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

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


Zuma in the dock: South Africa's ex-president faces corruption charges

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 02:02 AM PDT

Ex-president who was ousted in February faces money-laundering and fraud charges linked to 1990s arms deal

Former president Jacob Zuma has appeared in court in South Africa to face corruption charges relating to a multibillion dollar arms deal that took place twenty years ago.

Zuma, who was ousted as head of state in February, attended a brief preliminary hearing at the High Court in Durban, a city on the south east coast.

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Former South Korean president Park Geun-hye jailed for 24 years

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 01:02 AM PDT

Court finds Park colluded with 'Rasputin' figure Choi Soon-sil to accept bribes and abuse position

The former South Korean president Park Geun-hye has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for abuse of power and corruption, in a scandal that exposed webs of double-dealing between political leaders and conglomerates, and the power of a Rasputin-like figure at the top of government.

Park, 66, was not present for the ruling on Friday, citing sickness, and has boycotted the proceedings since October. Park has one week to appeal the litany of charges against her that range from corruption to maintaining a blacklist of artists.

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Ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort approved 'black ops' to help Ukraine president

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 08:00 AM PDT

Exclusive: Paul Manafort authorised secret media operation that sought to discredit key opponent of then Ukrainian president

Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort authorised a secret media operation on behalf of Ukraine's former president featuring "black ops", "placed" articles in the Wall Street Journal and US websites and anonymous briefings against Hillary Clinton.

The project was designed to boost the reputation of Ukraine's then leader, Viktor Yanukovych. It was part of a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort carried out by Manafort on behalf of Yanukovych's embattled government, emails and documents reveal.

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'We can’t back down': French students dig in for Macron battle

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 08:14 AM PDT

Sit-ins continue in protest at introduction of more selective university entry requirements

After more than 50 hours manning a barricade at her university faculty building in northern Paris, Camille, 20, said she was tired but determined.

Night and day the humanities student had been keeping vigil at a lecture-hall sit-in, taking turns with another student to doze in a sleeping bag on the cold floor as they guarded the makeshift barricade made from piles of chairs.

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German court says Carles Puigdemont can be released on bail

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 11:10 AM PDT

Court sets bail for Catalan leader at €75,000 and says he cannot be extradited for rebellion charge

A court in northern Germany has ruled that the former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont can be released on bail while extradition proceedings continue.

The district court in Schleswig set bail for the 55-year-old at €75,000 (£66,000).

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Danish inventor accused of Kim Wall murder 'psychopathic', court hears

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 09:54 AM PDT

Peter Madsen said 'a dead body does not deserve any special respect', psychiatric report says

A Danish inventor discussed dismembering the body of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall without emotion in interviews with forensic psychiatrists, and demonstrated no compassion for her or her family, Copenhagen district court has heard.

"What do you do when you have a big problem? You divide it into something smaller," Peter Madsen answered when psychiatrists asked about his decision to cut off Wall's head, arms and legs.

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HSBC whistleblower Hervé Falciani facing extradition to Switzerland

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 04:08 AM PDT

IT specialist who exposed wrongdoing at HSBC's Swiss private bank is arrested in Spain, where he has lived since 2013

Hervé Falciani, the whistleblower who exposed wrongdoing at HSBC's Swiss private bank, is facing extradition from Spain to Switzerland after he was arrested in Madrid this week.

Related: HSBC whistleblower given five years' jail over biggest leak in banking history

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Bollywood star Salman Khan sentenced to five years for killing antelopes

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 05:48 AM PDT

Actor says he will appeal against sentence after being convicted of poaching blackbucks in 1998

The Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has been sentenced to five years in jail for poaching a protected species of Indian antelope, in the latest twist to an off-screen life almost as dramatic as the epics he has starred in.

A court in Rajasthan state on Thursday found Khan, one of the world's best-paid actors, guilty of illegally hunting the two blackbucks from his car window while filming in Jodhpur in 1998.

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'It belongs to all of Sarajevo': reopened cable car lifts city out of the past

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 11:00 PM PDT

The siege of Sarajevo turned leisure spot Mount Trebević into a deadly sniper position. Can the reopening of its famous gondola ride finally heal old wounds?

Pazite, Snajper! – Beware, Sniper! – warned the signs along the Sarajevo street exposed to marksmen looking through their rifle viewfinders from the top of Mount Trebević. People would sprint from one side of "sniper's alley" to the other to deliver supplies to family and friends – death hot on their heels.

The hillside where tens of thousands used to spend their Saturdays before the 1992-1996 siege of Sarajevo soon became "a symbol of aggression", recalls mountain guide Fikret Kahrovic. "Trebević was the only place to breathe fresh air when the city was engulfed in fumes, but that all changed and the mountain became our enemy."

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The apps that map violence – and keep Rio residents out of the crossfire

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 04:00 AM PDT

Rejecting official information channels, Rio's citizens are navigating their city using crowdsourced data on shootings and robberies as they happen

"A red spot on the map means gunfire, so I avoid going there," says Leonardo Duarte, who works on the streets for a rehabilitation clinic in Rio de Janeiro. Shootings and violence are routine in his neighbourhood of Vigário Geral, a slum in the grip of conflict between rival drug-trafficking gangs. To stay out of danger when navigating the city he has a strategy: never go anywhere without checking his phone for live crime data.

An increasing number of Rio residents are subscribing to crowdsourcing apps and following the social network pages of crime-watch groups such as Basta de Violência (No More Violence) and Realidade do Rio de Janeiro (Reality of Rio de Janeiro).

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Time for peaceful resistance, says Gaza's new movement

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 09:00 PM PDT

Israel calls them riots, but the man at the centre of recent protests sees them as a rejection of violence

Sipping mint lemonade while looking out at the Mediterranean, the man credited with instigating a demonstration movement that has rocked Gaza is at odds with the image of the protests that has been put forward by Israel.

Israel has described the recent demonstrations on the Gaza frontier as "riots" and a ploy to "camouflage terror attacks" led by Hamas, a militant group founded on the idea that Israel has no right to exist.

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Six people in hospital after five separate London stabbings

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 10:09 PM PDT

Crowds gather to plead for end to violence as a 13-year-old boy is among victims of attacks in Docklands, Ealing, Herne Hill, Mile End and Newham

Six people, five of them teenagers, have been hospitalised following five separate knife attacks in London on Thursday as protesters took to the streets to plead for calm.

A 13-year-old boy was one of the victims of the attacks on Thursday, suffering serious wounds after being stabbed in east London.

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Recruiters order Sri Lankan women to take birth control before working in Gulf

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 11:00 PM PDT

Agencies offer guarantee that women desperate to support families devastated by conflict will not fall pregnant

Sri Lankan women who take up domestic work in the Middle East to support families devastated by conflict are being targeted by recruitment agents who order them to take contraceptives before leaving.

Six recruiters licensed by the Sri Lankan government said they could provide an employer with a "three-month guarantee" that a maid would not become pregnant.

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Donald Trump considering new $100bn tariff on Chinese goods as trade feud escalates

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 11:06 PM PDT

US president instructs trade agency to mull options as onlookers fear tit-for-tat will become full-blown trade war

Donald Trump has instructed the US trade representative to consider slapping $100bn in additional tariffs on Chinese goods in an escalating standoff over trade.

Trump said in a statement on Thursday that the further tariffs were being considered "in light of China's unfair retaliation" against earlier US trade actions. He added that the US trade representative had determined that China "has repeatedly engaged in practices to unfairly obtain America's intellectual property".

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'If our countries were safe, we wouldn't leave': the harsh reality of Mexico's migrant caravan

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 10:00 PM PDT

As Donald Trump decries an 'invasion' and sends troops to the border, David Agren speaks to Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence

Swaying on a swing in a park teeming with Central American migrants in southern Mexico, Henry Juárez hardly looks like an invader ready to rush the US border – and certainly not an enemy the national guard forces being sent to the southern frontier by Donald Trump would have trouble stopping.

A slight 16-year-old with copper streaks in his hair wearing a singlet, sandals and baggy pants, he hit the perilous road through Mexico last month after seven gangbangers burst into his home in El Salvador, put a pistol in his face and threatened to kill him and his family if he didn't make an extortion payment of $100 (£71).

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Greens accuse Labor of 'gerrymander' in draft seat redistribution

Posted: 06 Apr 2018 12:11 AM PDT

Antony Green says changes so favour Labor they 'effectively wipe out government's majority'

The Greens have accused Labor of a "gerrymander" after the Australian Electoral Commission published a draft redistribution creating two new Labor-leaning seats and other knock-on changes that potentially benefit the federal opposition.

The new boundaries propose a third seat in the Australian Capital Territory – to be named after war historian Charles Bean – and a new seat in Melbourne's west to be named after the former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser.

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What next for the millions uprooted by Boko Haram? – photo essay

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 03:10 AM PDT

Over the course of nine years, the Boko Haram insurgency has fractured families and claimed lives across the Lake Chad region, causing untold suffering. Four photographers visited camps run by the Red Cross to document the impact of a conflict that has left 8 million people in dire need

Photographs: Moises Saman, Lorenzo Meloni, Newsha Tavakolian, Emin Ozmen/Magnum Photos

In Cameroon, a family dreams of the thousands of cows, sheep and goats its village used to have, inherited from their forebears. They dream of going home to the village they had to flee when Boko Haram moved in.

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'Women are raped at levels that have never been seen before' says Trump - video

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 03:31 PM PDT

Donald Trump veered wildly off-script at an event intended to tout the Republican tax bill, making false claims about voter fraud and darkly warning of the menace of predominantly Hispanic gangs. Trump, who spent much of the 2016 campaign alleging massive voter fraud, returned to the topic at the event in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. He also spoke of the 'danger' posed by illegal immigration and by the 'caravan' of refugees travelling to the US from Central America. He also claimed that a gang had gained control of swaths of Long Island, requiring towns to be 'liberated' while gang members were thrown into 'paddy wagons' – a term found offensive by some Irish Americans.


Trump defends Mexican rapists claim during conspiracy-laden speech

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Russia tells Britain 'you'll be sorry' at UN meeting - video

Posted: 05 Apr 2018 03:29 PM PDT

A Russian call for Britain to cooperate with Moscow by staging a joint investigation into the Salisbury poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal was rejected by the UK's key allies on the 15-strong UN security council. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's ambassador to the UN, said the UK was trying to delegitimise his country. Russian officials, he said, had told their British colleagues that: 'You're playing with fire and you'll be sorry.'

Salisbury nerve agent attack: Russian demand for joint investigation rejected

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