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US says ‘drumbeat of war is sounding loud’ as talks with Russia over Ukraine head towards dead endRussia has refused to rule out a military deployment to Cuba and Venezuela if talks with the west on European security and Ukraine fail to go its way, while warning the latest discussions with Nato were hitting a dead end.In an apparent attempt to up the ante with the Biden administration, Sergei Ryabkov, who led Russia’s delegation in a meeting with the US on Monday, told Russian television he could neither confirm nor exclude sending military assets to Cuba and Venezuela if talks fail. Asked about these steps, he said “it all depends on the actions by our US counterparts”. Continue reading...

Helen Naslund was originally sentenced to 18 years, one of the longest in a case of an abused woman killing her partnerA Canadian court has halved the sentence of a woman who killed her husband, revisiting a controversial case that revealed the legal system’s “outdated thinking” of the realities of domestic abuse.In a 2-1 ruling released on Wednesday, Alberta’s court of appeal determined that Helen Naslund’s 18-year sentence should be reduced to nine years.In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org Continue reading...

2021 was an important year in the fight for gender equality, and the national women’s safety summit in September was a platform for experts and advocates to discuss key issues surrounding gender equality and violence against women and children. But Scott Morrison’s keynote address – and his failure to enact meaningful reform on key issues – left some underwhelmed and others furious.

Stocks run perilously low, with main supply route into region of northern Ethiopia unusable since DecemberHumanitarian organisations in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia are running perilously low on food and fuel stocks as an intensified wave of airstrikes further hampers a threadbare aid effort already stymied by lack of access.In what it calls a de facto blockade, the UN says fighting between Tigrayan rebels and forces loyal to the Ethiopian government has rendered the main supply route into the war-torn region unusable since mid-December. Continue reading...

Those shortlisted for job managing Tighard guesthouse warned that living on Canna can be testingIt is one of the most inaccessible guesthouses in Britain, on a tiny Hebridean island that is home to 15 people and a two-hour sail from the mainland. Undaunted, more than 100 people have inquired about running the place.Interest about taking over Tighard guesthouse on Canna, an island south-west of Skye just 4.5 miles long and one mile wide, came from across the world. The island’s owners, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), are now whittling those down to a shortlist of 10 applicants. Continue reading...

Anwar Raslan’s conviction in Germany sends signal that Assad regime systematically uses torture, say detention system survivorsFor survivors of Syria’s brutal detention system, the landmark conviction of a former Syrian intelligence official for crimes against humanity represents a vital step towards justice.“We initially hoped for a trial at the international criminal court, but nevertheless this is an important step,” said Hussein Ghrer, one of 24 former detainees of Branch 251, a military intelligence unit with its own prison in Damascus, who testified against Anwar Raslan. Continue reading...

Man denied any wrongdoing after pair caught together in conservative Aceh provinceAn Indonesian woman has been flogged 100 times in Aceh province for adultery while the male involved, who denied the accusations, received just 15 lashes.Ivan Najjar Alavi, the head of the general investigation division at the East Aceh prosecutors’ office, said the court handed down a harsher sentence for the woman after she confessed to investigators she had sex outside of her marriage. Continue reading...

European media paints devastating picture of Boris Johnson as emperor with no clothesPartygate could mark the end of Boris Johnson, European media have concluded, painting a devastating picture of a “vain, fickle, hypocritical opportunist” with an “elastic relationship to the truth” who only ever “played at being prime minister”.Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung said in a brutal op-ed that it had “only ever been a matter of time” before the British prime minister was exposed to one and all as the emperor with no clothes. Continue reading...

Health secretary confirms reduction in self-isolation period, in decision that could help ease pressure on Boris Johnson

Wang Chen-wei and Chen Chun-ju sign papers after ruling allows Chen to register as parent alongside WangA married same-sex couple have become the first in Taiwan to legally adopt a child neither of them are related to, after they challenged local laws in court.Wang Chen-wei, Chen Chun-ju, and their daughter, nicknamed Joujou, were surrounded by press at the Taipei household registration office, as the couple formally signed adoption paperwork after a long battle. Clutching Joujou, her face hidden behind a hoodie, face mask and sunglasses, Wang and Chen told of their bittersweet victory. Continue reading...

Give us over-50s a menu we can read, grownup waiters and the chance to hold a conversation. It’s not too much to ask – and it makes business sense tooThere is only one thing worse than having to thumb your smartphone torch into life so that you can read a restaurant menu: the youthful twentysomething waiter noticing you do so, and bringing you one of those LED clip-on lamps. Short of wheeling the house Zimmer frame to the table for you to use while popping to the loo, there’s nothing better calculated to make you feel like an old git. It’s profoundly irritating, partly because it’s so unnecessary; it’s entirely possible to have moody lighting while also dropping enough on to a table so that those of us whose sight is not quite what it once was can read the damn small print without recourse to Wembley Stadium’s floods.But mostly it’s irritating because it’s a huge own goal. It makes any restaurant seem exclusive; as in it was designed to exclude those of us not in the very first flush of youth. All too often this is literally the case, albeit usually by happenstance. The restaurant business is generally a younger person’s game. Setting them up and running them requires the sort of long hours that those of us with a few years on the clock may no longer find appealing. And people in their 20s and 30s may well have no idea what older customers want or need, simply because they haven’t got there yet. If a restaurateur only wants punters their own age, then fine. Turn down the lights. Turn up the music. Print the menu in six point Comic Sans. Continue reading...

Answering readers’ questions, the hardman actor discusses his bust-up with Jean-Claude Van Damme, his degree in chemical engineering – and ham sandwichesIf someone said: here’s loads of money, but we get the right to CGI you into movies for ever after you die, would you accept? LarboIrelandI’ve been in about 80 movies already. I guess part of being an actor is there’s some immortality. That’s why people are interested in showbusiness, because you kind of live for ever. So maybe I would. It depends how bad the movies are. Continue reading...

Anwar Raslan found to have overseen murder of at least 27 people and torture of at least 4,000 at Damascus prisonA German court has sentenced a Syrian former intelligence officer in Bashar al-Assad’s security services to life in prison.Anwar Raslan, a former colonel loyal to the regime who later defected and gained asylum in Germany, was deemed by the judge at Koblenz higher regional court to have verifiably overseen the murder of at least 27 and torture of at least 4,000 prisoners at a detention facility in Damascus. Continue reading...

Government says Twitter has agreed to conditions on management of unlawful content and to register in NigeriaNigeria has lifted a ban on Twitter, restoring access to millions of users, seven months after it clamped down on the social media site when it deleted a post by the president.Twitter was restored on Nigerian networks after midnight for the first time since June, with the government saying the company had agreed to its conditions on the management of unlawful content, to register its operations in Nigeria and to a new tax arrangement. Continue reading...

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?More mysterious than the riddle of the Sphinx: the mystery of how this increasingly ridiculous quiz keeps getting published. Ahead of you are 15 topical and general knowledge question in a bizarre set of categories including “Blowing things up, but at sea”. You’ll also meet Kate Bush, Ron from Sparks, and have a hidden Doctor Who reference to spot. It is just for fun, there are no prizes. Let us know how you get on in the comments – but do try not to take it so seriously that you end up fact-checking the jokes.The Thursday quiz, No 38If you do think there has been an egregious error in one of the questions or answers, please feel free to email martin.belam@theguardian.com but remember, the quiz master’s word is always final, and he is seething about people relentlessly banging on about the completely made up January “Blue Monday”. Continue reading...

At just 17, the schoolgirl began a campaign to ensure every school offered free sanitary products. Now 22, she talks about tackling stigma, her new book and her fears about the UK’s new police billAmika George, 22, didn’t set out to be an activist. “None of my immediate family were involved in formal politics in any way,” she says. And yet, while still a teenager, she ran the successful Free Periods campaign that led to free sanitary products being placed in schools and now she has a book, Make It Happen, about how to get involved in politics from the grassroots.Featuring prominent voices from Arundhati Roy to the Egyptian writer and radical Wael Ghomin, its worldview is that there is an infinite possibility for change, situated in the hands of every one of us. In other words, it is a remix of Hannah Arendt with a sunnier chorus. So I am surprised when I speak to her, not just by her hinterland but by her manner. I was expecting a punchy, studs-first Marxist; instead I find a quietly spoken, very thoughtful committed Christian, who is constantly challenging, often playful but always with serious intent. Continue reading...

Footage of parishioners revelling at church’s annual youth camp sparks anger at religious groups’ exemption from Covid restrictions

The Trinidadian-British stage actor – and star of Death in Paradise and Rising Damp – pays tribute to a Black Hollywood pioneerWhen I was in my late 30s, someone came up to me in the street and started talking to me as if I were Sidney Poitier. To the extent that they called me “Sidney”. I said: “I’m sorry – my name is Don.” And they looked at me and said: “Oh Sidney, when did you change your name?” They simply would not accept I was somebody else.Even if you didn’t model yourself after Poitier, other people would. He was just the go-to reference. I’ve yet to meet a Black actor who hasn’t been compared to him – which is both irritating and enjoyable. And says more about the one making the comparison. Continue reading...

Mohamed al-Amin’s alleged victims, all teenage girls, said he abused them in an orphanage he owned and in his holiday homeAn Egyptian media tycoon with close ties to the government has been detained pending an investigation into allegations of sexual assault. The Egyptian public prosecution service says it is investigating reports that businessman Mohamed al-Amin sexually abused girls living in an orphanage that he owned and took them on trips to his holiday villa.Amin, best known for establishing the pro-government CBC network in 2011, was arrested on Friday to be held for four days. The court decided to extend Amin’s pre-trial detention for a further 15 days in a hearing on Sunday where he told the court: “I never did anything wrong. I treated those girls like my own children.” Continue reading...

At a summer camp for kids from conflict zones, I met my brave, funny friend Aseel. He was Palestinian. I was Israeli. When he was killed by police, my hope for our future died with himOn 11 May 2021, I was sitting with a small group in a cafe in southern Tel Aviv, studying Arabic. Our teacher, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, had been telling us that he and his pregnant Jewish wife kept getting turned down by landlords who would not rent their property to a “mixed” couple. We were almost at the end of the three-hour class when air raid sirens sounded. A few days earlier, missiles had been launched from Gaza into Israel, but this was the first time they had hit Tel Aviv. Beyond the fear of an airstrike, I had a sad, heavy feeling. I had recently returned to live in Israel after 15 years studying and working abroad. I remembered a time, in the mid-1990s, when I had believed that Israel was going to be different, more just and less violent. That belief now felt like a distant memory.My faith in Israel’s future had been inspired by an experience I shared as a teenager with a group of extraordinary people. As we waited for the rocket fire to stop, I recalled one of those people in vivid detail, a person I have barely been able to talk about in my home country for more than 20 years. His name was Aseel Aslih. Continue reading...

There are 7,000 Buy Nothing groups with more than 5 million members worldwide. But their appeal goes beyond the chance to swap everything from nettles to power toolsWho on earth wants fish tank wastewater, chicken poo, tumble-dryer lint, loo roll tubes, “a plaster mould of a Komodo dragon’s foot” or half a broken toilet? No one, you might think, but the Buy Nothing community begs to differ: these are all real “gifts” snapped up by more than 5 million members worldwide, who give away their unwanted items in the local community. It’s living proof that “one person’s trash is another’s treasure”, as Alisa Miller, the administrator of the Blackheath/Charlton/Lewisham group puts it.Miller offered her daughter’s broken toy birdcage with little hope anyone would want it; it was snapped up by a local flower-arranging enthusiast, and filled with succulents and trailing plants. Her co-administrator’s son is the current custodian of a toy helicopter that has been played with by five Buy Nothing families to date. Members ask for what they want and usually get it: anything from household appliances, furniture and gardening tools to clothes and baby gear. Continue reading...

After independence in 1960, the country cast off western influences and forged a new African style full of triangular forms, rocket-shaped obelisks and rammed earth. Is this spirit now being suffocated? Our writer takes a tour of the capitalVisiting the International Fair of Dakar is like taking a stroll through the ruins of some ancient Toblerone-worshipping civilisation. A cluster of triangular pavilions rises from a podium, each clad in a rich pattern of seashells and pebbles. These are reached by triangular steps that lead past triangular plant pots to momentous triangular entranceways. All around, great hangar-like sheds extend into the distance, ventilated by triangular windows and topped with serrated triangular roofs. All that’s missing is triangular honey from triangular bees.Built on the outskirts of the Senegalese capital as a showcase for global trade in 1974, this astonishing city-sized hymn to the three-sided shape was designed by young French architects Jean Francois Lamoureux, Jean-Louis Marin and Fernand Bonamy. Their obsessive geometrical composition was an attempt to answer the call of Senegal’s first president, the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, for a national style that he curiously termed “asymmetrical parallelism”. Continue reading...

Rejection of men’s claims was against UK guidance not to force returns to Afghanistan and YemenThe Home Office has told asylum seekers from some of the world’s biggest conflict zones that it is safe for them to return there, the Guardian has learned.A 36-year-old from Yemen and a 21-year-old from Afghanistan have both had their asylum claims rejected by government officials on the basis that they would not be at risk in their home countries. Continue reading...

Mercury in Roebourne hits new high, according to the bureau of meteorology, as a severe weather warning issued in the state’s far-northParts of Western Australia’s Pilbara region have sweltered through their hottest day on record with the temperature hitting 50C.The mercury in Roebourne soared to its new high just before 12.30pm on Thursday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Continue reading...

Watchdog’s latest report argues autocrats around the world are getting desperate as opponents form coalitions to challenge themIncreasingly repressive and violent acts against civilian protests by autocratic leaders and military regimes around the world are signs of their desperation and weakening grip on power, Human Rights Watch says in its annual assessment of human rights across the globe.In its world report 2022, the human rights organisation said autocratic leaders faced a significant backlash in 2021, with millions of people risking their lives to take to the streets to challenge regimes’ authority and demand democracy. Continue reading...

Amid the derision, supportive papers try to rally around the PM but report that ‘ambitious’ Rishi Sunak is waiting in the wingsThe newspaper front pages have piled the pressure on Boris Johnson as the prime minister fights for his political life over the scandal of the “bring your own booze” lockdown-era party at Downing Street.The Mirror’s banner headline on Thursday is “Disgrace”, set below a picture of Johnson giving his humiliating apology to the Commons for “not realising” the event in the back garden of 10 Downing Street on 20 May 2020 was a party. Continue reading...

Zane Wedding said he initially thought the problem was just water in his ear and later gave the insect to the ear specialist as a mementoA New Zealand man has had a cockroach pulled from his ear three days after first feeling a squirming sensation.Zane Wedding said he initially thought the problem was just water in his ear. The Aucklander had been for a swim at a local pool on Friday morning and fell asleep on his couch that evening. He woke up with a blocked ear – and the feeling there was something wriggling inside. Continue reading...

FDA head Janet Woodcock says most people will become infected, while Fauci says variant will ‘ultimately find just about everybody’Federal health authorities in America have said the Omicron Covid-19 variant is so contagious it is likely most people in the US will be infected, and compared the pandemic to a “natural disaster”.Authorities said even as Omicron shatters records for new cases, they are hopeful the surge will quickly subside, and said the US needs to focus on ensuring hospital systems do not collapse amid the surge. Continue reading...

William Wragg says Boris Johnson is damaging reputation of party as Douglas Ross calls for him to stand down after prime minister admits attending party

Legal experts say Duke of York has ‘no good options left’ given risks of giving evidence in court or settlingPrince Andrew faces the prospect of giving evidence in a high-profile trial after a New York judge refused to throw out a civil case over allegations he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 years old.Legal experts said the Duke of York has “no good options left” after he failed to have Giuffre’s case against him dismissed, with Manhattan federal court judge Lewis Kaplan rejecting his motion “in all respects”. Continue reading...

PC Daniel Wallwork dismissed without notice for gross misconduct over incident in April 2020A police officer has been sacked after he took a photograph of a dead woman lying face down and partially clothed on a bed and sent it to a colleague.PC Daniel Wallwork of Avon and Somerset police sent the image from his personal phone with the words “look who’s turned up dead” from the scene of the sudden death at around 7pm on 16 April 2020. Continue reading...

Civil claim against duke by longtime accuser Virginia Giuffre can move forward, federal judge rules in New York

If the ethnicity or gender of the character drives the role then that ethnicity should be prioritised, writes Maureen LipmanThank our mutual god for the intelligence and eloquence of David Baddiel (‘Why don’t Jews play Jews?’ – David Baddiel on the row over Helen Mirren as Golda Meir, 12 January). But may I take issue with the Guardian on one point? I did not attack Dame Helen Mirren (Maureen Lipman attacks casting of Helen Mirren as former Israeli PM Golda Meir, 12 January). I was asked by a reporter for my opinion in a continuing debate. (I don’t tend to charge out of the house to Speaker’s Corner with a loud-hailer and a dustbin lid.)My opinion was that if the ethnicity or gender of the character drives the role then that ethnicity should be prioritised, as it is now with other minorities. Continue reading...

Opposition figure shot and a soldier killed with an explosive device in a separate attacks in the regionA prominent opposition figure and a soldier have been killed in separate attacks in Cameroon’s restive anglophone regions, intensifying security concerns as the country hosts the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament.Henry Kemende, a senator for the Social Democratic Front party, was shot dead in Bamenda city in the north-west region. His party, who blamed separatist fighters for the attack, said gunmen forced him from his car and shot him in the chest. Continue reading...

Wang went for dinner at date’s house in Zhengzhou when Covid forced thousands into quarantine

Armed police stationed outside property where armed man has been holed up with his son since SundayA police standoff with an armed man who has barricaded himself in his home with his eight-year-old son has entered its fourth day, forcing local businesses and a school to stay shut and locking down neighbouring households.A 41-year-old man, who police say has weapons, is refusing to leave his ground floor flat in Earlsdon, Coventry, where he has been holed up with his son since the early hours of Sunday. Continue reading...

It wouldn’t be Guardian Australia ‘best of’ series without a bird episode! The regent honeyeater is an endangered native Australian songbird, with only a few hundred left in the wild. A few years ago scientists noticed something odd – they were mimicking other birds, and unable to sing their own song. Environment reporter Graham Readfearn and Dr Joy Tripovich explain how this species lost its song, and whether teaching it how to sing again could help save it from extinctionYou can also read: Continue reading...

US says it has heard nothing new from Moscow in four hours of talks aiming to defuse crisisNato discussions with Russia have concluded with no sign of progress towards narrowing substantial differences or defusing the crisis over Ukraine, and with the alliance’s secretary general warning “there is a real risk for a new armed conflict in Europe”.After four hours of talks, the US delegation leader, the deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, said she had heard nothing in Brussels that differed from the Kremlin position laid out at bilateral talks in Geneva, demanding a guaranteed end to Nato expansion and a withdrawal of alliance troops in formerly Soviet bloc countries that joined the alliance after 1997. Continue reading...

‘The march is like our Christmas – the biggest night of the year, where women celebrate half naked and anything goes’In San Francisco, the night before the annual Pride parade is reserved for the Dyke March, a celebration of lesbian life throughout the city. It was like our Christmas – the biggest night of the year – and half of us would be so hungover we wouldn’t make it to Pride the next day.I remember getting a call from an editor at On Our Backs, a lesbian magazine run by women that billed itself as offering “entertainment for the adventurous lesbian”. It was a bedrock of the lesbian community – one of the few ways to communicate with one another, and to celebrate sex and educate each other about it at a time when Aids had brought so much devastation to queer communities. The editor wanted me to shoot a kiss-in, but the tone of her voice sounded almost guilty – like she couldn’t quite bring herself to ask me to work on the biggest party night of the year. But to me, it was the most fun I could imagine. Continue reading...

The Sex and the City sequel has taken a while to settle into its new skin. But, despite its many flaws, it is developing new charms of its ownAnd Just Like That did not have the smoothest of landings. The Sex and the City sequel found itself draped in controversy from the moment its return was announced. There would be no Samantha Jones, with the core group reduced to a trio, after Kim Cattrall did not return to the franchise. (Was she invited? Did she decline? I look forward to an inevitable Ryan Murphy dramatisation of events – Feud: Cosmos and Cupcakes.) The films had been middling, then terrible, then a third thankfully ditched before it got too far. Could a series that was built on being so brassy and brash survive in the tetchy 2020s?Then it finally arrived, and the drama rolled on. The big twist, or the Big twist, at the end of episode one was briefly a moment, controversial largely for the fact that instead of weeping and hugging her still-conscious husband as he had a heart attack, Carrie might have considered calling an ambulance instead. To think that the reputation of Peloton was the main topic of conversation. Shortly after it aired, allegations of sexual assault were made against Chris Noth by multiple women. He issued a denial, but his co-stars published a message of support for his accusers, and a rumoured cameo at the end of the season was reportedly scrapped. Continue reading...

Ex-Syrian intelligence official Anwar Raslan is charged with crimes against humanity, rape and murderA German court is expected to issue a verdict against a former Syrian intelligence official accused of overseeing the murder of 58 people and the torture of thousands of others, in a landmark case expected to declare the actions of the Assad regime over the last decade a crime against humanity for the first time.The verdict against Anwar Raslan, a former colonel loyal to the regime who later defected and fled Syria, is both a highly symbolic moment for the Syrian opposition in exile and a potential risk for those seeking to bring more war criminals to justice in the future, some of whom say a harsh sentence could discourage other defectors from talking openly to authorities. Continue reading...

Minister says proposed law would allow for release of information regardless of parents’ wishesIreland will allow adopted people automatic access to their birth records for the first time under new laws the government hopes will end a “historic wrong”, including for thousands sent for adoption in secret by Catholic institutions.International laws say all children should be able to establish their identity but tens of thousands of adopted people in Ireland have no automatic right to their birth records or access to tracing services. Continue reading...

Interior minister says armed guards and metal detectors make visitors feel like terroristsThe Czech Republic’s new coalition government is on a collision course with the country’s populist president after it vowed to end controversial security arrangements at Prague’s historic castle, established supposedly to prevent terror attacks.Vít Rakušan, the interior minister, said he would ask police and security services to review measures in place at the 70,000 sq metre complex, which is the country’s most visited tourist attraction, and also the official residence of the Czech president, Miloš Zeman. Continue reading...

EU leaders warn of consequences in response to further aggression against UkraineAfter months of sabre-rattling from Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, Russian officials have been on a diplomatic tour of Europe this week, meeting the US in Geneva and Nato in Brussels. Amid this diplomatic whirl, Europe’s biggest diplomatic club has been absent. The EU has no formal role in the talks, although its officials are drawing up possible sanctions to levy against Russia if the Kremlin decides to invade Ukraine.The EU’s exclusion from talks on war and peace in its own backyard hurts. “Between Putin and Biden, Europe is sidelined,” ran a Le Monde headline last week. The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell,struck an insouciant note. “I don’t care,” he said when the BBC asked whether the US should have gone ahead with the Geneva talks. The Russians, he said, had “deliberately excluded the EU from any participation” but he had been assured by the US that “nothing will be agreed without our strong co-operation, coordination and participation”. Continue reading...

Alfred Hitchcock described his third film, The Lodger, as the true beginning of his directorial career but it would prove a near fatal screen debut for its leading light June TrippDecember 1925 was a busy month for June. A fixture of the West End stage since childhood, her surname, Tripp, had been excised by the impresario Charles B Cochran because it “sounds a bit comical for a dancer”. She spent the days rehearsing for a musical, Kid Boots, the evenings starring in another, Mercenary Mary, and then would “rush to the studio at midnight”, to act in a horse-racing short film opposite the fading American film star Carlyle Blackwell. The studio was at Poole Street, Islington, in north London, built five years earlier by Paramount but now rented out, most often to a British company, Gainsborough, run by Michael Balcon.The short, Riding for a King, starred the celebrated jockey Steve Donoghue and had its premiere in January 1926, with June in attendance. Two days later, she collapsed during a performance of Mercenary Mary and shortly after underwent an appendectomy. Daily Express readers subsequently learned that she would “not be able to dance for six months”. By February, she was recuperating on the Riviera. It was there that she received a telegram from her old friend Ivor Novello, who offered film work. “No dancing required. You will act beautifully and we shall have fun.” Continue reading...

The deadly attacks come as Joe Biden raised concerns about recent airstrikes with Ethiopian PMNineteen people have been killed in drone strikes in Ethiopia’s Tigray, in the latest reported attacks in the war-stricken region.In the deadliest strike on Monday in the southern Tigray town of Mai Tsebri, 17 people working at a flour mill were killed, said one of the humanitarian workers, citing witness accounts. Continue reading...

Doncaster teenager not seen again after his image was captured on Kings Cross station CCTVDetectives investigating the disappearance of a teenage boy from South Yorkshire 14 years ago have arrested two men, aged 45 and 38, on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking.Andrew Gosden was 14 when he left his home in Doncaster on a Friday morning, emptied his bank account of almost £200 and bought a one-way ticket to London. He was last captured on CCTV emerging from Kings Cross station. Continue reading...

Kärcher asserts political neutrality as presidential hopeful calls for pressure-washing criminals out of suburbsOne of the world’s leading makers of pressure washers and steam cleaners has formally asked French politicians not to use its name to score political points.Kärcher, a German family-owned company, issued a statement on Tuesday objecting to rightwing presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse taking its brand in vain. It is the latest of several similar complaints it has issued in recent years. Continue reading...