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

Kiev protesters occupy government building amid uneasy truce
Bomb explodes near French church in Rome
World Trade Center wirewalk film to go ahead – in 3D
Bombs rock Cairo on eve of 2011 uprising anniversary
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch: How to attract birds to your garden – video
Chinese court prepares to sentence rights activist Xu Zhiyong
China to tackle film fraud following hidden box office returns
A brilliant scheme for making sure Syria's child refugees get an education | Gordon Brown
Two face jail over Twitter abuse of banknote campaigner
Analysis: Joe Hockey is wrong to say union is at war with Toyota Australia
Coalition trumpets border protection success after no boat arrivals in 36 days
The 85 richest people in the world: men still in the driving seat
Smoke from Snoop Dogg's hotel room sets off fire alarm in Melbourne
Does Melbourne need Australia 108?
Does Tony Abbott always make the same speech?
Does Tony Abbott always make the same speech? - in pictures
World Economic Forum in Davos: day two in pictures
'We may actually get something done': new era in Franco-German alliance
Syrian women in Jordan at risk of sexual exploitation at refugee camps
First Coles store to be demolished after it was destroyed by fire
Shark catch and kill to begin in Western Australian waters
John Boehner says he won't stop drinking red wine and smoking for a tilt at US presidency – video
Push intensifies for Indigenous recognition in constitution
Emergency services minister went to tennis while Victorian fires burned
Egypt extends detention of Australian al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste

Kiev protesters occupy government building amid uneasy truce

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:22 AM PST

Opposition leaders in difficult position after Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, refuses to call snap elections

About 1,000 protesters have moved from Kiev's Independence Square to occupy a government building in response to opposition calls to observe a truce with riot police after long talks with President Viktor Yanukovych ended without a major breakthrough.

Early on Friday, the protesters broke into the Ministry of Agricultural Policy building in central Kiev, meeting no resistance. The move followed the seizure of local governors' offices in several western regions on Thursday.

The government's failure to grant key concessions was met with anger by thousands of protesters manning the barricades in the capital on Thursday evening, while the anti-government protests that have rocked Ukraine spread to other parts of the country during the day.

On Wednesday, after three people had been killed in clashes with riot police, the opposition politician Vitali Klitschko had asked protesters in central Kiev to observe an eight-hour truce while talks went on. Klitschko had promised to "go on the attack" if Yanukovych did not launch snap elections within 24 hours, while Arseniy Yatsenyuk, of the Fatherland party, said he was ready to take a "bullet in the head".

The protesters duly extinguished the flaming barricade of tyres that had been set up on the frontline, and the two sides stood facing each other down, the carcasses of burned out police buses between them. But when the trio of opposition leaders emerged after gruelling talks with the president that lasted more than four hours, they had changed their tune, asking for more time and a continuation of the ceasefire.

"The only thing we were able to achieve was not much," a grim Klitschko told the crowd. He was booed by some of those at the barricade as he asked for a truce.

On Independence Square, the nationalist leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, who was part of the negotiations, put the idea of continuing discussions with the president to a midnight vote among the crowd, and it was overwhelmingly rejected. There are now difficult decisions to make for the opposition leaders, who have been unable to achieve their key demand of snap elections from Yanukovych but are uneasy about being held responsible for any further violence.

There were dramatic developments in the west of the country on Thursday as hundreds of people forced their way into the office of the regional governor in the city of Lviv, and forced him to sign a resignation letter. Oleh Salo, a Yanukovych appointee in a city where support for the president is in the low single digits, later said he signed the letter under duress and was rescinding his resignation.

France's foreign minister said on Friday that Ukraine's ambassador in Paris would be summoned over the violence in Kiev.

"I have given instructions to the foreign ministry to summon the Ukrainian ambassador in France today which is a gesture to show France's condemnation," Laurent Fabius said on i>TELE television.

Shaun Walker

Bomb explodes near French church in Rome

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:14 AM PST

Makeshift bomb causes slight damage to building near Saint-Yves des Bretons, hours before President Hollande visits Pope Francis

A small makeshift bomb has exploded in a street in central Rome, causing slight damage to a building belonging to a French religious establishment and three parked cars, police said.

There was no immediate word on what was behind the explosion early on Friday morning, which occurred hours before a visit to Pope Francis by French president François Hollande, but security was tight near the Vatican ahead of the meeting.

According to a tweet from the French embassy to the Vatican, the church of Saint-Yves des Bretons, part of a religious foundation known as Les Pieux Etablissements de la France, is located in the street.

World Trade Center wirewalk film to go ahead – in 3D

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:02 AM PST

Story of 1974 feat – already told in documentary Man on Wire – to be taken on by Forrest Gump's Robert Zemeckis, with Joseph Gordon Levitt set for the lead

• Man on Wire's inside man: 'Philippe sucks you in'

A 3D feature film telling the story of Philippe Petit's legendary World Trade Center wirewalk in 1974 looks set to go ahead with Robert Zemeckis, of Forrest Gump and Polar Express renown, at the helm.

French tightrope walker Petit's daredevil traverse of the twin towers – carried out without permission – was brought to the attention of filmgoers in James Marsh's award-winning 2008 documentary Man on Wire. According to Deadline, Zemeckis' version will be "one part protagonist chasing a crazy impossible dream, and another part caper pic", following Petit as he plans the walk with his girlfriend, then breaks into the World Trade Center to actually pull it off.

Currently titled To Reach the Clouds, the suggestion is that the film-makers are looking to cast Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role.

• Man on Wire's inside man: 'Philippe sucks you in'

Andrew Pulver

Bombs rock Cairo on eve of 2011 uprising anniversary

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 01:00 AM PST

Big explosion outside Egyptian police headquarters followed by two more blasts in capital

Patrick Kingsley

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch: How to attract birds to your garden – video

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:59 AM PST

The Big Garden Birdwatch takes place this weekend. RSPB president Miranda Krestovnikoff presents a beginner's guide to making the most of your garden's birdlife

Jessica Aldred

Ian Anderson

Paul Boyd

Chinese court prepares to sentence rights activist Xu Zhiyong

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:59 AM PST

Xu's lawyer says authorities have informed him in writing that sentencing will take place on Sunday

A Beijing court will sentence prominent Chinese rights activist Xu Zhiyong on Sunday in the highest-profile dissident trial since 2009, as authorities target rights defenders nationwide with another activist standing trial in Guangzhou.

Xu's lawyer, Zhang Qingfang, said he'd been notified in writing by authorities as early as Wednesday when Xu's trial kicked off, that he would be sentenced on Sunday in one of the most closely watched dissident cases in years.

"This means that even before the trial, the court had already communicated this and that they had already discussed what the verdict would be and the timing of the sentencing," Zhang said.

Zhang said he believed the swift sentencing suggested authorities wanted politically sensitive cases like Xu's to be closed ahead of the March meeting of China's rubber stamp parliament, the National People's Congress.

The Chinese government has waged a 10-month drive against Xu's New Citizens' Movement, which advocates working within the system to press for change, including urging officials to disclose their assets.

The campaign against the movement exposes the ambivalence in Beijing's bid to root out corruption, even as the authorities claim greater transparency.

Xu's trial is China's highest-profile dissident proceeding since 2009, when Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo was put on trial for subversion after he helped organise the "Charter 08" petition urging the overthrow of one-party rule. Liu was jailed for 11 years.

The Chinese government has intensified a clampdown against the human rights community nationwide over the past year.

In Guangzhou on Friday supporters of activist Liu Yuandong were barred from attending his trial as dozens of uniformed police guarded and blocked access to the area.

Rights lawyers including Liu Shihui and Chen Jinxue were manhandled by police according to Twitter posts by supporters, including Cao Yaxue who said Chen had "been wrestled to the ground by several state security officers and beaten."

Calls to Liu Shihui and three other rights activists in Guangzhou went answered, though one said he'd been forced to leave town by authorities. Liu Yuandong's lawyer also couldn't be reached by phone.

Liu is accused of gathering a crowd to disrupt public order during a series of street protests last January outside the gates of the Southern Weekly - to protest against excessive censorship at the influential Chinese newspaper.

Several other prominent activists are still due to go on trial including Guo Feixiong, who was also detained last year in Guangzhou in connection to the Southern Weekly protests.

On Thursday, Zhao Changqing, a veteran dissident, and Hou Xin, a campaigner, also went on trial in Beijing.

China to tackle film fraud following hidden box office returns

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:46 AM PST

New measures are being brought in to tackle fraud in Chinese cinemas, fighting illegal software and unrecorded ticketing

• Film industry cheers tax relief and China production deal

China's media regulator is to bring in a series of measures to tackle fraud in cinemas, as film revenues there could have been hugely underestimated.

Illegal software is used to report cinema takings that are lower than the actual figure, to avoid paying film tax and fees to distributors, Variety reports. Meanwhile tickets are sold for one film and then a ticket for another written out by hand, so that cinemas meet quotas set for certain films – and deprive others of revenue.

To tackle the problems, a national ticketing platform is being set up that all cinemas must subscribe to. It's hoped that the changes will bring in the proper amount of tax and accurately distribute sales revenue, with box office figures potentially as much as 10% higher than reported.

Misreported or not, China's box office sales are at an all-time high of $3.6bn for 2012, driven in part by 34 foreign films being allowed by its quota system each year, rising from 20 (the extra 14 movies must be Imax, 3D or animated). The latest to get a Chinese release is David O Russell's 1970s FBI caper American Hustle, which topped the Oscar nominations list alongside Gravity. It will come out in March, with Frozen, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the Robocop remake and I, Frankenstein also getting a release in the next two months.

The expanded quota rules brought with them a change in the amount of revenue the studios accrue from sales, from 13-17% to a flat rate of 25%, making China suddenly even more attractive a market. The UK is trying to capitalise on it: one of the successes from David Cameron's recent trade visit to China was a deal in which Sino-British coproductions can sidestep the foreign movies quota, allowing for greater access for British filmmakers. The US meanwhile continues to court Chinese audiences, with the latest co-production an action film about the ancient Terracotta Army fighting an alien invasion.

China's homegrown movie industry, while rarely breaking out into the west, is also thriving, with six of their top ten box office hits of 2012 made in China – including the number one film Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, which accrued nearly $200m. Its lead Shu Qi is set to appear in another much-anticipated epic this year, playing a female assassin in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's historical martial arts thriller Nie Yinniang.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas

A brilliant scheme for making sure Syria's child refugees get an education | Gordon Brown

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:38 AM PST

An ambitious school 'timeshare' plan in Lebanon will bring hope to Syria's young refugees – but it needs your support

Slowly but surely a revolutionary idea is being put into operation in the most unpromising area of the world.

While more than 100 years ago the Red Cross established the right to healthcare in conflict zones, the right of refugee boys and girls to continue their education, irrespective of borders, has yet to be won.

But this week in the village of Akroum, which is in the extreme north-east corner of Lebanon close to the Syrian border, a group of exiled Syrian teachers teamed up with Akroum's local village school to "timeshare" the building. For several half days each week, outside of normal school hours, they teach the refugee children.

These teachers are unpaid volunteers who are taking children off the streets, preventing many from becoming child labourers or even beggars, and already doing what only education can do – providing the children with hope that there is a future worth preparing for.

Now, a small Scottish charity, Edinburgh Direct Aid – moved by their plight and aware that the language of Lebanese education is French and English and that Syria is Arabic – is delivering textbooks in Arabic to the school and have offered to fund timeshare projects across the country.

The Akroum experiment is a small illustration of what can be done to meet the educational needs of children in the most appalling of situations. It challenges the international community to support a big idea: for the first time in conflict zones providing universal education provisions on a similar basis for all 400,000 school-age children who are now Syrian refugees in Lebanon. By using 1,500 schools dotted across Lebanon in areas where refugees are huddled in tents, prefabricated huts and tenements, this could be achieved.

With the support of the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and the education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, an ambitious plan has been drawn up costing $195m (£117m) a year to repeat across Lebanon what the Akroum school and the Syrian exiled teachers have achieved for one small area.

The simplicity of the concept, crafted by Kevin Watkins, director of the UK-based Overseas Development Institute, is that it can be operational within weeks. Instead of having to build new camp schools for refugees, exiled Syrian children will use existing Lebanese schools on this two-shift system. Members of the public have an opportunity to personally donate to make the plan a reality through any one of 500,000 Western Union outlets throughout the world, with the money transfer company matching the first $100,000 (£60,000) donations.

Lebanon is dealing with a refugee crisis on an unimaginable scale. Half of the 2 million Syrians already displaced from their country have fled for neighbouring Lebanon, where they make up one in four of the population. Every month an additional 50,000 make the same journey. But this project has won the support of the Lebanese government, whose prime minister Najib Mikati has this week reiterated his support for the Global Education Initiative,showing that in even the most hopeless of situations it is important to ensure that a generation of children does not miss out on education.

The appeal comes just a week after the second international pledging conference for Syria, which was held in Kuwait City on 15 January and raised only one third of the emergency aid the UN needed. Currently education is the main loser as health, nutrition and shelter take priority in the allocations. Last year only one pound in six of the appeals for education should be met.

But young people need more than food, a home and vaccinations: they need hope, which is what education offers, allowing children to plan for the future and preventing young people, already scarred by war, from becoming a "lost generation".

If, through the creation of the Red Cross and later Médecins Sans Frontières, the right to healthcare even in conflict has become the norm for more than a century, then we can achieve the same for education in 2014, and prise open a window of hope amidst the increasing despair.

Gordon Brown

Two face jail over Twitter abuse of banknote campaigner

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:26 AM PST

Caroline Criado-Perez received menacing tweets from Isabella Sorley and John Nimmo, who also targeted MP Stella Creasy

Two people are facing jail for subjecting feminist Caroline Criado-Perez to online abuse following a campaign to ensure a woman featured on British bank notes.

Isabella Sorley, 23, used Twitter to tell campaigner Criado-Perez to "f*** off and die you worthless piece of crap", "go kill yourself" and "rape is the last of your worries".

John Nimmo, 25, told Criado-Perez to "shut up bitch" and "Ya not that gd looking to rape u be fine" followed by "I will find you [smiley face]" and then the message "rape her nice ass", Westminster magistrates court heard.

Nimmo also targeted Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, with the message "The things I cud do to u [smiley face]", calling her "Dumb blond bitch."

Nimmo, from South Shields, Tyne and Wear, and Sorley, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, are due to be sentenced at the same court on Friday.

They pleaded guilty to sending menacing tweets on 7 January, admitting they were among the users of 86 separate Twitter accounts from which Criado-Perez had received abusive messages.

Following the court hearing, the 29-year-old student thanked people for their support but warned that Sorley and Nimmo represented a "small drop in the ocean" to the amount of abuse she received in July and August.

She tweeted a statement saying: "I am hugely relieved that these two defendants have pleaded guilty, meaning that there is no need for a trial and for the whole process to drag on longer – it has already dragged on for almost six months, with all the attendant anxiety you'd expect.

"This is not a joyful day; these two abusers reflect a small drop in the ocean, both in terms of the amount of abuse I received across July and August, but also in terms of the abuse that other women receive online – women who have little to no recourse to justice.

"However, I hope that for some people who are watching, this conviction will be a warning: online abuse is not consequence-free. I hope that some people watching will think twice before abusing someone else. There is not much else I can say given there are other cases still on-going."

Sorley was warned by district judge Howard Riddle that it is "almost inevitable" that she would receive a jail sentence.

The judge also told Nimmo, described to the court as a "social recluse" who "rarely leaves his house", that "all options" as to his sentence remained open.

Their abuse took place after Criado-Perez led a campaign using social media and backed by high profile public figures for a female figure to appear on a Bank of England note.

On 24 July, the campaign found success when it was announced that novelist Jane Austen would appear on a bank note in the future.

Alison Morgan, prosecuting, said said the "extreme language" used by Nimmo and Sorley had caused "substantial distress or fear".

"Caroline Criado-Perez has suffered life-changing psychological effects from the abuse which she received on Twitter," she told the court.

"In particular, the menacing nature of the tweets sent by both defendants caused her significant fear that they would find her and carry out their threats."

Morgan added that Creasy had also suffered a "substantial impact" as a result of the abuse.

The court heard that MP responded to Nimmo's message of "Dumb blonde bitch" with the message "That's dumb Dr blonde bitch to you".

"Love it at least u can have a laugh," Nimmo responded, to which Creasy said: "I'm not having a laugh, I'm cataloguing your vile conduct #takebacktwitter."

Sorley was arrested in October 2013 at her home in Newcastle and admitted to police that she had sent some of the tweets, suggesting she had been "off my face on drink" at the time, the court heard.

Paul Kennedy, representing Nimmo, described his client as of previous good character, adding: "He is a social recluse, that is exactly what he is really, he rarely leaves the house but to empty the bins.

"He sits in the house 24/7, he has nothing to do, he claims benefits, he is a somewhat sad individual."

Analysis: Joe Hockey is wrong to say union is at war with Toyota Australia

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:18 AM PST

The treasurer again appears to be trying to force the hand of a major multinational investor

Mark Skulley

Coalition trumpets border protection success after no boat arrivals in 36 days

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:07 AM PST

Scott Morrison says arrivals down 80% overall, but no figures released on how many boats have been returned to Indonesia

Katharine Murphy

The 85 richest people in the world: men still in the driving seat

Posted: 24 Jan 2014 12:00 AM PST

Women need only seven seats, mostly on the bottom deck, on the £1tn double-decker bus revealed by Oxfam this week

At its snowy retreat in the Swiss Alps, the World Economic Forum is debating how much inequality is too much. The aid charity Oxfam pointed out that a glance through the richest 100 people in the world shows that the pendulum has already swung heavily in favour of an elite group: the top 85 in the Forbes rich list control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population put together.

A look down the list of 85 shows that if this group – whose wealth tops £1tn – can squeeze on a double decker bus, then Mexico's telecoms magnate Carlos Slim swaps driving responsibilities with Microsoft's Bill Gates and the tiny group of wealthy women need only seven seats, mostly on the bottom deck.

Liliane Bettencourt qualifies as the world's richest woman (and ninth richest indiviual) after a dramatic rise in the value of her 30% holding in cosmetics group L'Oreal, which her father founded. Famous for her family feuds, the 90-year old is the world's ninth richest person with a fortune worth $30bn (£18bn), though she suffers from dementia and no longer sits on the board.

Christy Walton is the richest of the Walton clan and 11th richest in the world. She inherited $28.2bn when husband John died in an airplane crash in 2005. Her lead over other Waltons follows a side investment by John in solar panel maker First Solar. Like her sister-in-law Alice, she received nearly $350m in Wal-Mart dividends after taxes in 2013.

Success in the confectionary business pushed Jacqueline Mars to joint number 36 with her brother John and Forrest. They inherited the maker of Mars and Snickers bars in 1999 when their father died.

Australian Georgina Rinehart, like the Mars siblings, is worth $17bn. Charity is not her middle name. In her self-published book she recommended all Aussie workers accept the $2-a-day wages commonly paid in Africa.

Susanne Klatten inherited a 12.6% stake in car maker BMW. Along with her brother Stefan Quandt (81st richest in the world) and mother Johanna Quandt she owns almost 50% of the company. A trained economist, Klatten is Germany's richest woman with assets worth $14.3bn (and 58th richest in the world).

Germans do well in the rankings of the world's richest. Contrary to the stereotype of a collectivist social democracy from the boardroom to the shop floor, company owners are much better than their UK counterparts at amassing huge fortunes.

Karl Albrecht (number 18) owns all of Aldi Sud, Germany's largest discount supermarket chain. With stores across Europe and the US, he outstrips his brother Theo, who inherited the other half of the business. Aldo Sud is worth $26bn while Aldi Nord is worth almost $19bn.

Dieter Schwarz (number 29) inherited Lidl, the discount retailer that had $85bn in revenues in 2012 and is the second biggest discounter behind Aldi. Dividends are donated to a chiritable company that Schwarz controls. The Schwarz Foundation supports education and daycare facilities for children, according to Forbes.

Michael Otto and his four siblings (61st in the world) are another German success story. They share ownership of Otto Group, a conglomerate they inherited that includes a US home furnishings retailer and German toy chain myToys.

Otto claims the group is the second largest internet retailer after Amazon.

The last woman on the list is Abigail Johnson, who is a third-generation executive at Fidelity Investments, the second-largest US investment fund manager. Her estimated 24% stake gives her an asset worth $12.7bn and a place at number 74.

Phillip Inman

Smoke from Snoop Dogg's hotel room sets off fire alarm in Melbourne

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:46 PM PST

Rapper poses with fire crew, telling them he always wanted to be a firefighter

Does Melbourne need Australia 108?

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:41 PM PST

Stephen Lacey: Plans for a new skyscraper in Melbourne have been unveiled; Australia 108 will become the second tallest in Australia. But what does the urge to build ever upwards say about a city's aspirations?

Stephen Lacey

Does Tony Abbott always make the same speech?

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:08 PM PST

The Australian prime minister's speech at Davos struck a familiar tone and was criticised for being inappropriately partisan. So does he stick to the same themes whoever the audience? We compare four speeches in wordle form

Bridie Jabour

Does Tony Abbott always make the same speech? - in pictures

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:05 PM PST

So the Australian prime minister stick to the same themes whatever the audience? We compare four speeches in wordle form

World Economic Forum in Davos: day two in pictures

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:01 PM PST

There seemed to be a theme on the second day of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland: hands. Here, the key speakers make excellent use of their hands to explain, emphasise and execute their delivery

Bridget Coaker

'We may actually get something done': new era in Franco-German alliance

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:00 PM PST

From joint military missions to plans for a bilingual Saarland, France and Germany are now talking each other's language

In the Saarland region, in Germany's south-west, they already call a sofa a Schesslong, refer to the pavement as a Trottuar and advertise a supermarket sale as a Soldes rather than an Ausverkauf. Around 20,000 workers from Lorraine already commute here across the Franco-German border on a daily basis. And this week the region announced that it would aim to be completely bilingual by 2043, with French taught from primary school age and fluency mandatory for public sector jobs.

If politicians and diplomats are to be taken at their word, the Saarland could become the experimental lab for a new era in Franco-German relations. At a joint press conference on Tuesday, the French foreign minister, Lauren Fabius, and his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, announced that they would give the old central European alliance "a new push" and try to "break out of the old routine and go a bit further than we have dared to do it in the past".

In the past, such lofty announcements have turned out to be little more than mood music. But this time there are plenty of indicators that the Franco-German tandem is about to undergo a major revival.

Defence ministers Ursula von der Leyen and Jean-Yves le Drian set the tone on Monday when they announced that the Franco-German Brigade would be deployed in Mali. It will be the first serious mission in 20 years for the unit which only a few months ago looked like it would be disbanded.

Fabius and Steinmeier followed up with a pledge to hold strategic discussions before European summits, hold joint debates in front of students before the European elections in May and organise joint state visits to Moldova and Georgia in the coming months.

"Signs are that Germany could back up France in its relations with the south, and in return France supports German-led efforts in the east," said Ulrich Speck, of Brussels-based foreign policy thinktank Carnegie Europe.

Further collaborative projects are expected to be announced in time for a joint cabinet meeting on 19 February.

One French diplomat told the Guardian that there has been a clear change of mood, in part thanks to the fact that French Socialist ministers are on better personal terms with their Social Democratic counterparts than the Germans' Free Democratic predecessors.

"Last year, with the anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, we were condemned to celebrate the old alliance," the diplomat said. "This time, there's a more spontaneous willingness to work together. We've got at least three years in government ahead of us – we may actually get something done".

"[French president François] Hollande has invested a lot of hope in the new Franco-German axis", said Ulrike Guerot, a fellow at the Open Society Institute. "France is really fed-up with being told they need to become 'more German' in the way they run their economy. But they are also desperate to be reassured that the old tandem is working again."

Not all policy areas are likely to be as open to collaboration as the Saarland, where local authorities are talking about a unified vocational school for the car industry. In his speech last Tuesday, Hollande hinted at grand plans for a German-French solar factory in the vein of the Airbus project, for which resources around Europe were pooled to compete with US manufacturer Boeing.

Europe's solar industry only produces 100 gigawatts of power per year and is struggling to meet targets. Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, France's Institut National de l'Energie Solari and Switzerland's Centre Suisse d'Électronique et Microtechnique have been collaborating on plans to revive the industry.

But some experts reckon Germany does not share French politicians' appetite for "grand projects". "Too many similar collaborations have failed in the past," said Henrik Uterwedde of the German-French Institute in Ludwigsburg. "Think of the doomed plans for a Franco-German stock exchange or a big communications company in the past. German managers still remember those."

When the two countries' justice ministers meet in early February, they too will have to reconcile different priorities. While Germany is keen on a joint declaration on data protection, France is urgent to move towards establishing a European public prosecutors' office that would crack down on financial crimes against the interests of the European Union, such as tax evasion.

But if in the past centralised France has often allowed itself to be frustrated by the stodginess of German federalism, a ministry insider told the Guardian that this time "the momentum is with France and Germany". The outcome is likely to be too small to please European federalists and too grand to please Britain, but it is likely reaffirm the old Franco-German alliance.

High hopes rest on the shoulders of Germany's new justice minister, Heiko Maas. He happens to hail from the Saarland.

Franco-German collaborations

France and Germany have always had an appetite for symbolic collaborative projects. As well as the Brigade Franco-Allemande, there is Arte television channel, which shows programmes in French and German. Every year, 22 January is the designated Day of Franco-German Friendship, there are joint prizes for artists and journalists, and about 5,000 students are currently enrolled on binational degrees across French and German universities.

Philip Oltermann

Syrian women in Jordan at risk of sexual exploitation at refugee camps

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 11:00 PM PST

Vulnerable young Syrian women are being sold into marriage, trafficked and exploited by predatory men, say aid workers

A nightclub manager in Amman greets his guests with a warm welcome and, unusually for Jordan, an alcoholic drink. He tells them the girls will arrive shortly.

A man on a microphone introduces the women, who make their way into the club through a cloud of thick cigarette smoke. "Aaliyah" introduces herself, explaining that she is not allowed to sit down, only to stand and dance.

She is wearing a low-cut top and the tattoo on her arm says "life has many obstacles" in Arabic. As the night wears on she tells her story, one of disappointment and exploitation. Aaliyah came to Jordan alone from Syria, fleeing the war but leaving her family behind. She married a Jordanian man who promised to look after her. But she has come to regret her decision.

"I was a virgin before I married, but after three months he got bored and divorced me. I cannot go back home to my family and tell them what has happened, I feel ashamed," she admits. Now she works as an escort and sends some of her earnings to her family in Damascus. "I give them money every month, which helps them, but I do not tell them what I do. They think I am studying."

Aaliyah works with a friend, Ishtar, who brushes off questions, saying only that she has sex with many men. Two days later the Guardian receives a smuggled letter from Ishtar, written in Arabic.

"I left my family and my son in Syria, and I met a man from Palestine who brought me to Amman. In the first three months he treated me well, but then he started forcing me to work in bars and in illegal activities. He made me sign a marriage certificate with certain conditions. My son is sick and I can't go to see him, because this man takes all the money I earn from work. The situation of my family is so miserable. I don't know what to do. I hope you can help and find a solution for me."

Aid workers are warning that young Syrian women in Jordan are increasingly at risk of exploitation, with many struggling to survive in a country where they are not allowed to work. Some have families who are reliant on aid or meagre savings.

Amira Mohamed is a counter-trafficking officer at the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) in Amman. She is preparing for the next stage of an awareness campaign aimed at Syrian and Jordanian families. "We have had lots of reports from the media and people on the ground that trafficking is becoming a problem, this typically happens where there is conflict and [there are] vulnerable people," she says.

The project highlights how Syrian women are vulnerable to being trafficked through forced marriage and sexual exploitation, and children are pushed into work. "[Syrian families] might not realise they are being exploited, so we try to prevent this by organising projects, for instance ... we get the Jordanians and Syrians working together, cleaning the streets and giving out aid parcels. Within the [aid] boxes there is a message explaining the signs of human trafficking."

She points to the difference in dowries being paid for brides as one of the ways which poverty leads to exploitation. "For example, culturally, early marriages happen in Syria [where] they might get $1,000 – but as refugees in Jordan they might get $100."

When the Guardian shows her the letter from Ishtar, she says it is the type of evidence they are hoping to see more of as their project continues. "This is a perfect example of trafficking. She is asking for help and I must follow it up and make a case to the public security department unit, [which is] combating human trafficking."

The Zaatari camp is home to more than 100,000 Syrian refugees. An olive-green tent standing apart from the others is used as a mosque. The imam, speaking on condition of anonymity, admits he worries about some of the young women he sees. He says he is so concerned that he refuses to carry out some marriages.

"The men come into the camp and … they are just buying girls." He says many of these men come from Jordan and the Gulf; most are seeking approval to wed a much younger woman. "When I was in Syria, I used to sign the marriage papers, but here ... only when they are over 18. I am against the marriages in the camp, unless it is registered by the Jordanian government."

Jordan enacted an anti-trafficking law in 2009, and has also ratified UN conventions against offence. Jordanian law has been applied to the camp, and marriages of under-18s being conducted by imams or sheiks are not recognised by the courts. The Zaatari camp commander, Zaher Abu-Shahab, a Jordanian colonel, says: "If I see one of these marriage agreements, I tear them up and throw them in the bin in front of them."

The head of security, Colonel Eid al-Qarara'a, denies there are forced marriages, or that men are coming into the camp to look for vulnerable young women. "Syrian society is very conservative, and until now we haven't [seen] any sort of event like this," he says.

Just six miles down the road from the camp is the town of Mafraq, home to more than 65,000 registered Syrian refugees. They receive far less support than their compatriots in the camps. Mafraq is a key focus of the IOM campaign to raise awareness about trafficking.

Tamira lives in Mafraq with her husband and 16-year-old daughter. Battool attends school but her youth has not protected her from propositions of marriage. Tamira says she has had to warn off a Jordanian man and an Iraqi.

"A friend of my husband's friend came to the house and asked if I wanted to help them to find Syrian girls for marriage. They wanted tall, blonde and thin girls. My daughter is brunette, so they didn't take her," she laughs. The two men said they would give Tamira a percentage of the fee they were getting from their Saudi contacts.

"They regularly go house to house looking for brides in Mafraq. In the end they went to a matchmaker and found a girl," Tamira says. "They come to Jordan to find Syrian girls because they think we are needy people now."

Names have been changed to protect identities

First Coles store to be demolished after it was destroyed by fire

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 10:56 PM PST

Shop in Wilmot, north-west Tasmania, was the Coles family's first permanent retail outlet between 1910 and 1921

Shark catch and kill to begin in Western Australian waters

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 10:37 PM PST

Fisherman to start laying drumlines in state's south-west, while threats from activists delay installation at Perth beaches

John Boehner says he won't stop drinking red wine and smoking for a tilt at US presidency – video

Posted: 23 Jan 2014 10:09 PM PST

US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner says he has no plans to run for president of the United States. The Republican politician tells talkshow host Jay Leno he enjoys mowing his lawn, drinking red wine and smoking cigarettes too much to give them up for a tilt at the White House