young British tourist was allegedly raped and assaulted repeatedly while held captive on a road trip through outback Australia.

The harrowing ordeal for the 22-year-old ended on Sunday afternoon when officers pulled over a four-wheel-drive in a routine traffic stop at Mitchell, about 600km west of Brisbane, Queensland police said. The visibly distressed woman at the wheel, who had facial fractures, bruises and cuts, told officers of her ordeal and alerted them to her attacker hiding in a storage alcove in the back of the vehicle, police said. Inspector Paul Hart said the pair, who met at a dance party outside Cairns in January, had briefly been in “a relationship that’s obviously soured.” “It’s tragic for the poor woman,” Hart told Guardian Australia.(The guardian)…[+]

Donald Trump’s revised travel ban will increase the woes of the world’s refugees, the United Nations has said, as some of the Muslim-majority countries affected by the ban expressed their disappointment, insisting they had fully cooperated with US anti-terrorist efforts. he executive order blocks entry to the US for citizens from six of the seven countries named in Trump’s original order – Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Libya – for a period of 90 days and suspends the US refugee programme for 120 days.The UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said refugees were not criminals but “ordinary people forced to flee war, violence and persecution in their home countries”. The secretary general, António Guterres, pointedly made an emergency visit to Somalia, saying people were dying in the country due to famine.(the guardian)…[+]

The singer George Michael died from natural causes, a coroner has said. The former singer with the pop duo Wham!, who was 53 and was found at his home in Goring, Oxfordshire, on Christmas Day, had a heart condition. There will be no inquest.In a statement, Darren Salter, senior coroner for Oxfordshire, said: “Inquiries into the death of George Michael have been concluded and the final postmortem report received. “As there is a confirmed natural cause of death, being dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver, the investigation is being discontinued and there is no need for an inquest or any further inquiries. No further updates will be provided and the family requests the media and public respect their privacy.”(The guardian)…[+]

Philip Hammond has sent a warning to Britain’s European partners that Britain will “fight back” and not “slink off like a wounded animal” if it does not get the Brexit deal it wants. In combative language ahead of triggering the article 50 negotiations on terms of withdrawal, the chancellor said Britain would “do whatever we need to do” to be competitive in the event of leaving the EU without a trade agreement.  The use of such language flies in the face of calls from Sir John Major to tone down anti-EU rhetoric before negotiations begin.(the guardian)…[+]

In the long and winding road of Greek debt drama, disappointment and hope have been the alternating emotions that every government has faced. With the nation’s crisis no nearer to being resolved than when it erupted seven years ago, negotiations with creditors at another critical juncture and Europe engulfed in uncertainty, the need for hope has never been greater.

“What Greece needs is a shock of growth,” the country’s deputy prime minister Yannis Dragasakis told the Guardian ahead of a crucial cabinet meeting on Monday. “We will meet to discuss a new growth strategy that will focus solely on boosting investment and reducing unemployment to pre-crisis levels, that is to say 8% in the next 10 years.”

Athens’ leftist-left government is acutely aware that the public mood is darkening. On Sunday, six out of 10 Greeks said they did not believe the crisis would be over in the next decade, according to research released by the Dianeosis thinktank. Unemployment at 23% – and close to 50% amongst Greek youth – is by far the greatest obstacle to optimism.(The guardian)…[+]

The Philippine military has recovered the body of an elderly German hostage who was beheaded by Islamic militants last week. The Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-for-ransom network in the southern Philippines that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, killed Jurgen Kantner, 70, after its demands for $600,000 in ransom were not met.

Military officials said marines found Kantner’s body on Saturday evening in the group’s remote island stronghold of Sulu, more than 1,000km south of Manila.

“The armed forces of the Philippines continues with all efforts to make good [on] its commitment to return the remains of the kidnap victim to his homeland to accord to him the decent burial he deserves,” said military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo.(the guardian)…[+]

The scandal-hit French presidential candidate François Fillon is under growing pressure to step down as dozens of MPs and senators quit his campaign, warning that he is leading the French right into certain electoral disaster.

Thierry Solère, an MP and Fillon’s one-time loyal chief campaign spokesman, became the latest of almost 70 elected politicians to walk out on Friday morning, fleeing what concerned party supporters are calling “Fillon’s sinking ship”.

The rightwing former minister Nadine Morano said Fillon must step down as candidate, warning he was in a “dead end”, his electoral chances slipping away, and he risked bringing “catastrophe” to the right.(the guardian)…[+]

Jane Fonda has revealed that she has been the victim of a a history of sexual abuse, beginning when she was a child. Speaking to fellow actor Brie Larson in Net-a-Porter magazine, Fonda said: “I’ve been raped, I’ve been sexually abused as a child and I’ve been fired because I wouldn’t sleep with my boss.“I always thought it was my fault; that I didn’t do or say the right thing.”

Fonda, who has starred in films such as 9 to 5 and Barbarella and more recently won acclaim for roles in Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth and the Netflix show Grace and Frankie, said that young women were prone to diminishing the severity of such crimes because they blamed themselves. “I know young girls who’ve been raped and didn’t even know it was rape,” she said. “They think, ‘It must have been because I said ‘no’ the wrong way’.”As part of her work as a women’s rights activist, Fonda is a supporter of the V-Day movement, which works to stop violence against women and girls. She said that society needs to help abuse victims “realise that [rape and abuse is] not our fault. We were violated and it’s not right”.(the guardian)…[+]

Theresa May has signalled a tougher line on Scottish demands for greater devolution after Brexit, laying down a clear challenge to Nicola Sturgeon to call another independence referendum. The prime minister told the Scottish Conservative party she would fight against any further decentralisation of power which meant the UK became “a looser and weaker union”. “We cannot allow our United Kingdom to drift apart,” she said. In a marked escalation of her attacks on the first minister’s demand for greater autonomy for the Scottish parliament after Brexit, May said there would be a strict limit to any extra powers and spending.(the guardian)…[+]

The grandmother split from her family over an immigration technicality has told of her humiliation as border guards restrained her by the arms like a violent offender in full view of the public as she was administratively removed from the UK. Writing for the Guardian, Irene Clennell describes how security staff wrote down her every word and even guarded the door when she went to the toilet on her journey from Dungavel immigration removal centre to Singapore, via Edinburgh airport.

“The authorities have shown their willingness to treat foreign-born people as second class citizens, no matter how integrated they are, and worse, treat us like criminals,” she says.

“During my removal from Britain I was treated like a terrorist: I was restrained by the arms, my every word written down, and there were guards on the door when I went to the toilet. This happened in full view of the public in Edinburgh airport and was deeply humiliating.(the guardian)…[+]