A lawyer investigating the murder of an Italian student in Egypt is facing prosecution and up to five years in prison after being forcibly disappeared at Cairo airport. Ebrahim Metwally Hegazy disappeared on Sunday while travelling to a session of the UN working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances in Geneva. He reappeared before prosecutors on Tuesday evening charged with “managing an illegal group, spreading false news … [and] cooperating with foreign organisations”.

Metwally represents families of people forcibly disappeared by the Egyptian state – when a person is secretly arrested and held in an unknown location without access to legal services – after his son disappeared in 2013 while working for the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a Cairo-based NGO. ECRF lawyers have acted as the legal counsel of Giulio Regeni’s family in Egypt after the Cambridge University student disappeared on 25 January 2016. His body was found on an outlying Cairo desert road bearing signs of extreme torture. Mohamed Lotfy, the head of ECRF, said: “Ebrahim had intended to speak [at the conference] about his son and deaths in custody following disappearance. He was going to speak about the Regeni case as the iconic example of this.”(theguardian)…[+]

An official watchdog has issued a fresh warning over the police’s use of more than 20m facial images on their searchable databases, more than five years after the courts ruled that the inclusion of images of innocent people was unlawful. Paul Wiles, the biometrics commissioner, says in his annual report that the police’s use of facial images has gone far beyond their original use for custody purposes and forces are using facial recognition software to try to identify individuals in public places.In one recent example, the Metropolitan police used facial imaging to check those attending the Notting Hill carnival against a force watchlist.

“Facial images are just the first in a new wave of biometrics. I am aware that the police are already experimenting with voice recognition technology and others such as iris, gait and vein analysis are commercially available,” says Wiles in his annual report published on Wednesday. He notes that while facial images have been used by the police since the birth of photography, the development of digital images, their storage on a national database, the use of powerful searching algorithms and the deployment of such technologies in public spaces transforms facial images into something new.

Wiles says that unlike DNA and fingerprints, images can be taken without the subject’s knowledge. Facial images of about 90% of the adult population already exist in passports and driving licences.(theguardian)…[+]

Scores of villages that were inhabited by Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority are now completely empty, a government spokesman has said. Of 471 villages targeted in “clearance operations” by the Burmese army since late August, 176 were now empty and at least 34 others partially abandoned, Zaw Htay said. The violent crackdown, launched in response to attacks by militants, has sent at least 370,000 Rohingya scrambling across the border to Bangladesh and prompted a barrage of criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader.The Nobel laureate had been due to attend the UN general assembly next week, but Zaw Htay said she would now skip the event.

“The first reason is because of the Rakhine terrorist attacks,” he said. “The second reason is there are people inciting riots in some areas … The third is that we are hearing that there will be terrorist attacks and we are trying to address this issue.” The second vice-president, Henry Van Tio, instead will represent Myanmar at the UN. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticised for blaming “terrorists” for what she called “a huge iceberg of misinformation” about the violence in recent weeks, will give a televised address in Myanmar next week that will cover the same topics she would have addressed at the UN. Last year, in her first speech to the UN general assembly as Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi won praise for pledging to uphold the rights of minorities.(theguardian)…[+]

Air Berlin has been forced to cancel about 100 flights after an “unusually high number” of pilots called in sick, in what is believed to be a wildcat strike against possible redundancies at the bankrupt airline. The carrier, which declared bankruptcy last month after years of losses, is negotiating the transfer of staff to a potential buyer. Bids for the airline must be submitted by Friday, with a decision on the sale expected as early as next week.On its website, Air Berlin cited “operative reasons” for the cancellations on Tuesday, and asked passengers to call a helpline and refrain from travelling to the affected airports.

Because the carrier no longer offers compensation for cancelled flights, customer advice centres recommended that people affected by the strike book replacements at their own expense. Berlin’s Tegel airport and Düsseldorf airport, Air Berlin’s hubs, were hit hard by the strike action, which also affects 42 planes run by Air Berlin on behalf of Eurowings and Austrian Airlines.

Spiegel Online said about 250 pilots called in sick on Tuesday morning. Air Berlin employs approximately 1,500 pilots. Vereinigung Cockpit, a collective bargaining group for German pilots and flight engineers, has expressed concern that the airline is planning to offload its long-haul flights branch, which pays staff higher wages.(theguardian)…[+]

Unicef has called for the international community to offer more assistance to the devastated Caribbean islands following Hurricane Irma, saying governments around the world seemed to be relying on Britain, France and the Netherlands to respond to the disaster.The powerful hurricane tore through the Caribbean islands last week, killing at least 34 people and flattening entire communities before wreaking destruction on the US state of Florida on Sunday.

Most of the Caribbean islands affected are overseas territories controlled by the United Kingdom, France, the US and the Netherlands. “People are concerned, there is a general sense that [the British Virgin Islands] is British government territory and therefore the British will handle it,” said Khin-Sandi Lwin, who is leading Unicef’s response in the Caribbean. “So we haven’t been able to raise the funds from other governments at the moment. This is where I do think we need a much bigger international response to the funding that’s needed. “At the moment we are operating on regular funds we have for our ongoing programs. We put aside money – about $800,000 – to get our first response up, but it means our regular programs into next year will be down. We do need that additional funding – about US$2.3m.”(theguardian)…[+]

Hundreds of defectors from Islamic State have massed in Syria’s Idlib province, with many planning to cross the nearby Turkish border and find ways back to the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.Several dozen former fighters have already made it across the heavily patrolled frontier to towns and cities in Turkey’s south in recent weeks, the Guardian has confirmed. Four Saudi Arabian extremists arrived in a southern Turkish community in early September after paying smugglers $2,000 each for the perilous journey past border guards who have shot dead scores of infiltrators this year alone.

The exodus of fighters from areas controlled by Isis to other parts of Syria and Iraq has continued throughout the past year, as the terror group has lost much of its former heartland to a concerted assault by Iraqi troops, forces allied to the Syrian regime and a US-led air coalition in both countries. However, large numbers of militants and their families are now trying to leave the war-battered states altogether – posing significant challenges to a global intelligence community that, for the most part, views them as a hostile and unmanageable threat, and sees limited scope for their reintegration.

A Saudi national who fled Syria in late August told the Guardian that as many as 300 former Isis members, many of them Saudis, had established a community north of Idlib city, which is now dominated by the al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra.(theguardian)…[+]

Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, has denied assaulting a South African model in a hotel suite in Johannesburg last month, saying she acted in self-defence after being attacked with a knife. In a previously unreported deposition from 17 August, Mugabe countered the version of the incident given by Gabriella Engels to police and media. According to Mugabe, she was protecting herself after intervening on behalf of her adult sons, Chatunga and Robert Jr, who were “in trouble with a drunken young woman”. The statement said Mugabe, 52, was considering seeking attempted murder charges.

Engels alleges an irate Mugabe burst into the room in a luxury hotel where she was waiting with two friends to meet Chatunga Mugabe on 13 August and started beating her with an electric cable. Photographs taken soon after the incident showed a gash to Engels’ forehead and head.The incident reinforced Mugabe’s reputation for angry outbursts and focused attention on the lifestyle of Mugabe’s two sons, who live in the upscale Sandton area of the South African commercial capital.

South African media reported this week that the two students had been handed a $60,000 bill for damages following their eviction from a penthouse apartment in Sandton after a brawl in July. Mugabe is a contender to replace her ailing 93-year-old husband, in power for 37 years, as Zimbabwe’s president.(Theguardian)…[+]

On the evening of 1 June 1995 an unlikely group gathered for an informal dinner at an Italian restaurant in Bonn, then the seat of the German parliament. On one side of the table at Sassella were delegates of the Green party, on the other side the establishment they had gone into politics to oppose: suited and gelled young members of the Christian Democratic Union, the party led by the staunchly pro-nuclear Helmut Kohl.

In German political circles, the informal gathering at Sassella became synonymous with supping with the devil: one Green participant likened the brick-walled basement where the party’s anti-nuclear activists, LGBT campaigners and former East German pacifists debated the common ground between conservatism and conservationism to an “enchanted cellar”. But 22 years later these meetings – known as the “pizza connection” despite the Lombardian chefs at the restaurant serving only pasta – could provide the template for a new era in German politics.

All three of Angela Merkel’s terms in power since 2005 have been coalition governments: two “grand coalitions” with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and one with the pro-business FDP. The SPD is unenthusiastic about continuing as Merkel’s junior partner for another term: many of its members believe that only four years in opposition can rejuvenate the German centre-left’s appeal.(theguardian)…[+]

Myanmar’s treatment of its Muslim Rohingya minority appears to be a “textbook example” of ethnic cleansing, the top UN human rights official has said. In an address to the United Nations human rights council in Geneva, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein denounced the “brutal security operation” against the Rohingya in Rakhine state, which he said was “clearly disproportionate” to insurgent attacks carried out last month.

More than 310,000 people have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks, with more trapped on the border, amid reports of the burning of villages and extrajudicial killings. “I call on the government to end its current cruel military operation, with accountability for all violations that have occurred, and to reverse the pattern of severe and widespread discrimination against the Rohingya population,” Zeid said.  “The situation seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” On Sunday Bangladesh’s foreign minister accused the Burmese government of committing genocide against the Rohingya. Analysts said that AH Mahmood Ali’s language was the strongest yet from Myanmar’s neighbour, and reflected intense frustration in Dhaka at the continuing influx of desperate Rohingya refugees.Over the weekend the Dalai Lama became the latest Nobel peace prize laureate to speak out about the crisis, telling the Burmese forces involved in attacks on the ethnic Muslim minority to “remember Buddha”.(theguardian)…[+]

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s prime minister, has been formally notified that she is facing potential criminal charges for allegedly diverting tens of thousands of dollars of state money to use for private expenses.

The attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, was considering prosecuting Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife for offences that include fraudulently procuring items, fraud and breach of trust, according to a justice ministry statement. Mandelblit, who was appointed by the prime minister, informed Sara Netanyahu on Friday that, having examined the evidence and heard the positions of the relevant authorities, he had decided to move forward. Netanyahu will be given a last opportunity to present her side of the case at an indictment hearing – an unusual step for a person who is not a public official. Benjamin Netanyahu is also under pressure as a result of several overlapping corruption investigations, which have gained pace in recent weeks. The allegations against Sara Netanyahu have been under investigation for more than two years, since Joseph Shapira, the state comptroller, issued a report on spending at the Netanyahus’ official residence.(theguardian)…[+]