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- Australia to send Iranian asylum seeker's body home after autopsy
- Ukraine crisis live: president claims deal with opposition after 77 killed in Kiev
- UK retail sales slip by 1.5% - live
- Libyan military plane crashes in Tunisia, killing all 11 on board
- Obama to host Dalai Lama amid strained China-US ties
- Sweden's Princess Madeleine gives birth to daughter
- Viral Video Chart: Pharrell Williams, Game of Thrones and Will Smith
- Corby raid: Police apologise after falsely accusing Seven lawyer
- Ukraine president says deal has been reached as shots fired in central Kiev
- Australian police x-ray Briton suspected of swallowing stolen diamond
- Muslim groups demand apology from Daily Mail over Littlejohn article
- Free to see GP or go to gym? Beware being softened up for 'hard choices'
- 'Supertrawler' Abel Tasman ban is upheld by federal court judge
- Mugabe celebrates 90th birthday as Zimbabwe's international pariah
- French police release man arrested in Alps murders investigation
- Joe Hockey says Australians may have to work past the age of 67
- Manus violence: children could have been present during rioting
- Girl, 8, dies after being crushed by falling tree branch at Sydney school
- Schapelle Corby interview still out of bounds despite sister's plea to minister
- Manus violence: dead asylum seeker named as Iranian Reza Berati, 23
- AEC head Ed Killesteyn and electoral officer resign over WA votes scandal
- WhatsApp: Facebook stock slides then recovers after news of $19bn deal
- Ukraine's bloodiest day: dozens dead as Kiev protesters regain territory from police
- Union fears Qantas set to sack 3,000 workers in 'sham' outsource deal
- Time travellers: please don’t kill Hitler | Dean Burnett
| Australia to send Iranian asylum seeker's body home after autopsy Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:57 AM PST  The body of Reza Barati, killed during breakout attempt at Australian-run detention camp, is to be repatriated to Iran The body of an asylum seeker, killed in a violent breakout from an Australian-run detention camp in Papua New Guinea, will be repatriated to his family in Iran, an Australian official said on Friday. Reza Barati, 23, sustained fatal head injuries night as hundreds of asylum seekers pushed down a perimeter fence to escape the camp on Manus Island, off the Papua New Guinea coast. Border Protection minister Scott Morrison said Australia would repatriate Barati's body to Iran at his family's request, after an autopsy in Papua New Guinea. The Australian Embassy in Port Moresby conveyed the deep sympathies of the Australian government. Papua New Guinea is one of two South Pacific nations where Australia operates camps to house thousands of asylum seekers, mostly from the Middle East, who have tried to enter the country illegally after dangerous sea journeys from Indonesia. Australia intercepts them at sea and sends them to camps at Manus Island or the tiny Pacific atoll nation of Nauru while their refugee claims are evaluated for resettlement in those countries. Australia refuses to resettle any refugee who attempts to arrive on its shores by boat, leaving such asylum seekers increasing frustrated and uncertain about their future. The unrest on Manus has heightened pressure on Canberra to close these camps, but the government was holding firm, saying it is an effective deterrent against asylum seekers. News Corp newspapers in Australia reported on Friday that Barati might have been killed by out-of-control guards who stomped his head as he lay on the ground. The newspapers cited an unnamed Australian guard at the camp accusing locally hired guards of attacking Barati in a frenzy. Morrison said he would not speculate on such media reports. Papua New Guinea had mounted a police investigation, while Australian officials were separately reviewing what had happened, including the role of guards, Morrison said. The camp holds around 1,300 asylum seekers, all men from countries including Afghanistan, Sudan's Darfur region, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. All the escaped asylum seekers were now either in hospitals or back in the camp, Morrison said. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Ukraine crisis live: president claims deal with opposition after 77 killed in Kiev Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:52 AM PST An aerial view shows the anti-government protesters camp in Independence Square in central Kiev       |
| UK retail sales slip by 1.5% - live Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:50 AM PST Consumers were spending less in the shops in January, data is expected to show on Friday.       |
| Libyan military plane crashes in Tunisia, killing all 11 on board Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:43 AM PST  Military plane was carrying medical patients for treatment in Tunis when engines failed and it came down in farmland A Libyan military plane carrying medical patients has crashed near Tunisia's capital, killing all 11 crew and passengers on board, Tunisian authorities said. Libyan media are reporting that a jihadist leader is among the dead. Sheikh Daouedi held an official post as Libya's assistant secretary of state for martyrs, and was on the military flight to seek medical treatment in Tunis. The Antonov aircraft went down after the pilot tried to land in farmland near Grombalia, south of Tunis, Tunisia's state news agency reported. Six crew members as well as the patients and their companions died, a spokesman for Tunisia's defence ministry said. Libyans often travel to Tunisia for medical treatment. It was the second crash involving a military plane in North Africa in two weeks. An Algerian military transport plane crashed into a mountain in bad weather on 11 February, killing 77 people, in the country's worst air disaster for a decade. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Obama to host Dalai Lama amid strained China-US ties Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:29 AM PST Beijing condemns 'gross interference' as relations remain strained by territorial disputes with Japan and others in region       |
| Sweden's Princess Madeleine gives birth to daughter Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:21 AM PST  Swedish court announces birth of daughter to princess fourth in line to throne and British banker husband Christopher O'Neill Princess Madeleine, fourth in line to the throne of Sweden, has given birth to a daughter, the Swedish court said on Friday. 31-year-old Madeleine - whose full title is Madeleine Therese Amelie Josephine, Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Halsingland and Gastrikland - married US-British banker Christopher O'Neill in June. The New York-based couple announced in September last year they were expecting their first child. "The Office of the Marshal of the Realm is delighted to announce that HRH Princess Madeleine gave birth to a daughter on 20 February 2014 at 10.41pm local time New York," the Swedish court said. "Both mother and child are in good health." Public support for the ceremonial monarchy has weakened slightly in recent years, but remains fairly broad in otherwise egalitarian Sweden. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Viral Video Chart: Pharrell Williams, Game of Thrones and Will Smith Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:19 AM PST  Watch a clip from the new superhero movie Guardians of the Galaxy, visit an ice castle, join a rabbit chase – and get lucky We start this week's video countdown with a rip-roaring ride through the snowy streets of New York City with snowboarder Casey Neistat. And if that has got your pulses racing, chill out with a visit to the Ice Castle in Midway, Utah. This is the setting for an Africanised version of the Disney theme from Frozen, Let It go. It features Alex Boyé and the One Voice Children's choir. Feeling mellow now? Time to up the pace with a new trailer from Game of Thrones and a sneak peek at Guardians of the Galaxy – an American film based on the Marvel superhero team. The cast includes Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, and Benicio del Toro. In the movie, Peter Quill forms an uneasy alliance with a group of misfits who are on the run after stealing a coveted orb. We've got a couple of quirky entries for you this week. Listen to a dot matrix printer play the song Eye of the Tiger by Survivor – weird sound! We've also got some goats having the time of their lives on a piece of bendy metal which has been positioned in their field. And there's another animal offering of a Japanese woman who is followed by hundreds of rabbits in a park. Funny bunnies! Trace the evolution of hip-hop dancing with Will Smith and Jimmy Fallon. Finally, be happy and get lucky with a Pharrell Williiams mash-up by Pomplamoose. Enjoy! Guardian Viral Video Chart. Compiled by Unruly Media and chopped and changed by Janette 1. Snowboarding New York City 2. "Evolution of Hip-Hop Dancing" (w/ Jimmy Fallon & Will Smith) 3. Game of Thrones Trailer #2 - Vengeance (HBO) 4. Let It Go - Frozen - Alex Boyé (Africanized Tribal Cover) Ft. One Voice Children's Choir 5. Chèvres en équilibre - goats balancing on a flexible steel ribbon 6. Pharrell Williams Mashup (Happy Get Lucky) - Pomplamoose 7. World Premiere of First Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer 8. Eye of the Tiger on a dot matrix printer 9. Woman chased by hundreds of rabbits 10. The Best Crosswind Landings Ever! Source: Viral Video Chart. Compiled from data gathered at 14:00 on 20 February 2014. The Viral Video Chart is currently based on a count of the embedded videos and links on approximately 2m blogs, as well as Facebook and Twitter. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Corby raid: Police apologise after falsely accusing Seven lawyer Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:14 AM PST Attorney general George Brandis seeks explanation after AFP admits to embarrassing error in warrant paperwork  |
| Ukraine president says deal has been reached as shots fired in central Kiev Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:08 AM PST  Viktor Yanukovych announces 'political agreement' with opposition and EU, though European mediators remain sceptical Ukraine's embattled president, Viktor Yanukovych, has announced he will make concessions for the sake of peace following a three-day bloodbath in central Kiev that has left up to 100 dead. Yanukovych's press service announced that negotiations on the settlement of the political crisis in Ukraine between the president, leaders of the opposition, EU and Russian representatives "have finished". "The parties have agreed to initial the Agreement on the Settlement of Crisis," the statement said. While details of the proposed deal remained sketchy – and opposition and international trust in Yanukovych is at an all-time low – the presidential administration said a "political agreement" had been reached during negotiations that ran throughout the night with the mediation of the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland, and France. The European mediators were more cautious. The Germans said the talks had been "very difficult", run all night and had stopped for a break after 7am. Radek Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, also voiced scepticism that the deal had been reached that could resolve the crisis. The purported agreement is believed to include a pledge by Yanukovych to hold early presidential elections by the end of the year – probably in December – as well as moves to curb the president's powers by reverting to the constitution of 2004, which Yanukovych changed when he took over in 2010. An official announcement is expected at midday local time (10am GMT). Following the worst bloodshed in the country's 23 years of independence, Kiev awoke to a bright, sunny and peaceful day, with the city centre firmly in the hands of the anti-Yanukovych protest movement and the riot police, ubiquitous until Thursday morning, barely to be seen. As Yanukovych claimed a settlement had been reached, shots rang out through Independence Square as police clashed with protestors. "Participants in the mass disorder opened fire on police officers and tried to burst through in the direction of the parliament building," a police statement said. Opposition leader Arseny Yatsenyuk, speaking in the parliament building a mile away, claimed armed police had entered the premises but the deputy speaker claimed they had been forced out. Thousands remained on Independence Square or Maidan, the epicentre of the resistance after police fled the square in pitched battles on Thursday. The protesters have vastly expanded the area of the city centre under their control and have quickly built huge barricades and reinforced positions to keep the security forces at bay. Protesters remained on the square throughout the night, with no let-up at all in the speech-making, singing and praying led by the stage at the centre of the square. Parliament assembled and is likely to see rowdy scenes as the city and the country digest the shock of this week's bloodshed, which has hardened positions in the protest movement and reinforced the resolve to topple him. At the moment it is difficult to see how Yanukovych will recover any authority or how the government will re-establish control over the centre of the capital. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Australian police x-ray Briton suspected of swallowing stolen diamond Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:06 AM PST  Tourist detained while trying to board flight to New Zealand after theft in Cairns of rare pink stone worth more than £100,000 Australian police searching for a stolen diamond worth more than £100,000 have x-rayed a British tourist suspected of swallowing it. The rare pink stone was taken from a jewellery store in Cairns last weekend by a man who escaped on a bicycle. Police arrested 29-year-old Matthew Osborne as he attempted to a board a flight to New Zealand from an airport in Melbourne. Senior Sergeant Greg Giles told Australian Broadcasting Corporation that officer have yet to recover the cut diamond and suspected the Briton had swallowed it. The x-rays, however, proved inconclusive. Osborne will be transferred from Melbourne to Cairns on Saturday charged with theft, the Associated Press said. The diamond's owner, Keith Bird, said police told him the man had admitted stealing the gem and swallowed it as he prepared to board the flight to New Zealand. He said Western Australia state police had the Osborne's fingerprints, recorded for a traffic offence. But Bird said he doubted that the gem was inside Osborne. "If he thought he'd got away with it, why would you sit at the Melbourne airport and swallow it, and if you have to go to the loo on a flight to New Zealand? That would be a bit dangerous," said the owner of the Diamond Gallery in Cairns. The diamond is only 0.31 carat with a diameter of 4.3mm, but its high value is down to its colour. Queensland police said investigations into the theft were continuing. "Detectives will escort the man back to Cairns later today," said a spokesman. "He is expected to appear in the cairns magistrates' court tomorrow charged with entering premises and stealing property of a value greater than AU$5,000 [£2,700]." Bird told the Brisbane Times that his chances of seeing the "rare as hen's teeth" diamond again are no "better than 50%". He told the newspaper: "We had a lady in tears a few days ago because she said she'd always wanted to buy the stone. He also told reporters that the gem had been on display in the store for nine years. A spokesman for the British Foreign Office said: "We are aware of reports that a British national was arrested at Melbourne airport on Thursday. "We have been in contact with the local authorities and offered to provide consular assistance." theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Muslim groups demand apology from Daily Mail over Littlejohn article Posted: 21 Feb 2014 01:01 AM PST  More than 25 British Muslim organisations, in company with interfaith bodies, have signed a letter of complaint to the the Daily Mail's editor, Paul Dacre, about an article by columnist Richard Littlejohn. They say that Littlejohn's column on Tuesday, headlined Jolly jihadi boys' outing to Legoland, "deployed hateful Muslim stereotypes" and "used slurs commonly found in racist and far-right websites." Littlejohn, having pointed out that moderate Muslims regard the preacher as having "repugnant" and "abhorrent" views, went into satirical mode to imagine how the day would pan out. For example, he wrote that one coach would be "packed with explosives" and, after stopping in Parliament Square, the "driver will blow himself up." At Legoland, guests would be "reminded that music and dancing are punishable by death". Later, girls would be expected "to report to the Kingdom of the Pharaohs for full FGM inspection" while boys would "report to the Al-Aqsa recruiting tent outside the Land of the Vikings for onward transportation to Syria." The letter of complaint to Dacre states:
The letter goes on to say that Littlejohn, in accusing one individual of using hate speech is guilty of "deploying hate speech himself." The article is itself "the worst form of bigotry." It calls on Dacre "to retract" Littlejohn's article and to "issue an apology not just to British Muslims, but to your readers and the great British public at large." An accompanying press release claims that, as a result of Littlejohn's article, far-right groups have threatened to turn up at Legoland, "thus causing distress to the children present." Source and full letter here theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Free to see GP or go to gym? Beware being softened up for 'hard choices' Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:59 AM PST Warnings from ministers about making cuts disguise the political choices on where the cuts will fall  |
| 'Supertrawler' Abel Tasman ban is upheld by federal court judge Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:49 AM PST The vessel had a quota to haul 18,000 tonnes of fish but was banned for two years by the Labor government after a public outcry  |
| Mugabe celebrates 90th birthday as Zimbabwe's international pariah Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:48 AM PST  Mandela will go down in history as a unifier and a hero but Africa's other great freedom fighter turned president will be seen as a divisive despot and a fallen angel In a white tent graced by lilies and orchids, the two men who defined politics in southern Africa came face to face for the last time. As Nelson Mandela lay in the open casket, his features both familiar and strange, a crisply suited Robert Mugabe gazed down at him through his dark glasses for a long, still, silent moment. What ran through his mind? Was he awed by the thousands queuing behind him to see South Africa's first black president lie in state? Did he heed the global outpouring of adulation that elevated Mandela, who died aged 95 last December, to virtual sainthood?In that moment, did the president of Zimbabwe reflect on his own legacy and the cold judgment of history? Mugabe turns 90 on Friday. Like Mandela, he was a black revolutionary, a prisoner turned president who avowed racial reconciliation and became a darling of the west. Like Mandela, he lost his father around the age of 10, became politically active at South Africa's Fort Hare University, and suffered the death of a son. Like Mandela, he bears the stamp of British colonialism but remains a hero to many in Africa. Yet whereas Mandela relinquished power after one term of five years, Mugabe is now in term seven and year 34. Whereas Mandela's 90th birthday was celebrated around the world – he spoke to rapturous applause at a concert in London's Hyde Park – Mugabe reaches the milestone as an international pariah, his country's economy again teetering on the edge. Two great questions dominate the story of Africa's oldest leader. One is the stubborn mystery of how a giant of its liberation movements, an intellectual who showed forgiveness and magnanimity years before Mandela emerged from jail, could turn into the living caricature of despotism. The other is what his eventual demise will mean for Zimbabwe, a beautiful yet benighted land that has known no other leader since gaining independence from Britain. While South Africa is now under its fourth democratic president in two decades, Mugabe has imposed himself on a nation's soul. The culture of the 13 million Zimbabweans he rules is one whose gentleness and articulacy seem at odds with the catalogue of torture and thuggery. This is a fertile land with the best climate in the world that has been brought to the edge of ruin. There are clues, but no easy answers, to the making of a dictator. Mugabe was abandoned by his father, who remarried and started a new family; he suffered the deaths of a three-year-old son and a compassionate wife; then there was his warped fascination with Britain. Mugabe rose with quiet determination and ruthlessness. Raised a strict Catholic and educated at missionary schools, he went to the racially inclusive but eurocentric Fort Hare University in South Africa for the first of his seven degrees. It was here that he encountered the African National Congress (ANC) youth league and became politically aware. "My eyes were opened," he later told the South African political economist Moeletsi Mbeki, who lived in Zimbabwe during the 80s. Mugabe became a teacher in Ghana before returning home to what was then Rhodesia in 1960. His political activism earned him a 10-year jail term for "subversive speech", after which he fled to neighbouring Mozambique to lead guerrilla forces in a protracted war against Ian Smith's government that left 27,000 dead. The 1979 Lancaster House agreement in London brought independence to Zimbabwe. Mugabe and Lord Carrington, the British foreign secretary, were nominated for the Nobel peace prize but, unlike Mandela and FW de Klerk just over a decade later, did not win. Mugabe was told he had "the jewel of Africa" in his hands. He announced a policy of reconciliation and invited whites to help rebuild the country. "If yesterday I fought you as an enemy, today you have become a friend," he said to them. "If yesterday you hated me, today you cannot avoid the love that binds me to you." Last December, reflecting on Mandela's death, Mugabe claimed: "We established the principle of national reconciliation at independence in 1980; they [South Africa] took it over and used it as a basis to create what they have now as the rainbow nation." Mugabe initially ran a coalition government with fellow freedom fighter Joshua Nkomo, before the pair fell out. Then came the biggest counter-argument to the theory that Mugabe is a good man who has been slowly corrupted by power: Gukurahundi, or "the rain that washes away the chaff before the spring rains". As early as 1982, his North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade crushed an armed rebellion by fighters loyal to Nkomo, leader of the minority Ndebele tribe, in the province of Matabeleland. At least 20,000 people died in vicious ethnic cleansing. Few in the west noticed, or wanted to. They preferred to see an economy that was growing, as agriculture boomed and Mugabe built clinics and schools, turning Zimbabwe into one of the healthiest, best educated and most hopeful countries in Africa. He was knighted by the Queen in 1994 then stripped of the honour, an insult he never forgave. The former colonial power shaped his dress code, manners and vision. "Cricket civilises people and creates good gentlemen," he once said. "I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen." But the optimism began to sour in 1997, when Mugabe gave in to pressure for pensions from war veterans waging violent protests. Trade unions and political activists began organising what would become the first viable political threat to Mugabe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). But it was partly bankrolled by white farmers, which allowed Mugabe to whip up militancy against it. In 2000, Mugabe began a land reform programme, billed as an attempt to correct the colonialist legacy by giving white-owned farms to landless black people. Many saw it as a crude attempt to sideline the MDC, which commanded wide support among farm workers. White farmers were forcibly evicted by self-styled war veterans, many too young to have fought in the liberation war, and their properties handed to cronies in Mugabe's party or black Zimbabweans who lacked the skills and capital to farm. The ensuing chaos undermined the economy, which shrank to half the size it had been in 1980. The "breadbasket of Africa" became dependent on foreign aid to feed its masses. Hyperinflation turned the national currency into a standing joke – a hamburger cost Z$15m – and it had to be abolished. Schools and hospitals fell apart, once eradicated diseases returned, and life expectancy crashed from 61 to 45. Millions of people moved to South Africa and other countries in a devastating flight of intellectual capital. The political environment also became hostile, with activists and journalists persecuted, jailed or murdered. More than 200 people died in violence around the 2008 election. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, widely seen as the real winner, was forced to join Mugabe in an uneasy power-sharing agreement. Asked how his rival will be remembered, Tsvangirai said in a 2011 interview: "The transformation of the man is one of concern to himself and everyone. He has moved from a hero to a villain because of the actions and because of his incumbency over the last 30 years in which there has been an erosion of his legacy. "When people look back they will say his legacy is one where he started very well but ended up disgraced because he eroded his own legacy by collapsing a once vibrant economy, by violence, by appearing to tendencies of dictatorship and one-man rule. That's what his record will reveal." Tsvangirai served as prime minister until his defeat by Mugabe in what he claims was a fraudulent election last year. He added: "The turning point of Mugabe was when he lost an election for the first time, when he lost the support of the people, when it dawned on him the people no longer supported him. Then he became reactionary. He reacted to the people's will by enforcing his will on the people." Mugabe seemed to have one thing in his armoury that Mandela lacked: a thirst for power and desire to hold on to it at all costs. Denis Norman, a white farmer who became his agriculture minister from 1980 to 1985, said: "I have always maintained that his driving force was the desire to control and remain in power, and once achieved to remain in that position. I am well aware of the allegations of corruption that have surrounded him, but without any evidence, as opposed to rumours, I don't believe that the creation of wealth was ever his motive; the same cannot be said for many of those who surround him. "The softer side of his nature was rarely if ever seen, but it certainly used to exist, along with a warm sense of humour, but I believe he guarded both very carefully in case they are interpreted as a sign of weakness." Norman added: "I don't think history will judge him favourably. He will be remembered for all the events that have taken place during his latter period in power: the land invasions, the rigged elections, the beatings in the townships and the ineptitude of the courts." Another insight is offered by Simba Makoni, who toured Europe with Mugabe in the late 1970s and served in his government. "I know of two Mugabes: the early Mugabe and the later Mugabe," he said. "The first Mugabe of the liberation struggle and the first 10, 15 years of independence isn't the Mugabe we have today. "I didn't know him to be cruel, I didn't know him to be uncaring in the time that I worked closely with him in the early years. But certainly the Mugabe of 2000 going forward is very different from the Mugabe of 1980 as I knew him. "The status he deserves of a national hero on the basis of his role in the liberation of the country, his place in the leadership of the country in the first decade and a half, unfortunately has been totally wiped out by the last decade." Makoni, a former finance minister, identifies three factors that led to the change in the leader's character: the accord with Nkomo that effectively destroyed any meaningful opposition – "it removed the only alternative to Mugabe so he had no reason to look over his shoulder"; his switch from the office of prime minister to president in 1987; and the death of his Ghanaian-born wife Sally in 1992. (He subsequently married his secretary, Grace, 40 years his junior.) Yet all of these events happened after the Gukurahundi massacres. Makoni conceded: "I accept, yes, you won't find a rational explanation why a caring, compassionate leader would allow 20,000-30,000 of his citizens to be annihilated under the auspices of Gukurahundi. That notwithstanding, I would say the greater part of Mugabe would come through as a caring, compassionate, committed leader who wanted the best for his people – with the deviation or the aberration of Gukurahundi." Mandela was a self-confessed anglophile and comfortable in his skin. But many of those who know his Zimbabwean peer describe an unresolved inner conflict between Mugabe the African nationalist and Mugabe the son of British colonialism. The late Heidi Holland, who interviewed him for her book Dinner with Mugabe, described him as having tears in his eyes when discussing the royal family. Tendai Biti, the former finance minister, called him "a British gentleman in a proper Victorian sense". Last month, Mugabe himself joked that he still measured distances in miles, unlike most Zimbabweans who use kilometres. "I am very British, you know," he said. "I am English again, don't forget." Makoni, who quit Zanu-PF to lead his own party, Mavambo Kusile Dawn, after a failed attempt to defeat Mugabe, said: "I would say Britain is a passion, not an obsession. He loves the place and its character, its mannerisms. "This man commissioned what he said was the best state-of-the-art dairy south of the Sahara three years ago. Among dairy cows, wet cattle dung and all that, he was in a tie and jacket. Everybody else around him, the engineers and workers, were all in overalls and gumboots. He was in a tie and jacket and suit, opening a dairy. That's him: he loves the British, he loves the English way of all life." Mugabe lost his honorary knighthood in 2008 and was subjected to targeted sanctions that prevented him travelling to Britain and other countries. He could no longer shop on Savile Row for his beloved suits and descended into what Tsvangirai describes as an anti-British paranoia. As the years wore on, he became increasingly bellicose in denouncing Britain while repeating the mantra: "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again." Makoni said: "All this vituperation, my reading of it, is like grapes are sour. My sense is all the anger about the illegal sanctions and all that … the fact that he hasn't, for a decade or plus, been able to go to London, I think it irked him a lot." But asked by the Guardian last year if he hopes to visit London again some day, Mugabe retorted: "Why? I've nothing to do in Britain, actually." Arguably his last act of vandalism is his refusal to brook a succession debate in the bitterly divided Zanu-PF. Some fear that he is the one holding the apparatus of terror in check and his death will open a Pandora's box. They warn that possible successors, such as Emmerson Mnangagwa, known as the crocodile, may crack down on opposition with renewed and even bloodier zeal. One civil society activist, who did not wish to be named, said: "People won't dare celebrate Robert Mugabe's death. Zanu-PF still has a lot of support. I suspect they will try to manage transition as constitutionally as possible; even the military know a coup would not be acceptable to the region." Whoever comes to power next is more likely to venerate than traduce the late father of the nation. "I think he will have a legacy more positive than negative in the big picture," the activist added. "Much as I detest the bugger, he's done some remarkable things for the country. Yes, there was Gukurahundi, but he took health and education to the whole of Zimbabwe. He'll be tarnished by the last 15 years but history will be rewritten and other people will be blamed." In a South African TV interview last year, Mugabe responded to the critics of his land reform programme. "They will praise you only if you are doing things that please them," he said. "Mandela has gone a bit too far in doing good to the non-black communities, really in some cases at the expense of them … That's being too saintly, too good, too much of a saint." Two political titans, two sides of the same coin. Today Mandela is revered as the greatest statesman Africa has produced; Mugabe is seen, by the west at least, as its fallen angel. Allister Sparks, a veteran journalist, recalled a conversation with Mandela: "We got to talking about Mugabe, whom he really profoundly disliked, and I think it was reciprocated. He said, 'You know Allister, the trouble with Mugabe is that he was the star – and then the sun came up.'" theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| French police release man arrested in Alps murders investigation Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:31 AM PST  Prosecutor in Annecy said 48-year-old has 'no direct link' to murders but was still under investigation for arms trafficking French police have released without charge a former policeman being questioned in connection with the Alpine murders of a British family and a French cyclist, after "no direct link" was found. However the Annecy prosecutor, Eric Maillaud, said the 48-year old man, who police do not wish to identify, was still being investigated on unrelated arms trafficking charges after an arms cache of vintage weapons was discovered at his home. This "illicit activity was committed as part of an organised gang", the statement said. The man was arrested on Tuesday in what had appeared to be a breakthrough in the 18-month old quadruple murder investigation. Police were trying to determine whether he was a motorcyclist seen near a wooded layby in Chevaline, south of Lake Annecy, around the time when Iraqi-born Briton Saad al-Hilli, his wife, Iqbal, and mother-in-law, Suhaila al-Allaf, were shot dead there on 5 September 2012. A French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, was also killed by the lone gunman. Hilli's two young children survived. The arrest came three months after the release of an efit showing a bearded man in a helmet. But although investigators said he bore a strong resemblance to the motorcyclist seen near the crime scene, the two helmets in his possession did not match the efit. Among the weapons seized from his house was a Luger handgun, but the prosecutor said it was not the same P06 model used in the Hilli shootings. And a motorcycle belonging to the former policeman did not match the description of the vehicle seen by two forestry workers on the day of the shootings. Finally, DNA samples taken from the scene did not match the arrested man. "The murder weapon has not been found, nor the helmet, nor the motorbike described by several witnesses and sought by investigators," Maillaud said in the statement. He added that the investigation into the murders would continue. On Thursday night, the arrested man issued a statement through his lawyer, Marc Dufour, who said he had "nothing to do with" the Chevaline murders and had not been in the vicinity at the time. The suspicions against him "don't stand up," he said. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Joe Hockey says Australians may have to work past the age of 67 Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:28 AM PST Treasurer calls for 'mature debate' about raising the retirement age ahead of this weekend's G20 meeting in Sydney  |
| Manus violence: children could have been present during rioting Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:17 AM PST Contractors say at least two asylum seekers at the centre had declared themselves minors, in breach of camp rules  |
| Girl, 8, dies after being crushed by falling tree branch at Sydney school Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:09 AM PST Two children and a teacher still in hospital after 'freak accident' at Pitt Town public school       |
| Schapelle Corby interview still out of bounds despite sister's plea to minister Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:07 AM PST Mercedes and husband Wayan Widyartha have been waging a campaign to get the green light for Corby's interview  |
| Manus violence: dead asylum seeker named as Iranian Reza Berati, 23 Posted: 21 Feb 2014 12:05 AM PST Victim was 'gentle giant' who was regarded as a 'joker', according to contractors working at detention centre  |
| AEC head Ed Killesteyn and electoral officer resign over WA votes scandal Posted: 20 Feb 2014 11:52 PM PST Special minister of state Michael Ronaldson says AEC must work to 'regain the confidence of the community'       |
| WhatsApp: Facebook stock slides then recovers after news of $19bn deal Posted: 20 Feb 2014 11:42 PM PST Tech giant's shares fell 2.5% in early trading after record acquisition of messaging service, but have since bounced back       |
| Ukraine's bloodiest day: dozens dead as Kiev protesters regain territory from police Posted: 20 Feb 2014 11:39 PM PST  Corpses on Kiev's Independence Square as police deploy snipers and use live ammunition The conflict over Ukraine's future escalated on Thursday into the bloodiest day of violence since protests began, as the opposition routed thousands of riot police to regain control of central Kiev amid signs that the power base of embattled president Viktor Yanukovych was under threat. Dozens died and hundreds were injured in a day of dramatic violence that turned into a seesaw contest and saw thousands of riot police scuttling from territory they seized on Tuesday. The day ended with thousands of Kiev residents patiently building city centre barricades in the cold and the dark. Police deployed snipers and used live ammunition in a menacing escalation of the violence. Guardian reporters saw 21 corpses on Independence Square, the crucible of the mass rebellion against Yanukovych, and in a nearby hotel converted into a makeshift field hospital. But the full death toll was impossible to verify: Oleh Musiy, head doctor for the opposition movement, said 70 protesters died on Thursday, bringing the death toll in 72 hours to about 100. The health ministry said 67 people had been killed and 562 wounded since Tuesday. The interior ministry said three police were killed on Thursday . As Moscow encouraged Yanukovych to crack down harder on the unrest and threatened to withhold crucial financial aid unless he did, and the European Union announced limited sanctions on individual Ukrainian officials, three EU foreign ministers spent almost five hours with the president, desperately seeking a way back from the brink through a compromise between his increasingly hardline regime and opposition leaders. That would include the key opposition demand for early presidential elections, something Yanukovych has shown no sign of conceding since the trouble erupted in November. They spoke of "possible signs of progress" after seeing the president. But Thursday's escalation occurred within hours of Yanukovych calling a truce in the dangerous spiral of violence that is also spreading beyond Kiev, splitting the country east to west, and raising fears of Ukrainian meltdown. The White House said Joe Biden, the vice-president, spoke to Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday by telephone and warned him that the US was preparing to sanction officials responsible for the violence. While the authorities blocked trains coming to Kiev from the anti-Yanukovych west, protesters in the east lay down on railway tracks to prevent the government transporting military reinforcements to the capital. Crimea, ardently pro-Russian if part of Ukraine, issued threats of secession should the country go into freefall. Reports from the west spoke of protesters ransacking military and police headquarters and seizing weapons, while the security services were said to be shredding documents in scenes that recalled the anti-communist revolutions of 1989 in Romania or East Germany. But the authorities were willing to hit back hard by bringing in the army. "Military servants of the armed forces might be used in anti-terrorist operations on the territory of Ukraine," a defence ministry statement warned. The security service announced national "anti-terror" operations, revealing that the authorities were struggling to maintain their grip. "In many regions of the country, municipal buildings, offices of the interior ministry, state security and the prosecutor general, army units and arms depots are being seized," said Oleksandr Yakimenko, the head of the state security service. The mayor of Kiev, Volodymyr Makeyenko, a Yanukovych appointment, announced he was quitting the president's political party. "The events happening in the Ukrainian capital are a tragedy. I have decided to resign from the Party of the Regions." Ten Yanukovych MPs broke ranks and demanded mediation in the spiralling conflict by the EU and the US. In Kiev, Pavel, 25, a masseur, who took part in Thursday's battle equipped with body armour, balaclava, sledgehammer, walkie-talkie, flares, and a knife, said: "We live for today. We have no idea what will happen tomorrow. We need a better life for Ukraine. For our children. This is just not normal." The battle erupted as dawn broke on Thursday when radical street fighters among the protesters attacked and broke through the police lines established on Independence Square on Tuesday. A firefight left at least 10 dead, including nine opposition fighters. The militants then surged out of the square up the hill to the south where police snipers could be seen picking out targets as the city centre turned into a warzone. The deafening noise included the clear sound of automatic weapons, as well as smoke and percussion grenades raining down on an avenue leading away from the square towards the parliament and the central bank. Demonstrators also reoccupied government buildings evacuated earlier in the week. Busloads of common riot police swiftly deserted the scene of the battle to be replaced by the special units of the Berkut security service. They, too, retreated very quickly, allowing the protesters to advance. Dead and wounded were hauled away on their backs, on wooden planks, on makeshift metal shields and in blankets. Corpses lay temporarily abandoned on the streets. Police vehicles were set ablaze and then hacked to pieces. Protesters ducked behind trees and ran for cover as police opened automatic gunfire. But by mid-morning the city centre was firmly in the hands of the opposition. The police seizure of the part of the square which cost 28 lives on Tuesday was finished, however temporarily. Some 60 riot police surrendered or were "taken prisoner" when the protesters stormed the police lines. The security forces pulled back around two kilometres to form new lines. For the rest of the day the city's residents turned out to bring the hard core protesters food and drink and to help in erecting massive barricades. At night, human chains of men and women, young and old, lined up to pass along tyres and bricks, rubble and debris that were wheelbarrowed in to build huge blocking points around the city centre in an attempt to keep the security forces at bay. "I was watching it on TV and decided to come and help," said Yuri Kugno, 48, who works in a curtain design firm. "I'm going to build a barricade now." "What is happening right now in Ukraine is criminal and anti-human," said Dr Olga Bogomolets, a professor of medicine. "All the people killed here had no guns or arms." Her colleague, Natalya Hot, a gynaecologist and a hospital deputy director, , said of the ordeal she witnessed: "I still have some protective reaction in my brain as a doctor. But it was a horror. I could not imagine I would see what I'm seeing today in my life in my country." "I accompanied them to make sure they were not beaten but forgiven," said Nikolai Himaylo, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest who administered the last rites to some of the dead. "I'm a witness to what has become a criminal state," he said. "Yanukovych cannot be forgiven. These boys are dying for freedom." Dependent on Russian money and gas supplies since he spurned trade and political pacts with Europe in November, the spark for the crisis, Yanukovych was told by Moscow to maintain a hard line and warned that the financial aid could be turned off if he did not. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister, said that Yanukovych would have to restore order to qualify for the Russian help and that if he did not the opposition forces would use him as "a doormat". theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds       |
| Union fears Qantas set to sack 3,000 workers in 'sham' outsource deal Posted: 20 Feb 2014 11:30 PM PST  Transport Workers' Union believe staff to be rehired on lower wages as part of deal to win government assistance Unions fear Qantas is preparing to sack 3,000 workers and then re-employ them through company-controlled labour hire firms and subsidiaries on lower wages and conditions, as part of a deal to win federal government assistance. Responding to reports that it would cut the 3,000 jobs when it announces its half-year results next Thursday, Qantas issued a statement late on Friday saying it had already "flagged the need to make tough decisions as part of strengthening our business" including at least 1,000 job cuts over the next 12 months. It said it would not be reducing its services to London. The airline has said it will cut $2bn from its operating costs as it pleads with the federal government to offer some form of debt guarantee or assistance to help it compete with rival carrier Virgin, which is backed by foreign government-owned airlines. The Transport Workers' Union national secretary, Tony Sheldon, said the union believed Qantas was preparing to terminate around 3,000 workers at one of its divisions and then rehire them through subsidiary companies. "It is really a sham outsourcing arrangement. They terminate a contract with themselves to give the appearance that the jobs are going to a new business … It's all part of the deal they have done with the federal government to win assistance," Sheldon claimed. In January Qantas "axed" flights to Tasmania and 35 jobs at Hobart airport, with the routes taken up by Qantas regional brand Qantaslink, which immediately began to recruit new ground handling staff. In a statement at the time, Qantas said the overall level of direct and indirect employment in Tasmania would increase. The government is considering offering Qantas a "standby" or emergency debt guarantee after two ratings agencies downgraded its credit rating to "junk" status. The move would not require legislation. The company, and some Coalition backbenchers, have been lobbying for changes to the Qantas Sale Act to remove the requirement for majority Australian ownership and allow foreign investors to hold more than 49%. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, and the treasurer, Joe Hockey, have said this is the best available option. But the Labor party and the Greens have ruled out support for the amendment in the Senate, meaning it could not pass parliament before the new Senate sits in July. And Clive Palmer, whose Palmer United party senators will hold crucial crossbench votes after July, has also ruled out supporting the change. In a speech to Coalition backbenchers two weeks ago, the Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, acknowledged that neither a direct cash injection by government nor legislative change was possible. "We have never asked for a handout. And we are not asking for one now … The Qantas Sale Act limits our financial options, it adds cost to our business and it influences our actions as a publicly listed company. Over the long term, repealing it is essential to remove the distortions in our aviation system. However, we recognise there is little political and community appetite for changing the act in the short-term," he said. The government has said it will make a final decision about a debt guarantee for Qantas after the airline's profits announcement. The guarantee could mean ratings agencies would classify the airline as a government-related entity, allowing it to regain an investment-grade credit rating and reducing the cost of its borrowings. But should the airline ever call on the guarantee it would be required to pay a substantial fee. Virgin has reacted angrily to the proposal, saying it would immediately ask the government for the same deal as anything offered to Qantas. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds  |
| Time travellers: please don’t kill Hitler | Dean Burnett Posted: 20 Feb 2014 11:15 PM PST Dean Burnett: Time travellers all seem to want to kill Hitler, but this could make things worse       |
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