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

Burma jails New Zealand bar manager over 'insulting' Buddha images
Vanuatu disaster: the island hit by an earthquake, a volcano then cyclone Pam
China sets goal of hosting World Cup with master plan for football
Nauru: Iranian refugee couple pelted with rocks by local men, sources say
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: France, Germany and Italy said to join
Polls open in Israel at end of bitter election campaign
The sting: An American drugs bust in west Africa
'My employer hit me in the face and pushed me down the stairs'
UK tied visa system 'turning domestic workers into modern-day slaves'
The global plight of domestic workers: few rights, little freedom, frequent abuse
Australian PM accused of patronising Irish in St Patrick's Day message
From the archive, 17 March 1977: Lebanese leftist leader Kamal Jumblatt assassinated
What do Iraqis think of Iran?
20,000 North Koreans working in slave-like conditions abroad, says UN
Cyclone Pam: extra team of 70 takes Australian rescue staff to 123 in Vanuatu
France likely to ban fashion models deemed to be too thin
Chinese army denounces 'pathetic and shameful' Xu Caihou after cancer death
How do you define journalism? Five questions about Abbott's metadata deal
Gambling problems common among drug traffickers, Victorian report finds
Anwar Ibrahim's daughter arrested in latest move against Malaysian opposition

Burma jails New Zealand bar manager over 'insulting' Buddha images

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 01:15 AM PDT

Phil Blackwood and two Burmese colleagues get two-and-a-half year sentences over use of psychedelic image of Buddha wearing headphones to promote bar

Vanuatu disaster: the island hit by an earthquake, a volcano then cyclone Pam

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 01:06 AM PDT

The island of Ambrym has managed to escape the worst effects of the category five storm but its people will soon need help

First there was the earthquake. Then the volcano erupted. Finally came cyclone Pam, one of the most powerful storms to rip through the south Pacific.

This almost biblical run of misfortune happened within the space of just two weeks to the small Vanuatu island of Ambrym.

China sets goal of hosting World Cup with master plan for football

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 12:42 AM PDT

Beijing lays out sweeping blueprint, endorsed by football-loving president, to take game to the masses and become internationally competitive

Nauru: Iranian refugee couple pelted with rocks by local men, sources say

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 12:42 AM PDT

Man and wife were knocked off their motorbike by rocks and taken to hospital

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: France, Germany and Italy said to join

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 11:09 PM PDT

Gap widens between US and allies on new China-led lending body, with Britain among other countries already taking part in AIIB and Australia considering it

Polls open in Israel at end of bitter election campaign

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 11:09 PM PDT

Analaysts predict one of the largest turnouts since 1999 as Binyamin Netanyahu fights for his leadership

Israeli voters headed to the polls on Tuesday at the end of a close fought and bitter election campaign.

With Binyamin Netanyahu trailing in the last opinion polls to his main rival, Yitzhak Herzog of the opposition Zionist Union, today's election has been presented to Israelis - some 5.8 million of whom are eligible to vote - as a choice over the country's future direction.

The sting: An American drugs bust in west Africa

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 11:00 PM PDT

Using undercover agents, the DEA spent four years trying to bring down a cocaine trafficking gang in Liberia. Was the operation a triumph in the global war on drugs or a case of American overreach? Continue reading...

'My employer hit me in the face and pushed me down the stairs'

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 11:00 PM PDT

Filipina migrant maids report most abuse in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia in particular, where exploitation thrives

UK tied visa system 'turning domestic workers into modern-day slaves'

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 11:00 PM PDT

Kafala-style rule means foreign staff must leave if they change employer
Charity says 400 employees have approached it for help after being abused
Government fighting peer's attempt to overturn controversial measure

The global plight of domestic workers: few rights, little freedom, frequent abuse

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 11:00 PM PDT

A quarter of the world's 53 million domestic staff have no labour rights, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, beatings and sexual assault

Australian PM accused of patronising Irish in St Patrick's Day message

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 10:45 PM PDT

Remark about 'having a Guinness or two, or three' provokes sharp response from his Irish counterpart, Enda Kenny

The Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, has been criticised by his Irish counterpart, Enda Kenny, for perpetuating the "stage Irish" stereotype that the country's culture is synonymous with alcohol after his St Patrick's Day message mentioned having "a Guinness, or two, or maybe even three".

The offending St Patrick's Day video message was posted on YouTube on Friday and features Abbott cheerily waving his green tie, talking up Irish influences in Australian culture – which he described as songs and a sense of humour – and saying it was a good day for "anyone who cares to come to a party".

From the archive, 17 March 1977: Lebanese leftist leader Kamal Jumblatt assassinated

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 10:30 PM PDT

The assassination is bound to throw into doubt the continuing stability of the Syrian-imposed ceasefire in Lebanon

What do Iraqis think of Iran?

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 10:00 PM PDT

Iran's influence in Iraq's war against Isis is split the same way the country is along ethnic lines. Many Iraqi journalists say they prefer to see more tolerance and less external interference

20,000 North Koreans working in slave-like conditions abroad, says UN

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 09:43 PM PDT

UN special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman says some workers reported to be in Qatar building World Cup 2022 facilities

The UN human rights investigator for North Korea has said he would investigate allegations of an estimated 20,000 North Koreans working in slave-like conditions abroad, mainly in China, Russia and the Middle East.

Marzuki Darusman, UN special rapporteur on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, told Reuters that some of the North Korean workers are reported to be in Qatar helping build facilities for the 2022 World Cup.

Cyclone Pam: extra team of 70 takes Australian rescue staff to 123 in Vanuatu

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 09:42 PM PDT

One-week-old baby one of 24 recorded dead as aerial surveillance of southern islands shows widespread devastation

France likely to ban fashion models deemed to be too thin

Posted: 16 Mar 2015 09:21 PM PDT

Amendments to health legislation to be debated in parliament could see fines and even prison for those encouraging extreme thinness

France's government is likely to back a bill banning excessively thin fashion models as well as potentially fining the modelling agency or fashion house that hires them and sending the agents to jail, the health minister has said.

Style-conscious France, with its fashion and luxury industries worth tens of billions of euros, would join Italy, Spain and Israel which all adopted laws against too-thin models on catwalks or in advertising campaigns in early 2013.