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Vladimir Putin secures landslide victory in Russian election
Kurdish militia vows to make Afrin 'an ongoing nightmare' for Turks
Jared Kushner's company routinely filed false New York City paperwork
Balearic island of s’Espalmador sold to private bidder for £16m
Israeli security guard stabbed to death in Jerusalem
Developing countries at risk from US rate rise, debt charity warns
Florida bridge collapse: all bodies recovered from crushed vehicles
The new helmsman: Xi Jinping's re-election brings comparison with Mao
Briton falls to his death from balcony in Mallorca – reports
Trump will pull out of Iran nuclear deal, leading senator predicts
Officials wanted Florida school shooting suspect forcibly committed in 2016
The 100 million city: is 21st century urbanisation out of control?
Is the way we think about overpopulation racist?
Gambling regulator urges government to cut FOBT stakes to £30
British woman killed fighting Turkish forces in Afrin
Austin: two injured in fourth explosion to hit Texas city in a month
ANZ admits not checking key details of loan applications made via brokers
Vladimir Putin: 'nonsense' to think Russia would poison spy in run-up to election - video
Monday briefing: Johnson ramps up anti-Russia rhetoric
New Zealand gay rights activists demand compensation over convictions
Experts reach for the stars to fight slavery as satellite pictures tell all
Putin 4.0: as Russian president prepares for fourth term, what next?
How to troll the left: understanding the rightwing outrage machine
Russian voters go to the polls – in pictures
Boris Johnson: 'We have evidence that Russia has been creating and stockpiling novichok' – video

Vladimir Putin secures landslide victory in Russian election

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 02:31 PM PDT

President takes more than 75% of vote according to partial results, extending Putin's time in office to nearly a quarter of a century

Vladimir Putin cruised to victory in Sunday's presidential elections in a result that was never in question. His fourth term as president will extend until 2024, making him the first Kremlin leader to serve two decades in power since Josef Stalin.

With results still coming in, Putin looked set to exceed expectations by clinching more than 75% of the vote.

Kurdish militia vows to make Afrin 'an ongoing nightmare' for Turks

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 10:00 PM PDT

YPG plans hit-and-run attacks on Turkish and Syrian rebel forces after pulling out of besieged city

Kurdish militants have vowed to wage a guerrilla war against the Turkish military and their Syrian rebel proxies after the latter swept into the northern Syrian city of Afrin, seizing control from Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish militia, the YPG, withdrew from Afrin before dawn on Sunday, members blending in with an exodus of up to 150,000 civilians who had been fleeing the city since Friday.

Jared Kushner's company routinely filed false New York City paperwork

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 10:06 AM PDT

Construction applications falsely claimed no rent-controlled tenants protected by rules to prevent developers from pushing them out

When the Kushner Companies bought three apartment buildings in Queens in 2015, most tenants were protected by rules that prevent developers from pushing them out, raising rents and turning a profit.

But that was exactly what the company then run by Jared Kushner did, with remarkable speed. Two years later, it sold the buildings for $60m, nearly 50% more than it paid.

Balearic island of s’Espalmador sold to private bidder for £16m

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 07:03 AM PDT

Tiny island close to Formentera has been bought by a family from Luxembourg

A tiny Balearic island that lies between Ibiza and Formentera and boasts two houses, a chapel and a watchtower has been sold to a private bidder for €18m (£16m).

S'Espalmador, which occupies 137 hectares and can be reached on foot from Formentera at low tide, has been snapped up by a family from Luxembourg despite efforts to sell it to the Formentera government.

Israeli security guard stabbed to death in Jerusalem

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 03:02 PM PDT

28-year-old Palestinian assailant was shot dead by police after attack in Old City

An Israeli security guard has died of wounds suffered in a stabbing attack carried out by a suspected Palestinian assailant in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The assailant was shot and killed by police at the scene.

Developing countries at risk from US rate rise, debt charity warns

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 08:34 AM PDT

Jubilee Debt Campaign says 126 nations spend more than 10% of revenues on interest

The expected rise in US interest rates will increase financial pressures on developing countries already struggling with a 60% jump in their debt repayments since 2014, a leading charity has warned.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign said a study of 126 developing nations showed that they were devoting more than 10% of their revenues on average to paying the interest on money borrowed – the highest level since before the G7 agreement to write off the debts of the world's poorest nations at Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.

Florida bridge collapse: all bodies recovered from crushed vehicles

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 05:19 AM PDT

Five bodies pulled from vehicles; a sixth died in hospital
Victim's uncle rages at 'complete incompetence of installation

Police in Miami believe they have recovered all the bodies of those who died in a catastrophic bridge collapse on a busy highway on Thursday.

The Miami-Dade police chief, Juan Perez, told news media late on Saturday searchers had recovered all five bodies of people in vehicles that were crushed under the pedestrian bridge at Florida International University, when the structure fell on to a busy six-lane road connecting the campus to the community of Sweetwater.

The new helmsman: Xi Jinping's re-election brings comparison with Mao

Posted: 17 Mar 2018 09:06 PM PDT

President's reappointment for unlimited terms in office sends the state propaganda machine into overdrive

China's propaganda drive has kicked into overdrive following Xi Jinping's unanimous reappointment as president at the weekend.

Xi's face dominated the front pages of major Sunday newspapers, many carrying the same editorial from the ruling Communist party's official People's Daily about Xi's reappointment as president on Saturday.

Briton falls to his death from balcony in Mallorca – reports

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 12:55 PM PDT

British man, 22, fell from a fifth floor balcony while on holiday in Palma, local media report

A 22-year-old British man has died after reportedly falling from a fifth floor balcony in Majorca while on holiday with friends.

According to reports in the local newspaper Diario de Mallorca, police inquiries suggest the man lost his balance and fell through a void on the balcony at an apartment in Palma, the island's capital.

Trump will pull out of Iran nuclear deal, leading senator predicts

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 09:01 AM PDT

Bob Corker says 'I think the president will likely move away from it'
Trump faces 12 May deadline to recertify the multilateral accord

The chair of the Senate foreign relations committee has predicted Donald Trump will pull the US out of the nuclear deal with Iran.

Officials wanted Florida school shooting suspect forcibly committed in 2016

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 01:10 PM PDT

Documents urged compulsory mental evaluation of Nikolas Cruz
Move would have made obtaining gun legally difficult or impossible

Officials were so concerned about the mental stability of the student accused of last month's Florida school shooting that they decided he should be forcibly committed. The recommendation was never acted upon.

A commitment under the law would have made it more difficult if not impossible for Nikolas Cruz to obtain a gun legally.

The 100 million city: is 21st century urbanisation out of control?

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 12:00 AM PDT

Projections suggest cities will swell at an astonishing pace – but whether that means our salvation or an eco-disaster is by no means certain

The 1960 street map of Lagos, Nigeria, shows a small western-style coastal city surrounded a few semi-rural African villages. Paved roads quickly turn to dirt, and fields to forest. There are few buildings over six floors high and not many cars.

No one foresaw what happened next. In just two generations Lagos grew 100-fold, from under 200,000 people to nearly 20 million. Today one of the world's 10 largest cities, it sprawls across nearly 1,000 sq km. Vastly wealthy in parts, it is largely chaotic and impoverished. Most residents live in informal settlements, or slums. The great majority are not connected to piped water or a sanitation system. The city's streets are choked with traffic, its air is full of fumes, and its main dump covers 40 hectares and receives 10,000 metric tons of waste a day.

Is the way we think about overpopulation racist?

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 12:00 AM PDT

Half the world lives in urban areas, yet environmental concerns about megacities often focus on developing economies. But consumption is as important as population

It is just 50 years since the publication of Paul Ehrlich's book The Population Bomb galvanised the global discussion on overpopulation. Published in 1968, his million-selling Malthusian polemic suggested that over-breeding poor countries were killing the planet. And it began in a megacity: India's capital, Delhi.

Gambling regulator urges government to cut FOBT stakes to £30

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 01:27 AM PDT

Commission recommends slashing maximum bet from £100 as campaigners call for reducing it to £2

The UK's gambling regulator has given the government the all-clear to defy calls to cut the stakes on the roulette-style games offered on controversial fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) to £2.

The Gambling Commission's recommendation will be one of the most influential submissions to a review by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which has said it will cut the maximum bet on FOBTs from £100 to a range between £2 and £50.

British woman killed fighting Turkish forces in Afrin

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 11:00 PM PDT

Anna Campbell believed to be the first British woman to die alongside Kurdish forces in Syria

A British woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Afrin, northern Syria, has been killed, her Kurdish commanders have said.

Anna Campbell, from Lewes, East Sussex, was volunteering with the US-backed Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) – the all-female affiliate army of the People's Protection Units (YPG) – in the besieged city of Afrin when the convoy she was travelling in was struck by a Turkish missile on 16 March.

Austin: two injured in fourth explosion to hit Texas city in a month

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 09:43 PM PDT

It is not known if the blast is related to three package bombs that have killed two and injured two in the Texas capital

Two people have been injured in another explosion in Texas' capital, after three package bombs detonated earlier this month in other areas of the city and killed two people and injured two others.

Austin-Travis County Emergency Management Services reported that an explosion in southwest Austin injured two men in their 20s who were hospitalized with injuries that didn't appear to be life-threatening.

ANZ admits not checking key details of loan applications made via brokers

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 01:03 AM PDT

Royal commission hears that nearly 60% of loans approved by ANZ were submitted by brokers, with little verification carried out by the bank

ANZ has admitted that it does nothing to verify the general living expenses of customers who have been sent to the bank from mortgage brokers, saying the intermediaries should be checking that information themselves.

The bank has now been forced to explain how it is not breaking responsible lending laws under the National Credit Act, because it ought to be verifying the financial situation of customers who have applied for a home loan.

Vladimir Putin: 'nonsense' to think Russia would poison spy in run-up to election - video

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 01:06 AM PDT

Asked about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Britain, the newly re-elected Russian president said he only found out about the incident through the media and it would be 'nonsense' to think Russia would launch such an attack in the run-up to an election.

Vladimir Putin secures landslide victory in Russian election

Monday briefing: Johnson ramps up anti-Russia rhetoric

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 11:32 PM PDT

Foreign secretary seeks to strengthen coalition against Moscow … British woman killed fighting for Kurds … Brent's world-beating teacher

Good wintry morning to you all, Graham Russell here with a list of things worth thinking about today.

New Zealand gay rights activists demand compensation over convictions

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 10:40 PM PDT

The government is working towards expunging the criminal records of men convicted of homosexual crimes, but has ruled out financial compensation

Gay rights advocates are gearing up to fight the New Zealand government for compensation for men convicted of homosexual crimes.

Last year justice minister Amy Adams apologised to hundreds of gay men who were convicted of a crime for engaging in consensual sex prior to the homosexual law reform of 1986.

Experts reach for the stars to fight slavery as satellite pictures tell all

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 12:00 AM PDT

Researchers target further breakthroughs after using space imaging to estimate number of bonded labourers in south Asia's 'brick belt'

It has been used to identify suspected weapons sites, monitor troop movements, and chronicle war damage and allegations of genocide. Now, however, satellite imagery is being used to tackle one of the developing world's most persistent problems – the scourge of modern slavery.

An innovative programme involving space imaging and anti-slavery experts at the University of Nottingham has established the prevalence of sites in industries associated with slavery, including Asian brick kilns and fishing camps, in an approach they suggest may be applicable to other forms of compelled labour.

Putin 4.0: as Russian president prepares for fourth term, what next?

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 10:06 AM PDT

Putin has emerged from his third term stronger than ever, but it is unclear where he goes from here

That Vladimir Putin will be reelected has never been in doubt. What the Russian president's fourth term, sometimes referred to as Putin 4.0, is likely to bring is a more open question.

The past six years have brought Russia into deepening conflict with the west. But Putin has emerged from his third term far stronger than he was in 2012, shoring up his image as a generational leader who has cowed all but his most committed opposition and taken steps to revive Russia's greatness, with controversial moves such as the annexation of Crimea.

How to troll the left: understanding the rightwing outrage machine

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 03:00 AM PDT

Recent events on US college campuses illustrate how the right has fine-tuned its formula for pushing progressives' buttons

How do you make a speech at a provincial liberal arts college into national news? As it turns out, the basic requirements are simple: a shareable video, provocation and persistence.

For the past few months, this recipe was developed and fine-tuned in a series of speeches at Portland-area universities featuring controversial speakers. All have involved a small group of Portland State University students and faculty associated with an atheist student club.

Russian voters go to the polls – in pictures

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 11:19 AM PDT

Russians on Sunday went to the polls in a presidential election likely to result in the re-election of Vladimir Putin to a fourth term in office. About 109 million Russian citizens have the right to vote – in 100,000 polling stations in the Russian Federation and also in 145 foreign countries

Boris Johnson: 'We have evidence that Russia has been creating and stockpiling novichok' – video

Posted: 18 Mar 2018 04:54 AM PDT

Boris Johnson tells the BBC's Andrew Marr Show the UK government has evidence that Russia has 'not only been investigating the delivery of nerve agents for the purpose of assassination, but has also been creating and stockpiling novichok' within the last 10 years