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

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


Italian minister defends methods that led to 87% drop in migrants from Libya

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 09:00 PM PDT

Interior minister Marco Minniti went to Libya in an attempt to reduce migrant flows, earning praise and condemnation in equal measure for his approach

In his eight months in office, Marco Minniti, the austere Italian interior minister, has overseen a huge reduction in the number of African migrants and refugees reaching Italian shores from Libya.

At the last count in August, the figure was 87% down on the previous year.

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Catalonia to hold independence vote despite anger in Madrid

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 02:02 PM PDT

Regional parliament passes referendum law as Spain's national government calls move 'constitutional atrocity'

The Spanish government has accused the Catalan parliament of committing a "constitutional and democratic atrocity" by approving legislation to allow next month's bitterly disputed independence referendum to go ahead.

On Wednesday night, the region's ruling, pro-sovereignty coalition – which has a majority in the Catalan parliament – managed to get the referendum law passed despite angry objections from opposition MPs, who complained that usual parliamentary procedures had been disregarded.

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Emmanuel Macron to outline vision for Europe’s future in Athens speech

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 10:00 PM PDT

President to focus on virtues of democracy and Greece's role in EU, with ministers hoping France will help challenge Berlin's dominance

Emmanuel Macron will make Greece the launchpad for a major policy speech on the future of Europe as he starts his first official trip to the country on Thursday.

From the dramatic setting of the ancient Pnyx in Athens, the French president is expected to outline his vision for the continent in what is being called his most important overseas address since taking office in May.

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Climate change could wipe out a third of parasite species, study finds

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:08 AM PDT

Parasites such as lice and fleas are crucial to ecosystems, scientists say, and extinctions could lead to unpredictable invasions

Climate change could wipe out a third of all parasite species on Earth, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date.

Tapeworms, roundworms, ticks, lice and fleas are feared for the diseases they cause or carry, but scientists warn that they also play a vital role in ecosystems. Major extinctions among parasites could lead to unpredictable invasions of surviving parasites into new areas, affecting wildlife and humans and making a "significant contribution" to the sixth mass extinction already under way on Earth.

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'It's outrageous': 15 states challenge Trump's Daca decision in court

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 03:51 PM PDT

Dreamers gather in Seattle and New York as attorneys general announce lawsuit over administration's move to end program

Chanting "Education, not deportation" and holding signs that said "Here to stay", dozens of Dreamers surrounded the attorneys general of New York and Washington on Wednesday, at separate announcements of a lawsuit against the Trump administration that was joined by 15 states and Washington DC.

Related: Paul Ryan says 'Dreamers' should 'rest easy' over expiring Daca policy

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Nato accuses Russia of blocking observation of massive war game

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 10:44 AM PDT

Kremlin 'failing in its obligations' by saying only three experts can attend as 100,000 troops mobilise on EU's eastern border

Russia has been accused by the head of Nato of blocking the alliance from properly observing next week's Zapad military exercises, when about 100,000 Russian troops are expected to mobilise on the EU's eastern borders.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato's secretary general, said an offer from Russia and Belarus for three of their experts to attend some aspects of the huge exercise fell short of the Kremlin's international obligations.

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Iranian MPs speak out as women are barred from World Cup qualifier

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 08:41 AM PDT

Syrian women are allowed into stadium but Iranian women are kept out, despite initially being allowed to buy tickets

Female Iranian MPs have spoken out against a ban on women entering sports stadiums after some fans were prevented from watching a World Cup qualifying match in Tehran between Iran and Syria.

Both genders were initially allowed to purchase tickets for Tuesday night's game, but the option for women to make purchases was removed by officials who blamed a "technical glitch".

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Trump ignores Republicans on Democrats' debt limit and Harvey funds plan

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 01:04 PM PDT

The president throws support behind a deal to fund the government and raise the debt limit for three months as Congress faces a series of fiscal deadlines

Donald Trump has ignored the objections of Republican leaders and sided with Democrats on a deal to fund the US government and raise the debt limit for three months, in addition to providing emergency aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

The president threw his support behind the proposal during a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday, hours after the House speaker, Paul Ryan, said it was both "ridiculous and disgraceful" for Democrats to suggest a short-term increase of the debt ceiling.

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Survivors' testimony not needed in Texas truck smuggling that killed 10

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 01:02 PM PDT

Authorities say 22 survivors of alleged human smuggling operation are no longer needed to testify against truck driver, who faces possible death penalty

Authorities have said 22 survivors of a semitrailer found outside a San Antonio Walmart packed with immigrants are no longer needed to testify and are being turned over to immigration authorities.

Ten people died in the alleged human smuggling operation discovered in July, and the driver of the truck faces a five-count indictment and the possibility of the death penalty.

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No prosecution risk for Northern Ireland medical staff over abortion referrals

Posted: 07 Sep 2017 01:55 AM PDT

Medical professionals told they will not face prosecution if they refer women to clinics in England and Wales for abortions

Medical staff in Northern Ireland have been told they will not face prosecution if they refer women to clinics in England and Wales for abortions, a development that campaigners say will ease the climate of fear under which many have been operating.

In a significant clarification of the law, the director of public prosecutions for Northern Ireland, Barra McGrory, has said he does "not see the issue of criminal liability arising in the context of NHS staff advising or informing patients of the availability of abortion services in England and Wales".

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Time to raise eurozone interest rates, says Deutsche Bank chief

Posted: 07 Sep 2017 12:59 AM PDT

John Cryan says bubbles are emerging in parts of market ahead of European Central Bank monetary policy meeting

It is time to start raising interest rates, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank has said, warning that bubbles are emerging in parts of the market.

Speaking in Frankfurt, John Cryan said: "The era of cheap money in Europe should come to an end, despite the strong euro."

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'Stop killing our children': Rohingya in Australia rally for intervention in Myanmar – video

Posted: 07 Sep 2017 12:14 AM PDT

Members of Australia's Rohingya community rally outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Melbourne on Thursday as they plead with the federal government to do more to end the current violence. The community is urging greater international intervention against the military attacks on the ethnic minority in Myanmar, which has killed at least 400 people and forced more than 100,000 to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. The head of the United Nations has described the situation as at risk of becoming ethnic cleansing.

The Refugee Council of Australia has called on the federal government to consider a special resettlement program for Rohingya forcibly displaced

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Jaguar Land Rover to make only electric or hybrid cars from 2020

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:46 PM PDT

Carmaker follows Volvo in spelling an end for petrol or diesel-only cars, despite not making any electric vehicles at present

Jaguar Land Rover has become the latest large carmaker to say it will stop building cars solely powered by internal combustion engines, two months after Volvo pledged to do so.

The UK-based manufacturer promised that all new models from 2020 will be fully electric or hybrid, a year later than Volvo's target, but a big step beyond its unveiling last November of a single electric concept car.

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Irma's destruction: island by island

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:30 PM PDT

The category five hurricane has ripped through the Caribbean, leaving flattened landscapes, flash floods and loss of life

Barbuda, the first island to feel the force of Hurricane Irma was devastated by its high winds, with Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, saying 90% of buildings had been destroyed and 60% of the population of around 1,400 people left homeless.

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Which city has the most protests?

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:15 PM PDT

From pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong to far-right and anti-Trump marches in the US, protests occur daily in public spaces worldwide – but can we measure which city has the most?

From the racially charged marches in Charlottesville to anti-nuclear demonstrations in Tokyo, tens of thousands of protests are mounted daily in the public spaces of the world's cities. Streets are closed, meetings convened and in the worst cases, people are beaten, jailed or killed.

"There is a palpable sense that the number of demonstrations worldwide is increasing, but nobody really knows," says prof Donatella della Porta of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Scuala Normala Superiore in Florence. "It is notable, however, that there seem to be more right-wing protests."

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Bangor in the spotlight: It release draws horror fans to Stephen King's home

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 05:46 AM PDT

Stephen King set many of his novels in Derry – a fictional version of his home of Bangor in Maine. With the release of the film version of It, the city is once again a tourist destination as the capital of terror

As claims to fame go, the city of Bangor in eastern Maine has one of the most playful out there. Disguised as its fictional persona of Derry, this small city is the setting for several Stephen King stories – including It, Dreamcatcher and Pet Sematary – and it is also the author's own residence.

While fictional Derry has served as the epicentre of many paranormal and supernatural events, and is arguably the world capital of terror, real-life Bangor is a quintessential New England small town, with its suburbs and malls, its brick buildings and peaceful waterfront. But it can easily be seen in a menacing light when its streets are quiet and lit only by the glow of street lamps.

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Bell Pottinger has toxified political debate in South Africa | Justice Malala

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 10:59 AM PDT

The disgraced PR firm did not create our racial problems but it exploited them ruthlessly, giving our struggle for justice a sinister tone

You don't have to look for racial inequality when you land in South Africa. It is everywhere. It is in the spatial arrangements: the pristine formerly whites-only suburbs (where a few of us black people now live) and their high walls, sitting miles away from the sprawling black squatter camps and townships that provide labour for the still – two decades after democracy – white-dominated economy.

The face of unemployment, poverty and poor education is black. The face of prosperity and privilege is white. The numbers are staggering: half of all South Africans are living below the poverty line, and three out of five black people are poor, while poverty is almost nonexistent among white people. In June unemployment among black people was 31%; among white people it was just 6.6%.

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Europe has failed to integrate its refugees – but one tiny Greek island succeeded | David Patrikarakos

Posted: 07 Sep 2017 01:17 AM PDT

Recent migration waves have left refugees and asylum seekers struggling to survive. On Tilos, 50 refugees have been not only integrated but enabled

'Sorry, please one cigarette, my friend." The man is young: early 20s at the most, Syrian I think. He and many others from across the Middle East and Africa patrol Exarchia Square in central Athens. Bereft of work, they beg for change. Often they turn to selling pirated DVDs, tissues or, occasionally, drugs.

The great migration wave of 2015 saw around a million people make asylum requests in the 28 EU states. The UN high commissioner for refugees was clear on the severity of the situation: since the second world war, he said, there have never been so many refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people. And still they are coming. According to the European commission, the number of people seeking asylum from non-EU countries in the EU28 during the first quarter of 2017 reached 164,500.

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Israel reported to have bombed Syrian chemical weapons facility

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 10:55 PM PDT

Reports in Israeli and Arab media say research centre near Hama attacked in night-time raid

Israeli jets have reportedly bombed a Syrian government facility in the north-west of the country believed to be associated with Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons programme.

The strikes were initially reported by Hebrew and Arab media sources on Thursday morning. A Syrian military statement appears to confirm the reports.

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Justine Damond shooting: police examine mental health records of Minnesota officer

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 05:23 PM PDT

Background records sought for Mohamed Noor, who fatally shot the Australian as she approached his squad car

US investigators are looking into the mental health and medical records of a Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot Australian native Justine Damond in July.

A search warrant filed publicly Tuesday shows an investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was seeking investigative background records, including pre-employment psychological exams and unredacted personnel files, of Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor.

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China brings Mars a little closer with replica on Tibet plateau

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:46 PM PDT

95,000 square-kilometre space base will be used to train astronauts as well as entertain glamping tourists

The 55m-kilometre jaunt from planet Earth to the red planet takes up to a year. From Beijing's international airport you'll soon be able to fly there in just over seven hours.

In the latest leg of its multi-billion dollar race for space, China has unveiled plans to build a 400m yuan (£47m) replica of Mars on a spectacular, sandswept corner of the Tibetan plateau.

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High court dismisses challenge to same-sex marriage vote – as it happened

Posted: 07 Sep 2017 02:17 AM PDT

Liberals, Labor and Greens all agree legislation is needed to provide proper safeguards on advertising and election material in the coming campaign

Alright, good people. It's been quite a day and quite a week. We're going to leave it there for the night, but just to recap:

Liberal MP and marriage equality supporter Tim Wilson has just spoken about proposed safeguards on advertising and campaign material on the postal survey. As we mentioned earlier, the survey is not covered by the requirements of Australia's electoral laws. The major parties are negotiating on legislation to address that failing, and a bill is expected to be introduced next week. There's a bit of conjecture on just how far the restrictions will go. Will they, for example, prevent the use of untruths in the campaign? Wilson told the ABC he does not want to see limits on misinformation.

This is a political debate, people are entitled to put things that are misinformation or lies

The responsibility of every Australian is to look at the information that is put out there, say by the No campaign that this is about polygamy or safe schools, to know that that is false

Dear @ABSStats, can u please send my survey ASAP? I will respond 'YES' for an equal & fair Aus, then return it so the nation can move on ...

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South Koreans scuffle with police as US missile defence system deployed - video

Posted: 07 Sep 2017 02:05 AM PDT

Thirty-eight people, including six police officers, have been injured in the village of Seongju, 300km south of Seoul, according to South Korean media, as preparations were made to install four Thaad missile defence batteries at a golf course in the village. The US system is intended to counter the threat of attacks from North Korea

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Australia’s Rohingya call for international action on Myanmar refugee crisis

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:59 PM PDT

Refugee advocates say Australia should consider a special resettlement program as UN warns military attacks on ethnic minority risks becoming ethnic cleansing

Australia's Rohingya community has rallied in Sydney and Melbourne, urging greater international intervention against military attacks on the ethnic minority in Myanmar, which the head of the United Nations has described as at risk of becoming ethnic cleansing.

The Refugee Council of Australia has called on the federal government to consider a special resettlement program – similar to the successful one it ran for Syrian and Iraqi refugees – for Rohingya forcibly displaced.

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Death toll rises as 'apocalyptic' Irma wreaks havoc across Caribbean

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:05 PM PDT

At least eight reported killed as unprecedented hurricane continues towards Haiti, Cuba, and possibly Florida, leaving devastation in its wake

The death toll from Hurricane Irma, the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, has risen to eight as the category 5 storm advanced across the northern Caribbean towards the US mainland on early Thursday morning.

Irma's 185mph winds and 20ft storm surge left the French part of the island of St Martin "95% destroyed", according to a local official, with six people reported killed.

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Trump offers to sell 'sophisticated' military gear to Japan and South Korea

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:00 PM PDT

President's offer triggers speculation that US might be relaxing arms restrictions in the region in the wake of North Korea nuclear test

Donald Trump's offer to allow Japan and South Korea to buy "highly sophisticated military equipment" from the US has triggered speculation that Washington might be on the point of relaxing some of the few remaining restrictions on arms sales in the region, in the wake of North Korea's sixth nuclear test.

However, it was unclear on Wednesday whether the offer referred to specific deals. Trump vowed a month ago to respond with "fire and fury" to North Korean threats. But in response to a huge underground blast which Pyongyang claimed was of a two-stage thermonuclear warhead, the president put the onus principally on China to rein in North Korea.

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Irma hits the Caribbean – in pictures

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 10:55 PM PDT

The most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean has caused widespread devastation across the island nations of the Caribbean. In Puerto Rico, 600,000 people are without power and nearly 50,000 are without water. The hurricane is expected to hit Florida this weekend

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Thursday briefing: Hurricane Irma flattens Caribbean communities

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 10:34 PM PDT

Atlantic's biggest ever storm brings death and devastation … the great British beer rip-off … and how the aristocracy has kept its 'vice-like grip' on wealth and power

Good morning – it's Warren Murray with the news from near and far.

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Surviving without thriving – but all is not lost for the world's 'stunted' children

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:00 PM PDT

About 159 million under-fives suffer impaired growth and brain development, but now a study is challenging the view that nothing can be done to help them

Stunting, an awkward term perhaps better suited to a bygone age, describes impaired growth and development from conception to the age of two. The word may seem dated, but the threat posed by undernutrition over the first 1,000 days of life, a problem not only for individual wellbeing but also for broader social inequalities, is firmly in the present.

Globally, 159 million children under five are affected. If children miss out on healthy growth, it has an impact on their learning capacity, and in turn their adult wages and their economic productivity. Beyond poor nutrition, environmental factors as well as inadequate opportunities to play and learn also hamper development.

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About the First Fight series

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 08:57 AM PDT

Editorially independent journalism into early years development in countries most affected by global poverty, supported by the Conrad N Hilton Foundation

The First Fight, a series of reports on early childhood development, is funded by support provided by the Conrad N Hilton Foundation. The journalism is editorially independent and its purpose is to focus on the early years and the issues that affect the cognitive and health development of young children most affected by global poverty.

All our journalism follows GNM's published editorial code. The Guardian is committed to open journalism, recognising that the best understanding of the world is achieved when we collaborate, share knowledge, encourage debate and harness, as well as challenge, the expertise of specialists and their communities.

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Egypt's security forces are enforcing 'torture assembly line'

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 08:46 AM PDT

Human Rights Watch report says President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has given green light for 'epidemic of torture' that could amount to crime against humanity

Egypt's president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has given police and national security officers a green light to use torture with impunity, according to Human Rights Watch.

Arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and torture against perceived dissidents by police and security forces is common, leaving people with no hope of justice, the rights group said.

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'They should be much bigger': the heavy toll of malnutrition in Madagascar

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 05:27 AM PDT

Half the country's children are so chronically malnourished they grow up stunted – too small for their age – damaging their bodies and their minds

The children of Ambohijafy, a rural village among the green valleys and sloping hills of Madagascar's fertile central highlands, are some of the poorest in the world, but they dream of rising above their circumstances. Outside the huddle of thatched mud huts, Rakotonirina, a solemn 10-year-old whose father is a fisherman, loves to read books and wants to be a schoolteacher. Twins Rosel and Michel Roland, seven, don't want to follow their father into farming. One would like to be a soldier, while the other talks of being a doctor.

But in Madagascar, where half the country's children are so chronically malnourished they grow up too small for their age – a condition known as stunting – the odds against these children making it to secondary school, let alone managing an intellectually or physically challenging job, are vertiginous. Research shows that if a child is stunted by the age of two, the damage to their young minds and bodies is virtually irreversible.

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Holding the centre is key to the German election outcome | Philip Oltermann

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 09:00 PM PDT

More Germans define themselves as 'centrists' than elsewhere in the EU, somehow resisting the trend towards polarisation seen in other countries

Last year's narrow and divisive election results in Britain's EU referendum and the US presidential election appeared to have rung in a new era of political polarisation – yet the battle for Germany's federal election will still be decided on the centre ground.

As chancellor Angela Merkel campaigns to be re-elected for a fourth term in office on 24 September, more German voters define themselves as centrists than in any of the European Union's other six largest states, a survey has shown.

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The truth about wages and immigration emerges at last | Philip Inman

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 12:14 PM PDT

Former minister Vince Cable says reports showing the influx of EU workers had minimal impact on pay were suppressed

The impact of immigration has been a running sore inside government ever since Tony Blair waived the right in 2004 to restrict access to workers from 10 new members of the European Union.

Self-employed builders were the first to complain. They argued that rates of pay in the construction industry plummeted in the years that followed and failed to recover after the 2008 crash in line with other industrial sectors. Across other sectors where migrant labour made a big impact, such as agriculture and the care industry, many workers took the same view.

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Twin megastorms have scientists fearing this may be the new normal

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:45 AM PDT

Destructive force of Irma and Harvey has Trump expressing awe, but those in power should focus on the environmental causes

One week after the record deluge in Texas, the biggest hurricane ever measured in the mid-Atlantic is tearing through the Caribbean.

Hurricane Irma, a category-five storm, is destroying homes and threatening lives in the Leeward Islands with 185mph winds and 11ft coastal surges, and in the coming days it is forecast to hit Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Florida. The governor of Florida has already declared a state of emergency.

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Barbuda suffers 'unprecedented' damage from Irma – video

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 09:07 PM PDT

Nearly every building was damaged when the hurricane passed almost directly over the Caribbean island. About 60% of the island's roughly 1,400 people were left homeless, said the Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, Gaston Browne

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Threatened species: pollies welcome blighted animals to Canberra

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 09:00 PM PDT

Australia's politicians marked the country's annual Threatened Species Day by welcoming a range of animals to Canberra – some of whom were more happy to be there than others. The day marks the death of the last Tasmanian thylacine in 1936

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Hurricane Irma reaches the Caribbean – video report

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 12:49 PM PDT

Hurricane Irma hits northeastern Caribbean islands on Wednesday, battering them with heavy rain and powerful winds. Irma is the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in recorded history and is expected to make landfalls in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba before possibly heading for Florida

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Storm Irma hits Saint Martin harbour – video

Posted: 06 Sep 2017 11:28 AM PDT

Rain and high winds hit the French island territory of Saint Martin on Wednesday as Hurricane Irma churns through the Caribbean. Amateur video shows a boats and debris in a flooded harbour, and cars stranded in flood water

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