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

Oscar Pistorius trial – live updates

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:55 AM PST

Full coverage of day five of the South African athlete's trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in Pretoria on Valentine's Day 2013• Thursday's events, as they happened

Tshepo Mokoena

Ukraine crisis: Putin defends Russian actions in Crimea following US and EU sanctions – live updates

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:53 AM PST

Vladimir Putin defends Russia's actions in Ukraine in the wake of US and EU sanctions.

Peter Walker

Turkey may ban Facebook and YouTube if Erdoğan wins elections

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:32 AM PST

Prime minister blames political enemies for abusing social network sites with stream of fabricated internet postings

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Facebook and YouTube could be banned following local elections in March after leaked tapes of an alleged phone call between him and his son went viral, prompting calls for his resignation.

Erdoğan claims social media sites have been abused by his political enemies, in particular his former ally US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who, he says, is behind a stream of "fabricated" audio recordings posted on the internet purportedly revealing corruption in his inner circle.

"We are determined on this subject. We will not leave this nation at the mercy of YouTube and Facebook," Erdoğan said in an interview late on Thursday with the Turkish broadcaster ATV. "We will take the necessary steps in the strongest way."

Asked if the possible barring of these sites was included in planned measures, he said: "Included."

Erdoğan says the release of his purported conversations is part of a campaign to discredit him and wreck his government, which has presided over more than a decade of strong economic growth and rising living standards in Turkey.

Gülen denies any involvement in the recordings and rejects allegations that he is using a network of proteges to try to influence politics in Turkey.

Five more recordings have appeared on YouTube this week, part of what Erdoğan sees as a campaign to sully his ruling centre-right AK Party before the 30 March municipal elections and a presidential poll due later this year.

In the latest recording, released on YouTube late on Thursday, Erdoğan is purportedly heard suggesting the proprietor of Milliyet newspaper sack two journalists responsible for a front-page story about Kurdish peace talk efforts.

Erdoğan has signalled that a criminal investigation could be launched against Gülen's Hizmet movement.

Asked on Thursday night whether Turkey could seek an Interpol red notice for the extradition of Gülen from the US, Erdoğan said: "Why not?"


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Climate change could mean more malaria in Africa, study says

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:26 AM PST

First hard evidence that malaria creeps to higher elevations during warmer years and back down to lower altitudes when temperatures cool

A Spy in the Archives: A Memoir of Cold War Russia – review

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 01:00 AM PST

Sheila Fitzpatrick's unique take on the Soviet Union in its 'John le Carré era'

In the uneasily internationalist world of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union, borders were closed, yet also permeable. Growing numbers of Soviet citizens began visiting the west, not just on business, but on tourist packages: people now in their 80s and 90s recall these visits as revelatory. In the other direction went thousands of foreign tourists – providing essential injections of hard currency – students and academic specialists. The "scientific exchanges" students and scholars took part in were important instruments of cultural diplomacy and of international intellectual dialogue, shaped by top-level negotiations between the USSR and western powers.

The presence of this secondary category of foreigners in the USSR was at once a source of pride (they have come to learn from us) and of anxiety. "Foreign spy centres carrying out subversive work against the Soviet Union exploit the system of international scientific exchanges in order to engage in ideological diversion," fulminated a pamphlet published in Leningrad in 1970.

It turned out that anything from lending your Russian roommate a copy of the Reader's Digest to having an inadequate grasp of your chosen topic of research could be seen, in a certain light, as "diversionary". The visiting westerners, particularly students, were subject not just to the control of the Soviet authorities, but to micro-regulation by the western government agencies that organised their visits, and which were eager to avoid "international incidents". The appearance of the Leningrad pamphlet generated a long, anxious article in the Times.

Sheila Fitzpatrick's absorbing memoir is set in this John le Carré era of accusation and counteraccusation – what we now know to be the last convulsions of the cold war. Some of what she describes will be familiar to anyone who spent a year or two as a student in Russia back then. The "honey trap" operations that were supposed to besmirch the visitors as sexually deviant, the intrusive interest about one's affairs from neighbours in the hostel (as a Russian friend of mine put it, "you don't end up living there if you're a normal person"), but also the extraordinarily close and sudden friendships with chance acquaintances whom you might never see again after you left. And all hectically overlit by the fear of becoming Exhibit X in one of those denunciatory pamphlets (in the city where I spent the academic year 1980-81, the local masterwork had the resonant, if anachronistic, title, The Cheka Officers of Voronezh Tell All).

As a historian working on the Soviet period itself, though, Fitzpatrick was in a different position from most of us. She was determined from the beginning to become an accurate observer of Soviet life (it was much more typical to escape this by studying pre-revolutionary Russian culture and sticking to the company of the many younger Russians who were mainly interested in that, along with such western imports as jeans and whisky). Fitzpatrick came equipped, as her title suggests, with the fledgling professional historian's commitment to work in the archives (a bold and even risky step back then), and she was far-sighted enough to keep a detailed diary of her experiences. All this has allowed her to write an exceptionally lucid and purposive account of her experiences.

Certainly, there are some splendid stories, such as a bungled seduction by an east German posing as an expert on Fitzpatrick's research topic (the Commissar of Enlightenment and Old Bolshevik, Anatoly Lunacharsky); or the tale of how the "right" way to achieve what she wanted in the state archive of the October revolution turned out not to be reasoned argument, or even conspicuous hard work, but strategic floods of tears. Yet this is not in any sense an "anecdotal" book. Instead, it pursues three distinct narrative lines: Fitzpatrick traces the vicissitudes of obtaining documentary material to support her studies, in the face of constant bilking and censorship; she describes the emotional ups and downs of life in the enclosed student community of Moscow State University's wedding-cake hostel; and, most memorably, she depicts her close friendship with a Lunacharsky connection, Igor Sats, who also became her entree to the most dynamic and important literary journal of the 1960s, Novy Mir.

Fitzpatrick had the extraordinary – and among foreigners, surely unique – experience of reading Novy Mir's literary sensations while they were in production, including Solzhenitsyn's novel Cancer Ward (which in the event was banned in 1968, and came out in Russia only in 1991). This did not stop her from taking a cool view of the text's merits, and in particular, its unconvincing representation of the two leading female characters. Independence of aesthetic judgment is a point that Fitzpatrick underlines, also noting that she found the much-admired performances of Monteverdi by Andrei Volkonsky's Madrigal group kitschy in their semi-staged, histrionic emotionalism.

The portrayal of Moscow conclusively undermines any sense that the "official art" of the late 1960s and early 1970s might have been a unified or unadventurous phenomenon. And the city was the Soviet capital of oppositional political currents, broadly conceived, as well as the seat of government.

First visiting the USSR as a graduate student at Oxford, Fitzpatrick found (like many of us) the re-entry into British culture if anything more dislocating than arrival in Russia. The university seemed provincial compared with Moscow, its Soviet specialists ill‑informed and intellectually limited. On a short trip back in the spring of 1968, she discovered that "for Novy Mir, the political weather was blustery and uncertain", and the city a sea of mud, but that the events in Prague gave every cause for optimism. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia a few months later prompted searing disillusion, and in the same summer of 1968, she was denounced as a tool of anti-Soviet propagandists in the Sovetskaya Rossiya newspaper. The effect was to make still more painful the ambivalence Fitzpatrick already felt as the daughter of a civil liberties activist and economic historian, and who was unwaveringly committed to the left, but never part of the communist establishment.

In the event, her solution to the dilemma was to arrange another extended trip to Moscow as quickly as she could. The further exposure to research resources on the spot, and the imaginative manner in which she worked round the restrictions on the material she was shown, laid the foundations of a stellar career as a historian. But unlike some academic autobiographers (Eric Hobsbawm, for instance), she does not focus on the progress to renown of a prominent scholar. Instead, this is a book about self-discovery, and about the shy, self-doubting but unusually astute and determined young woman who embarked on it. Both an institutional outsider (as an Australian living in Britain and the US), and an outsider by temperament, she has a gift for grasping what others usually miss. As a result, A Spy in the Archives is a remarkable record not only of personal history, but of Soviet and indeed British history as well.

• Catriona Kelly is the author of Children's World: Growing Up in Russia, 1890-1991.

Catriona Kelly

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Badgerys Creek would be a badge of courage for Tony Abbott

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 12:52 AM PST

If the Coalition finally gives Badgerys Creek the go-ahead as Sydney's second airport it should get full marks for political courage.

Lenore Taylor

Russia may face second round of sanctions over Ukraine

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 12:46 AM PST

As Vladimir Putin rebuffs initial US-EU sanctions over occupation, France says assets may be seized if Moscow does not relent

• Follow the latest updates in our live blog

Barack Obama and his European Union allies have unveiled a co-ordinated set of sanctions to punish Russia for occupying Crimea, imposing visa restrictions on individuals and sharpening rhetoric in what has rapidly degenerated into the worst east-west crisis since the cold war.

Early on Friday, France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said that if the first round of sanctions did not succeed, a second could follow, targeting Russian businesses and people close to Vladimir Putin. But the president rebuffed Washington's warnings, saying Moscow could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Putin and Obama spoke for an hour on Thursday afternoon. According to the White House, the US president told Putin that newly announced sanctions, introduced in co-ordination with the UK, were a response to Russia's "violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

"President Obama indicated that there is a way to resolve the situation diplomatically, which addresses the interests of Russia, the people of Ukraine, and the international community," the White House said in a statement to reporters.

"As a part of that resolution, the governments of Ukraine and Russia would hold direct talks, facilitated by the international community; international monitors could ensure that the rights of all Ukrainians are protected, including ethnic Russians; Russian forces would return to their bases; and the international community would work together to support the Ukrainian people as they prepare for elections in May."

In their first concrete response to Russia's move to seize Crimea from Ukraine, Brussels and Washington warned of further sanctions, such as asset seizures, if Moscow did not relent.

"I am confident that we are moving forward together, united in our determination to oppose actions that violate international law," Obama told reporters in Washington. "That includes standing up for the principle of state sovereignty."

After an emergency EU summit in Brussels, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said: "We have experienced very much disappointment in recent days and we're ready to act."

The urgency was heightened after the Crimean parliament abruptly and unanimously voted to secede from Ukraine and reposition the Black Sea peninsula as part of Russia. It brought forward a referendum on secession to 16 March, but said such a vote would merely rubber-stamp its own decision. The sudden move elicited cries of protest from the new authorities in Kiev, and grave warnings from the west.

"The decision to hold a referendum in Crimea is illegal and not compatible with the Ukrainian constitution," Merkel said.

The White House said its visa bans would affect an unspecified number of Russian and Ukrainian individuals immediately, with the threat of asset seizures and bans on doing business in the US hanging as a deterrent against further escalation in Ukraine. The EU agreed to suspend visa and investment talks with Russia and held out the prospect of a full-blown trade and economic conflict with Russia unless there was a diplomatic breakthrough.

"The solution to the crisis in Ukraine must be based on the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine," said the EU summit statement. "It would be a matter of great regret if Russia continued to refuse to participate in a productive dialogue with the government of Ukraine."

The EU said Moscow had to open negotiations with Kiev "within the next few days, and produce results within a limited timeframe".

The EU and the US have struggled to co-ordinate a response to Russia's boldest military venture since the 2008 war in Georgia because the stakes are very different for both parties. EU-Russia trade volumes, including vast gas imports and engineering exports, are 15 times the level of US-Russia trade. Washington has far less to lose from a trade war, and has hitherto talked tougher.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, speaking in Rome, denied a rift with the EU. "I do not believe there is a gap. There may be a difference of opinion about timing … that's not unusual when you have as many countries as we do," he told reporters at a news conference.

German officials also dismissed reports of divisions. "That is something I think that would make Putin very happy," a senior official said. "He wants to divide us. The reality is that we are on the same page."

The White House rejected criticism that sanctions risked escalating the crisis, insisting there remained a way for Russia to defuse the situation if it chose.

"While we take these steps I want to be clear that there is also a way to resolve this crisis that respects the interests of the Russian as well as the Ukrainian people," said Obama, repeating calls for international monitors to be allowed into Crimea and other parts of Ukraine to ensure Russian interests were not threatened.

But Obama's rhetoric was more combative than of late and he accused Russia of not just "violating sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the Ukraine but of "stealing the assets of the Ukrainian people".

"In 2014, we are well beyond the days when borders can be redrawn over the heads of democratic leaders," he added.

It was clear that the sharpening of the western response was a result of exasperation with Russia's refusal to make concessions in negotiations in Paris on Wednesday, the first direct talks between Moscow and Washington on Ukraine, but also designed to put pressure on Putin to reverse course.

Representing the camp arguing for a hard line against Russia, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said he was pleased things were moving in the right direction. "It was a heated discussion," he said.

Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian president, demanded action to counter Russia's "open and brutal aggression". She said: "Russia today is trying to rewrite the borders of Europe after world war two, that is what's going on. If we allow this to happen, next will be somebody else."

The Europeans and the Americans are focused on forcing Russia to open a dialogue with Ukraine. The acting Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatseniuk, said Kiev was ready to talk to Moscow; it was ready for "co-operation, but not surrender".

"Mr Putin, tear down this wall," he said, echoing Ronald Reagan's demand of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. "Tear down this wall of intimidation, of military aggression."

In another unexpectedly bold move, the EU decided to push ahead much faster than predicted with a political pact drawing Ukraine closer to Europe, the initial spark for the crisis last November when the deposed president Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement.

Hitherto, the EU has said that Brussels would revive the pact only after elections scheduled for 25 May, once a new government was installed. Merkel and Tusk said the agreement would be split into political and trade sections. The political part could be signed "days or weeks" before the elections, Merkel pledged for the first time.

Additional reporting by Paul Lewis in Washington

Dan Roberts
Ian Traynor

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Malaysia censors Ultraman comic for 'irresponsible use of the word Allah'

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 12:35 AM PST

Ministry says use of 'Allah' in translated comic book could damage faith of Muslim youths and threaten public safety

Malaysia has banned a translation of an Ultraman comic book after it referred to the popular Japanese superhero as "Allah", authorities said.

The home ministry, which is in charge of domestic security and censorship, said the Malay-language edition of Ultraman, The Ultra Power contains elements that can undermine public order and morals.

In a statement, it said Ultraman was idolised by many children and equating him with Allah would "confuse Muslim youth and damage their faith".

It further warned that irresponsible use of the word could provoke Muslims and threaten public safety.

The Malaysian government is embroiled in an intense court battle with the Catholic church over the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims, in a case that has raised religious tensions in the majority Muslim country.

Ultraman is a fictional Japanese superhero who fights skyscraper-sized "Kaiju" (monsters), and first appeared on television in the 1960s. The comic gained popularity worldwide, including in Malaysia, where versions dubbed in Malay were screened on TV and comic books translated into the national language.

The home ministry said other Ultraman comic books were unaffected and that only this edition was banned.

The decision has led to widespread ridicule among Malaysian Facebook and Twitter users – including from the youth and sports minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, who asked: "Apa salah Ultraman? (What wrong did Ultraman do?)"

The controversial line can be seen in an image available on social media that describes Ultraman: "He is considered, and respected, as Allah or the Elder to all Ultra heroes."

The ban is enforced under the Printing Presses and Publications Act, a much-criticised law that gives authorities wide-ranging powers over printed material, which was also used to bar the Catholic church from using "Allah" in its publications.

The home ministry in 2007 threatened to revoke the publishing permit of the Herald, the Catholic church's newspaper, for using the word in its Malay edition, leading to a seven-year legal battle that has raised religious tensions.

The church is seeking leave from the nation's highest court to challenge a lower court's ruling last October that sides with the government.

The tussle has led to a wider struggle over whether the word can be used by non-Muslims in their translated scripture or other practices of worship.


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On International Women's Day, do we know what academic success looks like? | Athene Donald

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 12:30 AM PST

Athene Donald: Tomorrow is International Women's Day. It's a good time to consider what academic success means to women. The University of Cambridge is attempting, through a series of interviews, to find out

Athene Donald

Malaysian couple to hang for murdering Indonesian maid

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 12:08 AM PST

High court rules that Isti Komariyah died of deliberate starvation in latest case of abuse against Indonesian migrant workers

A Malaysian couple have been sentenced to hang for murdering their Indonesian maid by starving her to death, according to reports that said she weighed just 26kg (57lbs) when she died.

In the latest case of abuse against Indonesian migrant workers in Malaysia, the high court ruled on Thursday that 26-year-old Isti Komariyah died of deliberate starvation in June 2011.

Judge Noor Azian Shaari said Fong Kong Meng, 58 and his wife Teoh Ching Yen, 56, consistently withheld food from the woman during the three years she worked for them.

"She was 26 and weighed barely 26kg when she was taken to the University Malaya Medical Centre with bruises and scratch marks on her back, arms and forehead," the Star newspaper reported.

Isti was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. She had weighed 46kg (101lbs) when she first started working for the couple.

The court and the couple's lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.

Malaysia relies on an estimated 2 million Indonesians who toil in plantation, construction, factory and domestic work – both legally and illegally.

Allegations of abuse against foreign labourers have included overwork, beatings, sexual abuse and torture.

A Cambodian maid was starved to death in 2012 by her employers, for which they received a 24-year jail sentence. Cambodia had stopped sending maids a year earlier over other abuses, but poor Indonesian women have continued to arrive.

Malaysia has taken steps to improve the welfare of domestic workers, including requiring them to have at least one day off a week and nearly doubling minimum monthly salaries to 700 ringgit (£125). But activists say enforcement is difficult.

The Indonesian embassy estimates 400,000 women work in Malaysia as maids – about half illegally. Indonesian workers account for roughly half of all foreign labourers.


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The real voices behind the EU's report on violence against women

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 12:00 AM PST

Forty four percent of women in the UK have experienced physical or sexual abuse. Surprising? Not to us at the Everyday Sexism Project, where stories such as these are saddeningly commonplace

This week saw the launch of an extensive new report on Violence Against Women in the European Union, carried out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. The report, which saw 42,000 women surveyed across the 28 member states of the EU, revealed some stark and sobering statistics. Forty four percent of women in the UK reported experiencing some form of physical and/or sexual violence after the age of 15. Across the whole study, one in 20 women had been raped, and over a fifth (22%) of women in relationships reported partner abuse. For many, the results were shocking.

But for us at the Everyday Sexism Project, these findings are not surprising. They simply reflect the reality of the women and girls who share their testimonies with us on a daily basis. We hear facts and figures so often in the press that it can be easy to become desensitised to the reality they convey. But behind every one of those percentage points are thousands of real women experiencing harassment, assault and rape. The following are testimonies submitted by women to the Everyday Sexism Project over the last two years. Theirs are the stories behind the statistics.

According to the survey, of women in the UK … 68% experienced some form of sexual harassment since the age of 15.

"I have lost count of the number of times I have been followed, propositioned by creepy men on quiet streets and felt very threatened, and had lewd and abusive comments about my appearance screamed at me from passing cars. It happens regardless of what I am wearing – the most recent time I was wearing jeans and a large raincoat – and at any time of day, however it is most common at night, especially when I am alone."

19% had been stalked since the age of 15.

"I used to have very long hair, I was stalked by an older man because of my hair. At my work they would do nothing about the stalker. He would leave presents, stay there all day, try to touch me, randomly try to touch my hair, stay after close and hang around my car. My manager told me that it's a public place and he means no harm, and if it bothered me so much I should cut my hair and not have it so long because it is enticing to men."

29% experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a partner, after the age of 15

"I was repeatedly raped by my now ex-'boyfriend' at age 17. I stayed with him because he threatened to kill me and knew where I lived and where I went to school. Then he started to contact female friends of mine 'to have a little fun together' and I finally managed to leave him. I was so afraid he would harm my friends, too. He stalked me for another six months. He once tried to run me over with his car after I left him. I was too shocked and afraid to tell anyone." 

46% experienced psychological violence by a partner, after the age of 15

"Over the years, I learned from my ex that I was selfish, incompetent, a user, harsh, unfeminine, undependable, fat, not as good as [other women], a taker, and so on. If I recognised any of these tendencies within me, I strove to overcome them, but now I doubt that any of them were ever real. They were just hurtful words used to undermine and manipulate me." 

Only 16% contacted the police as a result of the most serious incident of physical/and or sexual violence they experienced from a non-partner after the age of 15

"I am a doctor and I consider myself to be a strong, feminist woman. I was raped by a male doctor colleague in 2012 and never went to the police, due to embarrassment... Most people on my team knew that my rapist stalked me at work and harassed me both within and outside of work. Nobody did anything, and I felt too broken to act in any constructive way. I just hid and avoided."

64% reported avoiding places or situations for fear of being physically or sexually assaulted

"This New Year's Eve I was walking into town to see the fireworks and I was coerced by several men and groped when just walking by. A group of older men in their late 20s/early 30s stalked behind me asking me if I was 18 years old, another said '16 even, cos either way I'd make her pussy wet'. I'm 17 and this was the first time I had gone to town for a night out, being subjected to such hostile, vile and disrespectful people made me anxious of even entertaining the idea of trying to go out again."

9% said they carried something for self-defence purposes

"Last week, walking past a garage, a male voice called out, 'I wouldn't mind her sitting in my face.' I'm 60 years old for goodness' sake, I thought I was too old by now for that sort of comment. Like most other women I've had to put up with harassment from men all my teenage and adult life. I don't go out at night alone very often and when I do you can bet I'm hyper-aware of my surroundings, and I carry keys laced between my fingers, just in case." 

When asked about the long-term psychological consequences of the most serious incident of sexual harassment they'd experienced, 27% of UK women said it made them feel vulnerable and 19% that they lost confidence. 12% reported anxiety and 8% depression

"The fact is, I feel violated. My body feels like it isn't mine, I feel guilty, angry, sad. I am lonely around others. I used to be quite aggressive and bold and now I find myself afraid to look men in the eye or smile because if I do they think it's an invite to call me sweetheart and beckon me to them. I have anxiety attacks now, I cry for no reason, I've fallen behind in work, most of my friends are male and don't seem to understand. None of the men who have made me feel worthless will be punished for what they did, instead I am punished."

Laura Bates

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Paris: life in a storage cupboard has never been so expensive

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 12:00 AM PST

Converted garages, cellars and chambres de bonne are all being rented out illegally in the second most expensive city in the world

Sophia moved to Paris two years ago from her native Rio de Janeiro. She lives in a converted storage room on the sixth floor of her landlord's building, close to the Champs Elysées. The room, which has a sink, measures less than 5m x 5m and costs Sophia €350 (£290) per month, or €70 per metre squared.

There used to be a kitchen in the corridor, until her landlords ripped it out after trying to force her to leave. "One night I came home to find they had used a lock I don't have the key for. I had to call a locksmith to open my home, which cost €400. So I didn't have enough to pay my rent the next month."

Sophia is unable to find alternative lodgings due to her modest revenue. "If I could leave, I would – trust me, I have looked. When I first arrived, I thought these small, expensive spaces were the norm in Paris. It's only when I brought a friend here one day and he explained it is illegal to rent out this sized room that I realised I was being abused."

The housing crisis in Paris dates back more than a century to the golden years of the belle époque – when the city could not grow fast enough to satisfy a population finally freed from the cares of war and revolution. But according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest cost-of-living report, Paris is now the second most expensive city in the world after Singapore.

The price of rented accommodation is so inaccessible that many workers on modest pay are having to take up illegal and substandard rooms rented out by modern-day marchands de sommeil, or "sleep vendors" (the term originally described those who rented beds by the hour to 1950s workers in shantytowns on the outskirts of Paris).

Last year, housing action group La Fondation Abbé Pierre (FAP) uncovered the case of Dominique – a now 50-year-old temporary worker who had spent the past 15 years living in a tiny former chambre de bonne (maid's attic room) that measured just 1.56m squared – less than a fifth of the legal limit. One of many such rooms being rented out illegally, Dominique paid a monthly rate of €330 (£271). He had no access to a shower or toilet, just a sink in his room. "We didn't live, we survived," he told French radio station RTL. "But we ended up saying it's either that or living out on the streets."

Prior to Dominique renting the room, it had been on the books of three different estate agencies. He has taken legal action to claim back the 15 years' rent from his landlady. "Dominique should be compensated for the abuse he has suffered; the rent should be reimbursed in full because his vulnerability was abused – but also it is necessary to make an example of the landlady," said FAP's chief executive officer, Patrick Doutreligne. "Even prison cells aren't as bad as some of these lodgings." The final verdict is due on 24 March.

Under French law, to be deemed fit for habitation, a living space needs to be a minimum of 9m squared and 1.80m in height, and possess adequate heating, running water, electricity and access to a bathroom, shower and kitchen. Many landlords, however, are still renting out converted cupboards, garages, cellars or chambres de bonne. The FAP estimates one-fifth of all housing issues it deals with concern illegally small accommodation, and that more than 3.5 million people across the country are living in unacceptable accommodation.

Doutreligne describes it as "a serious abuse of the poor in renting out these sorts of places on a permanent basis. These illegal lodgings must be reported and landlords sanctioned if we want to protect human dignity".

In France there are a great many obstacles to renting a place. The tenant must earn three to four times the rent; they must provide pay slips, references, work contracts, identity papers, bank account details and tax declarations; and all are required to have a guarantor. But above all, excessive demand plus various gentrification projects are causing property prices to sky-rocket (buying an apartment in Paris now costs an average of €8,000 (£6,600) per metre squared).

"If a place costs more than €30 per metre squared to rent per month, it's too much," said Jean-Baptiste Eyraud, founder of housing rights association DAL (Droit au Logement). Penalities in the form of taxes and fines are in place for landlords who rent rooms illegally, but they are easily evaded according to Eyraud.

Looking through properties to rent on France's three biggest online accommodation websites, it does not take long to find illegal rooms. One landlord was offering his 7.5m squared room for rent at €420 (£346) per month, or €46 per metre squared. Another lodging, advertised by an estate agent, was a chambre de bonne, supposedly of 9m squared, located on the seventh floor of a decrepit building in the upmarket 17th district of Paris. Without an elevator and with shared toilets, it was on the market for €380 (£312) per month. When I measured the room, it was just over 5m squared.

Claiming he had already climbed the seven floors that morning, the agent handed me the keys and told me to have a look at the room unaccompanied while he waited downstairs. When I finally reached the top floor, the long corridor was filthy with dust that looked like it had accumulated over several months. The room, equally grimy, was shockingly small. When the sofa bed was unfolded, it left hardly any room to move around. A narrow shower cubicle had been fitted besides the sofa – one could only imagine the humidity in the room after showering. "It's a small room, but it's just perfect for a student because it has everything you need," said the agent when I returned the keys.

I also met Aissatou, originally from Guinea, who lives in a ground-floor 25m squared space, without double-glazing and minimal heating for £585 (€710) per month with her three boys, aged 3, 6 and 9 – whose puffy faces confirm their suffering health from the humidity due to the exterior walls being dampened every time it rains.

Aissatou sleeps in a bed with her three-year-old, while the two older boys sleep in bunk beds in the same room. The conditions are cramped. "I don't understand why we end up having to settle for this sort of accommodation when we work," said Aissatou. "The hygiene commission has judged that the landlord needs to renovate the space, but instead he's kicking us out. My work contract has ended and we have nowhere else to go."

According to the FAP's study, there are currently 800,000 severely overpopulated lodgings in Paris that are unfit for living. Aissatou's application for council housing was finally accepted in January, but she isn't confident.

"I know people with 'urgent' applications that have been waiting for eight years. They told me I'm registered as an urgent case and but that it could take up to six months, but even six months is too long for an 'urgent' situation. If a single mother and three growing children isn't one of the most urgent cases, then what is?"

"The government is breaking the 2007 Dalo law by not placing the vulnerable in decent housing," said Eyraud. "They [the Paris council] could re-house people in private housing – housing that is left empty – but they don't because it costs them too much," said Eyraud. Last January, the Guardian revealed that 11m homes across Europe are empty, 2.4m of which are in France.

Following the FAP's 19th report released in January, the housing minister, Cécile Duflot, announced that "2014 will be the year of the realisation of a real action plan in favour of people recognised as a priority by the Dalo law". Currently, 57,000 families living in vulnerable conditions are registered for priority housing.

According to Doutreligne: "The best solution is the 'grand Paris' project, whereby the government is extending the city beyond its borders, that is currently being implemented," he said. "If the government enlarges the city intelligently, it could resolve the housing problem."

But in the meantime, said Eyraud, "The bottom line is that the council needs to do its job and house people that really are a priority because pushing destitute people out onto the streets in the end, is the same as condemning them to death."

* The names of the tenants in this article have been changed


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Matthew Barney's River of Fundament: what was that all about then?

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:36 PM PST

The five-and-a-half hour epic film, which debuted in Adelaide last weekend, had some commentators declaiming it as filth. So now the dust has settled, was it actually any good?

Alex Needham

Viral Video Chart: The Beatles, Reese Witherspoon and Transformers

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:34 PM PST

The Fab Four harness the power of technology, the Legally Blonde star teleports and the robots pursue new plot twists

We are going to ask you to suspend belief for a little while as some of our viral videos are quite a stretch of the imagination. We kick off with a wonderful Beatles spoof in which Fred Armisen joins the Fab Four on the Jimmy Fallon show as they try to use the powers of new technology to bring their brand to America. They'll have to think about changing the titles of some of those hits … With a little help from My Facebook Friends, Ain't She Tweet, Lucy in the Skype with Diamonds ... can you think of any more?

While we are floating a few ideas, catch Belief – a video on a hover-skateboard based on the film Back to the Future. Stars who test the gliding super skateboard include Tony Hawk and the singer Moby. The one thing the hoverboard can't do is teleport – but don't worry, we have got Reese Witherspoon doing that during the Independent Spirit Awards.

There's also a surreal moment when a homeless man is duped into believing that he has won the lottery and our video Most Shocking Second a Day from Save the Children may also prompt a tear.

Finally, to cheer you up, we've got a glimpse of the new Paddington Bear movie, from the makers of the Harry Potter films, and a clip from Transformers: Age of Extinction, starring Mark Wahlberg. Go make that change!

Guardian Viral Video Chart. Compiled by Unruly Media and transformed by Janette

1. The Beatles Were Ahead of Their Time (Jimmy Fallon & Fred Armisen)
That'll be the day …

2. Belief
Hoverboarding for beginners

3. Reese Witherspoon Teleports
Legally blonde moment

4. Homeless Lottery Winner
Just the ticket

5. RT Anchor Quits on Air
Russian to make a point

6. Paddington - Official Teaser Trailer (2014) [HD]
Bearing up well

7. Most Shocking Second a Day Video
War child

8. 2Cellos - Thunderstruck
Spikey rock

9. Transformers: Age of Extinction Teaser Trailer
Machine dream

10. Benny Hill ravers
Watch your step

Source: Viral Video Chart. Compiled from data gathered at 14:00 on 06 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.

Janette Owen

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Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung jailed for six years for laundering $93m

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:27 PM PST

Barber-turned-businessman found guilty by Hong Kong court of five counts of money-laundering

Birmingham City football club owner Carson Yeung has been sentenced to six years in jail for laundering $93m (£55m) following a high-profile trial that cast a spotlight on how the barber-turned-businessman made his fortune.

Yeung, 54, was found guilty by a Hong Kong court on Monday of five counts of money-laundering. He had denied the charges.

The businessman had told the court he amassed his wealth through hairdressing, share-trading, property purchases, gambling in the world's casino hub of Macau and other investments. The former hair stylist to Hong Kong's rich and famous laundered the money between January 2001 and December 2007 through five bank accounts, the court found.


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BA flight forced back to Heathrow after 'engine surge'

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:18 PM PST

Witness saw flames 'spitting out' of an engine and said France-bound plane was making spluttering noises as it took off

A British Airways plane has had to turn back to Heathrow after experiencing "an engine surge" on take-off.

BA said the aircraft, an Airbus A319 bound for Lyon in France, landed safely after the incident at about 9pm on Thursday.

A witness told the BBC he had seen flames "spitting out" of an engine and that the plane was making spluttering noises as it was taking off.

Tom Puttick, who works near Heathrow, said: "I was in the petrol station opposite the airport which is when I heard the bang, so I turned around and the airplane had flames spitting out of the engine with a spluttering noise as it was taking off.

"I then watched it continue to climb and the engine was still emitting flames intermittently. Lots of blue lights then emerged on the airport while the plane, I guess, turned around to make an emergency landing."

A BA spokeswoman said: "A flight experienced what's known as an 'engine surge' as it took off from Heathrow, but it returned and touched down safely.

"Our crew cared for our customers on-board and kept them informed. We train our pilots to the very highest standards including how to respond to these type of events, and the engine was immediately shut down."

She said passengers had been given hotel accommodation overnight and were rebooked to fly on Friday.

"We have scheduled a larger aircraft to operate to Lyon to ensure we can get all our customers there as soon as possible. We can understand how frustrating the delay to their plans must be.

"The aircraft is being thoroughly checked over by engineers. The safety of our customers, crew and aircraft is of the utmost importance to British Airways."

Last year, a BA Airbus A319 bound for Oslo had to return to Heathrow after smoke was seen pouring from one of the engines.

Investigators later found that doors of the engines had been left unlatched during maintenance. The coverings of the two engines – called fan cowl doors – then fell off as the aircraft left the runway, puncturing a fuel pipe on the right engine. Dramatic film of the incident in May was captured as the plane flew over London.


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Satoshi Nakamoto: man denies being bitcoin inventor amid media frenzy

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:07 PM PST

'I got nothing to do with it,' says California man as he gives interview for a free lunch but Newsweek reporter stands by story

Rory Carroll

Hepatitis C medicines must be made accessible faster than HIV drugs were | Philippe Douste-Blazy

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:00 PM PST

It took decades for HIV/Aids drugs to reach the world's poorest – history must not be repeated with hepatitis C treatments

A public health showdown is brewing over a virus that affects the lives of millions of people every year. The face-off will involve activists from around the globe on one side, pharmaceutical companies on the other. It will play out in the richest cities of North America and the poorest countries in Africa. The viral scourge at the centre of this brewing confrontation is spread through blood-to-blood contact, but is treatable with expensive medicines.

This scenario might remind some of the decades-long struggle to obtain access to life-saving medicines for HIV and Aids. But here we are talking about another public health threat: hepatitis C.

An estimated 150-180 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C, and up to 500,000 die every year. The virus attacks the liver, yet the vast majority of people are unaware that they are infected because the initial stages have no symptoms. It is the long-term effects that can be the most damaging: cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure.

The showdown is over the cost and quality of medicines. Until recently, the only cure for hepatitis C involved an expensive combination of injections and tablets that lasted a year. In addition to having limited efficacy, this regimen caused serious side effects that deterred patients from finishing the full course. Now, new drugs are ready to enter the market that act more quickly, are more effective, and may not require weekly injections. About 10 of these new hepatitis C drugs have reached an advanced stage in clinical trials.

But battle lines are being drawn over the cost of the treatments. Two products were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration recently, including the first pill that does not require a complementary injection. Called sofosbuvir, the pill costs $84,000 (£50,371) for a 12-week course of treatment. Echoing the concerns of HIV activists who demanded cheaper treatment, protesters point out that such prices will keep hepatitis C drugs beyond the reach of those in need.

The similarities with HIV and Aids don't stop there. Hepatitis C is a leading cause of death for HIV-positive people. Approximately 5.5 million people are "co-infected" with hepatitis C and HIV. Just as people with HIV are living longer thanks to powerful medicines, some are being struck down by hepatitis C.

A decade ago, the high price of HIV treatment meant that few people had access in developing countries. Today, almost 10 million people in low- and middle-income countries are able to get life-saving HIV medicines, thanks to generic competition slashing prices from $10,000 in the mid-1990s to $140 a year. The success in providing HIV treatment to the world's poorest people can pave the way to ending hepatitis C.

Manufacturers of new hepatitis C medicines are likely to offer the poorest countries a less expensive version. But according to the Lancet medical journal, pharmaceutical firms will not offer discounts to middle-income countries they regard as emerging markets, where about 75% of people with hepatitis C live. For this reason, a diverse alliance of countries – Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Moldova and South Africa – sponsored a strong resolution at a recent meeting of the World Health Organisation, urging the international community to act quickly on hepatitis.

Governments, pharmaceuticals and civil society need to work together. We need to learn from our experience with HIV and Aids and negotiate better prices from all manufacturers. Generic competition should be encouraged to bring prices down.

Pharmaceutical firms are starting to realise that they cannot leave people in poor countries behind. Initiatives such as the Medicines Patent Pool have enabled a number of major companies to share their patents, enabling affordable generic versions of their HIV medicines to be made. We need to see the same spirit of co-operation for hepatitis C.

We must avoid a prolonged international showdown. Almost 20 years passed between the time that the first HIV antiretrovirals emerged in the 1990s and the moment people in low-income countries began to get access. For the millions of people with hepatitis C – and those that do not know it yet – we must act faster.

Philippe Douste-Blazy

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What women want ... from a career in central government

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:00 PM PST

Prospect, the union representing people in science and technology careers, sets out the changes it wants from government on International Women's Day

If government was to take a lead from International Women's Day, how could it inspire change for the 220,000 women who work across central government?

What women want

Prospect, the union for people in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) careers, has called for government to set an example to public and private employers with:

• Support through mentoring schemes that stop women becoming isolated in workplaces, especially at more senior levels
• The provision of incentives for professional development and more accessible career paths
• Action to remove barriers to part-time working
• A commitment to keep Stem apprenticeship programmes
• More stable funding regimes; and the creation of a cabinet level science minister with a brief to increase the representation of women at all levels of the Stem workforce.

There also needs to be a renewed emphasis on addressing the leaky employment pipeline. Early in the new year, we asked our female members "If you could persuade your employer to make one change at work, what would you ask for?" Their top priority was more flexible working hours and working arrangements available to all employees, regardless of gender and grade.

Members also want more accessible career paths, including increased opportunities for appropriate training and learning, parity of promotion opportunities and support for formalised succession planning.

Women in Stem

Prospect represents around 13,000 women working in central government, as research scientists, meteorologists, intellectual property officers, defence intelligence analysts, marine biologists and so on.

But the lack of women in these kinds of careers is a nationwide problem in every sector which the union wants government to tackle. Prospect is campaigning for a minister-led commission to increase the 13% of women in science, technology, engineering and maths careers to 30% by 2020. Twenty-three MPs and 28 MSPs have already signed up to it, and over the next month we'll be making our case in the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies.

Although government has woken up to the challenge of getting more women into science and engineering careers– science minister David Willetts recently said improving the diversity of the STEM workforce is vital to the UK economy – we argue that ministers should take the lead in co-ordinating departmental and employer efforts to give the campaign added traction.

Government is funding the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering to lead a Stem diversity programme. It also appears to have endorsed the call in the Perkins' review of engineering skills for concerted action by employers, professional bodies and educators to increase the supply of engineering skills.

But David Willetts sets his sights too low. The target he endorses of 20% women in engineering by 2020 is too timid and excludes the key areas of science and technology.

He prefers an industry-led approach to a minister-led commission. While this is in tune with the current mantra of employer ownership of skills, the longstanding under-representation of women in Stem has proved remarkably impervious to employer-led initiatives.

By contrast, an active senior ministerial lead could ensure a joined up, cross-departmental approach. Better coordination between the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills would ensure that schools, colleges and employers are all bought into this agenda and support it effectively. It could also ensure that funding is targeted to areas of greatest need, embedding vocational pathways as well as academic career routes. And significantly, it would be able to plan beyond the immediate business needs of employers.

Sue Ferns is director of communications and research at the Prospect Union.

• Want your say? Email us at public.leaders@theguardian.com.

Join the Public Leaders Network for more comment, analysis and job opportunities, direct to your inbox. Follow us on twitter via @Guardianpublic.

Sue Ferns

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End of Australian car manufacturing could cost up to 39,000 jobs

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 10:54 PM PST

Economic modelling by the Productivity Commission predicts 27,430 jobs would be lost in Victoria and 10,670 in South Australia

Mark Skulley

PM may soften stance on Racial Discrimination Act

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 10:33 PM PST

Reports suggest the Abbott government may seek to amend parts of the Racial Discrimination Act, rather than repeal one section, as it had promised

Paul Farrell

Sydney Biennale chairman quits over company's links to detention centres

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 10:26 PM PST

Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, whose father founded Biennale, resigns as organisers cut all ties with Transfield

Michael Safi
Paul Farrell

Navy sex assault investigation finds 'insufficient evidence'

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 10:08 PM PST

HMAS Ballarat personnel who allegedly assaulted colleagues when an apparent hazing ritual got out of hand will escape conviction

Helen Davidson

Workplace relations: government moves to ease inquiry fears

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 09:38 PM PST

Employment minister Eric Abetz says penalty rates are not explicitly mentioned in any version of the terms of reference

Daniel Hurst

Peter Falconio's killer Bradley Murdoch withdraws appeal against conviction

Posted: 06 Mar 2014 09:31 PM PST

Murdoch claimed that the prosecution had groomed the main witness, Joanne Lees, in the murder case


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