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

UN to fund Iran anti-drugs programme despite executions of offenders
Tunisian Bardo museum killings: first details of the victims emerge
Singapore prepares for life after founding father Lee Kuan Yew
'Even God can’t help you here': Nauru refugees describe a life devoid of hope
New Zealand police apologise to Roast Busters' victims
From the archive, 19 March 1982: The Romans in Britain obscenity trial dropped
Bali Nine pair's appeal against clemency denial is adjourned
Tiger meat and bear paws on menu for Chinese tourists in Laos, says report
An anthology of the final decade: exploring Iran's past through art
'Corruption has opened door to al-Shabaab in Kenya'
Mystery of Darwin's strange South American mammals solved
Thai former PM Yingluck Shinawatra to face trial over rice scheme
James Bond producer says Mexico didn't make changes to Spectre script
Indian ministers may curtail use of red lights on government cars
Tunisia terrorism attack: injured taken from Bardo museum - video
Sweden shootings: several dead at Gothenburg pub
Cyclone Pam survivor's harrowing story: 'the noise, the destruction and the wind'
Women's rights activists use social media to get their message out
Swiss authorities freeze bank assets as part of Petrobras investigation
Al-Shabaab leader killed in drone strike

UN to fund Iran anti-drugs programme despite executions of offenders

Posted: 19 Mar 2015 12:30 AM PDT

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime criticised for planning new five-year aid deal with Tehran, which continues to use death penalty for narcotics offences

Tunisian Bardo museum killings: first details of the victims emerge

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 11:56 PM PDT

The names and stories of some of those killed at Tunis' Bardo museum have been revealed as other countries scramble to identify their citizens

Japan and several other countries were frantically trying to establish the identities of citizens who were killed or injured in Wednesday's terrorist attack in Tunis, as reports emerged of a multinational death toll of at least 20 people, most of them tourists.

As authorities in the Tunisian capital tried to account for the dead and injured amid conflicting reports of the number of people and nationalities involved, the country's prime minister, Habib Essid, said people from at least eight countries had died.

Singapore prepares for life after founding father Lee Kuan Yew

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 11:55 PM PDT

Island nation's first prime minister is critically ill in intensive care although reports of his death have been dismissed as a hoax

Singapore's 'founding father' Lee Kuan Yew is critically ill in hospital, and the island state he led for three decades is preparing for life without the domineering politician who guided it to independence and prosperity.

91-year-old Lee, Singapore's first and longest-serving prime minister, has receded from public life in recent times, but he remains a revered figure in the country he led for 31 years.

'Even God can’t help you here': Nauru refugees describe a life devoid of hope

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 11:31 PM PDT

In covert interviews, refugees settled on Nauru under Australia's asylum policy tell of fear, desperation and a profound sense of helplessness

New Zealand police apologise to Roast Busters' victims

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 11:01 PM PDT

Police conduct authority finds 'significant deficiences' in investigation into young men's Facebook boasts of having sex with drunk and possibly underage girls

From the archive, 19 March 1982: The Romans in Britain obscenity trial dropped

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 10:30 PM PDT

Mary Whitehouse, who brought a private prosecution against the play's director, felt that it was quite unnecessary for her to see the play to appreciate its insidious quality

Bali Nine pair's appeal against clemency denial is adjourned

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 10:29 PM PDT

Lawyers for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan argue Indonesia's president did not properly assess their case before rejecting their application for clemency

Tiger meat and bear paws on menu for Chinese tourists in Laos, says report

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 10:26 PM PDT

The country's Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone openly selling illegal wildlife according to report by the Environmental Investigation Agency

A resort complex in northwest Laos targeting Chinese visitors has become a "lawless playground" for the trade in illegal wildlife ranging from tiger meat to bear paws, an advocacy group said Thursday.

Customers "can openly buy endangered species products" in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone on the border between Laos, Myanmar and Thailand in Laos' Bokeo province, according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

An anthology of the final decade: exploring Iran's past through art

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 10:00 PM PDT

A series of exhibitions from curator Vali Mahlouji examine the 'lost decades' of pre-revolutionary Iran

'Corruption has opened door to al-Shabaab in Kenya'

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 10:00 PM PDT

As government ministers and top businessmen are charged over the Anglo Leasing scandal, whistleblower John Githongo argues this fraud has played into the hands of terrorists

Mystery of Darwin's strange South American mammals solved

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 09:37 PM PDT

Last unresolved 'major problem in mammalian evolution' – the origin of two ungulates – has been resolved according to researchers

To 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin, they were the strangest animals yet discovered, one looking like a hybrid of a hippo, rhino and rodent and another resembling a humpless camel with an elephant's trunk.

Ever since Darwin first collected their fossils about 180 years ago, scientists had been baffled about where these odd South American beasts that went extinct just 10,000 years ago fit on the mammal family tree. The mystery has now been solved.

Thai former PM Yingluck Shinawatra to face trial over rice scheme

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 09:08 PM PDT

Thailand's first female prime minister must attend a hearing in May at Bangkok's Supreme Court over a subsidy scheme that cost the country billions of dollars

Thailand's former premier Yingluck Shinawatra has been ordered to stand trial on charges of negligence over a bungled rice subsidy scheme, in a case that could see her jailed for up to a decade.

The decision is the latest legal move against Yingluck – Thailand's first female prime minister and sister of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra – that could spell the end of her family's political dominance.

James Bond producer says Mexico didn't make changes to Spectre script

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 08:21 PM PDT

Producer of latest instalment denies authorities were given control over casting, storyline and locations in return for incentives worth millions

The producer of the new James Bond thriller Spectre has denied the script was changed to get incentives in Mexico.

The website Tax Analysts said leaked emails indicated that Mexico made suggestions on the nationality of an actress and the villain, the villain's intended victim and some film shots. Implicitly, Mexico's incentives for the film were at stake, it said.

Indian ministers may curtail use of red lights on government cars

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 07:59 PM PDT

'Lal bhatti' for officials to clear path through congested traffic are treated as status symbol and resented by citizens as abuse of rank

Indian ministers are considering whether to launch a frontal assault on one of the best-defended official privileges in the emerging economic power: the use of red lights on government cars.
Known locally as lal bhatti, the lights are theoretically restricted to the top ranks of the list of precedence and only then when officials are on business to help them accomplish their public service.

Yet as Indian cities become more and more congested, the lights are increasingly coveted as the only way to clear a path through the jammed cars, trucks, rickshaws, carts and cows.

Tunisia terrorism attack: injured taken from Bardo museum - video

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 07:46 PM PDT

Ambulances take tourists and Tunisians from the scene of a deadly attack at the renowned Bardo national museum in Tunis. At least 20 people were killed when suspected Islamist extremists attacked the museum and its patrons with automatic weapons on Wednesday. Most of the dead were foreigners, with the Tunisian authorities branding it an attack on the country's economy Continue reading...

Sweden shootings: several dead at Gothenburg pub

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 07:34 PM PDT

Automatic weapon believed to have been used, say police, in killings in country's second-largest city

Cyclone Pam survivor's harrowing story: 'the noise, the destruction and the wind'

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 06:57 PM PDT

Australian tourist tells of being on one of the Vanuatu islands hardest hit by cyclone Pam and watching as the buildings around him were blown apart

Women's rights activists use social media to get their message out

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 05:01 PM PDT

Through sharing experiences and focusing on key events, online activism is boosting women's rights issues – but its effect on policy change is still unclear

Swiss authorities freeze bank assets as part of Petrobras investigation

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 04:28 PM PDT

Attorney general opens nine separate inquiries into possible links between Swiss accounts and the scandal-hit state oil company of Brazil

Al-Shabaab leader killed in drone strike

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 04:16 PM PDT

Pentagon reports that Adan Gatar, who was connected with the 2013 attack on a Nairobi shopping centre, has been killed in his vehicle

A US drone strike has killed an al-Shabaab leader linked to the 2013 Kenyan shopping centre massacre which claimed the lives of 67 people including six Britons, authorities have confirmed. Adan Garar was killed in a strike on his vehicle in Diinsoor in southern Somalia on 12 March, a Pentagon official said.

Garar was a "key operative" responsible for coordinating the Somali militant group's external operations, which targeted Western citizens to "further al Qaida's goals and objectives", the official added.