China :: World

An Iranian man convicted of throwing acid in the face of a female student who was to have been blinded himself on Sunday in retribution was pardoned by his victim, state-run television said. "With the request of Ameneh Bahrami, the acid attack victim, Majid (Movahedi) who was sentenced for 'qesas' ('eye for an eye'-style justice) was pardoned at the last minute" after she decided to forgo her right, it said. Movahedi was sentenced in February 2009 to be blinded in both eyes after being convicted of hurling acid in the face of university classmate Bahrami when she repeatedly spurned his offer of marriage. The court-ordered blinding of Movahedi was postponed in mid-May, with no official reason given. Bahrami told the ISNA news agency she pardoned her attacker because "God talks about 'qesas' in the Quran but he also recommends pardon since pardon is greater than 'qesas'". "I struggled for seven years for this verdict to prove to pe

Obama says a deal has been reached with Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders and urged members of Congress to get behind the proposed legislation Barack Obama declared on Sunday he had reached agreement with Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders aimed at ending the US debt deadlock that has threatened to throw the US and world economy into chaos. However, in an address from the White House, he added cautiously, "We are not done yet." Although the Senate is almost certain to pass it, the vote in the House could be a nailbiter, facing opposition from both hardline Republicans and disenchanted, left-wing Democrats who feel Obama has conceded too much. Obama urged members of Congress to get behind the proposed legislation, which will raise the country's debt ceiling and cut federal spending. With time fast running out, Congress may have left it too late to meet the Tuesday deadline set by the Treasury for raising the debt ceiling above its current $14.3tn

Minister taunts Labour over election argument, claiming Conservatives' efficiency target exceeded by 500m The government has achieved 3.75bn in savings over the 10 months from the election in May 2010 to this March, leading the cabinet office minister Francis Maude to muse on what his Labour predecessors, including Ed Miliband, "had been doing in this office before me". The savings have been vetted by the government's auditors, and are what Maude described as "the low-hanging fruit" before further, significant savings are made in coming years. Maude said that the bulk of the cash had come from cutting waste, and not from cutting services. The Conservative claim that savings could finance cuts in national insurance was one of the chief battlegrounds of the last election. Maude said that his figures showed the Conservatives had been proved right. The Tories wrong-footed Labour in the campaign by gathering business support to endorse the efficiency savings and

Activists describe massacre in central city of Hama after armoured units break through barricades to crush protests Syria's uprising faced one of its defining moments when President Bashar al-Assad followed in his father's footsteps and sent in tanks to crush protests in the central city of Hama, killing up to 100 people and triggering a new wave of international outrage. The National Organisation for Human Rights said that in total 136 people had been killed in Hama and three other towns. Activists described a massacre after armoured units ended a month-long siege to smash through makeshift barricades around the city just after dawn on the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. International media are still largely banned from Syria but citizen journalists ensured that the scale and brutality of the crackdown was visible to the outside world. Video clips posed on YouTube showed unarmed civilians taking cover from shelling and heavy machine-gun fire as hospitals struggle

Minister taunts Labour over election argument, claiming Conservatives' efficiency target exceeded by 500m The government has achieved 3.75bn in savings over the 10 months from the election in May 2010 to this March, leading the cabinet office minister Francis Maude to muse on what his Labour predecessors, including Ed Miliband, "had been doing in this office before me". The savings have been vetted by the government's auditors, and are what Maude described as "the low-hanging fruit" before further, significant savings are made in coming years. Maude said that the bulk of the cash had come from cutting waste, and not from cutting services. The Conservative claim that savings could finance cuts in national insurance was one of the chief battlegrounds of the last election. Maude said that his figures showed the Conservatives had been proved right. The Tories wrong-footed Labour in the campaign by gathering business support to endorse the efficiency savings and

Divisions deepen over killing of Abdul Fatah Younis, while forces elsewhere report gains in Misrata and Nafusa mountains Fears of a fracturing of Libya's opposition heightened after units loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council stormed the base of what it said was a renegade unit in the rebel capital, Benghazi. Four fighters were killed and six wounded in the attack on the al-Nidaa Brigade, blamed for Thursday's assassination of army commander Abdel Fatah Younis. NTC spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said the attack was ordered two days after the brigade, which officials claim is Islamist, attacked two Benghazi jails, freeing more than 200 inmates. "We consider them members of the fifth column,." One unverified rumour in Benghazi is that the al-Nidaa brigade received secret coded orders communicated through an announcer, Yusef Shakir, on Muammar Gaddafi's state television. Three state TV transmitters were bombed by Nato on Saturday night. Gaddafi's regime c

Activists describe massacre in central city of Hama after armoured units break through barricades to crush protests Syria's uprising faced one of its defining moments when President Bashar al-Assad followed in his father's footsteps and sent in tanks to crush protests in the central city of Hama, killing up to 100 people and triggering a new wave of international outrage. The National Organisation for Human Rights said in total 136 people had been killed in Hama and three other towns. Activists described a massacre after armoured units ended a month-long siege to smash through makeshift barricades around the city just after dawn on the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. International media are still largely banned from Syria but citizen journalists ensured that the scale and brutality of the crackdown was visible to the outside world. Video clips posed on YouTube showed unarmed civilians taking cover from shelling and heavy machine-gun fire as hospitals struggled to

With Greece in financial meltdown and the country rocked by protests we offer a beginner's guide to the crisis Among the chic bars along Thessaloniki's historic waterfront, one restaurant stands out. "We want our money!" reads a banner dangling from the terrace of an American-themed diner and grill. Inside, 12 staff have changed the locks, are serving cans of supermarket beer to supporters and taking it in turns to sleep nights on the restaurant floor in protest at months of unpaid wages and the restaurant's sudden closure. This is the new symbol of Greece's spiralling debt crisis: a waiters' squat. Margarita Koutalaki, 37, a softly spoken waitress, divorced with an 11-year-old daughter, worked here part-time for eight years, earning about 6.50 (5.70) an hour. Now she is taking turns to sleep on an inflatable mattress in an upstairs room, guarding the squat, while her parents babysit her child. "I'm owed about 3,000 in unpaid wages," she says

Lib Dem Treasury minister joins Vince Cable in attacking Tories' proposed tax cuts for the rich as coalition tensions show The former chancellor Lord Lamont and other Conservatives calling for the scrapping of the 50p top rate of tax are living in "cloud cuckoo land", the Liberal Democrat Treasury minister Danny Alexander has said. In a fresh sign of tensions between the coalition parties, Alexander and his Lib Dem colleague Vince Cable, the business secretary, said it would be wrong to focus tax cuts on the rich while the British economy is struggling to grow. "The idea that we're going to somehow shift our focus to the wealthiest in the country at a time when everyone's under pressure is just in cloud cuckoo land," the chief secretary to the Treasury told the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1. Cable told the Independent on Sunday: "It would be politically inconceivable for government to take some of the tax pressure off high earners at a time when people o

Minister taunts Labour over election argument, claiming Conservatives' efficiency target exceeded by 500m The government has achieved 3.75bn in savings over the 10 months from the election in May 2010 to this March, leading the cabinet office minister Francis Maude to muse on what his Labour predecessors, including Ed Miliband, "had been doing in this office before me". The savings have been vetted by the National Audit Office, and are what Maude described as "the low hanging fruit" before further very significant savings were made in coming years.Maude said that the bulk of the cash had come from cutting waste, and not from cutting services. The Conservative claim that savings could finance cuts in national insurance was one of the chief battlegrounds of the last election. Maude said that his figures showed the Conservatives had been proved right. The Tories wrong-footed Labour in the campaign by gathering business support to endorse the efficiency savings and

Design Council chief celebrates Prince Charles' lack of involvement as traditionalists complain about 'overt prejudice' A new skirmish in a long-running and often bitterly fought architectural "style war" between modernists and traditionalists has broken out over the stadiums and arenas of the London Olympics park. Prince Charles's favourite architects have accused the head of England's national architectural review body of "overt prejudice" after he made a barbed attack on the heir to the throne's love of traditional buildings, and heaped praise on the resolutely modernist designs that will be beamed around the world as the backdrop to next summer's games. Paul Finch, chairman of the Design Council Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the government-funded design watchdog that vets major planning applications with the help of government funding, applauded the selection of Zaha Hadid, the avant garde Iraqi-born architect

Demonstrations in 12 cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa prompt Binyamin Netanyahu to consider cancelling parliamentary recess Up to 150,000 protesters took to the streets in cities across Israel on Saturday night in the biggest demonstrations the country has seen in decades to demand action on rising house prices and rents, low salaries, the high cost of raising children and other social issues. The demonstrations, held in 12 cities including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, marked the high point of a popular protest movement that has gathered momentum over the past two weeks and shows no signs of letting up in its demands for "social justice". Activist Daphni Leef, who initiated the first "tent village" protest in Tel Aviv against housing prices two weeks ago, told a crowd of 70,000-100,000 Israelis gathered outside the city's main art museum that "we don't want to replace the government, but to do more than that. We want to change the rules of the game

Captain accused of being drunk as tragedy follows recent Volga river sinking that killed 122 At least eight people drowned when an overcrowded pleasure boat collided with a barge on Moscow's Moskva river. Seven people were rescued in the sinking early on Sunday morning in central Moscow, which came three weeks after a decrepit overcrowded pleasure boat sank in the Volga river, killing 122 of the 201 people on board. Revellers had gathered on the small boat, called the Lastochka, to celebrate the 31st birthday of a Turkish citizen, according to news reports. Survivors said the owner's ship and captain, who died in the sinking, had been drinking. "Rescued passengers say the captain, Gennady Zinger, was drunk and didn't let anyone steer the boat," Pavel Seliverstov, the head of Moscow's investigative committee on transport, told the tabloid Life News. Witnesses said the ship was manoeuvring wildly on the river. It sank at about 1am after crashing into a barge. Vl

Official inquiry into Iraq war expected to focus on former PM's failure to consult cabinet fully in run-up to invasion Tony Blair is likely to be criticised heavily by the official inquiry into the Iraq war, which is expected to focus on his failure to consult the cabinet fully in the run-up to the 2003 invasion. The Mail on Sunday reports today that Sir John Chilcot, the former permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office who is chairing the inquiry, has identified a series of concerns. These include: Failing to keep cabinet ministers fully informed of Blair's plans in the run-up to the invasion in March 2003. The committee is understood to have been impressed by the criticism voiced by Lord Butler of Brockwell, the former cabinet secretary, that Blair ran a sofa government. Failing to make proper preparations for the post-war reconstruction of Iraq. Failing to present intelligence in a proper way. In his inquiry into the use of intelligence, published in July 2004,

Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts Press refresh or hit the auto-update for the latest Follow Rob Smyth on Twitter , if that's your thing 20th over: England 57-2 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Bell 32, Pietersen 0) This is the partnership. With Morgan out of nick, India will be really confident if they can pick one of these up in the next half an hour. Sreesanth's first ball to Pietersen is a beauty that seams past the outside edge. "He's ticking" says Bumble on Sky. Sreesanth has suddenly gone up a level, and Pietersen has to dig out a yorker later in the over. An outstanding wicket maiden. " Now THIS is an impressive surname without vowels !" says Ryan Dunne. WICKET! England 57-2 (Strauss c Dhoni b Sreesanth 16) Strauss has gone. It was a fairly gentle dismissal really, a defensive push outside off stump and a thin edge to Dhoni. The ball didn't do much, but the line was good and he probably had to play. Actually, looking at

Republicans say they are confident a deal to raise the US debt ceiling can be reached as last-minute talks continue The White House and Republican leaders in Congress have made significant progress toward a deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avert a potentially catastrophic default, according to officials familiar with the talks. Under a plan negotiated late on Saturday night, the ceiling would be raised in two steps by about $2.4tn (1.5tn) and spending would be cut by a slightly larger amount, the officials said. The first stage to raise the ceiling by about $1tn would take place immediately and the second later in the year. Congress would be required to vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, but none of the debt limit increase would be contingent on its approval. President Barack Obama is seeking legislation to raise the government's $14.3tn debt limit by enough to tide the US treasury over until after the 2012 elections. He has threatened to veto any propo

Libyan rebels say the gunmen who shot dead their military chief were militiamen allied in their struggle to overthrow Muammar Gadhafi, raising questions over divisions and lawlessness within rebel ranks. The assassination of Abdel Fattah Younes, apparently by his own side, has hurt the opposition just as it was winning broader international recognition and launching an offensive against Gadhafi's forces in the Western Mountains. After 24 hours of confusion, rebel minister Ali Tarhouni said Younes had been killed by fighters who went to fetch him from the front and his bullet-riddled and partially burnt body was found at ranch near the rebel capital of Benghazi. Tarhouni said a militia leader had been arrested and had confessed his subordinates had carried out the killing. "It was not him. His lieutenants did it," Tarhouni told reporters late on Friday, adding the killers were at large. Younes had been part of Gadhafi's inner circle since the 1969 coup that brought the