best ever. Jack Monroe, food blogger My new year's resolution last year was to say yes more – and look where that's got me! My resolution for 2014 is to learn to play the guitar I've been lugging about with me for the past 10 years, to stop checking my emails after 8pm, and to enjoy the ride. Martha Lane Fox, digital pioneer It's the 25th anniversary of the invention of www [the world wide web] and, using the platform of the Lords, I want to try to encourage more debate about its development in the next 25 years. Ronke Phillips, ITV newsreader I don't believe in new year's resolutions but, as Oprah Winfrey has said: "Here's to a new year and another chance to get it right." Women New Year Women in politics Gender Feminism Camila Batmanghelidjh Harriet Harman Jeanette Winterson Bridget Christie Natasha Walter Miriam O'Reilly Justine Roberts Martha Lane Fox Shami Chakrabarti theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Central America migrants flee turf wars and corrupt states for refuge in Mexico Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:27 PM PST Activists say Mexican authorities faced with most dramatic rise in refugees since 1980s era of rightwing dictatorships Extreme violence in Central America is sending a surge of refugees fleeing north to Mexico where they are caught between official indifference and yet more danger if they continue to the United States, human rights activists say. Activists in Tapachula describe a dramatic increase in the number of women and children arriving in southern Mexico this year. Though precise numbers are hard to come by, it seems clear that Mexico has not witnessed such a refugee flow since the 1980s when the region was beset by a series of vicious civil wars involving rightwing dictatorships and leftwing guerrillas. "There is an undeclared civil war in Central America," said Father Flor Maria Rigoni, who runs a migrant shelter in Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala. "The refugees are coming, but the Mexican institutions aren't taking the problem seriously." The violence behind today's exodus stems from turf wars between street gangs such as the M-18 and Mara Salvatrucha, the growing power of drug cartels and woefully weak and corrupt state institutions across the region. Many of the refugees tell stories like that of Mirta, a 24-year-old Honduran woman travelling with her two small sons. After years living in New York, Mirta was so desperate to spend time with her mother she moved her family back to Honduras, even though it had become the most violent state outside a war zone. The country's murder rate currently hovers around 90 per 100,000 people, compared to one in 100,000 in the UK and five in 100,000 in the US. The pressure began when masked and armed men she described as "little local narcos" forced her husband to sign over his car and demanded her children's US passports. It became unbearable when they narrowly escaped a kidnapping attempt. The family fled to Tegucigalpa, the capital, but found themselves in the middle of an open gang war, where they faced regular demands for "war taxes" they could not afford. They moved through El Salvador and Guatemala, but felt vulnerable in both countries, so eventually crossed into Mexico on one of the many rafts made from giant tyres and planks which cross the Suchiate river dividing the two countries, often in full view of the authorities. Waiting for a decision on her asylum claim, Mirta said she preferred not to think what would happen if it were turned down. Instead she focused on feeding her children. "We just want to find somewhere safe to be and to look for work," she said. "We have received no support. Not even a meal." Mexico received 860 asylum requests in the first eight months of 2013, about two thirds of them from Hondurans and Salvadorans. About 80% of claims in Mexico are usually turned down. Direct comparisons of official figures for 2012 were not available, but activists say this year's increase is obvious. "There are queues to request asylum that never existed before, and many don't apply because they know they could get deported anyway," said Diego Lorente, of the Tapachula-based Fray Matías human rights centre. The size of the phenomenon is particularly hard to pin down because refugees from violence blend into the broader flow of Central Americans heading to the US for economic reasons. Many asylum applications are only lodged after migrants have been detained and are being held in centres where Lorente says they suffer obvious mental and physical distress as they wait out the resolution of their cases. Migration through Mexico peaked in 2005 when the authorities deported around 240,000 Central Americans. Since then a sluggish US economy and tighter controls on the US border have reduced the attractions of going north, as has the knowledge that Mexican drug cartels prey on migrants en route. Reports of kidnapping, rape, murder and forced recruitment are common. Even so, the Mexican authorities still detained more than 88,000 Central American migrants last year during a journey that has become the preserve of the particularly determined and the desperate. Emilio is both. "I saw something that I shouldn't have seen," the 43-year-old vendor said to explain his decision to leave El Salvador, his wife and their three children. "Almost all the Salvadorans I have met here are in a similar situation." Emilio shook as he described how he initially tried to lie low but soon realised the gangs were everywhere and his only hope was to leave the country. Once in Mexico he discounted applying for asylum after an initial interview left him convinced the authorities had no real interest in his story. This left him more focused than ever on joining his brother in the US, whatever the risks he might face on the way. "I never wanted to leave my beautiful country," he said. "But if I go back now I will die." Mexico Refugees Americas Guatemala Honduras El Salvador Migration United States Jo Tuckman theguardian.com © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Antarctic rescue: helicopter to evacuate passengers from trapped ship Posted: 30 Dec 2013 08:19 PM PST Volunteers clear a landing area on the ice after two icebreakers fail to reach the scientific research vessel Alok Jha

North Dakota oil train crash sparks fireball Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:29 PM PST Incident sure to amplify concerns about the safety of carrying increasing volumes of crude oil by rail

Victorian police act against racial bias but say racism is not systemic Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:14 PM PST Pilot program will give receipts to people stopped and searched as part of three-year plan to improve relationship with minorities Oliver Milman

Cyclone Christine still battering Pilbara nine hours after landfall Posted: 30 Dec 2013 06:57 PM PST Bureau of Meteorology warns of dangerous winds despite downgrade to category two Bridie Jabour

Israel frees 26 Palestinian prisoners Posted: 30 Dec 2013 06:17 PM PST Latest group goes free as condition of peace talks being brokered by John Kerry, the US secretary of state

Tony Abbott’s top business adviser accuses IPCC of 'dishonesty and deceit' Posted: 30 Dec 2013 06:13 PM PST Guardian Australia: 'The scientific delusion, the religion behind the climate crusade, is crumbling,' Maurice Newman says Daniel Hurst

Australia’s dairy future is bright | Tyran Jones Posted: 30 Dec 2013 05:47 PM PST Tyran Jones: We farmers don’t want anyone lumping us in with the likes of the car manufacturing industry – we don’t think of ourselves as an economic mess making products no one wants to buy Tyran Jones

Harbin ice-sculpture festival – in pictures Posted: 30 Dec 2013 05:26 PM PST The Ice and Snow World in Harbin in north-east China's Heilongjiang province is opened to visitors. Some 180,000 cubic metres of ice and 150,000 cubic metres of snow were used to build the 600,000-square-metre ice wonderland.

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