World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

George Osborne's speech on EU reform: Politics live blog
Bangladesh has little to celebrate after the most violent election day in its history | Aisha Gani
Global media mission arrives to investigate press freedom in Britain
The west's legacy in Afghanistan: so much for so litte | Jonathan Steele
Kuwait pledges $500m and US $300m to UN's humanitarian appeal for Syria
Women's employment levels in film industry in decline
French Women Don't Get Facelifts by Mireille Guiliano – review
Nick Nolte joins cast of Noah … just weeks before film's release
Justin Bieber's house raided by police investigating 'egg-throwing attack' – video report
Israel's defence minister apologises for 'offensive' Kerry remarks
West has discussed co-operation with Syria, Damascus claims
Reform EU or Britain quits - George Osborne lays down ultimatum
Bangkok anti-government protests continue after shooting - video
Scottish radio host killed in Thailand
Danish tourist gangraped in Delhi
Australia's budget is deteriorating, says commission of audit head
Come on, atheists: we must show some faith in ourselves | Zoe Williams
House prices: who's to blame for driving them through the roof?
Will killing sharks save lives?
Australian Open: Casey Dellacqua thrills home crowd with upset victory
Operation Sovereign Borders personnel exempted from workplace protection
Shots fired in Bangkok protests
Firefighters battle blazes across Victoria and South Australia
Bushfire inquiry: 52 homes destroyed by power pole fall on 82-year-old's land
Scott Morrison calls Destroy the Joint 'juvenile' for sending him tampons

George Osborne's speech on EU reform: Politics live blog

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:43 AM PST

Andrew Sparrow's rolling coverage of all the day's political developments as they happen, including David Cameron and Ed Miliband at PMQs, George Osborne's speech on EU reform and the Commons debate on bank bonuses

Andrew Sparrow

Bangladesh has little to celebrate after the most violent election day in its history | Aisha Gani

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:30 AM PST

With 21 people dead, along with further human rights abuses and an absence of opposition, serious questions must now be asked of this government

My cousin Amna (not her real name), a student at Anwer Khan Modern Medical College in Dhaka, is currently resitting her crucial exams and missed all her classes in the past two weeks because of the recent instability in Bangladesh. "My friends are afraid and nobody wants to come into college," she told me. It was not safe for her to travel back to the capital, with violent clashes between protesters and police on the streets, strikes and road blockades, and buses being petrol-bombed. "Bangladesh is very dangerous at the moment. People didn't want to go out during election time. There is horror every day."

I think about when I visited Bangladesh, navigating the dusty alleyways with Amna, hailing a rickshaw and picking up hot parathas and halwa en route to Dhanmondi lake to watch the sun rise. It was Victory day in Bangladesh. But now there is nothing to celebrate after the most recent elections. The country is still being choked by a toxic political culture in which winner takes all, and where there is no room for reconciliation with the opposing side. Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as prime minister this weekend, with the backdrop of putting the opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, under house arrest and banning 21 political parties. The absence of opposition parties raises concerns about the credibility of the elections.

The Hasina regime's record of human rights abuses and the level of corruption is serious, and it is disconcerting that pro-government newspapers and elite commentators overlook this. Moreover, their support for the Shahbag movement, whose demands include hanging those accused at the domestic war crimes tribunal, banning opposition political parties and arresting editors who are critical of them, is deeply disturbing. Although the Bangladeshi novelist Tahmima Anam argued in the Guardian that Bangladesh doesn't have to go back to being a basket case, the only way to prevent this is to have a real democracy, stop the political point-scoring, stop seeking revenge, and focus on unity and working towards a more pluralist society.

This was the most violent election day in Bangladesh's history, with 21 people killed as they headed to the polls, and in the run-up to the elections there have been night raids on the homes of opposition supporters. Yet human rights abuses by the regime's security forces are nothing new. Last year, the offices of human rights activists were ransacked for reporting on abuses by the government's security forces against protesters, while activists Adilur Rahman Khan and Naseeruddin Elan of the Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar were arrested and are now appearing before a cyber crimes tribunal. There have also been violent attacks on journalists, including the murder of a blogger. And it is the same government security forces that charged with batons and opened fire on protesters who were demanding compensation for the loss of their loved ones after the Rana Plaza factory tragedy, in which more than 1,100 people died.

Much of the current instability is happening because Hasina slashed open some old wounds of the nation: the prime minister had made a manifesto pledge to hold accused "war criminals and collaborators [of Pakistan]" on trial – despite a previous general amnesty in 1973 which had been granted by Hasina's father, Sheik Mujibur Rahman. It was an election winner for Hasina's Awami League party against the Bangladeshi National party (BNP), who had been successful in elections in 2001 when they made a partnership with Jamaat-e-Islami. In 2010, Hasina's government set up the "international" war crimes tribunal and most of those on trial are long-standing members of Jamaat-e-Islami. Last month, Abdul Quader Mollah was the first defendant to be hanged. This war crimes tribunal has been condemned as unjust by the international community, including the UN and Amnesty. It has been marred by scandals including the abduction of defence witnesses by police from the court, to the exposure of partiality and collusion between judges, prosecution and the state.

Are these shackles of war and political grudges what we want the next generation of Bangladeshis to inherit? Grave crimes were committed and have to be addressed. There has to be restorative justice for the victims of the war, and as I have argued elsewhere, there can be truth and reconciliation even after 40 years. But has justice been done with unfair trials, division and more spilt blood? Serious questions must be asked of the government; and with steps taken to eliminate the opposition, is Hasina's regime taking an even more authoritarian direction? There are suggestions that there was less than 10% voter turnout in the elections. The EU, US and Commonwealth nations did not send observers to monitor the polls, which were not deemed to be "transparent, inclusive and credible". While allies have not previously said much of consequence on the country's human rights record, and usually heap platitudes on Bangladesh's progress, the real test will be how they interact with this government in the future, and whether they will legitimise the corruption that they have just called out.

Aisha Gani

Global media mission arrives to investigate press freedom in Britain

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:23 AM PST

Delegation from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers will investigate press regulation

An "unprecedented" press freedom mission to Britain by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) begins today.

Representatives of the organisation are holding a series of meetings in London "to investigate the British government's actions relating to newspaper regulation and the handling of revelations of state surveillance."

Among the people they expect to interview during the three-day mission are culture secretary Maria Miller, culture select committee chairman John Whittingdale and the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger.

The delegation, led by WAN-IFRA's chief executive, Vincent Peyrègne, will also speak to freedom of expression and civil society groups, professional bodies, various industry representatives and academics.

In a WAN-IFRA press release, Peyrègne is quoted as saying that the organisation's membership is "deeply concerned by the British authorities' treatment of the profession of journalism and its attempts to control the public debate."

He said the government's actions "have far-reaching consequences across the globe – particularly within the Commonwealth." He continued:

"Any threats to the independence of journalism in Britain could be used by repressive regimes worldwide to justify their own controls over the press.

We will endeavour to investigate all elements that threaten the United Kingdom's position as a bastion for free and independent media with the same rigour as we have approached other international press freedom hotspots in nearly 70 years of defending freedom of expression worldwide."

Peyrègne's mission colleagues include representatives of newspapers in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, the USA and Pakistan.

Previous WAN-IFRA press freedom missions have been to countries such as Ethiopia, South Africa, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Burma. But this is the first mission to the United Kingdom.

The delegation hopes to publish its UK report in February.

Source: WAN-IFRA

Roy Greenslade

The west's legacy in Afghanistan: so much for so litte | Jonathan Steele

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:15 AM PST

Hopes for peace in Afghanistan remain slim as the country prepares for a presidential election, and life after occupation

This is the year of the big Afghan retreat. By December British and American troops will have left the country after 12 disastrous years. After spending billions of dollars to promote good governance, economic development and women's rights, they will depart from a state that is among the three most corrupt in the world, has rates of infant mortality that match the worst in sub-Saharan Africa and ranks 175th on the UN's chart for gender equality.

No wonder the gap between official western statements and the views of most Afghans remains huge. Rarely has a foreign occupation created so much misunderstanding between invaders and local people. Afghans welcomed the flight of the Taliban in 2001 but also hoped for punitive action against the other warlords who had terrorised them before the Taliban emerged. Instead, they saw them reinstalled in power and soon become the prime beneficiaries of western largesse.

Whether the departure of foreign troops is total is not yet clear. After negotiating a pact that would allow about 10,000 US troops to remain indefinitely, Hamid Karzai is refusing to sign it unless he gets more concessions. This leaves open the possibility that, as happened in Iraq in 2011, the talks will collapse and the US will be forced to abandon the bases it hasdeveloped since 2001. Recently leaked conclusions from the US's latest national intelligence estimate paint a picture of "chaos" in Afghanistan if all US troops depart. While this may be designed to frighten Afghan politicians into signing the pact, the intelligence estimate predicts declining security even if some troops remain. Yet only a minority of Afghans are worried. A poll, financed by the US government and conducted by Glevum Associates in the run-up to the presidential election in April, has found that no more than 40% of those surveyed felt it was important for candidates to support troops staying after 2014.

This chimes in with the general Afghan perception, articulated repeatedly by Karzai, that US and British troops have caused excessive death and destruction. Security in Helmand was better before the British came, he said last year. His position is, of course, ambiguous. Without US support he would never have become president. But torn between loyalty to his protectors and paymasters and the need to express the feelings of most Afghans, he has become increasingly critical of the foreign occupation as his time in office runs out. In Whitehall and Washington, where officials and generals peddle the propaganda of success, Karzai's line creates exasperation. They should look at another survey published last month, by the US-based Asia Foundation, which found that 77% of Afghans said they would be afraid to encounter international forces.

What then of April's elections, touted as another milestone of progress? Almost all of the 11 candidates have faced serious allegations of graft. Seven are warlords linked to allegations of war crimes. The worst is Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a hardline Islamist who will go down in history as the man who invited Osama bin Laden to settle in Afghanistan in 1996. That such a man could be tolerated as an acceptable potential president reveals the cynicism of the official western discourse on good governance.

The one good thing about the election is that candidates are crossing the ethnic divide in their choice of running mates. Even Ashraf Ghani, a Pashtun who is the most progressive of the candidates and one of the two front-runners, has felt it necessary to pick the ruthless Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum as his vice-president. If these pragmatic alliances can help to prevent a resurgence of fighting, they will have achieved something. But the fact that avoiding civil war is Afghanistan's top priority as western troops depart is the biggest indictment of the west's 12 years of failure.

As for the resurgent Taliban, rather than trying to destroy them by force the west should have sought to negotiate. Neither Karzai nor western policy ever embraced this option seriously. There has been much talk of "reconciliation", but it was only a euphemism for a surrender in which individual Taliban were expected to abandon their armed struggle. Now, with the west on the way out, Washington's appetite for a U-turn is nil. The chance that Afghan's new president will talk to the Taliban is not much greater: 2014 will not be a good year.

Jonathan Steele

Kuwait pledges $500m and US $300m to UN's humanitarian appeal for Syria

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:13 AM PST

Civil war has set Syria back decades, Ban Ki-moon tells donor conference aimed at helping UN reach $6.5bn target for 2014

Kuwait's emir has promised $500m (about £300m) for UN humanitarian efforts in Syria, devastated by almost three years of civil war.

Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah made the pledge at an international donor conference on Wednesday intended to help the world body reach a $6.5bn aid target for the crisis in 2014.

"The flames of the humantarian crisis in Syria are still going on … destroying all signs of life," he said, describing the conflict as a catastrophe. "It is my honour to declare from this conference that the state of Kuwait pledges $500m."

The US announced it would contribute $380m in additional aid to victims of Syria's civil war, much of it designated for children in need of healthcare, education and counselling.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said the new funding brought America's humanitarian aid contribution to Syrian victims to $1.7bn in three years.

The appeal, launched last month, is the largest in the history of the UN, which estimates that the conflict has rolled back human development gains in Syria by 35 years, with half the population now living in poverty. The $1.5bn pledged via the UN at a similar meeting last year in Kuwait was used in Syria and surrounding countries to provide food, medicine, drinking water and shelters. The largest donations at that conference came from Gulf Arab governments.

Overall, only 70% of all of the crisis funding needed for Syria in 2013 has been received by the UN, according to its Financial Tracking Service (FTS). "Even under the best circumstances, the fighting has set back Syria years, even decades," said the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who is chairing the Kuwait conference. Ban has previously expressed regret that not all promised donations have been received from the last meeting, with 20-30% still lacking.

Ban told the gathering on Wednesday he hoped peace talks due to be held in Switzerland on 22 January would bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table. "I hope this will launch a political process to establish a transitional governing body with a full executive powers, and most importantly, end the violence," he added.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday it had delivered rations to a record 3.8 million people in Syria in December, but civilians in eastern provinces and besieged towns near the capital remain out of reach. The agency voiced concern at reports of malnutrition in besieged areas, especially among children, and called for greater access.

The WFP says it needs to raise $35m every week to feed people both in Syria and in neighbouring countries.

Kerry said on Monday that Syria's government and some rebels might be willing to permit humanitarian aid to flow, enforce local ceasefires and take other confidence-building measures. He and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, had talked about the possibility of trying to encourage a ceasefire, possibly beginning with Aleppo, Syria's largest city, he added.

Last year, Kuwait sent more than $300m to the UN for the emergency campaign, making it the biggest Middle Eastern donor. The US is the top country donor.

More than 60 countries are expected at this year's Kuwait gathering, including representatives from Arab states, Europe and the US.

Women's employment levels in film industry in decline

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:10 AM PST

Latest edition of annual Celluloid Ceiling report suggest that fewer women are in film key jobs than in 1998

• Women successful yet sidelined in film writing and directing
• Sisters, act: Meryl Streep calls for more films for women

The difficulties faced by women attempting to make a career in the film industry are increasing, according to the latest annual Celluloid Ceiling report issued by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

The report shows that just 16% of behind the scenes personnel – directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors and cinematographers – staffing the top 250 grossing films of 2013 are women. Last year's report put the figure at 18%; which was itself a small increase on the year before. To underscore how little progress there has been, 16% is lower than the figure for 1998, the first year the Celluloid Ceiling report appeared.

Martha Lauzen, executive director of the centre, said: "The film industry is in a state of gender inertia. There is no evidence to suggest that women's employment has improved in key behind-the-scenes roles over the last 16 years."

The study tracks the numbers of women employed in various key job categories in the 250 most successful US films of 2013. Other than cinematographers, none of the major job types saw a rise, with only producers holding steady at 25% – itself the biggest category for women. Production designers and editors were the next largest percentage share for women, at 23% and 17%.

Below is the table of full percentage statistics:

• Directors: 6%, down 3% from 2012
• Writers: 10%, down 5% from 2012
• Producers: 25%, even with 2012
• Executive producers: 15%, down 2% from 2012
• Editors: 17%, down 3% from 2012
• Cinematographers: 3%, up 1% from 2012
• Production designers: 23%, up 3% from 2008 (when the stats were last compiled)
• Sound designers: 4%, down 1% from 2008
• Supervising sound editors: 9%, up 4% from 2008
• VFX supervisors: 5%

"People expected [Kathryn] Bigelow's Oscar [for The Hurt Locker] to have a halo effect on other women," Lauzen said. "It was a bit of wishful thinking. Attitudes remain a major stumbling block. There are some harsh realities women in the film community are facing."

• Women successful yet sidelined in film writing and directing
• Sisters, act: Meryl Streep calls for more films for women

Andrew Pulver

French Women Don't Get Facelifts by Mireille Guiliano – review

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 01:00 AM PST

The author of French Women Don't Get Fat is back with an account of how to age with attitude – is it useful, or drivel?

"Because of the reception of my lifestyle books and perhaps because I was born French, I am often asked to share my tips on 'ageing gracefully', an expression I don't like. 'Ageing with attitude' is what I believe in." Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat and French Women For All Seasons, is back with another account of femininity seen through a prism of ethnicised self-hate. For those who missed the previous volumes, French women don't get fat because they don't eat much, and they age well (hence "for all seasons") because they don't get fat.

Facelifts continues on the theme of Seasons, which is to say, French women keep their young attitude by a combination of delusional narcissism and a fear of obesity so profound that I'd say it amounts to a disorder.

"Forget crawling, walking with a cane, forget classifying old age as the third age of man; it can be depressing and diverting," she says. "We know a strong social network helps people survive cancer," she says. While her language is often opaque due to incorrect usage, its meaning is clear over time: refuse to admit your mortality and it will cease to exist. Your physical flaws, on the other hand, you should face down boldly every day, with constant vigilance and frequent mirror checks. Though there is plenty of open contradiction in the book – don't go in the sun, it's ageing; go in the sun, you need the vitamins: you don't need to spend a lot of money but you do need some shoes from Bottega Veneta – this central modus operandi is not a contradiction so much as an inversion of hard-won human wisdom. Forget about illness, loss, mortality; fixate instead on wrinkles, eye-bags, batwings. For this way grace lies.

One would not, however, critique a book about managerial techniques on the basis that capitalism stinks and no one person should be managing any other – one has to at least approach a book on its own terms. Stoutly, then, I put aside my belief that to approach your ninth decade still measuring yourself out by the kilogram and admiring glance is to be locked into a kind of indentured servitude to the patriarchy, sold into serfdom by the generation before you … (At least for the most part. I was saddened by this: "there is little doubt in my mind that the two biggest 'tells' of my 'identity' were my hair and shoes. Did your mother teach you that, like mine did?") No, if you're going to read it, you must do so on the basis that wanting to look good for your age is worthwhile and meaningful. Accepting that, why, exactly, don't French women have facelifts?

"Sorry to be a tease, but this book isn't about actual facelifts – or not having them." (That, naturally, would have involved looking up whether or not French women do have facelifts.) "It is about facelifts in the sense of ageing with attitude and the decisions one makes through the decades."

But let's imagine for fun that French women don't – this is not rooted in an ideological rejection of surgery as a tool of vanity. They are happy to have liposuction. Rather, they take the pragmatic approach that if you eat, sleep, work, play, have sex, shop, build relationships and plan all activities with a mind to making the best of your appearance, then you should be able to approach death without being so hideous that a scalpel becomes unavoidable.

Content is a problem, in so far as there is not enough substantive material here. All the beauty tips could be condensed into one article in Take a Break, so inevitably space must be filled by repetition. This might take the shape of the same thought being expressed two different ways in the same paragraph – Catherine Deneuve, for instance, "no longer wears stilettos or sharp red lipstick, and her clothes have changed too, and so has her hair", and, 50 words later describing the Deneuve of yore, "the picture was quite different: longer hair, thinner body, more makeup, higher heels" – or the repetition may be the same paragraph copied out as good as verbatim in three different chapters. Much space, somewhat outside the book's remit, is given over to very simple recipes. (One memorable example comprises leeks and water. Boil the one in the other. Drink the water. Eat the leeks.)

Much of the prose reads like it's been piped backwards through Google Translate (of her friend, tragically afflicted with an excess 35 pounds in weight, she writes: "one would say sloughing toward obesity as the limit of overweight in spite of her tall figure") and there is an airy carelessness in her distribution of information which, attached to a more interesting subject, could be construed as satire. Following the invention of Botox, "the phrase 'looks good for her age' seemed to quadruple in the country's lexicon". (Quadruple? Really?) "Fact: within one thousand yards or metres of my Manhattan home, there are at least seven nail salons." Yards are not the same as metres. Let's call it metres – that's a quite substantial area of Manhattan. There are probably 100 nail bars in it. I do not wish, lightly, to use the word "drivel", but couple these factless factettes with advice that is audaciously banal (to choose well-fitting shoes, you should try on both the left shoe and the right) and you have a work that is less self-help book and more a campaign of nonsense, some elaborate prank.

And if there is anything at all likable about the book, it is this mischievous boldness, the author's manifest belief that she can get away with anything – mostly bemoaning obesity, but also castigating women who dye their hair too bright a shade and fail to manage their roots – by simply amping up the Frenchness. "Bien dans sa peau," she says, again and again, as though the concept of self-possession will only penetrate the thick Anglo-Saxon skull through grinding repetition. "Isn't the best compliment a man can make about a woman 'quelle classe!'"?

There is a faux naivety, a childlike, pigtail-pulling delight at being able, as a foreigner in a strange land, to speak her mind, then spin around with an incredulous "Offensive? Moi?" I find it a little unbecoming in an adult woman, like a high-waisted tea dress. But I am most likely ageing with the wrong sort of attitude.

Zoe Williams

Nick Nolte joins cast of Noah … just weeks before film's release

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:59 AM PST

Nolte is to voice the leader of six-armed angels the Nephilim in Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic starring Russell Crowe

• Russell Crowe's Noah buoys an unsinkable career arc

With less than three months to go before its US release date of 8 March, director Darren Aronofsky has announced a new addition to his biblical epic Noah: Nick Nolte, who will voice Samyaza, the leader of fallen angels the Nephilim.

"Long live the nephilim! it was an honour", Aronofsky tweeted, along with a rather craggy picture of the star he described as a "legend". His CGI angel alter ego is apparently 11ft tall with six arms and no wings.

It was a role originally associated with Mark Margolis, an Aronofsky regular who has appeared in all of the director's films, and who also recently starred in Breaking Bad as drug runner Héctor 'Tio' Salamanca. Aronofsky also tweeted that there was still a role for Margolis as fellow angel Magog, along with Frank Langella, who presumably plays another angel alongside the pair.

The film stars Russell Crowe as Noah, building an ark to survive an apocalyptic flood from God, while also fending off Ray Winstone's army who are bent on destroying it. Jennifer Connelly, whose career took off following her visceral role in Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, plays Noah's wife, while the rest of the cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson and Logan Lerman.

Unlike previous Aronofsky films such as Black Swan and The Wrestler, this is a mega-budget film, filled with CGI to render the flood as well as the animals two by two. Aronofsky was told by visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic that Noah involved the most complex rendering they'd ever attempted, "a nice badge of honour" according to the director.

There have been reports of tussles between director and studio over the final cut of the film, with varied reactions from test audiences – one talent rep close to the film told the Hollywood Reporter: "Darren is not made for studio films. He's very dismissive. He doesn't care about [Paramount's] opinion."

The role of a fallen angel is arguably a good fit for the 72-year-old Nolte, the three-time Oscar nominee who was given three years probation in 2002 after having been found driving under the influence of GHB. In recent years he has performed a series of acclaimed roles, including the alcoholic father Paddy Conlon in 2011 mixed martial arts drama Warrior, for which he was Oscar-nominated. He's next appearing in Hateship Loveship, a drama starring Kristen Wiig.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Justin Bieber's house raided by police investigating 'egg-throwing attack' – video report

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:58 AM PST

Police in California have raided singer Justin Bieber's house in search of evidence after allegations that eggs were thrown at a neighbour's property

Israel's defence minister apologises for 'offensive' Kerry remarks

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:54 AM PST

Binyamin Netanyahu seeks to repair diplomatic damage after Moshe Ya'alon dismisses US peace broker as 'obsessive and messianic'

Israel's defence minister has been forced to apologise for "offensive and inappropriate" remarks, in which he described John Kerry as obsessive and messianic, after the ensuing diplomatic row engulfed the secretary of state's mission to broker a peace deal in the Middle East.

Moshe Ya'alon, an ally of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, had dismissed Kerry's efforts to pursue a peace deal in private conversations with US and Israeli officials which were reported in the Israeli media. He did not deny the accuracy of the comments.

"Secretary of state John Kerry – who arrived here determined, and who operates from an incomprehensible obsession and a sense of messianism – can't teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians," Ya'alon was quoted as saying.

He added: "The only thing that might save us is if John Kerry wins the Nobel prize and leaves us be."

In a sharp rebuke to Israel, state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "The remarks of the defence minister, if accurate, are offensive and inappropriate, especially given all that the US is doing to support Israel's security needs."

She added: "Secretary Kerry and his team … have been working day and night to try and promote a secure peace for Israel because of the secretary's deep concern for Israel's future. To question secretary Kerry's motives and distort his proposal is not something we would expect from the defence minister of a close ally."

A Washington source said the administration expected Netanyahu to publicly dissociate himself from Yaalon's remarks.

Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, Ya'alon's office issued a statement saying he "had no intention to cause any offence to the secretary, and he apologises if the secretary was offended by words attributed to the minister".

Earlier, Netanyahu and the Israeli president, Shimon Peres, along with other senior ministers, sought to repair the diplomatic damage. "The US is our largest partner and the partnership is founded on shared values and interests," Netanyahu said. "Even when there are disagreements between us, they are always substantive and not personal."

Peres told parliament: "The extraordinary commitment of secretary of state Kerry to the cause of peace reflects Israel's deep and serious commitment to peace and is creating the opportunity for an agreement and mutual understanding."

But according to some reports, Ya'alon was reflecting views widely held within the Israeli cabinet. "The voice is [Ya'alon's] voice – the thoughts are Netanyahu's," a senior official told Yedioth Ahronoth. "[Ya'alon] said out loud what Netanyahu would like to say … Kerry is a burden."

The paper quoted a high-ranking cabinet minister, who said privately: "Kerry is naive, obsessive, delusional and suffers from an extreme misunderstanding of the reality in the region. He wants to win the Nobel prize, and he doesn't mind gambling irresponsibly with our fate."

Kerry is soon expected to make his 11th visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of a determined drive to secure a peace deal to end the decades-old conflict. He has devoted hours to one-on-one meetings with Netanyahu and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and has won widespread respect for his dogged commitment to his mission.

Harriet Sherwood

West has discussed co-operation with Syria, Damascus claims

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:36 AM PST

Syria claims western countries worried about Islamist militants in rebel ranks have asked Assad regime for co-operation

The intelligence services of some western countries opposed to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, have visited Damascus to discuss security co-operation with his government, the Syrian foreign minister has claimed .

"I will not specify [which countries] but many of them have visited Damascus, yes," the deputy minister, Faisal Mekdad, said in an interview broadcast on the BBC.

Mekdad said that the contacts appeared to show a rift between the political and security authorities in some countries opposed to Assad.

His comments were broadcast as his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, reportedly landed in the Syrian capital, following an official visit to Lebanon.

Western powers have supported the opposition with rhetoric but have backed away from material aid as al Qaida-linked groups take advantage of a power vacuum in rebel-held regions.

Western countries are worried about the presence in rebel ranks of foreign Islamist militants who have travelled to Syria to join the three-year struggle to topple Assad.

"Frankly speaking the spirit has changed," Mekdad added.

"When these countries ask us for security co-operation, then it seems to me there is a schism between the political and security leaderships."

Asked if he was confirming that British intelligence had been in contact with Syria, he declined a direct reply.

"I am saying that many of these countries have contacted us to co-ordinate security measures," he added.

Syria plunged into civil war after an uprising against four decades of Assad family rule erupted in March 2011 and descended into an armed insurgency after the army cracked down on protests.

Reform EU or Britain quits - George Osborne lays down ultimatum

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:32 AM PST

Membership withdrawal threat after Tory MPs sign letter calling for dismantling of Europe's core principles via veto powers

George Osborne will today deliver a stark warning to Britain's European partners that the UK will leave the EU unless it embarks on whole-scale economic and political reform.

The chancellor's comments come as the Tory leadership tries to regain the initiative on Europe, after 95 MPs signed a letter calling for the dismantling of the core principles of the EU.

In a speech to a conference organised by the pro-reform Open Europe thinktank and the Fresh Start group of Tory MPs, Osborne will say: "There is a simple choice for Europe: reform or decline. Our determination is clear: to deliver the reform, and then let the people decide."

Tory backbencher Bernard Jenkin won the support of about 100 MPs for a letter to David Cameron calling for the British parliament to be given a veto over all EU laws.

Such a move would dismantle the rules of the European single market which were drawn up by Margaret Thatcher's ally, Lord Cockfield, to prevent France imposing protectionist measures by denying member states a national veto.

Jenkin suffered a blow when Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Commons Treasury select committee, said he had been wrongly listed as a supporter. But Osborne will make clear that Cameron will push for wide-ranging reforms if he wins the general election next year with a mandate to renegotiate the terms of British membership.

Osborne will tell the conference: "The biggest economic risk facing Europe doesn't come from those who want reform and renegotiation – it comes from a failure to reform and renegotiate.

"It is the status quo which condemns the people of Europe to an ongoing economic crisis and continuing decline."

Osborne will say the EU suffers from a chronic lack of competitiveness and that the European economy has stalled over the last six years while the Indian economy has grown by a third and the Chinese economy by 50%.

He will say: "Make no mistake, our continent is falling behind. Look at innovation, where Europe's share of world patent applications nearly halved in the last decade. Look at unemployment, where a quarter of young people looking for work can't find it. Look at welfare.

"As Angela Merkel has pointed out, Europe accounts for just over 7% of the world's population, 25% of its economy, and 50% of global social welfare spending. We can't go on like this."

Osborne is expected to say that Cameron will press for a realignment of the rules of the single market to ensure the 18 members of the eurozone cannot outvote the 10 EU members, such as Britain, which have not joined the single currency.

Tory divisions will be highlighted at today's conference as MPs from the Fresh Start group challenge Jenkin's letter.

Mats Persson, director of Open Europe, said the Tory party risks "becoming its own worst enemy" as the likes of Jenkin table unrealistic demands.

Persson said: "There is a huge debate in Europe about what the EU's defining mission should be in future – the single market or the euro?

The chancellor should clearly set out that the UK cannot accept an EU dominated by euro countries preoccupied with shoring up their currency at the expense of those who cannot join for democratic reasons. If the EU becomes a political extension of the euro, it'll be hard for the UK to remain a member.

"As our conference clearly shows, there's growing momentum for reform across Europe. However, the Tory party risks becoming its own worst enemy when it comes to achieving a new settlement in Europe."

David Mowat, the Tory MP for Warrington South, who will address the conference, said that the Fresh Start group was proposing a constructive set of proposals to help the prime minister in his negotiations if he won the election. "The letter is a different initiative," he said.

The Fresh Start group, led by the No 10 policy board member Andrea Leadsom, will focus on three areas of reform at the conference.

The areas include delivering Cameron's proposal to keep Britain apart from moves to create an "ever closer union" in the EU; completing the single market, especially with services; and delivering William Hague's plan of bumping up the EU's "yellow card" system to a "red card" one.

This would mean that a third of national parliaments could block EU laws if they can reach an agreement.

Nicholas Watt

Bangkok anti-government protests continue after shooting - video

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:28 AM PST

Thousands of anti-government protesters march in Bangkok on Wednesday, after shots were fired at demonstrators overnight

Scottish radio host killed in Thailand

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:21 AM PST

A Scottish radio presenter has been killed in a road accident in Thailand. Paul Norris, who hosted the breakfast show on an English-language station, Phuket Island Radio, died when his motorcycle was involved in a collision with an airport taxi on Sunday (12 January).

Known by the nickname DJ Doris, 45-year-old Norris - originally from Stirling - was something of a local celebrity. He had lived in Phuket for 12 years and was a founding shareholder in the station, which was launched in 2008. His body is being flown to Scotland.

Sources: Asia Radio Today/Daily Mirror/Facebook

Roy Greenslade

Danish tourist gangraped in Delhi

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:12 AM PST

Police say 51-year-old was attacked after asking for directions as sexual violence against women in India gets more attention

A Danish tourist was gang-raped near a popular central shopping area in Delhi after she lost her way and asked for directions back to her hotel, according to police.

The attack on Tuesday is the latest case to focus international attention on rape and violence against women in India.

The 51-year-old woman was also robbed and beaten in the attack, which happened in the afternoon near Connaught Place, said police spokesman Rajan Bhagat. The woman managed to reach her hotel in the evening and the owner called police. No arrests have been made.

"When she came, it was miserable," said Amit Bahl, owner of the Amax hotel. He said the woman was crying and "not in good shape".

"I am really ashamed that this happened," said Bahl.

The problem of sexual violence in India has gained widespread attention since the gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in December 2012. Public fury over the case has led to more stringent laws that doubled prison terms for rape to 20 years and criminalised voyeurism and stalking.

But for many women, particularly the poor, daily indignities and abuse continue unabated and the new laws have not made the streets any safer. Ranjana Kumari, director of India's Center for Social Research, said India's conservative, patriarchal traditions lead men to use rape as a tool to instill fear in women.

"This mindset is not changing," she said. "It's a huge challenge."

Experts say the rapid growth of India's cities and the yawning gulf between rich and poor are exacerbating the problem of sexual violence, with young men struggling to prove their traditional dominance in a changing world. Cultural stigmas, police apathy and judicial incompetence have long made it difficult for women to even report rapes.

Still, there has been a surge in the number of rapes being reported recently, suggesting that women are emboldened to speak up. Between January and October last year, 1,330 rapes were reported in Delhi and its suburbs, compared with 706 for all of 2012, according to government figures.

Last March, a Swiss woman who was cycling with her husband in central India was gang-raped. These cases threaten India's lucrative tourism industry. Last year, the tourism ministry launched a campaign, I Respect Women, to reassure travellers.

Australia's budget is deteriorating, says commission of audit head

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:11 AM PST

Tony Shepherd tells Senate inquiry that audit will be guided by 'fairness', not government orders

Come on, atheists: we must show some faith in ourselves | Zoe Williams

Posted: 15 Jan 2014 12:00 AM PST

It's not just refugee law. The low status accorded to unbelievers has now become a matter of systematic civic exclusion

This week a 23-year-old Afghan man became the first person to be granted asylum in this country on the basis of his atheism – which, his lawyers argued, would have made life impossible in his country of birth, where religion permeates every aspect of life.

The Home Office declined to comment, beyond a statement that is both bland and inaccurate by omission: "The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need it and we consider every application on a case by case basis." (It should have read "a proud history that we've abandoned …", but never mind.)

Theresa May probably feared an onslaught of xenophobic remarks – "What could be more specious than a belief that is really the absence of belief, a luxury belief for cynics and intellectuals? What next? Asylum for French people who prefer Derrida to Foucault?" – but the critical comment barely came.

Instead, there was a generalised, muted acceptance, which makes perfect sense. If you accept the place of religious belief on the human rights agenda, then you have to allow atheism equal weight. It is as much a traducement of religious people to dismiss atheism as it is a denigration of atheists.

However, there's a lot of shifting sand around this principle – it is telling that this man is the first atheist to be offered asylum here, when he can't be the first ever to face persecution. Australia accepts the principle of atheism as a belief to be protected, while the United States doesn't. It's one of those things nations can cherry-pick from the fruit bowl of international law without feeling that their "civilised" status is compromised. It may be the only belief of that kind right there in the 1951 refugee convention, but with no back-up institution vulgar enough to insist upon it. That is part of our problem, us atheists: we don't organise.

But I don't think that failure of organisation justifies the habitually low status of atheism: not just in refugee law, but also across civic life. Now, more intensely than ever – as we see our state education system carved up among whatever faith groups shout the loudest, and whichever crooks pretend a faith – the voice of the active unbeliever is not only unsought but also treated as an irrelevance. Schools are required to take a proportion of children from "other faiths"; atheism doesn't count. Or, if you think it does, try filling in the form where you describe your "other faith" – "I am raising my child to believe you people are mad. Will that do?"

Community groups – whose opinions are so slavishly sought, for about five minutes, after anything blows up in a community, are almost always predicated on faith, meeting in religious buildings, around religious timetables.

Babies are said to be "born Muslim" – this asylum seeker, for instance, was described as having been born a Muslim, and losing his faith as a teenager.

But as Richard Dawkins pointed out in a letter to the Times this week, there is no such thing as a Muslim baby – babies and toddlers being "too young to know what they think about origins, moral philosophy or the meaning of life". Atheism would never be accorded that status.

Of course, faith is often used as a proxy for race: a euphemism for "that baby may have been born here, but it doesn't look very English". At other times religion is used as an open marker for cultural identity, so that Jewish atheists are still described first as Jewish, the atheism being a quirk rather than the Judaism – even though the latter is surely quirkier, a religious identification that conveys no belief.

Atheists are very often lumped in with secularists, although these concepts are nothing like the same. But perhaps most vexingly, while the fine distinctions among the religious are pored over in every survey (are you this kind of Christian or that; are you practising, or do you simply tell people you have a spiritual side?), the most important and exhaustive survey we have on British belief doesn't even ask the question "Are you an atheist?". In last year's British Social Attitudes survey 48% of respondents said they had no religious affiliation. A category that accounted for a third of people in 1983 is now nearly half the population. And nobody thought to ask: "Why not? Did you fall out with organised worship and decide to just ad lib at home? Or do you profoundly believe that you can wring more meaning and beauty from the world accepting it as it is, rather than concocting deities?"

These differences seem important, but even if they're not – even if an on-again-off-again agnostic manifests pretty much the same behaviour as an atheist – they should be distinguished as a matter of courtesy, just as I would accept that there's a difference between Greek Orthodox and Coptic.

This systematic civic exclusion, I think, has rather shallow roots – not in a prejudice against the faithless, but in the loam of human politeness, where groups are accorded attention, respect and sensitivity in proportion to how much they will complain if they don't get it. Something to think about, heathens: maybe we are simply not complaining enough.

Twitter: @zoesqwilliams

Zoe Williams

House prices: who's to blame for driving them through the roof?

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 11:50 PM PST

CBA chief economist identifies central banks as the culprits, says but Australia's housing market is not a 'bubble'

Martin Farrer

Will killing sharks save lives?

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 11:48 PM PST

The Western Australian government is preparing to cull large sharks from the Indian Ocean in the name of protecting swimmers and surfers. Karl Mathiesen, with your help, asks - will it work?

Karl Mathiesen

Australian Open: Casey Dellacqua thrills home crowd with upset victory

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 11:17 PM PST

Casey Dellacqua advanced to the third round of a grand slam tournament for the first time in four years after hammering Wimbledon semi-finalist Kirsten Flipkens

Operation Sovereign Borders personnel exempted from workplace protection

Posted: 14 Jan 2014 11:07 PM PST

Defence chief says 'potential mishaps' could result in a the 'hazardous and uncertain' environment of border operations

Paul Farrell