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

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


'They're going to kill me next': Yemen family fears drone strikes under Trump

Posted: 30 Mar 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Before Trump took office, the US drones that killed several members of the Tuaiman family used to come about once a week. Now they come every day

Every day, as they hear the whine of the drones overhead, the Tuaiman family waits for Donald Trump to finish killing them.

The drones used to hover about once a week over al-Rawdah, the Yemeni village where the family lives, sending children running for cover.

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The beauty pageant to build Trump's border wall is beginning

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 04:55 AM PDT

Proposal deadline is first step in a process that combines three of the president's most successful ventures: pageants, reality TV competitions and xenophobia

Next Wednesday marks the deadline for the hundreds of companies interested in building Donald Trump's signature campaign promise – a "great, great wall" on the US-Mexico border – to submit concept papers detailing their proposals.

It is the first step in a process that promises to combine three of Trump's most successful ventures: beauty pageants, reality TV competitions and xenophobia. (With an added dash of chaos: just hours before the original deadline of 29 March, bidders were given a one-week extension to 4 April.)

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Theresa May gives no cut-off date for freedom of movement

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 10:00 AM PDT

Prime minister's vagueness suggests any EU citizen settling in UK up until day of Brexit may be allowed to stay

In her letter to Donald Tusk, Theresa May did not name a specific date on which EU citizens will lose the automatic right to move to the UK, suggesting that the "cut-off" will end up being the day of Brexit itself.

The letter to the European council president was vague about the terms on which EU citizens would be able to move to the UK in future under a new immigration system from March 2019. But the prime minister repeated her promise to seek an early deal on guaranteeing the rights of those already in the UK to stay – as long as there is a reciprocal deal for Britons in the rest of Europe.

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Hawaii judge refuses to overturn block on Trump travel ban

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 09:06 PM PDT

State attorney general says revised ban is 'neon sign flashing: Muslim ban, Muslim ban', as judge rules injunction on executive order must stay in place

A federal judge in Hawaii decided on Wednesday to extend his order blocking President Donald Trump's travel ban.

US district judge Derrick Watson issued the longer-lasting hold on the ban just hours after hearing arguments.

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Amal Clooney calls for collection of evidence of Isis atrocities

Posted: 30 Mar 2017 12:18 AM PDT

Human rights lawyer stresses importance of safeguarding evidence of massacres, gang rapes and slave markets to ensure Islamic State is held to account

Evidence of Islamic State atrocities needs to be collected urgently to ensure it is not lost and that those responsible for "the worst crimes of our generation" eventually face justice, the human rights barrister Amal Clooney has said.

Massacres of the Yazidi people, murders, gang rapes, forcing children to become soldiers and the operation of slave markets should not go unpunished by the international courts, she told a conference on accountability for crimes in Syria and Iraq. Clooney is working as counsel to survivors of Iraq's Yazidi community, which was overrun by Isis fighters in 2014. She is assembling records and testimony with the aim of bringing charges against captured and fugitive Isis soldiers and commanders.

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Climate change: China calls US 'selfish' after Trump seeks to bring back coal

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:14 PM PDT

State-run tabloid says Beijing cannot fill vacuum left by US and urges west to pressure Trump on global warming

Chinese state media has lambasted Donald Trump's efforts to roll back many Obama-era environmental regulations, with a state-run tabloid saying that: "No matter how hard Beijing tries, it won't be able to take on all the responsibilities that Washington refuses to take."

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Palestinian woman shot dead trying to stab Israeli police, officials say

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 10:25 AM PDT

Woman said to be mother of man killed by Israeli police last year was reportedly trying to stab officers with scissors when she was shot

A Palestinian woman said to be the mother of a man killed last year attempted to stab Israeli police officers with scissors at the entrance to Jerusalem's Old City on Wednesday before being shot dead, officials said.

The woman pulled the scissors on the security force members at the entrance to Damascus Gate but was shot dead before she was able to stab anyone, a police spokeswoman said in a statement.

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Struggle for control of Libya's oil threatens to deepen conflicts

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 12:26 PM PDT

Power struggle could undermine authority of UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord

A power struggle for control of Libya's oil is threatening to deepen splits in the country and undermine the fragile authority of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord, the GNA.

The battle has forced the politically neutral chairman of the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) to warn the GNA that it has overstepped its authority both by closing the oil ministry and by trying to take over some of the NOC's role.

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Don't think twice, oh, all right: Bob Dylan finally agrees to collect Nobel prize

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 05:02 AM PDT

Singer to accept prize in 'small and intimate' Stockholm setting having turned down invitation to official ceremony last year

Bob Dylan, it seems, is not a man to be rushed. Almost five months after he was named the winner of the Nobel prize for literature, the singer will finally accept the award when he travels to Sweden this weekend.

His trip brings to a close a long-running saga that began in October when Dylan was named the winner for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition". For weeks after, the singer refused to publicly acknowledge the honour or even answer the phone calls from the Swedish Nobel academy.

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Ivanka Trump to become White House employee instead of informal adviser

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 02:46 PM PDT

President's daughter decides to assume official role as unpaid government employee in attempt to mitigate ethical controversy over administration position

Following criticism from ethics experts, Ivanka Trump will become an official government employee, working as an unpaid adviser to her father in the White House, alongside her husband.

Related: Ivanka Trump's expanded White House role raises ethical issues

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US state department official charged with accepting bribes from Chinese spies

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 03:46 PM PDT

Candace Claiborne faces prison time for lying to FBI about receiving thousands of dollars in gifts and cash in exchange for information she claims was 'unclassified'

A US state department official has been arrested and charged in a federal court after allegedly accepting tens of thousands of dollars worth of payments and gifts from Chinese spies in return for information.

Candace Claiborne appeared in court in Washington DC on Wednesday charged with lying to the FBI and concealing frequent contacts with two Chinese intelligence officials over several years.

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Judge suspended over schoolgirl's sexual assault case that shocked Mexico

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 05:03 PM PDT

Prosecutors appealing against court ruling that dismissed sexual assault of a schoolgirl because there was no proof suspect acted 'with lascivious intent'

A Mexican judge who freed a wealthy young man accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl, on the grounds that the perpetrator did not enjoy himself, has been suspended, judicial authorities announced on Wednesday.

Prosecutors in southern Mexico had earlier said they are appealing against the court ruling that dismissed sexual assault charges against the suspect because there was no proof he acted "with lascivious intent".

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Melania Trump champions women – not easy when you're you-know-who's wife

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 04:12 PM PDT

The first lady in a rare public appearance gave out awards to international women of courage, but critics felt her words were undercut by Donald Trump's actions

Rarely seen and even more rarely heard, Melania Trump stepped on stage in Washington to deliver a speech on Wednesday – but the first lady could not, in the view of critics, entirely escape her husband's exaggerated shadow.

The first lady extolled women's bravery and empowerment and made a plea for tolerance around the world as she presented the "International Women of Courage" awards to 12 recipients at the state department. She made no mention of the president.

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Boy found clinging to debris sole survivor as dozens feared dead in Mediterranean

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 08:27 AM PDT

Boy, aged 16, says 146 people including children and pregnant women were onboard when boat from Libya sank

Dozens of people are feared to have drowned after a rubber boat carrying migrants and refugees from Libya sank in the Mediterranean.

The sole survivor – a 16-year-old Gambian boy – told rescuers that 146 other people were on board when the boat sank.

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Indian minister condemns 'deplorable' race riots targeting African students

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 05:11 AM PDT

Seven arrested over violent clashes in and around Noida amid simmering resentment towards Africans

India's foreign affairs minister has condemned "deplorable" race riots targeting African students near Delhi this week that put two men in hospital and led to seven arrests.

The victims included a Kenyan woman who alleges she was pulled from a rickshaw on Wednesday morning and beaten by a group of men.

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Somaliland: 'I convinced my sister not to do type III FGM on her daughter'

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 06:03 AM PDT

These are the young men struggling against all odds to enact change in a generation and improve the lives of Somali women

In Somaliland, Unicef estimates that about 98% of girls and women between 15 and 49 are subjected to some form of female genital mutilation – almost a despairing figure. This is largely an issue in the hands of women, and not something openly discussed. Yet Unicef believes it is vital that men are part of any solution. Young men in the region who are against the practice are forming a growing movement for change, but the drought crisis is dominating people's lives right now.

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Mount Everest climbers enlisted for canvas bag clean-up mission

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 02:40 AM PDT

Recreational climbers and Sherpas asked to help remove hundreds of kilograms of litter after series of deadly quakes on world's highest peak

The government of Nepal and Everest expedition organisers have launched a clean-up operation at 21,000ft to remove rubbish left on the world's highest peak after a series of deadly avalanches.

Sherpas and other climbers have been given 10 canvas bags each capable of holding 80kg (176lbs) of waste to place at different elevations on Mount Everest.

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55-carat Indian gem once used as a child's toy could fetch £80,000

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 08:56 AM PDT

Ruby-red spinel with 400-year-old engravings, reportedly discovered near Leicestershire railway track, to go on sale

For a few days in the 1920s, according to a cutting from a local paper in Pennsylvania, two children in Leicestershire played with an imperial Indian gemstone, a ruby-red spinel the size of a walnut hanging on a golden chain with a tassel of seed pearls.

Details of the story are sketchy, but the gem was real: engraved 400 years ago in minute Persian script with the names of three Indian emperors, it comes up for auction at Sotheby's next month, estimated at up to £80,000.

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'Climate change is real': companies challenge Trump's reversal of policy

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 12:06 PM PDT

Mars Inc, Staples, The Gap and others speak out against Trump's sweeping executive order that begins to dismantle Obama's Clean Power Plan

In 2015, when Barack Obama signed the nation's clean power plan, more than 300 companies came out in support, calling the guidelines "critical for moving our country toward a clean energy economy". Now, as Donald Trump moves to strip those laws away, Mars Inc, Staples and The Gap are just a few of those US corporations who are challenging the new president's reversal on climate policy.

Related: Trump's order signals end of US dominance in climate change battle

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Giant python swallows Indonesian farmer whole

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 04:52 AM PDT

Body of missing man, who vanished while harvesting his crops, found in belly of seven-metre snake

A farmer has been found inside the belly of a giant python after the animal was caught near where he vanished while harvesting his crops in Indonesia.

The body of Akbar, 25, was discovered inside the seven-metre (23ft) snake, which had been spotted slithering awkwardly in Salubiro village, on the eastern island of Sulawesi, on Monday.

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David Davis says article 50 letter was not a threat to EU on security

Posted: 30 Mar 2017 01:18 AM PDT

Brexit secretary says UK will not withdraw security cooperation from the EU if it fails to get a trade deal in two years' time

The Brexit secretary, David Davis, has said Theresa May's article 50 letter was not a threat to withdraw security cooperation with the EU if no final deal is reached before Britain's exit in two years' time.

In the letter, May warned European leaders that failure to reach a comprehensive Brexit agreement covering crucial deals on justice and home affairs would result in a weakening of cooperation on crime and security.

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'Lego bricks and boiled eggs': the three Brexiteers explain everything – video

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:51 PM PDT

Cabinet ministers David Davis, Liam Fox and Boris Johnson have been nicknamed 'the three Brexiteers' for their cavalier approach to the finer details of leaving the EU. The withdrawal process is 'simple' and at the same time 'more complex than a game of chess', they say, but definitely not as straightforward as a hard or soft boiled egg

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Fake views: can you spot the city copy?

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:15 PM PDT

From the Tower Bridge to the Parthenon, it's not just China that likes to build copies of famous landmarks – after all, why change a winning design? Some, though, are more convincing than others

Which is the real Capitol Building?

Which is the real Sphinx?

Which is the real Statue of Liberty?

Which is the real Florence?

Which is the real Angkor Wat?

Which is the real Tower Bridge?

Which is the real Eiffel Tower?

Which is the real White House?

Which is the real​ Parthenon?

Which is the real​ Henley on Thames?

Which is the real Chateau Maison-Lafitte?

Which is the real Venice?

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Senate sits on to deal with Racial Discrimination Act and company tax cuts – as it happened

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:07 PM PDT

On the final scheduled sitting day for five weeks, the government is determined the Senate will stay put until its tax package has been dealt with. As it happened

@gabriellechan Hello Five minutes to anything will now been known as Donut Time. #qt #dt pic.twitter.com/aIKy25YI8q

Well folks, it is donut time so I am skipping out the door.

Leaders come and go but Mike Bowers remains

We have just published a piece by former Liberal senator Chris Puplick documenting the long proud history of the Liberal party supporting the LGBTI community. Puplick has urged Malcolm Turnbull to allow a free vote in the party room.

Isn't it time for Australian laws to reflect our values on this issue, as has happened in so many other countries whose values are similar to ours? Isn't it about time to recognise that the tide of history is flowing in one direction only? Isn't it time for justice?

Does the Liberal party really want this issue dragging on to the next election, being used as a cynical wedge by the Labor party and sucking the oxygen out of the public debate about its positive agenda of budget repair, welfare reform and national security?

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Dmitry Medvedev: the whipping boy for Russia's discontented

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 10:00 PM PDT

The corruption allegations that led to street protests add to the air of disappointment surrounding the country's prime minister

The street protests that swept Russian cities over the weekend were remarkable not just for their unusually large size, but also for their main target: Dmitry Medvedev.

After an investigation by the anti-corruption campaigner and opposition politician Alexei Navalny alleged a network of palaces and vineyards linked to Medvedev, the prime minister has become the focal point of the protests. Angry Russians carried rubber ducks, a mocking reference to a shelter for ducks found on one of his alleged properties.

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Ministers urged to end 'cruel' policy on child refugees' relatives

Posted: 30 Mar 2017 01:06 AM PDT

UK is one of only two European countries that denies children granted asylum the right to apply for family to join them

Campaigners are calling on the UK government to allow children who have been granted refugee status to apply for family members to join them.

A 30,000-strong petition will be delivered to ministers on Thursday when activists will unveil a giant paperchain linking the Home Office and the Department for Education – the two departments campaigners say are responsible for the policy.

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Brexit: Davis rejects claims article 50 letter contained 'blackmail' threat - Politics live

Posted: 30 Mar 2017 01:43 AM PDT

Rolling coverage of the day's political developments as they happen, including publication of the white paper on the 'great repeal bill' and David Davis's statement to the Commons

Theresa May has again refused to resolve the live question of whether the UK government will eventually agree to allow a Scottish independence referendum, once the Brexit process is complete.

The prime minister was asked four times by Andrew Neil in her BBC1 interview on Brexit on Wednesday night whether she would accept it and four times May refused to say. She did imply the answer was no, or at least until it was unavoidable.

Here are the main points from David Davis's morning intervews.

We want a deal. That's the point. We want a deal. And [Theresa May] was making the point that it is bad for both of us if we don't have a deal. That, I think, is a perfectly reasonable point to make and not in any sense a threat.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon on the telephone talking to my opposite numbers in the parliament, in the commission, around all the member states. Virtually all of them said spontaneously, it's a very positive letter, the tone was good, and so on.

There is an area of argument over this. Which is fine. And that will go on.

The reason we want to see it done in parallel is we think the best way to get a deal is to look at the whole package together.

Not a very long time. But it will take time.

It is the only free trade deal in the history of the world in which the country involved is already in a free trade arrangement with the other countries and has got identical product standards. One of the thing that takes all the time [in trade deals] - not all the time, lots of time - is actually getting the standards harmonised. We are going to be in exactly the same place.

David Davis rather glides over what EU recognition of our standards might mean for our ability to remove EU law after we're out.

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Derek Hudson's best photograph: a Death Squad mercenary stops for lunch in El Salvador

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:00 PM PDT

'I bought him a beer and took three shots before he went ballistic'

I came across this guy during the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s. He was one of a gang of mercenaries known as the Death Squad. We were in a rural backwater called Suchitoto, which at the time could best be described as a one-donkey town, and he was sitting in the local cafe having eaten his lunch, his revolver casually placed in front of him.

I bought him a beer and, as he raised the bottle, managed to get three shots in before he went ballistic. He was swearing and called his friends with rifles over and pushed me about. I don't know what would have happened if they'd realised I'd shot off some frames already. I realised I'd taken a big risk, but I didn't think about it at the time. I quickly ordered more beers, hoping to calm them down, and then just left.

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Ex-cyclone Debbie: thousands told to evacuate from Lismore – live

Posted: 30 Mar 2017 01:42 AM PDT

South-east Queensland could get up to 500mm of rain by the end of today as the weather system spreads chaos into NSW. Follow all the updates live …

It's going to be a very long night for people in south-east Queensland and northern NSW with another three to six hours of heavy rainfall predicted.

.BOM_Qld says there is still another 3-6 hours of very heavy rainfall for Sunshine Coast through to northern NSW this evening #bnestorm pic.twitter.com/hqcqsxuFIE

The electricity company Energex says more 52, 731 customers are without power in south-east Queensland. Of that, 33,000 are on the Sunshine Coast and more than 1,100 in Brisbane.

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Thursday briefing: Thank me, says Dave. And Ivanka Trump, civil servant

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 10:38 PM PDT

Cameron defends referendum as May's Brexit gets off on wrong foot … Trump's daughter bows to pressure over White House role … and fighting depression

Good morning – it's Warren Murray with the briefing today.

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Trump administration drops human rights conditions to sell fighter jets to Bahrain

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 10:33 PM PDT

US state department told Congress it would abandon Obama-era demands for Gulf state to step back from crackdown on dissidents

The Trump administration has told Congress it plans to approve a multibillion-dollar sale of F-16 fighter jets to Bahrain without the human rights conditions imposed by the Obama administration.

If finalised, the approval would allow the Gulf island to purchase 19 of the jets from Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp, plus improvements to other jets in Bahrain's fleet. Though Congress has opportunities to block the sale, it is unlikely it will act to do so, given the Republican majority's strong support.

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Shooting lobby calls on Victorian government to penalise duck hunters who act illegally

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 09:55 PM PDT

Coalition Against Duck Shooting discovered pit containing 200 dead ducks on 19 March, a day after season opened

The shooting lobby has called on the Victorian government to increase efforts to catch and penalise duck hunters who act illegally after footage of a pit containing almost 200 dead ducks was released by animal rights activists.

The video was filmed by a volunteer for the Coalition Against Duck Shooting on 19 March, a day after the Victorian duck season opened, and released by the ABC's 7.30 program on Wednesday.

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The Antarctic voyage of the Discovery: archive, 30 March 1903

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 09:00 PM PDT

30 March 1903: The expedition was caught in blizzards and dense fog, Ernest Shackleton burst a blood vessel in one of his lungs, while some men showed symptoms of scurvy

Some further particulars of the vicissitudes which have befallen the Antarctic exploring expedition sailing in the Discovery are contained in a Press Association Special Service telegram despatched from Lyttelton, New Zealand, on Saturday.

When Captain Scott, Dr. Wilson, and Lieutenant Shackleton left their most southerly depot on their dash to the south they took with them only four weeks' provisions. Moreover, as they proceeded the snow became softer, and the extra strain thus involved told quickly upon the dogs, which became very weak and ultimately all died. In these circumstances to push further southward then 82deg. 17min. would have been to court disaster.

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Spanish woman given jail term for tweeting jokes about Franco-era assassination

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 08:04 PM PDT

Cassandra Vera founded guilty of glorifying terrorism in her posts about 1973 killing of prime minister Luis Carrero Blanco

A Spanish court on Wednesday sentenced a young woman to jail for posting jokes on Twitter about the 1973 assassination of a senior figure in the Franco dictatorship.

Spain's top criminal court, the National Audience, found Cassandra Vera, 21, guilty of glorifying terrorism and humiliating victims of terrorism and handed her a one-year jail term. 

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Philippines fisherman tells of deadly two-month ordeal stranded at sea

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 06:09 PM PDT

The 21-year-old watched his uncle die, and lived off rainwater and moss growing on his small boat until his rescue earlier this month

A young fisherman flew home to the Philippines on Wednesday after being given up for dead at sea, battling hunger, thirst and despair for nearly two months on a tiny boat that drifted all the way to Papua New Guinea.

Rolando Omongos, 21, recounted an astonishing tale of survival as he arrived from his first plane ride at Manila airport, three weeks after his rescue by a Japanese fishing vessel.

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'Doctor Dolittle' of prosthetics helps animals walk again – video

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 01:20 PM PDT

Angel Marie was stepped on by her mother soon after she was born. The pony's front legs were so severely damaged she was unable to walk. It was a challenge Derrick Campana, the 'Doctor Dolittle' of animal prosthetics, was ready to tackle. The orthotist and prosthetist fashions legs using highly durable, medical-grade plastics

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Ahmed Kathrada obituary

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 10:33 AM PDT

South African freedom fighter who with Nelson Mandela was jailed under apartheid

Ahmed Kathrada, who has died aged 87, was one of eight South African freedom fighters jailed for life in the 1964 Rivonia trial, along with Nelson Mandela. "Kathy", as he was known, had been arrested the previous year at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, in north Johannesburg, headquarters of the African National Congress's armed struggle, and charged with plotting to overthrow the government.

Mandela recounted in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom (1994), that in court, "Kathy, in his sharp-witted testimony, denied committing acts of sabotage or inciting others to do so, but said he supported such acts if they advanced the struggle". Kathrada refused to break ranks. It was the sort of response, together with the determination of Mandela and Walter Sisulu, another of the accused, that turned the tables on their prosecutors, putting the state in the dock by highlighting the brutalities of apartheid.

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Man dies after being mauled by his dog during interview with BBC film crew

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 10:04 AM PDT

Staffordshire bull terrier had attacked Mario Perivoitos before, neighbour says after man bitten on neck at north London home

A dog that mauled its owner to death while he was being interviewed by a BBC film crew had attacked him before, a neighbour said.

The man, named locally as Mario Perivoitos, 41, was with the film crew at his home in Wood Green on 20 March when his Staffordshire bull terrier attacked, biting him in the neck.

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US-linked top university fears new rules will force it out of Hungary

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 09:00 AM PDT

Central European University, which was founded by financier George Soros, says it is being targeted by Hungarian government

One of the top universities in central and eastern Europe may be forced out of Hungary under a draft law being prepared by the hard-right government, which has also accused eight British institutions of "operating unlawfully" in the country.

The US-linked Central European University (CEU), founded in 1991 to support the region's transition from communist dictatorship to democracy, has cultivated a generation of statesmen and women, academics, and leaders in the arts. But the institution and its alumni are alarmed by new rules that it says are targeted at CEU directly and would "make it impossible … to continue its operations" in Budapest.

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Best photographs of the day: Turkish cowboys and Australian cyclones

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 05:40 AM PDT

The Guardian's picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world, including a human hen and Brexit protests

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China says it has detained Taiwanese activist missing since 19 March

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 04:35 AM PDT

Lee Ming-cheh held on suspicion of endangering national security as relations worsen between Beijing and Taipei

China says it has detained a Taiwanese NGO worker and human rights activist on suspicion of endangering national security, amid worsening relations between Beijing and Taipei and an ongoing crackdown on civil society.

Lee Ming-cheh, a volunteer for the Taiwan Association for Human Rights , disappeared on 19 March after crossing into China from the semi-autonomous city of Macau.

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Arrests as Stansted anti-deportation protesters lock themselves to plane

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 03:11 AM PDT

Seventeen held after activists prevent departure of flight taking asylum seekers and other migrants to Nigeria and Ghana

Police have arrested 17 anti-deportation protesters who locked themselves to an aircraft at Stansted airport, preventing a charter flight due to remove asylum seekers and other migrants from the UK from taking off.

The protesters locked themselves to the wing of a Titan Airways flight and refused to move. All 17 protesters involved with the action have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and are now in police custody.

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Eight executions in 11 days: Arkansas order may endanger staff's mental health

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 03:00 AM PDT

The psychological impact on execution teams is one of the least discussed aspects of capital punishment in the US, yet arguably one of the most disturbing

It's been more than 20 years since Dr Allen Ault stood in a death chamber and gave the order for the execution to go ahead.

"I said, 'It's time,' and the electrician threw the switch."

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Fetish for facades: the symmetry of Helsinki's architecture – in pictures

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 03:25 AM PDT

Helsinki photographer Kristo Vedenoja captures the colourful mix of architectural styles in Finland's capital on Instagram, one square at a time

Kristo Vedenoja has lived in Helsinki for most of his life, and loves to walk around the city, camera in hand, capturing the details that catch his eye. A year ago he started a project looking only at the architectural facades of the city (@helsinkifacades).

"Helsinki's not the best known city for its architecture and I wanted be able to change that – and showcase its beauty," Kristo explains. "It's a relatively young city but contains a wide variety of architectural styles from art nouveau gems (or Jugendstil as the style is known here), to modernist masterpieces by people like renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, which help create a unique feeling in each urban district."

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Thailand accused of failing to stamp out murder and slavery in fishing industry

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 11:00 PM PDT

UN labour agency claims migrants employed on fishing vessels in Thai waters remain vulnerable to trafficking and forced labour despite previous warnings

Thailand is failing to protect migrant workers on fishing trawlers from murder and starvation, with trafficking and forced labour still rampant despite new government legislation, according to a new report.

In an unusually critical ruling by the UN's labour agency, the International Labour Organisation has urged the Thai government to remedy continued abuses on fishing vessels operating in Thai waters. It follows a formal complaint to the ILO by international trade unions last year, which highlighted evidence of migrant workers enduring 20-hour working days, physical abuse and non-payment of wages.

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'School is good': the boy who refused to let Boko Haram deny him education

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 08:00 AM PDT

After losing his right hand when a discarded Boko Haram bomb went off while he was collecting firewood with his brother, Jonathan, 14, learned to write with his left. Determined not to let anything get in his way despite spending two years in hospital, he now harbours dreams of becoming a lawyer

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The boy who lived: surviving the scars of Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgency

Posted: 29 Mar 2017 07:47 AM PDT

Almost left for dead when he was injured by a discarded bomb, Jonathan Gambo faces a long road to recovery. The teenager's fate mirrors that of Nigeria itself

On the day he lost his arm, Jonathan Gambo had been sent to gather firewood in the Nigerian village of Uba, where his parents worked as farmers.

His elder brother had been curious to unearth a chunk of metal and unwittingly passed him the bomb before instructing him to throw it away.

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