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- Japan's fourth-quarter economic growth estimate revised down – live
- Oscar Pistorius trial, day six - in tweets
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: search continues - live updates
- National curriculum: call to boost 'western/Judeo-Christian' influence
- Opposition to FGM must not lead to prejudice | Nadifa Mohamed
- George Pell believes abuse victims should be able to sue Catholic church
- Michelle Bridges urges junk food action over Fiona Nash health rating scandal
- Bangladesh warns of rising climate change costs as donations plummet
- Jean-Paul Sartre on the launch of Libération: From the archive, 10 March 1973
- Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 search resumes - live
- Manus Island riot: full report by Australian official may not be released
- WA treasurer Troy Buswell resigns after breakdown and crashing car
- Australian journalist faces jail after refugee report angers Thai navy
- Media laws should serve everyone, not just the moguls
- Flight MH370: officials 'puzzled' by Malaysia mystery as search widens
- Satellite Eye on Earth: February 2014 - in pictures
- Yo La Tengo: more like a comedy troupe than a band
- North Korea's Kim Jong-un elected to assembly without single vote against
- Wife remembers Sombath Somphone, 15 months after he was seized in Laos - video
- Drone used in attempt to smuggle drugs into Melbourne prison, say police
- Shark cull: this half-baked U-turn is not convincing | Lynn MacLaren
- Womadelaide 2014: the festival in pictures
- Ukraine crisis: Chinese president Xi Jinping urges US to show restraint
- My favourite work: Fiona Hall's Out of My Tree at Adelaide Biennial 2014 – video
- Political donations worth $75,000 disputed by federal Labor party
| Japan's fourth-quarter economic growth estimate revised down – live Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:19 AM PDT Japanese GDP expanded 0.7% in fourth quarter – down from an earlier estimate of 1.0%       |
| Oscar Pistorius trial, day six - in tweets Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:16 AM PDT Live updates from day six of Oscar Pistorius's trial, by David Smith, the Guardian's Africa correspondent       |
| Malaysia Airlines Flight 370: search continues - live updates Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:14 AM PDT Follow live updates as the search continues for the Beijing-bound flight more than 60 hours after it went missing with 239 passengers on board       |
| National curriculum: call to boost 'western/Judeo-Christian' influence Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:10 AM PDT Suggestion by Christian Schools Australia among submissions to rapid review ordered by Christopher Pyne  |
| Opposition to FGM must not lead to prejudice | Nadifa Mohamed Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:00 AM PDT  We need to integrate those at risk of female genital mutilation into the existing child protection framework The Guardian's campaign has put female genital mutilation firmly on the political agenda, with Michael Gove, Ban Ki-Moon and Malala Yousafzai throwing their weight behind it. I am heartened that the physical autonomy of young African and Asian girls is being taken seriously, and I hope that concrete assistance will be given to those at risk: the physical, psychological and social harm of FGM fails women, and whatever justifications kept it alive for millennia, have no weight against the idea that a child's body is perfect and healthy the way it is made. However, the sudden, intense focus on a practice that very few people follow in Britain – and the lack of clarity on who is doing it, where and why – has allowed negative stereotypes to run amok. I was raised in Britain within a Somali family and, within my understanding, the vast majority of Somali families who settle here abandon FGM. The strong societal pressures in east Africa do not apply here, and there isn't a framework of experienced and easily accessible "cutters". The widely quoted figure of 24,000 British girls being "at risk" would have us believe that 88% of British Somali girls are in danger. In fact, this figure originally derives from World Health Organisation and Unicef estimates, some dating back to the 1990s, from "sources of variable quality", about the prevalence of the practice in various African countries. These figures have then been extrapolated, some assuming there is the same potential prevalence among under-16 girls from those countries now living in the UK. In other words, these are crude estimates based on unreliable data – and several years out of date. There's no doubt there are cases of FGM in this country – and even one is too many – but in our horror over the practice we must resist the urge to potentially exaggerate its scale. The numbers of specific allegations are far lower than the headlines suggest and, even though the police have been alerted, there has not yet been enough evidence to gain a single conviction. This is important because the tough talk about clamping down on FGM has led to a slightly hysterical attitude among health workers. One elderly Somali woman I know entered hospital with a heart complaint but found herself being quizzed about a procedure on her genitals 60 years earlier; in another horror story a woman in labour was treated as a circus exhibit when midwives discovered she had been infibulated, the attention suddenly on the spectacle between her legs rather than on her urgent needs. This obviously isn't helpful, and I hope that as the conversation widens and deepens it will become less likely. The comments left on the Guardian website after previous FGM articles seem to justify a lot of the doubts that Somalis, despite wanting to end FGM, have about how the campaign can portray them. "Uncut girls are disowned, cast out and raped and abused" – they are not. "It is all about cruel evil psychopaths who love causing pain" – it isn't. "Are they insane or just low intelligence?" Why not both? Prejudices regarding Somalis, Islam and "backward African tribal customs" (a phrase that regularly pops up) are conflated to create an image of a dark, brutal, incorrigible mass who, to use Kipling's phrase, are "half devil, half child" and therefore cannot be trusted to even raise their own children decently. There is plenty of resentment towards immigrants in this country, some of it centuries old, some of it a product of recent changes, and the solutions given to stop FGM – hang them, cut their hands off, take their children away, deport them – seem to betray a wider antipathy rather than an honest concern for affected children. The proposed stop and perhaps search of "at-risk" families re-entering British airports during school holidays, reported last month, also makes me uncomfortable. Again, does this in effect mean that all east and west African travellers will be under suspicion? I am trying to imagine how I would feel if I were returning home with my children after a long, arduous journey and forced to answer questions that insinuated I had done something I found abhorrent to them. How would I convince the UK Border Agency that this wasn't the case? Would they interrogate my children? Would they demand that I strip them? It is already hard enough travelling as black and Muslim and dealing with official suspicion; I am regularly pulled over for extra security checks and have to explain what business I have going where I'm going. It is a humiliating experience and one that too many children have to witness already. Now Michael Gove, the education secretary, will be writing to schools asking them to help protect girls. Again, this help needs to be offered very sensitively. Will teachers single out African and Asian girls, either on their own or – worse – in front of their classmates? Even a general talk to the whole class could lead to eyes turning to the brown girls. It seems much more sensible to use GPs and community groups as the point of contact; a relationship needs to be built before any links are made to those children who are genuinely at risk rather than just falling into broad ethnic groupings. For this campaign to actually contribute something to the fight against FGM rather than just spilling more ink on a subject that has provoked much pearl-clutching horror over the years, we need to integrate east African or west African children – or whoever is at risk of FGM – into the existing child protection framework. If we are to take FGM seriously we need to make sure those same children are protected from violence, homelessness, hunger and all other abuses. A recurring obstacle is how ignorant mainstream society is of the lives of recent migrants. We have to speak to them and, most of all, listen to them rather than talking about them in the most fearful and contemptuous tones. We need accurate and up-to-date figures on the real scale of the problem. I hope this campaign doesn't go the same way as Kony 2012 and become consumed by its own flash-in-the-pan moral panic, with all the grandstanding and backslapping that entails, which doesn't achieve anything. What I want to see is children with migrant backgrounds – in fact all children – being so deeply valued in this society that there is a plethora of support for whatever problems they face. 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  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| George Pell believes abuse victims should be able to sue Catholic church Posted: 10 Mar 2014 12:57 AM PDT Cardinal's statement to commission indicates mechanisms for sex abuse victims to sue would be in place by the hearing's end  |
| Michelle Bridges urges junk food action over Fiona Nash health rating scandal Posted: 10 Mar 2014 12:26 AM PDT The personal trainer wants the public to write to the prime minister supporting a healthy food rating system       |
| Bangladesh warns of rising climate change costs as donations plummet Posted: 10 Mar 2014 12:00 AM PDT  UN envoy says Bangladesh needs billions of dollars to adapt to climate change as donors fail to match pledges with money Bangladesh needs $5bn (£3bn) over the next five years to adapt to current climate changes, and the cost is rising each year, according to a lead negotiator for developing countries in the UN climate talks, which resume in Bonn on Monday. It, and other developing countries, may have been promised $30bn as "fast-start finance" before $100bn a year is theoretically mobilised for developing countries in 2020, but the global recession and reluctance by rich countries to match their pledges with money have meant that most of them receive far less than they expected and has led to a loss of trust in the talks. "So far Bangladesh has received $200m from the fast-start finance, half of which has come from Britain. We had hoped for much more," said Quamrul Choudhury, who is also Bangladesh's climate envoy to the UN. "Britain, like us, has not been immune to extreme floods and storms," he said. "You have built defences costing billions of pounds. If we could only build the 700km of coastal defences that we need, it would protect at least 50 million people. It would cost us not much more than $15bn. Our costs are much lower than yours." The injustice of the poorest countries having to spend heavily to adapt to climate change, which they historically barely contributed towards, is a deep wound in the long-running talks, the next stage of which will finish in Peru with a head-of-state-level meeting with the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in September. It has led to a breakdown of trust between countries. But Choudhury is hopeful that countries will negotiate a legally binding global treaty in Paris next year. "I am optimistic. China is in a positive mood. The UK, France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden are pushing the EU to raise their ambition. Obama is more positive; I think he will take a leadership role. There is much more awareness now in the talks." There have been other changes over the years, he says. "Everyone thought in 2008-09 that it would be expensive to reduce emissions. Now we know for certain it doesn't cost much. It's not a herculean task. Countries like the UK know it is possible to go for a 65% cut without losing jobs or hurting growth. "We know now that [cutting emissions] can create jobs. But to get an agreement means rich countries, especially, must try to rebuild confidence and that means committing money and being prepared to compromise and make sacrifices. The more rich countries give now, the more likely the least developed countries are likely to sign up in Paris." But he warns that the cost of adaptation is high – and mounting. "The $100bn a year will not be enough. On top of that we will want a legal mechanism to compensate for 'loss and damage', [compensation for extreme climate change events]. There should definitely be some space in the [final] treaty for that," Choudhury said. The shame, he says, is that delays are costing countries dear. "Five years will have been lost following the diplomatic debacle in Copenhagen, when developing countries refused to be railroaded into an unsatisfactory agreement. "If we had succeeded then, we could be implementing a treaty now. Instead we have moved the target to beyond 2020 at the cost of the teeming millions in the least developed countries." 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       |
| Jean-Paul Sartre on the launch of Libération: From the archive, 10 March 1973 Posted: 10 Mar 2014 12:00 AM PDT  The French philospher explains how the new left wing daily aims to be a truly democratic paper "They call voting a political act. But it's not. It's an act of resignation. That's how we choose our masters. Not even choose, in fact, that's how we take our masters. And the powers of these masters don't reflect our own. We have none." In these days of election fever, while so many Frenchmen are speculating whether the United Left will make it or not, some people have categorically refused to be taken in once again by the electoral game. Among them, Jean-Paul Sartre, 67, reluctant Nobel Prize winner and widely acknowledged as the greatest living philosopher. "It's very simple: when either the Socialists or the Communists form themselves into a group they have an immediate power because they aren't made up of isolated inert elements. Their set structure is instantly ready. On the other hand, we go to the polls powerless. It's what I call a seriality: you go to the polling station like your neighbour does. A wall separates you. You don't know whether he'll vote with or against you. Therefore it's a type of gathering which has nothing to do with a real group creating itself. "When voting is open - which, of course, implies a bit of terrorism, but that's inevitable - at least, there are reasons why everyone should try and express a thought. At present, though, we have to vote for parties. It is their power and not our own that we're asked to extend. That's why we're not interested. We want a direct democracy where the people are genuinely a force that demands." Today, rather than waste time hoping that the Left alliance is going to fulfill the wishes of the people, Sartre finds it a much more worthwhile task to try and raise money for the launching of Libération, a new daily newspaper which Sartre, the Maoists and a few other ultra-left personalities hope to bring out before next month. With the aim of becoming a truly democratic paper, Libération is going to be no ordinary daily: written for the people, controlled by the people and collecting its information from the people. Needless to say, Libération will do without advertising and capital investments. Libération will live off its sales and subscriptions. The people who produce it will share all the tasks and they will all get the same salary, which has been calculated on the basis of the wages of an unskilled worker in the Paris district. Equally, the cost of production will be reduced four-fold because the paper will be printed off-set, a technique, they claim, no other daily newspaper can use because they are bound by outdated agreements with the printing unions. Politically too, Libération will make a break with the past. "We shall go further than most of the newspapers published after the war. Because to a certain extent all of them - except Combat, maybe - had some kind of political line and were supported by a party. But we think that parties do nothing for the people. Parties talk about the masses. What we want is for the masses themselves to talk." "The main mistake people make concerning the freedom of the press is to think that it is a right belonging to journalists. But this is a fallacy. It's a right belonging to the reader of the newspaper. It is the people working in offices, the people working in factories, who have a right to know what's happening, a right to draw their own conclusions. As a direct consequence of this, obviously, journalists should be allowed to express themselves freely. But that's only because they have to inform the people constantly. And the best way to do so is to let the people talk to the people." This is an edited extract, click here to read on. 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       |
| Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 search resumes - live Posted: 09 Mar 2014 11:59 PM PDT Malaysia Airlines flight may have turned around, as search continues for missing plane       |
| Manus Island riot: full report by Australian official may not be released Posted: 09 Mar 2014 11:58 PM PDT PNG and Australian immigration departments will 'assess and merge' findings from their respective countries  |
| WA treasurer Troy Buswell resigns after breakdown and crashing car Posted: 09 Mar 2014 11:42 PM PDT Premier Colin Barnett says Buswell is 'remorseful' but has no recollection or excuse for damaging ministerial car       |
| Australian journalist faces jail after refugee report angers Thai navy Posted: 09 Mar 2014 11:27 PM PDT Alan Morison and Thai colleague Chutima Sidasathian face defamation charges for reporting alleged abuse and human trafficking       |
| Media laws should serve everyone, not just the moguls Posted: 09 Mar 2014 11:14 PM PDT Malcolm Turnbull's proposed changes will potentially benefit the dominant players in the industry most, specifically News Corp       |
| Flight MH370: officials 'puzzled' by Malaysia mystery as search widens Posted: 09 Mar 2014 11:10 PM PDT Teams working 'every hour, minute and second', officials say, as hunt goes on for plane missing with 239 people on board       |
| Satellite Eye on Earth: February 2014 - in pictures Posted: 09 Mar 2014 11:00 PM PDT Sochi Winter Olympics, the Earth's lights at night and extreme weather events in the UK and US were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month       |
| Yo La Tengo: more like a comedy troupe than a band Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:47 PM PDT The sound is difficult to nail down – there's an aesthetic that underpins the work rather than any particular style       |
| North Korea's Kim Jong-un elected to assembly without single vote against Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:44 PM PDT Supreme leader wins unanimous support of his district on 100% turnout as secretive state goes to polls  |
| Wife remembers Sombath Somphone, 15 months after he was seized in Laos - video Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:38 PM PDT Singaporean national and Unicef representative Shui Meng Ng speaks to Amnesty International about her husband Sombath Somphone, who was forcibly disappeared in Laos  |
| Drone used in attempt to smuggle drugs into Melbourne prison, say police Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:33 PM PDT Guardian Australia: A man has been charged following reports of a drone flying over Metropolitan remand centre in Ravenhall       |
| Shark cull: this half-baked U-turn is not convincing | Lynn MacLaren Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:32 PM PDT Lynn MacLaren: Hawaii recognises that it depends on the surrounding ocean for its sustenance – and a shark cull is not part of the picture. Western Australia should follow suit  |
| Womadelaide 2014: the festival in pictures Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:23 PM PDT Womadelaide took the long weekend by storm, with performances from Femi Kuti and Arrested Development and a host of other artistic goings-on throughout the festival grounds. Alicia Canter was there to capture all the action in Adelaide Botanic Park       |
| Ukraine crisis: Chinese president Xi Jinping urges US to show restraint Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:19 PM PDT Beijing leader tells Obama and Merkel that they must pursue a political solution to 'extremely complex' situation  |
| My favourite work: Fiona Hall's Out of My Tree at Adelaide Biennial 2014 – video Posted: 09 Mar 2014 09:59 PM PDT 2014 Adelaide Biennial artist Julia Robinson explains why Australian artist Fiona Hall's nightmarish collection Out of My Tree is her pick at this year's Biennial Dark Heart. Skulls, cuckoo clocks and other memento mori line the room. Filling the air are the cries of crows, a musty smell and the ticking of clocks. Is this a countdown to our own death?       |
| Political donations worth $75,000 disputed by federal Labor party Posted: 09 Mar 2014 09:58 PM PDT Guardian Australia analysis reveals a string of undeclared donations and errors in donor declarations       |
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