The BBC presenter Carrie Gracie has said she could not collude in unlawful pay discrimination after resigning as the corporation’s China editor in protest at unequal remuneration. In her first full interview since leaving the post, Gracie said she was offered a 33% pay increase but rejected it, claiming she wanted equality, not more money. Speaking on Monday to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Gracie said: “I could not go back to China and collude knowingly in what I consider to be unlawful pay discrimination. Nor could I stay silent and watch the BBC perpetuate a failing pay structure by discriminating against women.”

She confirmed that she first lodged an equal pay complaint in August last year after the BBC was forced to disclose the salaries of employees earning more than £150,000 a year. In a letter to licence fee payers, Gracie said she was dismayed to discover the BBC’s two male international editors earned “at least 50% more” than their two female counterparts.(theguardian)…[+]

India may be on track for a major victory for gay rights after the country’s supreme court agreed to re-examine a colonial-era law outlawing sex between men. The court on Monday said it would refer the question of the validity of section 377 of the Indian penal code to a larger bench for examination before October this year.

Section 377, modelled on a 16th-century British law, bans “carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal”, and is punishable by life imprisonment. About 1,347 cases were registered in 2015, most in regards to alleged sexual offences against children. The supreme court observed in 2013 that fewer than 200 people had been convicted for homosexual acts under the legislation but activists say it is regularly used to blackmail and intimidate LBGTI Indians as well as to stymie HIV/Aids prevention efforts.(theguardian)…[+]

The New York fire department responded to a blaze at Trump Tower on Monday morning. News footage showed firefighters on the roof of the skyscraper, at East 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The fire was minor and likely caused by an electrical fault, the fire department told local media, which reported no injuries and no evacuations and said the blaze was reported just before 7am ET. The tower is home to a number of residences and businesses. Donald Trump, who keeps a residence in the tower, was at the White House in Washington DC.(Theguardian)…[+]

Spanish police and soldiers have rescued thousands of people trapped on roads in the centre of the country after heavy snowfall forced them to spend Saturday night in their cars. Hundreds of vehicles were caught in the snow on the AP-6 motorway in Castile and León and north-western parts of the Madrid region as people returned from Epiphany celebrations. Around 70 km (44 miles) of motorway between Madrid and nearby Segovia were affected, with some motorists trapped for up to 18 hours.

More than 150 members of the army’s military emergencies unit (UME) were deployed early on Sunday to help Guardia Civil officers reach stranded motorists. “There are a lot of vehicles trapped on the AP-6 but we’re working bit by bit and kilometre by kilometre to get to all of them as soon as possible,” the UME tweeted. By mid-morning, conditions had improved, making it easier for snowploughs and emergency workers to reach stranded drivers. Members of the Red Cross handed out hot drinks, blankets and high-energy food. The UME said that everyone had been rescued by lunchtime on Sunday and the road was due to be reopened by late afternoon.(theguardian)…[+]

One person died and another was slightly hurt after an explosion outside a metro station in a Stockholm suburb, police said. A man in his 60s died in hospital from his injuries after, according to witnesses, “he picked up an object off the ground which promptly exploded,” Sven-Erik Olsson, a police spokesman, told AFP.

A 45-year-old woman suffered facial injuries, police said. The blast occurred on Sunday morning at Varby Gard station in Huddinge, south of the Swedish capital. Police cordoned off the station and the square where the explosion happened as the bomb squad moved in to investigate. The Expressen and Aftonbladet newspapers said the device was a hand grenade. “It is too early to say. Technicians are still working on it. Nothing indicates that the (injured) couple were targeted,” said Olsson, who added there was nothing to suggest an act of terrorism.(theguardian)…[+]

US-funded projects in the occupied Palestinian territories are facing a sharp backlash amid calls for an organised boycott in reply to Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. A wave of anger since the December announcement has led to protests aimed at halting Palestinian NGOs’ participation in US-funded programmes ranging from clean water deliveries to support for law students, according to officials on both sides.

There have been protests, refusals to meet with US project managers and a rash of requests by groups backed by aid money to seek waivers to remove US-linked branding – including the US flag – from their promotional materials. Among those pushing hardest for a more organised boycott of US-funded projects has been the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) national committee, which issued a statement calling for a boycott of “activities organised or sponsored by US institutions (such as USAid), in Jerusalem and abroad”. Events have been cancelled and offers of assistance rejected: for example, Palestinian law schools pulled out of an international event for which the US consulate had planned to provide plane tickets.(theguardian)…[+]

Students smuggling mobile phones into exam halls were the reason for a sudden rise in the numbers caught cheating during last summer’s GCSE and A-level exams in England, according to official data. The figures also showed that the number of teachers and school staff involved in exam malpractice more than doubled between 2016 and 2017. Ofqual, the exam regulator for England, said the most common category of malpractice was the introduction of “unauthorised materials” into exam venues. “In most cases, this was a mobile phone or other electronic communications device,” it said. Unauthorised materials accounted for half of all students given penalties for cheating, and of those nearly 80% were owing to the use of mobile phones. Plagiarism was the other major category, accounting for 17% of cases, with the majority in computing.

But Ofqual cautioned that the overall number of cheating cases remained low despite the 25% increase. The 2,715 penalties issued to students represent just 0.015% of exam entrants. In 2016, about 2,180 students were caught, a rate of 0.011%. The figures do not include the scandal over the Pre-U exams revealed by the Guardian last year.In most cases students were punished with a reduction of marks or given a warning, but 490 had their grades annulled. Students found with mobile phones were more likely to lose marks.(theguardian)…[+]

Saudi Arabia has taken a key step towards allowing future investors to buy shares in its national oil company, as it prepares for the world’s biggest stock market flotation later this year. Saudi Aramco was recently forced to deny it was planning to shelve plans for its $2tn flotation of 5% of the company, and the new change suggests the planned IPO is still on track. A royal decree published on Friday converted the firm into a joint stock company, meaning it can have more shareholders than its current sole shareholder, the Saudi government.

“This is part of the preparation process for the IPO. You’d expect that to happen,” said a source close to Saudi Aramco. The decree changed the legal status of the oil company from 1 January. The source said the company was doing everything it needed to deliver the IPO for the Saudi government, which has insisted the flotation is on track for the second half of 2018.

There has been intense speculation over where the international listing will take place, with London, New York and Hong Kong in the frame. The UK government had to deny last November that a $2bn loan to the oil company was tied to efforts to woo Saudi Aramco to list in London. The kingdom’s top officials hope to list on New York but the company prefers London, but both may be ruled out because of regulatory obstacles, the Financial Times has reported. “No decision has made on the listing,” a company source told the Guardian.(theguardian)…[+]

Two Ebola survivors are to sue the government of Sierra Leone in the first international court case intended to throw light on what happened to some of the millions of dollars siphoned off from funding to help fight the disease.

The case, filed with the regional west African court in Nigeria, alleges that a lack of government accountability allowed the disappearance of almost a third of the money that came into the country during the early months of the Ebola outbreak in 2014. It claims that this led to violations of survivors’ rights to health and life .

An audit of the first six months of the outbreak showed that more than $15m (£11m) worth of resources donated to the government went unaccounted for – more than 30% of what came into the country over that period. Lara Taylor-Pearce, Sierra Leone’s auditor general, said in an interview with the Africa Research Institute that she felt justice was needed for Sierra Leoneans over the missing millions: “For serious breaches of financial management procedure I would support forcing the individuals responsible to pay back the money. It would send a strong message. But currently this does not happen. People continue to get away with transgressions.”

Sierra Leone recorded more than 14,000 cases of Ebola in two years, and about 250 health workers died. Officials promised survivors free healthcare and a small financial package, while surviving heath workers were told they would receive up to $5,000.(theguardian)…[+]

Prison authorities across Brazil should prepare for further violence after a New Year’s Day riot in which nine prisoners were murdered, according to prosecutors, police and prison guards. The killings at the Colônia Agroindustrial semi-open prison in Goiás state in Brazil’s interior came a year after more than 120 died in a string of prison riots and marked the latest grim chapter in a nationwide struggle between rival drug gangs.

“It is a war, and I believe no side wants to appear weak. That is why it is dangerous,” said detective Myrian Vidal, who runs the organised crime division of Goiás police.

Maxuell das Neves, president of the state’s prison guards union, said there is a “critical situation” at another prison in Anapolis, Goiás. “It could explode at any moment,” he said. Two prison guards were reportedly murdered in the city in recent days. Das Neves said that before Monday’s riot, he had warned authorities of the threat. Four guards were in control of around 800 prisoners when the violence broke out. “It was a predictable tragedy,” he said.(theguardian)…[+]