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Cyclone Pam: Vanuatu death toll rises as Australia pledges $5m in aid – rolling report
Bali Nine executions: hope of further delays as appeals continue
Cyclone Pam: Vanuatu awaits first wave of relief and news from worst-hit islands
Brazil bus crash: at least 40 dead after plunge off cliff
China earthquake damages 10,000 homes, say authorities
Funeral of Tony Terrell Robinson sees Madison community cry for change
Cyclone Pam: disaster response teams travelling to Vanuatu as dozens feared dead
As Poland loses its doctors and builders, ‘Euro-orphans’ are left at home to suffer
Divers will brave Arctic ice to unlock secret of Franklin’s doomed voyage
The Observer view on Israel
Hope is mingled with guilt as I bid farewell to my Kabul home
Climate change could damage quality and raise cost of produce, study finds
Tony Abbott: 'the less said the better' about Bali Nine pair at this stage
Book prize judges criticise decision to axe Putin exposé
Ebola: at least 10 US citizens possibly exposed to be flown back from Africa
Pakistan faces global anger over bid to execute man jailed over killing aged 14
Bangladesh seeking police 'black sheep' on duty when US blogger was killed
Civilians face fresh disaster if Iraqi forces push on north once Tikrit falls
Islamic State used chemical weapons against peshmerga, Kurds say

Cyclone Pam: Vanuatu death toll rises as Australia pledges $5m in aid – rolling report

Posted: 15 Mar 2015 01:08 AM PDT

Latest updates as emergency response teams head to the Pacific island chain to assess the damage wrought by devastating storm

Read the latest summary

Bali Nine executions: hope of further delays as appeals continue

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 11:52 PM PDT

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran's death sentence on hold until all legal avenues run out, says Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop

Cyclone Pam: Vanuatu awaits first wave of relief and news from worst-hit islands

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 11:18 PM PDT

Government says there are fears of widespread destruction and heavy loss of life after several islands were directly hit by eye of category five superstorm

• Follow all the latest developments

Brazil bus crash: at least 40 dead after plunge off cliff

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 08:38 PM PDT

Rescuers reporting dozens of fatalities, with police blaming brake failure for accident in southern state of Santa Catarina

China earthquake damages 10,000 homes, say authorities

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 08:13 PM PDT

At least two people reported to have been killed and extensive damage to houses as magnitude 4.7 tremor hits eastern city of Fuyang

Funeral of Tony Terrell Robinson sees Madison community cry for change

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 06:20 PM PDT

As more than a thousand mourned the 19-year-old shot dead by a police officer last week, one speaker said: 'Too many of our children are dying before their time'

Cyclone Pam: disaster response teams travelling to Vanuatu as dozens feared dead

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 05:06 PM PDT

Aid agencies say the immediate priorities are shelter, clean water and sanitation for thousands of people left homeless in aftermath of category five cyclone

Emergency response teams from Australia are on their way to Vanuatu, where dozens are feared dead after Cyclone Pam ripped through the island nation.

Red Cross Australia and Save the Children workers are expected to arrive later on Sunday while Oxfam already has a team on the ground. The aid agencies say the immediate priorities are shelter, clean water and sanitation for the thousands left homeless after the category five cyclone.

As Poland loses its doctors and builders, ‘Euro-orphans’ are left at home to suffer

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 05:05 PM PDT

Parents across eastern Europe are leaving their children with elderly relatives in places like Radom, Poland's fastest-shrinking town, as they hunt for work Continue reading...

Divers will brave Arctic ice to unlock secret of Franklin’s doomed voyage

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 05:04 PM PDT

Next month, 170 years after the Erebus and all its crew were lost, experts will try to reach the wreck – under thick ice on an undersea ridge Continue reading...

The Observer view on Israel

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 05:04 PM PDT

Hawkish Netanyahu is a man out of time Continue reading...

Hope is mingled with guilt as I bid farewell to my Kabul home

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 05:04 PM PDT

After four years in Afghanistan, Emma Graham-Harrison leaves behind friends who fear that a new government may not be able to deliver peace Continue reading...

Climate change could damage quality and raise cost of produce, study finds

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 04:53 PM PDT

Researchers at the University of Melbourne find that climate change will have serious effects on the quality and cost of food ranging from bananas to beef

Future generations may have to make do with more expensive and poorer quality produce, including meat and dairy, because of the impact of climate change, according to new research.

A study of the impact of climate change on 55 foods grown in Australia, found the quality of beef and chicken may plummet, and carrots could change taste for the worse.

Tony Abbott: 'the less said the better' about Bali Nine pair at this stage

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 03:57 PM PDT

Australian prime minister says there is still hope that the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, may grant clemency and it's best not to comment further

Book prize judges criticise decision to axe Putin exposé

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 02:45 PM PDT

US academic's acclaimed study of Russian corruption not available in the UK due to libel fears

The judges of one of the country's top book prizes have complained that a study of corruption in Russia under president Vladimir Putin has not been published in the UK because of fears of legal action.

As the shortlist for the annual Pushkin House prize for the best book about Russia was announced last week, judges lamented that the new work, Putin's Kleptocracy, by US academic Karen Dawisha, was not eligible for the prize because it is not for sale here.

Ebola: at least 10 US citizens possibly exposed to be flown back from Africa

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 02:34 PM PDT

CDC says individuals heading for Nebraska, Maryland or Atlanta
Authorities say none have been found to have the disease

At least 10 US citizens possibly exposed to the deadly Ebola virus were being flown to the US from Africa for observation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Saturday.

Pakistan faces global anger over bid to execute man jailed over killing aged 14

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 02:30 PM PDT

Move to hang Shafqat Hussain, convicted in 2004, defies international outcry and overturns government pledge to hold inquiry

Pakistan is preparing to execute a man convicted over a murder committed when he was 14, in a move likely to provoke a storm of international anger.

A juvenile cannot face the death penalty in Pakistan, but a so-called "black warrant" ordering the imminent hanging of Shafqat Hussain was announced suddenly last week, overturning government pledges to examine his case and age – in defiance of an international outcry and allegations that the boy was innocent and tortured into a confession.

Bangladesh seeking police 'black sheep' on duty when US blogger was killed

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 01:18 PM PDT

Avijit Roy's wife, demanding justice, has said officers 'stood close by and did not act' while she and her husband were brutally attacked

A government adviser on Saturday asked the chief of Bangladesh police to identify the officers who failed to act when Avijit Roy, an atheist American blogger, was attacked and killed last month in Dhaka.

Civilians face fresh disaster if Iraqi forces push on north once Tikrit falls

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 12:46 PM PDT

Médecins Sans Frontières warns of prospect of battles with Islamic State forces in more heavily populated areas

Islamic State used chemical weapons against peshmerga, Kurds say

Posted: 14 Mar 2015 12:31 PM PDT

Kurdistan Region Security Council says attack took place on a road between Mosul and Syrian border as forces fought to seize a supply line used by Isis

Kurdish authorities in Iraq have said they have evidence that Islamic State (Isis) used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against peshmerga fighters, the latest alleged atrocity carried out by the extremist organisation now under attack in Tikrit.

The allegation by the Kurdistan Region Security Council, stemming from a 23 January suicide truck bomb attack in northern Iraq, did not immediately draw a reaction from Isis, which holds a third of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in its self-declared caliphate. However, Iraqi officials and Kurds fighting in Syria have made similar allegations about the militants using the low-grade chemical weapons against them.