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

Critics say Trump's call with Taiwan may alter decades of foreign policy
The grim truth of Chinese factories producing the west’s Christmas toys
The trolling of Elon Musk: how US conservatives are attacking green tech
Austria’s worried Jews pray far right will fail to win presidency
Oakland 'Ghost Ship' warehouse had history of violations before deadly fire
UN to pursue further inquiry into death of Dag Hammarskjöld
Syrian forces seize control of more than half of Aleppo's rebel districts
Hi-tech replica to bring prehistoric art of Lascaux within reach
Kinder Morgan pipeline: Canadians intensify huge opposition to expansion
Climate scientists condemn article claiming global temperatures are falling
'We got this': Africans call on western donors to trust them on FGM
Bodies of Chapecoense players killed in plane crash returned to Brazil
James Mattis has called for reducing US's stockpile of land-based nuclear missiles
Oakland warehouse party fire leaves nine dead and 25 missing
'Putting lipstick on a pig': experts on why Obama is lending Trump a hand
Journalism that bursts Britain’s Eurosceptic bubble
'More radical solutions are needed': Italians on the referendum
Opec doesn’t hold all the cards, even after its oil price deal
Man arrested over tweet urging someone to 'Jo Cox' MP Anna Soubry
Adèle Haenel: ‘Recycling cliches is a sign that a film lacks courage’
Patience Akumu: ‘I can express myself in ways I never could in Uganda’
South American leaders join Cuban mourners to send off Fidel Castro – video
Trump's Taiwan call exposes his inexperience, China state media say
One Nation targets Tasmania after Liberals' heavy losses in election
Italy heads to the polls: 'We are playing for the next 20 years' – Renzi
Malaysia PM urges world to act against 'genocide' of Myanmar’s Rohingya
Donald Trump serves up clumsiness, inexperience and realpolitik in Asia | Nick Bisley
Fidel Castro's name will never appear on a Cuba monument, says brother Raúl
Freedom songs: Chile’s sounds of resistance ring out again
Dangerous drivers who kill could face life sentence
Three generations of Cubans united by gratitude to Fidel Castro
UK to double armed drone fleet in deal with US Predator manufacturer
Ogoni king: Shell oil is killing my people
Former German PoW leaves £384,000 to Scottish village in will
Wake held for Chapecoense players killed in plane crash – video
Yarl's Wood demonstration draws up to 2,000 campaigners
Iran says US extension of sanctions shows Washington is unreliable
Eyewitness: Buenaventura, Cuba
Trump's Taiwan phone call preceded by hotel development inquiry
Indonesian police plane goes missing during flight to Batam
China lodges complaint with US over Trump's Taiwan phone call
Everything you need to know about Trump and the Indiana Carrier factory
US police search for Oakland 'Ghost Ship' warehouse fire victims – video
Fire blazes at Oakland warehouse party – video
China dismisses Trump call with Taiwan as ‘small trick’ – video

Critics say Trump's call with Taiwan may alter decades of foreign policy

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 10:06 AM PST

Call was first publicly known between US and Taiwan leaders since 1979
Trump's Taiwan phone call preceded by hotel development inquiry

The political fallout from Donald Trump's phone call with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen continued on Saturday, as critics said the president-elect could be paving the way to an alteration of decades of US foreign policy.

The grim truth of Chinese factories producing the west’s Christmas toys

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:05 PM PST

Undercover investigation by China Labor Watch exposes low wages, hazardous chemicals and overtime beyond legal limits

Xiao Fang thinks she's one of the luckier workers making Barbie dolls for the Christmas market at the Mattel toy factory in Chang'an.

True, she says, she works 11-hour days, six days a week, and shares a dormitory with nine other women and gets to see her husband only once a week. She had to leave her three-year-old daughter back home in Sichuan. And there is only a communal bathroom, and if they want hot water they must fetch it from another floor. But at least she has a job, she says. And others have it worse.

The trolling of Elon Musk: how US conservatives are attacking green tech

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:05 PM PST

Electric-car evangelist is the target of concerted negative online campaign linked to influential rightwing network

He is the charismatic Silicon Valley entrepreneur who believes his many companies - including the electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, solar power firm Solar City, and SpaceX, which makes reusable space rockets – can help resist man-made climate change.

South African-born Elon Musk is a billionaire green evangelist, a bete noire of the fossil fuels industry who talks about colonising Mars and believes it may be possible that we're living in a computer simulation.

Austria’s worried Jews pray far right will fail to win presidency

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 11:56 AM PST

Holocaust survivor among those warning against voting for Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party

As Austrians vote for their next president on Sunday, many will be cheering on Norbert Hofer, the rightwing populist, in the belief that he represents a break with his party's national socialist roots.

With a boyish smile and six years of experience as a rhetoric coach, Hofer has used the year-long election campaign to present himself as the respectable face of the Freedom party (FPÖ), which in the 1990s still praised the "proper labour policies" of Adolf Hitler.

Oakland 'Ghost Ship' warehouse had history of violations before deadly fire

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 03:04 PM PST

At least nine and 'maybe a couple dozen' people dead after blaze
City records show citations, charge of 'illegal interior building structure'
Former resident says she reported building to fire marshal in 2014

An Oakland warehouse in which a fire killed at least nine people had a history of violations and complaints, city records show. A police spokesman said "maybe at least a couple dozen" people could have died in the blaze.

UN to pursue further inquiry into death of Dag Hammarskjöld

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 10:15 AM PST

General Assembly to pass resolution recognising need to investigate death of former general secretary who died in 1961 plane crash

What caused the 1961 plane crash that killed former UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld? A Swedish-led UN inquiry the following year concluded that the plane, the Albertina, had crashed in northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) as a result of "pilot error". But this failed to satisfy many who have long suspected foul play.

There were claims that the Albertina, which was carrying Hammarskjöld and a 15-strong team seeking to negotiate a ceasefire in the breakaway African republic of Katanga, was riddled with bullets. Several witnesses said they saw as many as eight white men, armed and in combat fatigues, at the crash site.

Syrian forces seize control of more than half of Aleppo's rebel districts

Posted: 04 Dec 2016 12:38 AM PST

UN envoy warns of terrible battle for full control of city from which tens of thousands have fled under heavy bombing

Syrian government forces have taken control of more than half of Aleppo's rebel districts after fierce bombardments and ground advances forced tens of thousands to flee.

The UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said on Saturday he anticipated a "terrible battle" for complete control of the city.

Hi-tech replica to bring prehistoric art of Lascaux within reach

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 12:29 PM PST

£48m recreation of French caves will let visitors experience magic of the 'prehistoric Sistine chapel' for first time in decades

In the Dordogne village of Montignac sur Vézère, the story of how one boy and his dog discovered one of the most haunting examples of prehistoric art has gone down in local folklore.

On 8 September 1940, Marcel Ravidat's black-and-white mongrel, Robot, dived into a hole in the ground in pursuit of a rabbit. The 17-year-old Ravidat retrieved his pet, and returned a few days later with three friends to explore what appeared to be an underground cave. Dropping into the rocks, they entered a grotto where the flickering light of their oil lamp lit upon a painting of a red bull. The rest is prehistory.

Kinder Morgan pipeline: Canadians intensify huge opposition to expansion

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 03:00 AM PST

Trudeau's approval of project some find analogous to Standing Rock incited thousands of activists, politicians and First Nations members to increase action

Opponents of a contentious Canadian pipeline project are preparing for a lengthy, multifaceted battle that will see thousands take to the country's streets, courts and legislatures to contest the government's recent approval of the project.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau announced on Tuesday that the Liberal government had cleared the way for Kinder Morgan's C$6.8bn Trans Mountain Expansion project. Designed to transport Alberta's landlocked bitumen to international markets via Vancouver's harbour, the project will expand an existing pipeline to nearly triple capacity on the artery to 890,000 barrels a day.

Climate scientists condemn article claiming global temperatures are falling

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 06:48 AM PST

A Republican-led panel promoted a misleading tabloid story alleging earth may not be warming, relying on data that leaves out important points of context

Climate scientists have denounced the House committee on science, space and technology after the Republican-held panel promoted a misleading story expressing skepticism that the earth is dangerously warming.

On Thursday afternoon, the committee tweeted a Breitbart article alleging: "Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists". The story linked to a British tabloid, the Daily Mail, which claimed that global land temperatures were plummeting, and that humans were not responsible for years of steadily increasing heat.

'We got this': Africans call on western donors to trust them on FGM

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 08:20 AM PST

More than 200 donors, policy makers and FGM experts joined senate minority leader Harry Reid at Washington DC summit

A Kenyan expert pleaded with delegates at a US summit on female genital mutilation (FGM) on Friday not to waste any more time sending white men and consultants to Africa "to tell us how to stop this".

"I am a village girl but I have a university education, I know my people, and how to reach them – we got this," Domtila Chesang from West Pokot, told the high-level event in Washington DC, hosted by senate minority leader Harry Reid.

Bodies of Chapecoense players killed in plane crash returned to Brazil

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 08:23 AM PST

Coffins of football team, supporters and journalists who lost lives met by Brazilian president Michel Temer at Chapeco airport

The bodies of the football team killed when their plane crashed in Colombia earlier this week have been returned to Brazil.

Many of the 71 victims were players or supporters of the Chapecoense football team, which had chartered the plane after reaching the final of the Copa Sudamericana being held in Medellin, Colombia.

James Mattis has called for reducing US's stockpile of land-based nuclear missiles

Posted: 04 Dec 2016 01:00 AM PST

Trump's pick for next US defence secretary has questioned the need for US's 1,000 ICBMs, which are ready to launch within minutes in the event of an attack

James Mattis, the retired general Donald Trump has chosen to be the next US defence secretary, has questioned the need for land-based nuclear missiles on the grounds they represent a higher risk than other weapons of being launched on a false alarm.

Mattis raised doubts about US nuclear orthodoxy in a statement to Congress in 2015, raising the issue over whether nuclear deterrence should continue to rest on a "triad" of weapon types: land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched missiles and warheads carried by air force bombers. During the campaign, Trump vowed to proceed with current plans to modernise all three legs of the triad, with an estimated price tag of half a trillion dollars over 20 years.

Oakland warehouse party fire leaves nine dead and 25 missing

Posted: 04 Dec 2016 12:26 AM PST

City records show building had faced numerous formal complaints
Police spokesman says death toll could reach 'maybe a couple dozen'

At least nine people were dead and 25 unaccounted for after fire broke out during a party in a warehouse in Oakland, city officials said on Saturday. A police spokesman said the death toll could be "a couple dozen".

'Putting lipstick on a pig': experts on why Obama is lending Trump a hand

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 11:00 PM PST

The president has a cordial relationship with his successor, who questioned his birthplace and whom he called 'unfit' and 'unprepared' to enter the Oval Office

Last Saturday, a phone rang at the White House. The caller was requesting the president. The message was relayed and Barack Obama returned the call. On the other end of the line was Donald Trump.

All that is known about the conversation is that it lasted 45 minutes. What was discussed, and in what tone, is not matter of record and is perhaps familiar only to the two men. But it is not the only time that the soon-to-be 45th president has called the 44th in what must be the most peculiar handover of modern times.

Journalism that bursts Britain’s Eurosceptic bubble

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 11:00 PM PST

This year's European Press Prize, as always, reveals a diverse, outward-looking culture far away from the familiar Brussels stereotype

There's never just one bubble in your bath. There are hundreds of bubbles, washed hither and yon. Which, of course, is also the case with the Brexit bubble (angry northerners snub metropolitan elite) and the Trump bubble (Ohio raises two fingers to DC).

Basically, a political bubble involves one sector of society – geographic or demographic – failing to register what's going on in the bubble next door. Cue mortification in Richmond Park. But what, pray, does that leave the Eurosceptic bubble merchants in the Mail-Express-Sun nexus?

'More radical solutions are needed': Italians on the referendum

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 11:00 PM PST

Italians explain how the referendum on political reform has morphed into a battle between populist forces and the status quo

Italians will vote on a series of changes to the country's political system on Sunday, in a vote that could have far-reaching implications for the country's politicians, banking sector and future in the Eurozone. But what began as a vote on whether to simplify the country's elaborate political system has, for many, morphed into a complicated decision over who governs the country.

According to Italian voters who responded to a Guardian callout, prime minister Matteo Renzi's leadership is under close scrutiny. If Italians vote against Renzi's reforms, the prime minister has said he will resign – a promise that is proving too enticing for some.

Opec doesn’t hold all the cards, even after its oil price deal

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 08:00 AM PST

The cartel's agreement hammered out in Vienna may put a floor under the price of crude, but Saudi Arabia has failed to destroy the US fracking industry

Two years of wrangling were needed before Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Opec oil cartel could agree a cut in production at its meeting in Vienna last week.

Ever since the collapse in crude prices in 2014, the big oil-producing countries have plotted a way to regain control and improve their battered finances. But agreeing which countries would bear the pain of the steepest production cuts had proved an insurmountable challenge.

Man arrested over tweet urging someone to 'Jo Cox' MP Anna Soubry

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 05:32 PM PST

A 25-year-old man from Bethnal Green taken into custody on suspicion of sending malicious communications

A man has been arrested following investigations into a Twitter post that called for people to "Jo Cox" an MP.

Anna Soubry, the Conservative MP for Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire, was the apparent target of an online message which read: "someone jo cox Anna sourby please".

Adèle Haenel: ‘Recycling cliches is a sign that a film lacks courage’

Posted: 04 Dec 2016 01:00 AM PST

The French star on playing a GP with a conscience in The Unknown Girl, the state of emergency in Paris and why coming out was 'no big deal'

French actor Adèle Haenel stars in The Unknown Girl, the latest film by Belgian duo the Dardenne brothers. She plays a doctor facing up to her feeling of responsibility after the death of a young African woman near her surgery. Her other films include Céline Sciamma's Water Lilies, Katell Quillévéré's Suzanne, Guy Maddin's The Forbidden Room and survivalist comedy Les Combattants, which won her a César award for best female performance in 2015.

There's a sense of political defeat right now, not just in France but across Europe

Patience Akumu: ‘I can express myself in ways I never could in Uganda’

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:05 PM PST

The winner of the David Astor award in 2013 tells how writing for the Observer changed her career as a journalist in Africa
• Click here for more on the Observer at 225

I came to the Observer in 2013 after winning the David Astor award, which gives a chance to young, talented journalists from east Africa to write for media companies in the UK. I went to the Observer offices for just two weeks, but they loved my work and I loved them back. I felt it was the kind of newspaper that I had wanted to write for all my life. I had the freedom to express myself in a way I never could have in a paper back home in Uganda.

Newspapers at home could never publish an article with a headline referring to the president (who has been in power for 30 years) as a dictator. It was exhilarating. I lived for my next article. When I returned home, I continued writing for the Observer. I was so proud of myself. It is still my favourite newspaper to read and write for. I wrote a lot about gay rights – an emotive issue that many Ugandan journalists are still reluctant to talk about. One piece was about a church in Uganda where the gay community meets and takes solace every Sunday. I later told of my personal experience: I had lost friends, received hate mail… still, it felt so good to write it out loud; to share it.

South American leaders join Cuban mourners to send off Fidel Castro – video

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 08:09 PM PST

Crowds chant 'Raul, my friend, the people are with you' as Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother and the current Cuban president, takes the stage to deliver a speech commemorating his older brother's legacy. The thousands of mourners were joined by some of South America's leftist leaders including Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and former Brazilian presidents Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the send off in Santiago de Cuba.

Trump's Taiwan call exposes his inexperience, China state media say

Posted: 04 Dec 2016 01:04 AM PST

Trump advisers point to China's measured reaction but experts say Beijing leaders will be privately enraged and unnerved

Donald Trump's controversial decision to hold a 10-minute phone call with Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, was caused by the billionaire's lack of foreign policy experience, a mouthpiece for the Chinese government has claimed.

One Nation targets Tasmania after Liberals' heavy losses in election

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 09:05 PM PST

Spokesman says One Nation also planning to run candidates in next New South Wales and Western Australian state elections

One Nation has set its sights on Tasmania as the next political battleground, with plans to register candidates in the next state election.

A spokesman told Guardian Australia efforts are under way to register a party there, to capitalise on interest in the party since the federal election.

Italy heads to the polls: 'We are playing for the next 20 years' – Renzi

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 10:00 PM PST

Voters to decide between the political establishment and rising populist forces in referendum that could see Renzi resign

Italians are heading to the polls to vote on a referendum that is seen as a test of rising populist forces in the country against the political establishment, in a contest that could end in the resignation of centre-left prime minister, Matteo Renzi.

Voters are deciding whether or not to approve sweeping changes to Italy's constitution and parliamentary system, reforms that Renzi has argued would increase political stability and give the government more flexibility to tackle enduring economic problems.

Malaysia PM urges world to act against 'genocide' of Myanmar’s Rohingya

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 09:53 PM PST

Najib Razak tells Kuala Lumpur rally attended by thousands 'the world cannot sit by and watch genocide taking place'

Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak led a protest rally on Sunday against what he called a "genocide" of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority, as he urged Asian neighbours and the world to step up the pressure to stop the violence.

Najib said the rally at a stadium in Kuala Lumpur would send a strong message to Aung San Suu Kyi's government that "enough is enough".

Donald Trump serves up clumsiness, inexperience and realpolitik in Asia | Nick Bisley

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 07:08 PM PST

President-elect's recent actions in the region indicate he is content to break with Washington orthodoxy even as it comes with real risks

In three phone calls with key Asian leaders this week, Donald Trump has once again upended expectations. We may now indeed have a radical break in the US approach to the region.

The first of these, with Nawaz Sharif from Pakistan, came with a detailed text of the conversation released by the Pakistani prime minister's office. He is reported to have lavished praise on Sharif and the country more generally in what appears to be Trump's typically solicitous approach to relationship building.

Fidel Castro's name will never appear on a Cuba monument, says brother Raúl

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 06:25 PM PST

Government will prohibit naming of streets or monuments after Fidel Castro in keeping with his desire to stop a personality cult developing

Cuban President Raúl Castro said on Saturday his government would prohibit the naming of streets or public monuments after his brother Fidel in keeping with the former leader's desire to avoid developing a personality cult.

The younger Castro told a crowd gathered to pay homage to Fidel Castro in the eastern city of Santiago that the country's National Assembly would pass in its next session a law fulfilling his brother's desire that, "once dead, his name and likeness would never be used on institutions, streets, parks or other public sites, and that busts, statutes or other forms of tribute would never be erected".

Freedom songs: Chile’s sounds of resistance ring out again

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:05 PM PST

Opponents of Chile's dictator sang in his prisons. Now the daughter of two survivors tells of her mission to help their music live again

Many testimonies exist – legal, historical, political and human – to the horrors of the military coup and ensuing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean general who died 10 years ago this week.

But as all Latin America recalls the man whose brutality defined an era, no record better captures the ethos of its suffering than the collection of music made, performed, heard and sung by prisoners in the network of centres for political detention and torture operated by Pinochet's brutal regime.

Dangerous drivers who kill could face life sentence

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:05 PM PST

Ministers to consult on increase in 14-year upper limit for causing death by speeding, street racing or while using a mobile

Dangerous drivers who kill are set to face life sentences under plans put forward by ministers. Those causing death by speeding, street racing or while using a mobile phone will face the same sentences as people charged with manslaughter.

Offenders who cause death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs could also be handed life sentences – an increase on the current 14-year upper limit.

Three generations of Cubans united by gratitude to Fidel Castro

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:00 PM PST

After the eulogies and denunciations, the Torres family supplies a more nuanced perspective on Cuba's revolutionary leader

Before Fidel Castro's interment in a Santiago cemetery this morning, there have been eulogies by leftwing presidents, football stars and famous singers. But to understand the true significance of the revolutionary's death, it is more revealing to wander down a rutted alley in the little-known Havana suburb of San Miguel del Padrón.

UK to double armed drone fleet in deal with US Predator manufacturer

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 12:41 PM PST

General Atomics to provide 10 drones to Royal Air Force in $100m deal
Fallon heralds addition of firepower, imaging and intelligence gathering

Defense secretary Michael Fallon on Saturday announced a $125m (£100m) development deal with US arms manufacturer General Atomics under which the UK fleet of armed drones will double.

Ogoni king: Shell oil is killing my people

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 11:45 AM PST

King Emere was in a London court last week for the case that he hopes will allow him to sue Shell in the UK for polluting his tribal land

His Royal Highness Emere Godwin Bebe Okpabi, the paramount ruler and hereditary king of the Ogale community in the oil-rich Niger delta, is ready to explode.

Former German PoW leaves £384,000 to Scottish village in will

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 10:15 AM PST

Heinrich Steinmeyer wanted to thank village of Comrie for its kindness 'when he was at the lowest point of his life'

It's the stuff of TV drama: schoolgirls befriend a German prisoner of war being held in Scotland during the second world war. After learning that he had never seen moving pictures, they smuggle him out of the camp for the day and take him to the cinema so he can watch a film for the first time.

Wake held for Chapecoense players killed in plane crash – video

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 09:12 AM PST

Thousands of Chapeconese supporters and mourners attend a wake for the victims of the Colombian plane crash at Arena Condá stadium on Saturday. The coffins of the football team, supporters and journalists who lost their lives are carried into the stadium under heavy rain

Bodies of Chapecoense players killed in plane crash returned to Brazil

Yarl's Wood demonstration draws up to 2,000 campaigners

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 08:46 AM PST

Hundreds march around detention centre perimeter to denounce rise in hate crime in wake of Brexit vote

The largest protest staged against Britain's most notorious detention centre has taken place, as up to 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside Yarl's Wood to denounce "immigrant bashing" in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Campaigners from across the UK protested at the Bedfordshire immigration removal centre on Saturday, demanding that the facility, which mainly houses women, is closed immediately.

Iran says US extension of sanctions shows Washington is unreliable

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 05:54 AM PST

Foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responds to US Senate vote to extend sanctions for 10 years, which Iran says violates last year's nuclear deal

A Senate vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act for 10 years shows the world that Washington cannot be relied upon to act on its commitments, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday.

Iran has vowed to retaliate against the ISA extension, passed unanimously on Thursday, saying it violated last year's agreement with six major powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for lifting of international financial sanctions.

Eyewitness: Buenaventura, Cuba

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:15 AM PST

Photographs from the Eyewitness series

Trump's Taiwan phone call preceded by hotel development inquiry

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:14 AM PST

Woman who talked to mayor about airport expansion plans said she was associated with Trump Organization, official says

Weeks before President-elect Donald Trump's controversial phone call with Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, a businesswoman claiming to be associated with his conglomerate made inquiries about a major investment in building luxury hotels as part of the island's new airport development.

Indonesian police plane goes missing during flight to Batam

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:09 AM PST

Aeroplane, which took off from island of Bangka, is thought to have crashed with 15 people on board, according to reports

An Indonesian police plane with 15 people on board has gone missing on a flight to the island of Batam, south of Singapore, according to reports.

The plane, which took off from Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka, is thought to have crashed on Saturday between the islands of Mensanak and Sebangka or Gentar, a police report seen by Reuters said.

China lodges complaint with US over Trump's Taiwan phone call

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 02:55 AM PST

Conversation with Tsai Ing-wen thought to be first between US and Taiwanese leaders since ties cut in 1979 at China's behest

China has lodged "solemn representations" with the US over a call between the president-elect, Donald Trump, and Taiwan's leader, Tsai Ing-wen.

Trump looked to have sparked a potentially damaging diplomatic row with Beijing on Friday after speaking to the Taiwanese president on the telephone.

Everything you need to know about Trump and the Indiana Carrier factory

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 04:00 AM PST

He made the company a punchbag during his anti-globalisation election crusade, and now takes credit for saving jobs. But how did it happen, and who really won?

Donald Trump scored an early public relations win this week as he took the credit for persuading a US firm not to outsource jobs to Mexico. But the case – and its implications – are more complex than they first appeared.

US police search for Oakland 'Ghost Ship' warehouse fire victims – video

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 07:57 PM PST

Sgt Ray Kelly of the Alameda County sheriff's office speaks after a fire at a party in a warehouse in Oakland, California, that left nine people dead and 25 unaccounted for. Kelly says rescue teams are having to deal with 'very twisted debris' and will use excavators to remove wreckage. 'We are talking about maybe bringing in cadaver dogs to help us out, using remote technologies, robots and whatnot, to get into spots that are really tight,' he says.

• Oakland 'Ghost Ship' warehouse party fire leaves nine dead and 25 missing

Fire blazes at Oakland warehouse party – video

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 08:11 AM PST

Oakland firefighters tweeted footage of flames erupting through the roof of a warehouse fire in the Fruitvale district on Friday evening. According to local media, at least nine people are dead and 13 missing after the fire broke out during a party. Fire chief Teresa Deloach-Reed told the East Bay Times newspaper the building had no sprinkler system

Oakland warehouse party fire leaves at least nine dead, reports say

China dismisses Trump call with Taiwan as ‘small trick’ – video

Posted: 03 Dec 2016 02:52 AM PST

Donald Trump potentially sparked a diplomatic row with China on Friday, after speaking with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen on the phone. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi says he hopes the call will not change the longstanding US policy towards China