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United Nations too Christian, claims report
2014 in film preview: family and musicals
Pop music in 2014: what to look out for this year
South Sudan rebels seize regional capital ahead of peace talks
Archbishop of Canterbury says emulate Nelson Mandela in tackling poverty
After Leveson: a wider lens on privacy | Ros Coward
Bill De Blasio sworn in as New York mayor
Syria conflict pits Shia against Sunni as Hezbollah says this is 'war we must win'
Adrienne Truscott: the naked comic
Russell Crowe's Noah buoys an unsinkable career arc
Ms Marvel: send for the Muslim supergirl!
New year celebrations light up skies and streets around the world
Hackers reveal 4.6m mobile numbers after Snapchat claims it has safeguards
Wet 'n' Wild festival patrons promised refunds after being left high and dry
Sydney king-hit: four more victims in alleged assault of teen, court heard
North Korea: Kim Jong-un condemns uncle as 'filth' in new year address
NYE beach party fight: police launch murder investigation in WA
Obamacare: Catholic groups get temporary reprieve on contraception
Barbara Bush in hospital with pneumonia
Toy donations to be delivered to asylum seeker children on Nauru
Top secret program to target iPhones: Australian agencies may have known
Syria: deadly attack on Aleppo bus
Meeting with Assad: WikiLeaks did not 'know or approve' of party's visit
Newstart drives single mother to tears on son’s eighth birthday
King hit in Sydney on New Year's Eve: teenager fights for his life

United Nations too Christian, claims report

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 01:29 AM PST

Study calls for greater religious tolerance with Hinduism and Buddhism under-represented and funding a major issue

Christianity dominates the United Nations and more diversity is needed to increase non-Christian representation in world peacemaking, according to a study.

Research undertaken by Professor Jeremy Carrette, with colleagues from the University of Kent's Department of Religious Studies, has revealed that more than 70% of religious non-government organisations (NGOs) at the UN are Christian, and that there is historical privilege in allowing the Vatican a special observer status, as both a state and a religion.

The report, called Religious NGOs and the United Nations, calls for greater awareness, transparency and equality in the way religious NGOs operate within the UN, and more emphasis on religious tolerance.

The report also asks for greater understanding of how religions enhance and constrain human rights and provides evidence that funding limits other religious traditions from establishing NGO work at the UN.

Islam, is represented more significantly through the collective of states (the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation) rather than civil society NGOs, which are dominated by Catholic groups, according to the report.

Asian religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, are under-represented and funding is a major issue in preventing their equal access, it said.

Prof Carrette said: "It would seem there needs to be more of a 'global goodwill' to make the UN system work for all religions equally, and for religions to follow and share equally UN goals for peace and justice.

"The report highlights that while all religions are represented in some way in the peacemaking system of the UN, there are structural and historical differences that need to be addressed.

"It also shows that religions form an important part of international global politics and that in a global world we need to establish a new pluralistic contract for equal access for all religions to the UN system.

"This must also entail religious groups working towards the ideals of the UN, in terms of human rights, fairness and justice for all men and women."

The report questions claims by the Christian right that New Age cults run the UN , saying evidence suggests these are greatly misjudged and erroneous.

It also shows the number of inter-faith and New Age NGOs is very small, and religious NGOs in total form only 7.29% of the total of consultative status NGOs at the UN.

But despite their small size, some religious NGOs can have a far greater influence, the research suggests. Among the most active religious NGO groups are Catholics, Quakers and the Baha'i faith, which have some of the highest number of meetings with UN diplomats.

2014 in film preview: family and musicals

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 01:00 AM PST

The best films for kids (and fans of a sing-song) coming up in 2014, including movies starring Angelina Jolie, Steve Carell and Meryl Streep

• 2014 preview: blockbusters
• 2014 preview: thrillers
• 2014 preview: comedy
• 2014 preview: Oscar hopefuls
• 2014 preview: science fiction
• 2014 preview: romance
• 2014 preview: drama

Maleficent

Nega-fairy tale in which The Sleeping Beauty story is told from the point of view of Maleficent, the misunderstood fairy godmother. Angelina Jolie stars as the artist formerly known as "The Mistress of All Evil". Elle Fanning is that scheming harpy, Princess Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty. Following the recent trend for skew-wiff folk tales (Snow White and The Huntsmen, Mirror Mirror) special effects veteran Robert Stromberg makes his directorial debut with a Disney film that looks stranger and darker than the average. 28 May

Muppets Most Wanted

Jason Segel's Muppets reboot positioned Kermit and ko as comeback kings - old friends returning from the edge of showbiz to full-felted glory. It was a remarkable feat considering their run of awful feature films. Segel - a lifelong Muppet fan - was the man behind the magic. He's not on-board this sequel (which sees the gang chase an evil Kermit impersonator around Europe) but director James Bobin is back, as is Bret McKenzie, the Flight of the Conchords star who wrote the first film earworms Life's a Happy Song and Man or Muppet. Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Tom Hiddleston will be popping up to get pally with the puppets. 20 March

Annie

One of the more intriguing prospects on next year's slate. A re-make of the 1982 orphan story based on Harold Gray's 1924 comic strip Little Orphan Annie. Set in contemporary New York with a first draft screenplay by Emma Thompson, Easy A director Will Gluck's take on the musical stars Beasts of the Southern Wild's Quvenzhané Wallis in the title role, with Jamie Foxx as Benjamin Stacks, a modern-day translation of the "Daddy" Warbucks character. Jay-Z, who sampled the Annie song It's a Hard Knock Life for one of his biggest hits, is producing with Will Smith. 19 December

Into the Woods

Down in the woods today … Meryl Streep as a maniacal blue-haired witch, Johnny Depp as a big, bad wolf and Anna Kendrick as Cinderella - all in the service of the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's hit stage musical. The Tony award-winning romp follows a childless Baker (James Corden in this version) and his wife (Emily Blunt) as they try to start a family, only to be constantly interrupted by the goings-on between a bunch of characters from Grimm fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Jack - him of the Beanstalk - among them). Get a room you two. 25 December

Jersey Boys

Warm-up the falsetto, crack the lid on the pomade, Clint Eastwood's musical about the Four Seasons is set to be as slick as they come. The New Jersey foursome (famous for hits including Big Girls Don't Cry and Walk Like a Man) are being played by telly faces (Boardwalk Empire's Vincent Piazza) and members of the original Broadway stage show (John Lloyd Young, who'll reprise his role as lead Season Frankie Valli). Christopher Walken will play Angelo "Gyp" DeCarlo, the mobster that cast a shadow over the boys' doo-wopping glory. 20 June

Get On Up

James Brown biopic, produced by Mick Jagger and directed by The Help's Tate Taylor. Dan Ackroyd, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are set to appear, while Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in 42, the biopic of the first black player to break baseball's racial divide, will play The Godfather of Soul. Can we count it off? 1,2,4 … Oh … No. We can't. Let's hope they fare a little better. 1 August

We Are the Best!

Swedish director Lukas Moodysson gives a rambunctious salute to the geek outsider with his tale of two teenage girls who want to form a punk band. Adapted from a graphic novel by Moodysson's wife, Coco, and played out in early-80s Stockholm, it stokes warm memories of the director's past films, Together and Show Me Love. 28 March

The LEGO Movie

LEGO's first movie snaps into place by building on the reputations of newly-minted cinema icons Batman and Superman, both of whom make an appearance in the winsome trailer. The immense success of the toy company's video games (which included kiddie-friendly twists on Star Wars and Indiana Jones) foreshadow this move into animation. Expect many, many additional parts should the film win over blockheads. 6 February

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Alexander's great big horrible adventure starts with gum in his hair and the complete disregard of his family, who are totally oblivious to his misery. But the wheels of fate will turn and eventually everything bad that happens to Alex - even the gum in the hair - will come back around on them. The Kids are All Right director Lisa Cholodenko directs Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner and Ed Oxenbould in an adaptation of the Judith Viorst's 1972 childrens' book. 24 October

Postman Pat: The Movie

Feature film of the popular kids' show in which Pat, faced with the double threat of privatisation and the rise of digital mail joins a union and spends 90 minutes picketing outside of a sorting centre. OR enters a X-Factor style talent show in the hopes of winning fame and fortune. Pat will be voiced by two people: Green Wing's Stephen Mangan for the talky bits, and Ronan Keating for the sections that require him to sing / express his concern at the impact of automated franking technology on job security. 24 May

More films to look out for in 2014

• 2014 preview: blockbusters
• 2014 preview: thrillers
• 2014 preview: comedy
• 2014 preview: Oscar hopefuls
• 2014 preview: science fiction
• 2014 preview: romance
• 2014 preview: drama

Pop music in 2014: what to look out for this year

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 01:00 AM PST

Even Beyoncé's label didn't see her fifth album coming. From Lily Allen to U2 to Adele, Alexis Petridis ponders what other musical surprises 2014 might bring

A few weeks ago, one of the most powerful men in the music industry, Columbia Records boss Rob Stringer, was interviewed about his label's plans for 2014. He mentioned the forthcoming January release from Bruce Springsteen – High Hopes, a collection of covers, outtakes and "reimagined" versions of songs from previous albums – and, more speculatively, a forthcoming album by Pharrell Williams, set to include his current single Happy, from the soundtrack to Despicable Me 2. Then he added, vaguely, "at some point, Beyoncé will put a record out and when she does it'll be phenomenal". The headlines duly suggested a Beyoncé album would arrive in 2014.

As it turned out, Beyonce's album arrived without warning three days after Stringer – also the label boss behind 2013's other surprise release, David Bowie's The Next Day – gave his interview. If anyone thought releasing an album without prior publicity was a trick that could only be successfully pulled off once, they were mistaken. The impact of what industry magazines have taken to calling a "sneak attack" wasn't in any way dulled by the fact that an artist on the same label had done exactly the same thing earlier in the year: Beyoncé's eponymous fifth album went on to sell more than 800,000 copies in three days.

Given its success, it seems inconceivable that more artists won't try to repeat the feat over the next 12 months, not least because the sneak attack manages to diffuse the weight of expectation placed on a hotly anticipated album and circumvents the chance of bad reviews: you'll still get the coverage, but you'll already have sold a lot of albums before anyone gets round to reading it. You can understand why someone like Adele, whose third album is supposed to come out next year, might seriously consider that approach, given that she's charged with the thankless task of following up the biggest-selling album of the last decade. You might consider it if you were U2, also slated to reappear next year, as a means of injecting a degree of unpredictability into a career that hasn't exactly flagged in recent years – most bands would kill for a career slump involving a world tour that grossed $736m (£450m), as U2's 2009-2011 360 Degree tour did – but that has suffered from a sense of diminishing returns when it comes to new albums: 2009's No Line on the Horizon was their lowest-selling in a decade.

That said, there are a handful of major albums with fixed release dates: not just Springsteen but the second albums by acclaimed US alt-rockers Warpaint and UK dance star Katy B, whose 2011 debut On a Mission brilliantly rendered a variety of underground club genres – drum 'n' bass, dubstep, garage, UK funky – into sparkling pop music. Scheduled for March is Lily Allen's comeback album, which apparently features songs inspired by both "the experience of motherhood" and her Twitter feud with rapper Azaelia Banks, whose own album, Broke With Expensive Taste – originally scheduled for release in 2012 – is also supposed to be coming out next year. The latter certainly sounds like an intriguing record, at least if you believe Banks's description of its contents: an "anti-pop" album influenced by abstract US alt-rock band Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti, featuring collaborations with Pharrell Williams and chart-topping British duo Disclosure.

Equally intriguing is the prospect of Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence – an album on which you hope the singer-songwriter is going to attempt a Bowie-esque reinvention of her persona, rather yet another set of songs in which she pines for her bad boy lover in a seedy motel while either putting her red dress on or taking her dress off – and R&B producer Frank Ocean following up 2012's acclaimed Channel Orange with an album he's suggested is inspired by the Beach Boys, whose influence you could certainly hear in Superpower, his contribution to the Beyoncé album.

Elsewhere, 2014's first two guaranteed critical hits look like being Canadian singer-songwriter St Vincent's eponymous album – released in February and already trailed by a wildly acclaimed single Birth in Reverse, complete with the attention-grabbing opening line "oh what an ordinary day/ take out the garbage/ masturbate" – and the debut album by Sky Ferreira, which is already available to hear on YouTube (having been released in the autumn in the US), and sees the singer, model and actress takes an appealingly leftfield approach to the business of making a pop album. The year's big archival release, meanwhile, looks like being a follow-up to Michael Jackson's posthumous 2010 album, Michael, a record that received what you might tactfully describe as a mixed reception, with members of the Jackson family claiming that several tracks actually featured a Michael Jackson impersonator. It's to repeat the formula of getting old Jackson tracks remixed by a contemporary producer (Timbaland is involved) while fans are apparently excited that it may include Jackson's thought-provokingly titled 1989 outtake Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

Alexis Petridis

South Sudan rebels seize regional capital ahead of peace talks

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 12:58 AM PST

Troops loyal to vice-president Riek Machar take control of Bor as west presses both sides to end violence

South Sudanese rebels loyal to former vice-president Riek Machar have seized control of Bor, the capital of restive Jonglei state, according to the town's mayor.

Nhial Majak Nhial told Reuters that government troops loyal to President Salva Kiir had made a "tactical withdrawal" on Tuesday to Malual Chaat army barracks, two miles (3km) south of the town, after fighting that started at dawn.

"Yes they [rebels] have taken Bor," Nhial said from the national capital Juba, 118 miles (190km) south of Bor.

Western and regional powers have pushed both sides to end the fighting that has killed at least 1,000 people, cut South Sudan's oil output and raised fears of an ethnic-based civil war in the heart of a fragile region.

The information minister, Michael Makuei, said on Monday Machar wanted to seize Bor so he could "talk from a position of strength" at peace talks, which were expected to start in neighbouring Ethiopia on Wednesday.

Government officials said their troops had been battling the ethnic nuer "White Army" militia and forces loyal to Peter Gadet, a former army commander who also rebelled against President Kiir when the fighting broke out in the capital, Juba, on 15 December.

The clashes quickly spread, dividing the country along the ethnic lines of Machar's nuer group and Kiir's dinkas.

Humanitarian organisations say tens of thousands of Bor civilians have crossed the White Nile river to escape the fighting and fled to the swamps.

Archbishop of Canterbury says emulate Nelson Mandela in tackling poverty

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 12:37 AM PST

Justin Welby defends Church of England's right to speak out on political issues in first New Year's message

The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged people to adopt a New Year's resolution of tackling poverty in their own neighbourhoods.

The Most Rev Justin Welby admitted that he never usually makes New Year's resolutions as he is "hopeless" at keeping them.

But the archbishop said in his first New Year's message as head of the Church of England that many people were struggling in spite of many signs of hope.

He recommended taking up a pledge this New Year to try to "change the world a bit where we are" .

"I want to suggest this year that each of us makes a resolution to try and change the world a bit where we are," he said in his message, broadcast on BBC1 and BBC2.

"Nelson Mandela said that dealing with poverty is not an act of charity, it's an act of justice, he said every generation has the chance to be a great generation and we can be that great generation."

The archbishop was filmed visiting a centre supported by the Church Urban Fund, the Church of England charity working to alleviate poverty.

He defended the Church of England's right to speak out on political issues, saying it was his Christian faith that had led him to make public interventions in areas such as energy bills.

He said one of the "greatest excitements" of his job as head of the Church of England was being part of an organisation that is the "glue that's holding the whole of society together" in many places.

The archbishop also said he had experienced some "incredible high points" since being installed including the baptism of Prince George and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion.

He said he had to "pinch himself" to think that he was present at the ceremony, which took place in October in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in London.

After Leveson: a wider lens on privacy | Ros Coward

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 12:01 AM PST

Fascination people's lives is natural, and journalism has changed. We need a more nuanced debate on press intrusion

Does William and Kate's baby actually exist? You could be forgiven for wondering, given how few times George has actually been seen: he wasn't there again for the Sandringham Christmas walkabout. With only two public appearances, and one family snap, he may be the least-seen royal baby of the photographic era. Presumably he is occasionally pushed outside the gates of the Middleton family home, but there are no paparazzi to snap him. These are post-Leveson days and there has been no greater beneficiary than the royal family, around whose privacy the press now gently treads.

George's invisibility is in startling contrast to the coverage of William and Harry's early years. By the mid-80s, tabloids were eagerly snapping away and speculating on everything they saw: whether or not Diana was breastfeeding, and who the nannies and playdates were. Diana played along, often co-operating with the press to allow casual and intimate photos.

Committed republicans probably welcome this invisibility: the less we hear about this boring family the better. But invisibility and mystique in fact serve monarchist causes far more effectively than public scrutiny. For the majority, who may not support intrusive journalism, some press scrutiny is part of the deal. Since the modern monarchy offers itself as a symbolic national family, don't we have a right to know what sort of people – and lives – are carrying that symbolism? As we await post-Leveson regulation, however, the boundaries of acceptable media interest are still unclear, so the press is compliant: no baby George revelations, only stage-managed morsels tossed by the royal family like William's enrolment at Cambridge.

Some protagonists in the Leveson debate seem to imply that the public's desire to know anything a bit more real about William, George, or other "celebrities" is on a level with hacking the phone of a missing child. But not all interest in private lives is prurient and unacceptable. Looked at retrospectively, the journalism (especially tabloid journalism) that pawed over Diana's life in the 80s was impelled by two forces. Roy Greenslade has described the period as "the wild west", with Rupert Murdoch in particular pushing his own brand of republicanism and a new sensationalist, intrusive journalism. But a longer term trend was embedding in that period too; not just sensationalism but human interest stories more generally, particularly intimate issues like relationships, divorce and sexual behaviour.

It wasn't confined to tabloids, it reached the broadsheets too. Now most journalism includes news of public figures' private lives, and speculation on relationships, inner thoughts and emotions. Many revelations are provided by the protagonists themselves, exposing their own privacy in the form of confessional writing. For the younger generation – raised on social media's public sharing of private moments, speaking personally is a necessary part of the mix.

Attention to private behaviour is now key to attracting readers, as was evident in the press's devouring of Nigella Lawson's and Vicky Pryce's stories. And why not? How could anyone not be fascinated by these "morality tales" – hugely successful women who it turns out are just like the rest of us with a capacity to screw up? Commentators debated whether powerful women could be bullied, whether patriarchy still has a hold, and what power does to moral behaviour. This is what much journalism is about now: scrutiny of public figures to find our own moral compass, or scrutiny of ordinary people in extreme situations to assess our own decisions and actions.

It is these interests which landed the press in the dock. But they are not ignoble in and of themselves, as some Leveson commentators say. They are only bad and wrong when the humanity of the people involved is forgotten; when due attention is not paid either to the effect on their real lives or the people dragged into stories. Boundaries of privacy in today's media environment are complex. Many people disregard their own privacy, celebrities stage-manage titbits of their private lives, and commentators overstep the mark. With ethical codes outdated and "human interest" a legitimate journalistic practice, we urgently need a more nuanced discussion about the limits of privacy. To bash human interest stories as just gossip profoundly misses the point.

Ros Coward is a professor of journalism at Roehampton University

Ros Coward

Bill De Blasio sworn in as New York mayor

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 11:20 PM PST

Michael Bloomberg era ends after 12 years, with a Democrat presiding over City Hall for first time since 1993

Syria conflict pits Shia against Sunni as Hezbollah says this is 'war we must win'

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 11:02 PM PST

Commander of militant Lebanese group claims that it has been forced to intervene in self-defence after sectarian attacks

In a grand manor house in northern Lebanon, eight men, all of them well-to-do professionals, had gathered to hear an important visitor talk about the war.

Their guest was late; the going had been heavy across the mountain from Beirut, north up the Bekaa valley and finally west along the flat, spotless, Iranian-made highway that leads to Hermel. Arriving from the bitter chill of a winter evening, he eased into a warm living room where the expectant men edged forward, addressing the new arrival by a nom de guerre widely known throughout Hezbollah, the powerful militant group he had joined more than 20 years ago.

"This is a war not just against us, but against humanity," he said. "And it is one that we will win."

He was referring to the war to the east in Syria, a conflict in which Hezbollah has admitted playing a significant role, rallying to the cause of the Syrian army in its protracted battle against the opposition forces and Sunni Islamist groupings ranged against it.

Speaking carefully and deliberately, the commander, whom the Guardian agreed not to name, initially stuck to the official script that characterises Hezbollah as reluctant saviours of a beleaguered nation hemmed in by extremist Sunni militants on one side and by Israel on the other. In nearly three years of insurrection and war in Syria, it has been difficult to hear anything else from a Hezbollah official.

But over two increasingly unguarded hours, the commander strayed on to themes rarely covered: the regional impact of the group's role in Syria, the intensity of the fighting and the performance of the Syrian Army, which not long ago had been fighting a losing battle to retain control of the country. Those foregathered listened intently. All broadly supported the fight against the Syrian opposition, even if they differed on the virtues of Syria's leader, Bashar al-Assad.

"They fight well. It is not fair to them to say that they are not taking the lead," he said of the battle-worn military regime. "They are there and they are fighting. They have lost 30,000 men. That is not an army that isn't fighting. We are there giving advice and in some cases tactical leadership. We do not take a lead role."

Fifteen kilometres north-east, the ruins of the Syrian border town of Qusayr tell a different story. In May, Hezbollah stormed the town from the south, achieving in three weeks what the army it supports had been unable to do in two years. Syrian tanks and troops took blocking positions to the north and east. The attack is believed to be the biggest co-ordinated engagement ever fought by the Iranian-backed, exclusively Shia Islamic militia, which is well-attuned to guerrilla warfare, but less so to a full frontal assault on a fortified urban centre.

The Qusayr battle cost Hezbollah 112 men. It was, however, defining for a different reason: it marked the first time that the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, had been prepared to reveal that his members were indeed fighting in Syria. The acknowledgment was perceived by many Sunni Arab leaders as an act of belligerence that poured fuel on the sectarian fire. In the eyes of Saudi Arabia and many of the Gulf states, the troika of Iran, Hezbollah and the Alawite-led Assad regime are no longer shy about taking the fight to Sunni Muslims in the name of regional hegemony.

"It is not like that at all," the commander said. "They are the majority and they think they are the victims. Aren't minorities supposed to be the vulnerable ones? We are defending our lands. We are defending our interests. If the takfiris [fundamentalist Sunni Islamists] had not started attacking the border Shia villages, we would not have been forced to act."

Throughout the discussion, the commander labelled all members of the opposition as takfiris. Pressed on whether he believed any opposition fighters remained committed to the uprising's original goals of reorienting power within Syria's current borders, he said: "If there were any mainstream revolutionaries back then, there are very few now.

"In [Sunni] history Ibn Tarmeyah spoke out three times against us. We have known what we have been up against for a long time."

The pertinence of ancient teachings to a here-and-now battle is a common theme on both sides of a now bitter and protracted divide which is steadily becoming the most serious schism between the two Islamic sects since a seminal dispute over who should succeed the prophet Muhammad nearly 1,400 years ago.

Increasing numbers on both sides – the almost exclusively Sunni opposition and the largely Shia-aligned interests of the regime – frame the war as a prelude to an apocalyptic showdown with a preordained foe. To the Hezbollah leader, the role of the group is underwritten by Islamic teachings, just as much as it is dictated by modern strategic realities.

"The battle is intense. The takfiris are committed. They want to destroy Syria and we will not let them."

Despite murmurings of unease in parts of Lebanon's Shia heartland, he said Hezbollah and its supporters resolutely supported the group's involvement in the war. "It is an extension of the ongoing war [with Israel]," he said. "The enemy wears a new cloth. They may not be doing all of this themselves, but their interests are being served."

Asked why it had taken more than two years for Nasrallah to acknowledge the group's intervention, he said: "There was a process needed. People are absolutely committed to the reality now because they know it is one and the same hand.

"We started around the Sayeda Zainab mosque [a revered Shia shrine near Damascus], then moved to the border villages, then Qusayr. There are members fighting throughout the country, but not in huge numbers."

Over the past three weeks, some Hezbollah members have been stationed on the outskirts of Aleppo, along with members of the Iranian military and a large contingent of a Shia militia, Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas, drawn mainly from Iraqi volunteers. Hezbollah is also playing a lead role in the Qalamoun mountains north-west of Damascus – a battle that if won would allow the victor access from the capital to Syria's third city, Homs.

On the other side are a mix of Syrians fighting to oust Assad and replace him with another leader, and jihadists who see the insurrection as means of re-establishing a caliphate in the area and a fundamentalist Islamic society that reflects the seventh-century life of the prophet Muhammad.

Fighting in both areas has been intense over the past week, with more than 420 people reported to have been killed in eastern Aleppo. Helicopters dropping improvised explosives are responsible for much of the carnage and medics in Aleppo report that large numbers of civilians are among the casualties. In Qalamoun, the battle is being fought in mountains and valleys, the type of terrain in which Hezbollah has trained for more than three decades.

The conversation broadens. These men are at home here. The founding parade that formed the organisation was held not far from this spot in 1982. Street posts throughout Hermel are festooned with fading posters of men who have died in Hezbollah's short, bloody history. All are revered as martyrs in the organisation's heartland. Many had died in battles past, fought against a traditional foe, Israel. But new vivid photos of young fresh-faced men and boys jut from among them. They instead perished in Syria, fighting other Muslims. And the Hezbollah leader had commanded many of them.

A maid made coffee runs from a spotless kitchen to the right of the group and a portrait of a smiling Bashar al-Assad, his late father Hafez, and Hassan Nasrallah overlooked them from a facing wall. The conversation turned to the role of the US in the region and its rapproachment with Iran. "They seem to be framing their foreign policy [in the Middle East] solely through the view of protecting Israel," he said. "There are, of course oil and gas interests, especially with Iran and Pakistan. But the discussions with Iran are welcomed. It is a step forward."

As for the old foe, Israel, he said: "None of their borders are safe now and this is not a good thing for them. They cannot be happy with the momentum anywhere in the region, especially Syria. Egypt is perhaps the only border that gives them comfort. The rest are outside of their control."

Solar-powered lamps provided by Iran light the pristine road back to the Bekaa Valley, where potholes and darkness replace the stretch of bitumen. Here, only 15km from one of Hezbollah's main strongholds, the world view also changes suddenly.

At the first Lebanese army checkpoint heading south, several soldiers stopped our car and asked if we had a place for one of them. "I'm deserting," a 19-year-old Sunni Muslim conscript said. "I've had enough of this. Another rocket [from Syria] just landed. I want to go there and fight."

Echoing the words of the Hezbollah leader, he said: "This is a war that we cannot lose. We will win, whatever the cost."

Martin Chulov

Adrienne Truscott: the naked comic

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 11:00 PM PST

She performs semi-nude and asks audiences: 'Ever been raped?' Are you ready for this brash New Yorker's brand of polemic standup?

Adrienne Truscott apologises to me before our meeting: the video she sent of her standup routine invites a certain awkwardness when encountering her in person. In the five-minute clip she is outrageous, raucous and viciously funny. She is also naked from the waist down. "Sorry!" she says again, as we shake hands at the door of her apartment in Brooklyn. She smiles ruefully. "Was it too much?"

The show, Asking for It: A One-Lady Rape About Comedy, won her the Foster's comedy award at the Edinburgh festival this year and dropped a lot of jaws. Truscott, whose background is in cabaret, walks on stage in heels, bra, denim jacket, platinum blonde wig and nothing else. The terrified audience squeaks with laughter. "Anyone here been raped?" she calls cheerfully. "Or has anyone raped anyone?" She raises her own hand. The audience erupts.

It's not for everyone, including Truscott's own mother, who is English and rather gamely asked to see the performance before her daughter gently dissuaded her. Truscott's nudity is not designed to be alluring. In fact, it is incredibly aggressive, a subversion of how women are conditioned to perceive and use their own bodies. Her aim was, first and foremost, to be funny, and beyond that to confront the way rape is referred to by male comedians – in particular Daniel Tosh, a US comedian who silenced a female heckler recently with the zinger, "Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now?", a comment other male comedians failed to condemn. "No one said, 'Dude, that was a bad joke.' The response to criticism was, 'Oh, you don't believe in free speech?' Oh, for fuck's sake, it's not that black and white."

She also wanted to make a point about emphasis. "To show the flip side of the attention that's always on victims – the worst version of which is 'You asked for it', and the best version, 'That shouldn't have happened to her.' No no no. He shouldn't have done it. That was my whole thing: to bring that into the room."

The room, a bookstore in Edinburgh, was nerve-rackingly personal: no lights, no stage, no distance between Truscott and the front row. No one could leave without the entire room noticing – given the material, it amused Truscott to note that this acted as a powerful disincentive. "You can't get up because it's like," – sotto voce – "is that the rapist?!" She laughs.

Although it is more challenging, Truscott's preference is to perform before a mainstream audience, rather than a self-selected group of woman-friendly activists or supporters. (She is canny enough to know that being described as a "feminist performance artist", even though she is a feminist performer, "would be the death of it.")

The idea for the show came about after she spent a week as an entertainer on a lesbian cruise ship. "You go to sea for a week with 1,800 lesbians, and there's a philosophy of incredible sensitivity on the boat which, for a comic, can get to the point of ..." She mimes tearing her hair out. "It would elicit late-night comedic purges from a lot of the comics. I made a joke about rape, someone else made one back, and it felt like there was something cathartic going on. We were making jokes about how we feel the world treats it."

The morning after she won the award at Edinburgh, a TV journalist asked her where on Earth she thought she could perform the show, outside of fringe theatre. She was hungover, and replied without thinking. "I said, 'Well if you think about how everybody likes to laugh, and how many people get raped, it's a super-mainstream show.'" She smiles. "Too much?"

• Soho theatre, London W1 (020-7478 6100), 12-31 May

Emma Brockes

Russell Crowe's Noah buoys an unsinkable career arc

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 11:00 PM PST

He goes forth; he multiplies. Russell Crowe's latest choice of role is divinely inspired – and further lands him in the footsteps of Hollywood greats such as Heston, Burton and Flynn

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Whether because of deep personal ambition or a sense of having come to American cinema as an outsider, the New Zealand-born Russell Crowe's role choices have often suggested a desire to belong to great Hollywood traditions.

Gladiator looked back to historical blockbusters such as Cleopatra and Ben-Hur, Cinderella Man joined the line of boxing movies that includes Raging Bull, and Robin Hood directly overlapped with one of the signature performances of an earlier leading man from the Antipodes, Errol Flynn. Even Crowe's recent cameo in Man of Steel – as Superman's dad – happened to take on a part formerly played by a cinematic legend, Marlon Brando.

And now the history man seems to be at it again. His big 2014 release, Noah, channels Charlton Heston and the biblical extravaganzas such as Cecil B De Mille's The Ten Commandments, that were popular in the 1940s and 50s. By striking coincidence, Crowe as Noah, directed by Darren Aronofsky, will be going head to head with Christian Bale as Moses in Ridley Scott's Exodus, another retro-religious film.

As these movies follow the 10-hour American series The Bible (shown in the UK on Channel 5), it's clear that God is hot in US culture for reasons that may combine the current cultural power of the religious right, the cheapness of the material (scripture is out of copyright) and the fact that many of the set pieces in the good book – floods, plagues, sieges at walled cities – happily parallel the plots of disaster movies.

Revealingly, the marketing line on Noah, in posters and an early trailer, presents the bearded boat-builder as "a man trying to protect his family", and one of the clips released so far shows Crowe delivering the line, "It begins!", which traditionally cues the unleashing of the special effects in apocalyptic films. The biblical story of the Flood is essentially The Day After Tomorrow with a bit of a theological sub-plot about divine intervention.

Actors like to talk about their character's "arc" and, in playing someone who has an ark as well, Crowe has selected a figure with many contemporary resonances. The raging elements against which the rain-lashed father fights can surely be taken – if members of the audience so choose – as metaphors for terrorism, the economy or, indeed, in these environmentally conscious times, the weather. And cinemagoers in the Bible Belt and certain Republican senators and former governors may particularly warm to the story's subtext of a divine cleansing of the world.

For Crowe, Noah feels like a canny choice. It is a role in which for an actor suddenly to look older – Crowe will reach 50 next year – will be regarded as realism rather than deterioration; it would look odd if he hadn't gone grey and whiskery. And Noah's arc requires him to be tremendously brave and macho, while also demonstrating notable kindness to animals: a crowd-pleasing combination of attitudes that would be hard to bring off in, for example, a film about a dad protecting his kids against terrorists in modern Detroit.

Ever since Robin Hood, the accent has been on the performer's vocal choices, and the trailer suggests that Crowe has gone for a throaty rumble that might well be the speaking voice of a man who has spent a lot of time persuading large and dangerous animals to walk up a plank in pairs.

And, for Crowe, the performances continue to come in two-by-two: walking by the side of Flynn in Robin Hood, Richard Burton in Gladiator, Brando in Man of Steel and, now, Charlton Heston in Noah.

• Noah is released on 28 March

Mark Lawson

Ms Marvel: send for the Muslim supergirl!

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 11:00 PM PST

G Willow Wilson explains why she has created a Muslim superhero, and why Kamala Khan is not a poster girl for religion

In many ways, says the writer G Willow Wilson, Marvel's new comic-book character is a typical teenager, dealing with the angst of high school, before discovering superhero powers. So far, so Peter Parker. Except 16-year-old Kamala Khan is female, and a Muslim: unusual enough in the world of comics to have caused quite a ripple when it was announced in November.

"She's a child of Pakistani immigrants," says Wilson from her home in Seattle, where she is already working on the third issue; the series will start in February. "On the one hand, she grew up in an American city as a fairly typical middle-class American kid, but she's also got the tradition and history of her parents. She faces a lot of the same dilemmas many second-generation kids do."

To begin with, the story establishes Kamala's family and high-school life. "And then quite unexpectedly – I won't quite reveal how – she finds herself with these extraordinary powers that allow her to grow and shrink her entire body, or specific limbs. Eventually she will be able to take on the appearance of other people and things, and so she really has to decide, 'Why do I have these powers, and what am I meant to use them for? How does this change who I am?'" She takes on the name Ms Marvel, previously used by superhero Carol Danvers (now known as Captain Marvel). "It's very much a classic superhero origin story but with this added tension of her growing into herself as a second-generation American Muslim."

Kamala isn't the first Muslim comic-book character, nor even Marvel's first Muslim woman, but she is their first to lead her own series. The idea came from two Marvel editors: Sana Amanat, who had been telling her colleague, Steve Wacker, tales of growing up in a Muslim family. (The idea predates the recent rise to prominence of the similarly named, similarly brave teenage girl, education activist Malala Yousafzai.) Amanat and Wacker approached Wilson – who converted to Islam in college, and whose work includes the comic Cairo and novel Alif the Unseen – to be the writer (with artwork by Adrian Alphona). "My immediate thought was, 'What are we going to get ourselves into?'" she says.

It wasn't that she worried Marvel's readership would balk at a Muslim teenage girl: "The comic-reading demographic is certainly changing and diversifying." But, she says, "whenever you have a character representing any kind of minority, including women, who are underrepresented, there is extra scrutiny because there are no other examples. Everyone wants to see their own personal opinions in that character. So I knew we had to have a very deft touch."

Amanat told the New York Times that Kamala's brother is very conservative, her mother worries "she's going to touch a boy and get pregnant" and her father wants her to become a doctor. This led some to suggest the series reinforced the stereotype of a Muslim family, although the general response was positive. "I understand why people are apprehensive because any time you hear about a Muslim character in pop culture, you're immediately bracing for all of that negativity," says Wilson. "But Sana and I have tried to stay very true to our own experiences in the community. I come from a fairly conservative Muslim community in Seattle, and I know the positive side of those communities and nuances that are maybe not picked up in the media."

Kamala's faith, she says, "is part of her personal journey, but she is in no way a poster child for religion. She's very much at the phase of deciding who she is, which many teenagers go through regardless of their background. I don't think any of us were out to make some political point, just to reflect the reality and give voice to the young women who are at this very interesting point in history and trying to navigate two worlds." Or three – if you're a teenage superhero and about to enter the Marvel universe.

Emine Saner

New year celebrations light up skies and streets around the world

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:47 PM PST

From Sydney to New York via Dubai and London, firework displays and festivities track the arrival of 2014 across the globe

Hackers reveal 4.6m mobile numbers after Snapchat claims it has safeguards

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:37 PM PST

Guardian Australia: Website releases usernames and phone numbers of Snapchat users in the US, with the last two digits redacted

Paul Farrell

Wet 'n' Wild festival patrons promised refunds after being left high and dry

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:20 PM PST

NSW fair trading minister describes cancellation of festival as a 'debacle' and says promoters have agreed to pay refunds

Paul Farrell

Sydney king-hit: four more victims in alleged assault of teen, court heard

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:03 PM PST

Shaun McNeil, 25 is alleged to have hit four other victims in the same assault in Sydney’s Kings Cross that put Daniel Christie, 18, in hospital

North Korea: Kim Jong-un condemns uncle as 'filth' in new year address

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 10:02 PM PST

Ruler makes first public reference to execution of Jang Song Thaek, saying ruling party has been strengthened as a result

NYE beach party fight: police launch murder investigation in WA

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 09:54 PM PST

Police say man aged 20 died after being assaulted on remote Wedge Island, 160km north of Perth, shortly before 1.30am

Obamacare: Catholic groups get temporary reprieve on contraception

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 09:31 PM PST

Organisations providing insurance have objected to being forced to fund services in violation of their stated beliefs

The US supreme court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday night granted Roman Catholic-affiliated groups a temporary exemption from a part of the Obamacare healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance policies covering contraception.

She issued an order that stops the US government enforcing the so-called contraception mandate against Baltimore-based Little Sisters of the Poor and Illinois-based Christian Brothers Services, plus related entities.

A lawyer for other Catholic groups that had asked the supreme court to act in three other cases on Tuesday said lower courts had issued temporary injunctions similar to Sotomayor's, meaning the high court had no need to act.

Roman Catholic church-affiliated organisations asked the US supreme court to block implementation of a part of the Obamacare healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance policies that cover contraception.

Catholic University of America and non-profit organisations in Michigan and Tennessee were among those filing three separate applications asking the court to temporarily exempt them from the so-called contraception mandate while litigation continues. The mandate, which comes into effect on 1 January, is already in place for many women who have private health insurance.

The organisations accuse the federal government of forcing them to support contraception and sterilisation in violation of their religious beliefs or face steep fines.

The 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, requires employers to provide health insurance policies that cover preventive services for women, including contraception and sterilisation.

The act makes an exception for religious institutions such as houses of worship that mainly serve and employ members of their own faith, but not schools, hospitals and charitable organisations that employ people of all faiths.

As a compromise, the administration agreed to an accommodation for non-profit organisations affiliated with religious entities that was finalised in July.

Under the accommodation, eligible non-profits have to provide a "self certification" – described by one lower court judge as a "permission slip" – that authorises the insurance companies to provide the coverage. The challengers say that step alone is enough to violate their religious rights.

In separate cases, the supreme court already has agreed to hear oral arguments on whether for-profit corporations have the basis to object to the contraception mandate on religious grounds. The court is due to hear the arguments in March and decide the two consolidated cases by the end of June.