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

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


Turkey nightclub shooting: Istanbul on alert after armed gunman kills dozens

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 09:37 PM PST

Turkish police still searching for gunman after at least 39 shot dead in assault on New Year's Eve party in district of Ortakoy

Latest updates: governor describes 'terror attack' at Reina nightclub

Istanbul is on high alert after a gunman opened fire on partygoers at a New Year's Eve celebration in one of the most popular nightclubs in Istanbul, killing 39 people and wounding 69.

The interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, has said the attacker is still on the loose. Earlier government reports stated there was a lone gunman who was killed by police.

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New year celebrations around the world – as it happened

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 09:33 PM PST

  • Follow all the celebrations as the clock strikes midnight and countries see out 2016 to welcome in 2017
  • To send us photos or tales from your celebrations email Bonnie Malkin

Well, the ball has dropped in New York City, following a performance in Times Square from Mariah Carey that saw her trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. What a way to end the year. To recap the past few hours:

Mariah Carey's performance tonight honestly was a fitting end to 2016 pic.twitter.com/t9k1nGtJuK

NEW YEAR ball drop 2017: https://t.co/XgrmgaBCYg via @YouTube

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UN welcomes Syria ceasefire against backdrop of deadlock and dissent

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 02:29 PM PST

The truce led by Russia and Turkey is holding – but the different players in the peace process still have conflicting objectives

A tentative ceasefire is holding in most parts of Syria as the truce's main backer, Russia, pushes for a United Nations resolution, which it says would start a political process that could quickly take the steam out of six years of war.

As the most destructive year of the conflict drew to a close, Moscow and Ankara were moving frantically to secure the deal, which each side claimed offers the best hope yet of an end to a war that has had few boundaries and no apparent endpoint.

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Displaced: faces of some of the world’s 63 million people fleeing disaster

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 03:00 PM PST

War, weather, climate change and terrorism have made millions homeless. UN photographer Muse Mohammed has documented how they have coped

See more photographs by Muse Mohammed

Civil war. Climate change. Starvation. Natural disaster. Terrorism. The causes are many, the results are grimly familiar for tens of millions of people displaced from their homes around the world and forced to find shelter and food often thousands of miles away, in unfamiliar, sometimes unwelcoming regions. Such is the prospect faced by communities around the globe in 2017, as this series of remarkable photographs for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) – the United Nations agency – by its staff photographer, Muse Mohammed.

Related: Images of the Displaced

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DRC parties reach deal denying third term for President Kabila

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 03:21 PM PST

Agreement calls for Democratic Republic of the Congo leader Joseph Kabila to quit after general election to be held in 2017

The government and opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have reached a deal that calls for President Joseph Kabila to leave power after the next election. In a concession to the opposition, that vote now will take place before the end of 2017.

Kabila, 45, was due to give up power after the end of his second term as president earlier this month.

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Whale spotted in New York's East river thought to be a humpback

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 11:49 AM PST

  • NYPD posts photo of whale swimming near mayor's mansion
  • Another humpback took up residence in Hudson river last month

A large whale, believed to be a humpback, was spotted in the East river in New York City on Saturday.

Related: New York's whales to be studied for the first time

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Venezuela frees politician and student activists jailed during 2014 protests

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 09:14 AM PST

Releases of former opposition candidate Manuel Rosales and five other activists come amid talks over country's economic and political crisis

Venezuela's government has freed a former presidential candidate as well as several student activists who were jailed during anti-government protests in 2014.

Former opposition candidate Manuel Rosales was imprisoned in October 2015 on charges of illicit enrichment, upon returning to Venezuela after six years of exile in Peru.

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Donald Trump victory sparks global women’s rights marches

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 12:43 PM PST

Washington DC and London among 30 cities rallying against 'politics of fear' on day after inauguration

After a year of seismic shocks comes the protest and fightback. At least that is what activists plan with the first major demonstration of the year – the women's march – planned for 30 cities around the world on 21 January, the day after Donald Trump's inauguration as president of the US.

The women's march on Washington has been given permission by state authorities to go ahead. Tens of thousands of women (and men, who are also welcome to join it) have already pledged to take part and plans for a sister rally in London are gaining support from writers, musicians and politicians.

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Planned Parenthood sues to stop Texas cutting it from Medicaid program

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 11:02 AM PST

Planned Parenthood has asked a federal judge to stop Texas from cutting it from the state's Medicaid program, which the country's largest abortion provider says would reduce health services for nearly 11,000 low-income women.

Related: Where the supreme court battle goes from here: 'There will be a huge fight'

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UK companies ‘linked to Azerbaijan pipeline bribery scandal’

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 12:37 PM PST

Alleged payments to Italian MP before key European debate scrutinised

Four British companies are alleged to have played a key part in a multimillion pound bribery scandal involving a leading Italian politician.

Luca Volontè, a former member of the Union of the Centre party in Italy, has been accused of helping quash a human rights report criticising Azerbaijan, one of the world's most authoritarian countries. The Observer has also established that one of the UK companies was allegedly linked to a scandal involving Russian organised crime.

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US-Russia tensions rise as malware found at Vermont electric utility

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 08:34 AM PST

  • Burlington electric department says it found code
  • New York compound allegedly linked to Russian intelligence is evacuated

A day after Barack Obama announced tough new sanctions over what intelligence agencies believe to be Russian attempts to influence the presidential election in favour of Donald Trump, US officials said computer code linked to Russian-sponsored hackers had been detected in a computer at a Vermont electric utility.

Related: Trump praises Putin over US sanctions – a move that puts him at odds with GOP

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China clamps down on corrupt officials with 122 arrests this year

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 07:44 AM PST

Over 2bn yuan in lost funds reclaimed by anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection

China has recovered billions of yuan from losses to corruption and arrested 122 on-the-run government officials this year, authorities have said.

China's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, reclaimed about 2.3bn yuan (£268m) in the 11 months to November.

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Two men die in separate New Year's Eve firework accidents

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 01:14 PM PST

A man has died after being hit in the head by a firework at Budgewoi in NSW and another at Hollands Landing east in Melbourne

Two men have died and several people have been injured in separate firework-related accidents in New South Wales and Victoria during New Year celebrations.

One man died after being hit in the head by a firework at Budgewoi on the NSW Central Coast.

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Donald Trump abandons press pool again as he plays golf at Florida club

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 01:39 PM PST

President-elect heads to his club in Jupiter in what aide calls 'last-minute trip' ahead of New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago club

President-elect Donald Trump ditched his press pool once again on Saturday, causing frustration among journalists on hand to ensure the public had knowledge of his whereabouts by travelling without them to play golf at one of his clubs.

Related: Trump praises Putin over US sanctions – a move that puts him at odds with GOP

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French workers win legal right to avoid checking work email out-of-hours

Posted: 30 Dec 2016 09:10 PM PST

From 1 January, workers have 'right to disconnect' as France seeks to establish agreements that afford work flexibility but avoid burnout

From Sunday, French companies will be required to guarantee their employees a "right to disconnect" from technology as the country seeks to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking.

On 1 January, an employment law will enter into force that obliges organisations with more than 50 workers to start negotiations to define the rights of employees to ignore their smartphones.

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Medical smart jacket tackles misdiagnosis of pneumonia

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 01:00 AM PST

Jacket would distinguish pneumonia's symptoms up to four times faster than a doctor, in battle against illness that kills half a million children under five in sub-Saharan Africa every year

Ugandan graduate Brian Turyabagye was studying engineering when his friend's grandmother fell seriously ill. Accompanying her to hospital, he watched as doctors diagnosed malaria and prescribing various treatments accordingly. Only as she lay dying did they realise their initial diagnosis was wrong. It was pneumonia that was killing her.

Turyabagye, 24, was so shocked by the circumstances surrounding the death that he began researching methodologies for diagnosing pneumonia and its treatments. To his surprise, he discovered that the illness affects far more children than it does adults. According to Unicef, pneumonia kills half a million children under five in sub-Saharan Africa every year, with the region accounting for half of all global deaths from pneumonia of children under five.

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Isis would use chemical weapons in attack on UK, says minister

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 12:56 AM PST

Security minister Ben Wallace says terror group wants to carry out mass casualty attack by 'whatever means possible'

Islamic State wants to carry out a mass casualty attack in Britain and has "no moral barrier" to using chemical weapons, a minister has said.

The security minister Ben Wallace said there were reports of Isis using chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq, where it controls large areas, and that Moroccan authorities had apprehended a cell in February which was harbouring substances that could be used to make either a bomb or a "deadly toxin".

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Trump on Russia hacking claims: 'It could be somebody else' – video

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 12:36 AM PST

US president-elect Donald Trump questions allegations that Russia used hackers to interfere in the American election. Trump says it's "unfair" to blame Russia if investigators are not yet sure over who is behind the suspected cyber attacks. He tells a reporter he that it "could be somebody else" responsible for the hacks

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Archbishop of Canterbury tells Britons to heal Brexit divisions

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 12:30 AM PST

Justin Welby will say Britain must 'take hold of our new future with determination and courage' in his new year message

The archbishop of Canterbury will urge Britons to reconcile the divisions left by the "tough" EU referendum campaign in his new year message.

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‘It would be bad for our interests’: why Thatcher ignored the murder of an Observer journalist

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 12:00 AM PST

In 1990, Farzad Bazoft was hanged by Saddam Hussein on false charges of espionage. Now files have revealed why the state was so reluctant to intervene

The execution of the Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft on 15 March 1990, ordered by Saddam Hussein, provoked outrage around the world. Yet later that same day Margaret Thatcher and her government decided not to take any action, against what ministers admitted was a "ruthless" regime, for fear of jeopardising lucrative exports to Iraq.

In memos written two years after Saddam used mustard gas to slaughter more than 3,000 Kurds and only months before he marched into Kuwait, sparking war, newly released cabinet documents reveal that trade was still the uppermost concern for ministers.

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Estonian national museum review – touching and revealing

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 12:00 AM PST

Situated on a former Soviet airfield and created by a multinational team in the middle of nowhere, Estonia's national museum is an unlikely success

It is unusual to put a museum at the end of a runway, still more if it also straddles a chain of ornamental lakes, but then the Estonian National Museum is not a usual sort of institution. Its past is wrapped up with that of the country itself. Now it somehow has to represent the complex and precarious history of Estonia, in a fraught present, with a combination of pride and sensitivity.

For a European country to build a national museum at this moment, when nationalism is taking new and unpredictable forms, is perilous. If Russia were to invent such a thing now, it would look like another form of aggressive aggrandisement; if Britain, an episode of querulous post-Brexit blue-passport patriotism; if Germany, it would raise issues too agonising for a single museum to handle. Estonia, a country of 1.3 million, whose two periods of independence – between the wars and since 1991 – add up to less than 50 years, and which still has grounds to be nervous of its neighbour Russia, has reason to define and assert itself with a museum, but it also has to tread cautiously.

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Queen misses New Year's Day church service due to lingering cold

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 01:42 AM PST

Monarch will miss Sandringham service at St Mary Magdalene church as she recuperates from a heavy cold

The Queen will not attend a New Year's Day church service at Sandringham because of a lingering heavy cold, Buckingham Palace said.

A Palace spokeswoman said: "Her Majesty The Queen will not attend Sunday worship at Sandringham today. The Queen does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold."

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Donald Trump says it is 'unfair' to blame Russia for election interference

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 07:12 PM PST

President-elect warns reporters on New Year's Eve against being quick to pin blame on Moscow for the hacking of Democratic Party emails

Donald Trump has expressed continued skepticism over whether Russia was responsible for computer hacks of Democratic Party officials.

In remarks to reporters upon entering a New Year's Eve celebration at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump warned against being quick to pin the blame on Russia for the hacking of US emails.

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Pilot in Canada charged after allegedly passing out in cockpit before takeoff

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 07:32 PM PST

Police in Calgary say the pilot from low-cost Sunwing Airlines had three times the legal amount of alcohol in his system

Canadian police have charged a pilot from Sunwing Airlines with impairment after he was allegedly found passed out over his seat before takeoff early on Saturday.

Police said the pilot boarded the Boeing 737 with 99 passengers and six crew members in Calgary, Alberta, for a flight that was scheduled to make stops in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, before continuing on to Cancun, Mexico.

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The Observer view on the prospects for 2017 | Observer editorial

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 04:04 PM PST

Europe, Trump, the Middle East… a year of uncertainties

It is the conceit of every generation to believe that its experience is unique. This is partly because it fails to understand the lessons of history and partly because it has no idea what the future holds. The year 2016, now finally at an end, underscored this basic human dilemma. It was a year in which long-gestating problems came to a head. With greater understanding of what had gone before, unexpected and terrible events, such as the barbaric climax to the war in Syria, the election of Donald Trump and Britain's vote to leave the European Union, might not have been so shocking. At the same time, their full impact, which will begin to be felt in the new year just beginning, is fundamentally unknowable. Uncertainty is 2017's watchword, inspiring a sense of trepidation and deep foreboding.

Yet take a step back and it is plain that this gloomy outlook is not the whole story, that it is too easy to get things out of perspective. Every day, today included, thousands of healthy babies will be born around the world to families who, in most cases, are more able to care for their children than were their own parents and their parents before them. Every week in 2016 seemed to bring news of medical discoveries that will potentially help fight diseases such as cancer and dementia.

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Falls Festival organisers blame crowd crush on 'confluence of events'

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 10:12 PM PST

Victorian festival's co-producer says the cause of the incident, which left scores injured, 'will take some weeks to determine'

Falls Festival organisers have blamed the terrifying crowd crush on a "confluence of events", but say the exact cause is still being investigated.

Punters who were injured in the crush on Friday in the Grand Theatre at the Lorne festival site have also been asked to come forward because organisers are blocked for privacy reasons from accessing patient names and records.

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Istanbul nightclub attack: police hunt gunman who killed 39 on New Year's Eve – live

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 01:33 AM PST

At least 15 foreign nationals confirmed dead as Turkish interior minister says gunman is still on loose despite earlier reports attacker had been killed

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has joined in the international condemnation of the attack in Turkey.

President Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed not to rest in the fight against all forms of terrorism. In a written statement, he said:

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Farzad Bazoft: tough UK action to save journalist was not forthcoming

Posted: 01 Jan 2017 12:00 AM PST

Once the Observer journalist fell into the hands of Iraqi security, all Britain's discreet diplomacy counted for nothing

He had a chequered past, spent time in prison, wasn't British, couldn't return home because he would have been persecuted there, and had no regular job. In other words, Farzad Bazoft was a journalist to his core, good looking in that fine-boned Persian way, attractive to women and a man ever eager to find a good story with which to make his mark in Fleet Street.

Any editor, and particularly a foreign editor, knows the infinite variety and the chaotic ways of reporters, especially freelancers who live by the special insights or the unique information they can bring to the newspaper. Any editor also knows the trouble they bring if they get into difficulties abroad.

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‘Coolest place on planet’ accolade stirs interest in Ireland’s wild north

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 11:00 PM PST

National Geographic Traveller loves Donegal, and local people in an area struggling for jobs and worried about Brexit see only benefits

Mornings in Donegal can be so beautiful they take the breath away. Last week, soft pinkish light broke through early clouds hanging over Killybegs harbour, bouncing off the waters of the port and into the upstairs windows of the Bay View hotel. Tourists enjoying their breakfast looked down on fishing boats festooned with Christmas lights and bathed in unseasonally warm winter sunshine.

It was moments like this that led National Geographic Traveller to conclude at the start of December that Donegal was the "coolest place on the planet" to visit. The magazine predicted big things for a county often overshadowed in tourist terms by better-known counties such as Kerry, and cities such as Dublin.

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Will António Guterres be the UN's best ever secretary general?

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 11:00 PM PST

Cultured and consensual, the Portuguese politician has had the perfect preparation for the United Nations' top job

When António Guterres resigned halfway through his second term as Portuguese prime minister in 2002 because his minority government was floundering, he did something unusual for a man who had seen the highest reaches of power.

Several times a week, he went to slum neighbourhoods on the edge of Lisbon to give free maths tuition to children.

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Mass shooting at New Year's Eve party in Istanbul nightclub – video

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 09:54 PM PST

At least 39 people have been killed, including more than a dozen foreigners, in an Istanbul nightclub after a gunman reportedly dressed as Santa Claus entered and began firing at random during a New Year's Eve celebration

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Texas federal judge halts Obama protection of transgender health rights

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 03:09 PM PST

  • Rules at stake seek to prevent discrimination by doctors and hospitals
  • Judge Reed O'Connor blocked Obama on transgender bathroom access

A federal judge in Texas has ordered a halt to another Obama administration effort to strengthen transgender rights, this time over health rules that social conservatives say could force doctors to violate their religious beliefs.

Related: Federal court blocks Obama's rules for transgender students' bathroom access

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Images of the Displaced

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 03:00 PM PST

The ferocity of crises worldwide is forcing a record number of people to flee their homes, seeking some form of safety within their own country or across international borders. There are 65.3 million displaced people worldwide, including 21.3 million refugees. Most have lost their homes to armed conflict or natural disasters but other factors, such as extreme poverty and climate change, also drive displacement.

The International Organisation for Migration commissioned photojournalist Muse Mohammed to document the plight of the displaced

See Observer article about Muse Mohammed's photographs

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UN council welcomes Syria ceasefire move by Russia and Turkey

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 01:15 PM PST

Security council passes resolution welcoming effort to end five-year civil war brokered by Moscow and Ankara

The UN security council has unanimously adopted a resolution welcoming efforts by Russia and Turkey to end the nearly six year conflict in Syria and jump-start peace negotiations.

The resolution approved on Saturday afternoon also calls for the "rapid, safe and unhindered" delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Syria. It anticipates a meeting of the Syrian government and opposition representative in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana, in late January.

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‘It’s a miracle’: from begging in Paris to bestselling author

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 11:55 AM PST

Jean-Marie Roughol reveals how a chance encounter with a former government minister led him to write about living rough – and to turn his life around

For the best part of three decades, Jean-Marie Roughol lived as a down-and-out in Paris. Begging in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, he was a familiar figure to the wealthy and famous who frequented the designer boutiques and luxury convenience stores of the Champs Élysées.

Some ignored his polite appeals, scurrying past and looking the other way; others stumped up a coin or two – or even a note; and one couple offered him walk-on parts in their movies.

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Wall Street Journal reporter was held for three days in Turkey, paper says

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 07:46 AM PST

Paper believes detention of national security reporter Dion Nissenbaum was related to country's ban on reporting Isis videos, spokesman says

The Wall Street Journal said on Saturday one of its reporters was detained in Turkey for nearly three days before authorities allowed him to leave the country.

Editor Gerard Baker said in a statement that national security reporter Dion Nissenbaum was prohibited from calling his family, editors or a lawyer while in custody.

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Eyewitness: Sydney, Australia

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 05:31 AM PST

Photographs from the Eyewitness series

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Development short stories: a homesick backpacker | James Georgalakis

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 11:00 PM PST

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the UK's Institute of Development Studies held a short story competition for members and research partners, to encourage fiction writing on development. We publish the three winning entries

Third prize: The Tourist by James Georgalakis

He'd been travelling for just over three months but this was his final destination before returning home. The thought made him nauseous. There was not much waiting for him there except the high expectations of parents, which he had no idea how to meet. Join the family business, put that degree to good use, make some money and marry a nice girl. No thanks – he thought. Not me, there must be something better. But backpacking his way across a region, supposedly rich with history and opportunity, had done little to shed new light on how to escape his depressingly predictable destiny. As he pondered his predicament, he became aware of someone calling him – "Ron, Ron!" – repeatedly until he finally snapped out of his daydream and turned to see his latest travelling companion, Kris, waving at him a few yards further up the busy street.

"What is it?" he grumbled his reply.

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Development short stories: a job opportunity in Sri Lanka

Posted: 31 Dec 2016 03:00 AM PST

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the UK's Institute of Development Studies held a short story competition for members and research partners, to encourage fiction writing on development. We publish the three winning entries

Second prize: The Interview by Madhushala Senaratne

The villa stood at the end of a shabby street, where, along the street's sides, crooked shanties cropped up like overgrown grass. The street was usually quiet, but there were times when it wasn't. Like when the boys played cricket in the evenings, when the sun was starting to set. Even then, if not for the times that the trees creeping through the shanties made strange whizzy sounds, the boys said they heard even the sneakiest tap of the ball against the wicket. At other times, there was the rickety roar of the tractors, driven by burnt, bare-chested men with cheap cotton sarongs tightly fastened against their flattened stomachs, either on their way to plough the fields or heading home after work. And most times, when the sun set and the street turned quiet, and dim lights dangled off crooked roofs, these men set aside their tractors to play cards, or enjoy some strong arrack.

It was the same stuff they did at the villa, like playing cards and sipping arrack under dim light.

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