Quantcast
Channel: World news | The Guardian
Viewing all 98599 articles
Browse latest View live

Battle to lead ANC and set South Africa's future course too close to call

0
0

African National Congress begins voting between party’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkoszana Dlamini-Zuma

The battle to lead South Africa’s ruling party remains on a knife edge as almost 5,000 delegates began voting in an election that is likely to determine the country’s next president and the trajectory of the “rainbow nation” for decades to come.

On the third day of the African National Congress’s 54th elective conference, the deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, appeared to holda slight advantage over his rival Nkoszana Dlamini-Zuma, a veteran minister and party stalwart.

Continue reading...

Lead singer of South Korean boy band Shinee dies

0
0

News reports say Kim Jong-hyun, 27, was unconscious when taken to hospital and suggest cause of death was suicide

Kim Jong-hyun, the lead singer of the hugely popular and influential South Korean boy band Shinee, has died at the age of 27.

The star, better known as Jonghyun, was found unconscious at his home in Seoul on Monday evening in an an apparent suicide, South Korean media reported.

Continue reading...

Uber driver confesses to killing British diplomat in Beirut, says source

0
0

Lebanese driver named as Tariq H arrested on Monday after body of Rebecca Dykes was found by a motorway over weekend

A Lebanese Uber driver has confessed to killing a British diplomat in Beirut, a judicial source has told the Guardian.

The body of Rebecca Dykes was found on the side of a motorway in the early hours of Saturday morning. Local police suggested she had been strangled.

Continue reading...

Merkel to meet Berlin attack survivors as anniversary puts failings in focus

0
0

Relatives of those killed in truck attack on Christmas market have accused chancellor of failing to acknowledge their suffering

Angela Merkel is to meet bereaved relatives and survivors of last year’s Berlin Christmas market attack for the first time, two weeks after they sent her an angry letter accusing her of political inaction and failing to acknowledge their suffering.

The German chancellor will meet the group in her office in Berlin on Monday, a day before the anniversary of the attack.

Continue reading...

Protests in Vienna as far-right ministers enter Austria's government

Jonghyun, lead singer of K-pop band Shinee, dies at 27 – video obituary

US vetos ‘insulting’ UN vote over status of Jerusalem – video

Aerial footage shows aftermath of deadly Amtrack derailment near Seattle - video


'There was a lot of metal, a lot of screeching,' says Amtrak crash survivor – video

0
0

Survivors recount their experiences after an Amtrak train travelling for the first time on a new high-speed route derailed in Washington state on Monday. At least three people were killed and more than 70 have been taken to hospital after a number of train cars flew off an overpass on to a busy highway. The train was going at 80mph in a 30mph zone, a federal safety official said

Continue reading...

Can Ramaphosa unite ANC and give South Africans new hope?

0
0

The problems facing new leader extend well beyond the rehabilitation of a divided and increasingly unpopular party

Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected leader of South Africa’s ANC on Monday, faces many challenges. As he will almost certainly become president of South Africa after polls scheduled in 2019, the problems extend well beyond the rehabilitation of a divided and increasingly unpopular party.

Twenty-three years after the end of the racist, repressive apartheid regime, South Africa remains a country with enormous resources and great wealth but also massive inequality and deep poverty.

Continue reading...

Public death sentences for 10 people show China's desperation

0
0

Negative public reaction could prompt Beijing to try to rein in practice of delivering death sentences in public

A public trial in a Chinese sports stadium at which 10 people were sentenced to death shows the desperation of government officials, experts have said, as negative reaction spread online.

Thousands – including children in their school uniforms – crowded into a stadium at the weekend to watch 10 people be sentenced in a public trial in Lufeng, southern China. The accused were then immediately taken away and executed.

Continue reading...

'Illegal and primitive': Pakistan expels foreign aid groups in droves

0
0

Warnings of negative impact on ordinary people and damage to Pakistan’s international standing as 29 organisations are given two months to leave

The Pakistani government has ordered a number of foreign charities and rights groups to close down their operations and leave the country by the end of January.

Over the past few days, the interior ministry has sent letters to 29 major international non-government organisations (INGOs), including Action Aid and Marie Stopes, telling them to shut their offices and leave within 60 days.

Continue reading...

'Damning': Theresa May under fire as anti-slavery scheme branded a failure

0
0

Prime minister pilloried over inability to translate ‘warm words’ into action as report questions clarity, scope and impact of Modern Slavery Act

MPs and rights groups have criticised Theresa May’s flagship strategy to tackle modern slavery, after a damning report by the public spending watchdog found it had failed victims.

A National Audit Office report said the Home Office had limited means of tracking the strategy’s progress, an “incomplete picture” of the crime, victims and perpetrators, and that prosecution rates last year remained “very low”.

Continue reading...

'Everything was clouded by Trump in 2017': a challenging year for poor nations – podcast

0
0

Lucy Lamble looks back over 12 months of critical changes for developing countries, dominated by the devastating effects of the ‘global gag rule’

One of the biggest events affecting the world’s poorest people this year was President Trump’s reinstatement of the global gag rule, which is set to wipe $8.8bn (£6.6bn) off funding for healthcare around the world. There were also elections in Africa and changes that saw long-standing rulers shown the door; humanitarian crises in Myanmar, South Sudan and other countries, where millions fled their homes; and hurricanes that devastated Caribbean islands.

Lucy Lamble is joined to discuss these and other events by Jason Burke, the Guardian’s Africa correspondent, and Liz Ford, deputy editor for Global development.

Continue reading...

Coalition's $2.2bn education cut unfairly targets the poor, universities say

0
0

Regional universities say decision will ‘freeze’ participation rates for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds

Regional universities catering to disadvantaged students have hit out at the government’s decision to effectively end the demand-driven funding system in higher education, saying the policy unfairly targets those with a larger low socioeconomic cohort.

On Monday the federal government announced that it would cut $2.2bn from university funding through a two-year freeze in commonwealth grants funding.

Continue reading...

Bitcoin not a threat to financial stability, say European economists

0
0

Survey of 50 academics reveals majority are not worried about risks posed to mainstream markets

Bitcoin poses no threat to financial stability and is unlikely to rattle mainstream markets in the next couple of years, a group of leading European economists have said.

According to a survey of almost 50 academics from universities across Europe by the Centre for Macroeconomics and the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the majority are sanguine about the risks posed by the digital currency despite repeated warnings by senior financiers.

Continue reading...

Animatronic figure of Donald Trump joins Disney's Hall of Presidents

Oscar Pistorius to appeal against increased murder sentence

0
0

South African athlete is serving 13 years and five months for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, in 2013

Oscar Pistorius will appeal against his increased prison sentence of 13 years and five months at South Africa’s constitutional court, documents show.

South Africa’s supreme court of appeal (SCA) more than doubled his murder sentence last month, accepting prosecutors’ arguments that the original term of six years for shooting dead his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, was “shockingly lenient”.

Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia 'shoots down Houthi missile close to Riyadh'

0
0

Yemeni rebels say they fired ballistic missile towards a royal palace in the Saudi capital amid claims they are being armed by Iran

Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed to have fired a ballistic missile towards the Saudi king’s official residence in Riyadh, which Saudi media said was intercepted south of the capital.

Mohammad Abdulsalam, a spokesman for the Houthis controlling the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, said on Twitter that the missile was launched towards al-Yamama palace. The Saudi-owned television network Al Arabiya reported on its Arabic language website later on Tuesday that the rocket had been shot down.

Continue reading...

Where do the Brexit negotiations stand at the end of phase one?

0
0

European leaders confirmed at a summit today that agreement had been reached on the first phase of Brexit negotiations. How did we get here, and what remains to be settled in phase two?

Continue reading...
Viewing all 98599 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images