California shooting spree leaves four dead including gunman

Officials say attack ‘might have been a random thing’ after four were fatally shot after carjackings in Tustin and Santa Ana

A shooting in Orange County, California, left four people dead Tuesday, including the perpetrator.

The shootings began at 4.45am, when deputies responding to a call found a woman shot multiple times in a house in Ladera Ranch, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

Three more people were fatally shot in the next 25 minutes after carjackings in Tustin and Santa Ana, according to the Orange County Register.

Amormino could not immediately confirm that the subsequent shootings were related to carjackings.

The suspect shot himself at an intersection in Tustin, the sheriff’s spokesman said.

The motive for the shootings is still unclear. It was also unclear if the victims knew each other or the shooter.

“I do not believe any of the victims are related to each other. It might have been a random thing,” he said. “We just don’t know.”

Authorities were processing six crime scenes across the county, officials said.

General Joseph Dunford takes over as Nato commander in Afghanistan

Modest ceremony amid tight security in Kabul sees man expected to lead pullout take over from General John Allen

The US general charged with winding down Nato’s war in Afghanistan after more than a decade of fighting took command of all foreign forces in the country on Sunday.

General Joseph Dunford’s first challenge will be to speed up the final transfer of responsibility for security from western troops to the Afghan police and army, putting them in control across the country this spring, ahead of the original plan to complete the handover in late summer.

“This insurgency will be defeated over time by the legitimate and well-trained Afghan forces that are emerging today, who are taking the field in full force this spring,” said outgoing commander General John Allen, at a modest ceremony to mark the change in leadership.

“Afghan forces defending Afghan people, and enabling the government of this country to serve its citizens. This is victory, this is what winning looks like, and we should not shrink from using these words.”

That shift in control will help pave the way for all Nato forces to head home by the end of 2014, leaving Afghans to fight the Taliban alone. A small number of US soldiers may stay behind to train Afghanistan’s military and to hunt down suspected al-Qaida members along the lawless border with Pakistan, but Washington has been explicit that they would not take on the domestic insurgency.

Dunford is expected to be the last in more than a dozen Nato and US commanders of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) since the Taliban were toppled in 2001. The hardline Islamist group then launched an insurgency that has lasted ever since.

Dunford has been friends for decades with Allen, who has been the longest-serving Nato commander in Afghanistan, spending nearly 19 months fighting a powerful insurgency and grappling with a string of diplomatic challenges.

Allen navigated an often a fractious relationship with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, including disputes over detention centres and civilian casualties. He also resolved a serious fallout with Pakistan after a cross-border US airstrike killed at least two dozen Pakistani soldiers.

Despite high levels of violence across much of Afghanistan, and precarious security even in areas where western nations risked soldiers’ lives and lavished hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to help prop up the central government, Allen says he leaves more optimistic than he arrived, because of the growing strength of Afghan security forces.

“Frankly, looking back on that day … I did not have the sense of optimism that I have now as I stand here before you today. The optimism and the very real sense of knowing that we will be victorious,” Allen said. “There can be no doubt that Afghanistan is investing in its own future. The cost is paid blood of their finest young warriors.”

The Afghan army still has very limited basic capabilities from bomb disposal to air transport and medical care, and it is grappling with problems from corruption to drug abuse and high dropout rates. Allen also conceded that it would be hard to define winning in a war that is expected to continue long after most foreign soldiers are back on home soil.

“Our victory here may never be marked by a parade or a point in time on a calendar when victory is declared,” Allen said, in a few sentences of advice to his successor.

Dunford, a Boston native who served in Iraq and has degrees in international relations and development that could prove useful in Kabul, paid tribute to Allen when he addressed the small audience of senior officers and top diplomats gathered in the gym of the main Nato base in Kabul.

Security was so tight that rows of seats were left empty.

“Today is not about change, it’s about continuity,” Dunford said. “I’ll endeavour to continue the momentum of the campaign and support the people of Afghanistan as they seize the opportunity for a brighter future.”

His new job offers the prestige of commanding tens of thousands of troops, but has also earned something of a reputation as a poisoned chalice in Kabul.

Two of his last four predecessors were fired. The seeds of destruction for the career of a third, General David Petraeus, appear to have been laid in Afghanistan, where a close friendship with the woman who would later became his lover first flourished.

The British general who commanded the Afghanistan mission in 2006, David Richards, went on to become chief of the defence staff, the highest position in the UK military. But even his time in Kabul was not entirely unclouded by scandal, after his personal interpreter was convicted of trying to spy for Iran.

At one point it appeared Allen might become embroiled in the scandal which brought down Petraeus, but he was cleared by a Pentagon investigation and is expected to shortly become Nato’s supreme commander in Europe.

China tightens concert rules after Elton John’s ‘disrespectful’ Beijing show

Officials considered ban on foreign artists without university degrees, after star dedicated gig to Ai Weiwei, say sources

Chinese authorities have hardened their line on foreign musicians, after Elton John infuriated them by dedicating a performance to outspoken artist and activist Ai Weiwei, according to industry sources. Police arrived to interview the singer shortly after he announced that the performance, which took place in Beijing last November, was dedicated “to the spirit and talent of Ai Weiwei”, according to two sources. One said officers wanted John’s manager to sign a statement saying the dedication was inspired only by admiration for Ai’s art. John’s spokesman declined to commentwhen contacted by the Guardian.

Ai and John met briefly before the Beijing show, with Ai subsequently announcing to fans on Twitter: “I super like him.” John was allowed to go ahead with a scheduled concert in Guangzhou in early December. But the English language edition of state-run newspaper Global Times attacked John. It said the singer was “disrespectful” when he “forcibly added political content to the concert”, adding: “If they had known that this concert would be dedicated to Ai Weiwei, many in the audience would not have come.

“John’s action will also make the relevant agencies further hesitate in future when they invite foreign artists … [He] has raised difficulties for future arts exchanges between China and other countries,” the newspaper said in an editorial.

The singer’s remarks even prompted the culture minister, Cai Wu, to demand that only stars with university degrees be allowed to play in China in future, according to two sources. They said that days after the concert, Cai gathered those who deal with visiting foreign artists and announced that only graduates should be given performance licences. One source said officials believed it would be difficult to implement the edict, and both suggested it may have been a spur of the moment comment.

A culture ministry spokesman said there were no new regulations. They did not address specific questions that the Guardian had asked regarding the meeting, replying: “About what you said in the fax, there is no such thing”.

Another source said that since the start of the year, classical musicians had been required to supply proof of degrees and other qualifications when applying for permission to tour China. “There is no doubt at all it has made things harder,” said one of those with knowledge of the meeting, adding that several recent applications for licences had been rejected.

“They are looking closely at videos, making sure that the people on stage are exactly the same as in the visa applications, and so on. It’s not a change in the rules as much as a tightening [of existing procedures].”

A fourth source said he was not aware of the ministerial meeting, but that local cultural officials had summoned promoters within a fortnight of the incident to remind them of event rules, which included appearances by foreign artists.

Scrutiny of visiting musicians was tightened in 2008 after Bj rk shouted “Tibet! Tibet!” at the end of her song Declare Independence during a performance in Shanghai. China’s ministry of culture later said that “[her] political show has not only broken Chinese laws and regulations, and hurt the feeling of Chinese people, but also went against the professional code of an artist”.

A ban on artists who did not make it to university would have kept out both John and Bj rk, neither of whom have degrees.

The ministry of culture monitors music for vulgarity, as well as political content. In 2009, it ordered a cleanup of online music sites to address “poor taste and vulgar content”.

Ramarley Graham’s family sues NYPD on anniversary of teen’s shooting death

In lawsuit targeting police tactics and training, family says officer threatened to shoot dead unarmed teen’s grandmother

After shooting dead an unarmed teenager in his bathroom, a New York City police officer threatened to kill the boy’s distraught grandmother, a newly filed lawsuit alleges.

Filed Friday, a day before the one-year anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham, the suit accuses the NYPD of improperly training its officers, disproportionately targeting minority youth through its controversial stop and frisk practices and covering up the facts surrounding the death.

The suit names police officer Richard Haste, the man responsible for shooting Graham, as well as NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly and a number of other officers as defendants.

Haste was charged with first and second degree manslaughter in June. He is the first serving NYPD officer to face criminal charges for a fatal shooting since 2006. The four-year veteran of the force faces a maximum of sentence of 25 years in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

On Saturday, to mark the anniversary of Graham’s death, his parents and hundreds of supporters marched from the home where he died to the precinct where the officer who shot him was assigned.

As the crowd approached the building, Franclot Graham, Ramarley’s father, turned to a man organizing the march and said: “Tell them we’re going to tighten up and tell them we’re going to get loud.”

About a dozen NYPD community affairs officers and interlocking metal barricades separated the chanting demonstrators from the 47th precinct. “Last year, February 2, it was our son,” Graham told the officers by megaphone. “Next year, who’s next?”

At over 100 pages in length, the Graham family lawsuit paints a picture of a chaotic scene the afternoon Ramarley was killed. It alleges that after forcing his way into the Graham home, Haste shot the unarmed teenager in the chest in his bathroom, as his six-year-old brother and 58-year-old grandmother, Patricia Hartley, looked on.

“Why did you shoot him, why you killed him?” Hartley cried out after Haste fired, the suit claims. “Get the fuck away before I have to shoot you, too,” Haste is said to have replied as he shoved Grahan’s 85-pound grandmother into a vase, the suit alleges.

According to the suit, NYPD officers twisted Hartley’s arm before taking her into custody for nearly seven hours where she was questioned, accused of covering up for her grandson and denied access to her attorney for over an hour and a half.

“They were calling her a ‘fucking liar’,” Jeffrey Emdin, an attorney for the family told the Guardian. Emdin believes the grandmother was isolated to intimidate her. “It’s my assumption that they were trying to rattle Ms Hartley into saying that her story couldn’t be true,” he said.

At one point during Hartley’s questioning, a police officer allegedly dunked his fingers into a glass of water then splashed the liquidagainst a wall. “They were demonstrating how blood splatters after someone is shot,” Emdin said.

According to the lawsuit, the police also showed Hartley a photo of a man who had been shot and claimed it was Graham. Once released, Hartley was “totally exhausted, totally traumatized”, Emdin said, adding that she sought treatment for trauma in a hospital.

The NYPD searched the Grahams’ home for 48 hours following the shooting and the family was unable to return, the suit adds. The suit, which does not specify damages, calls for an overhaul of training practices for street narcotics enforcement units, otherwise known as SNEU. Haste was a member of one such unit, which scans streets for suspected illegal drug activity, but had not participated in the required training for the assignment, reports later revealed.

When news of Graham’s death broke, the police initially said he had disobeyed orders to stop and ran into his home. Surveillance footage later showed him calmly entering his building. Moments later officers are seen rushing to the door, attempting to break it down.

Haste chased Graham into his second floor bathroom where the shooting occurred, believing he was carrying a gun. A small bag of marijuana was found in the toilet near Graham’s body but no weapon was ever recovered.

After the incident, Haste and his supervisor, sergeant Scott Morris, were stripped of their badges and guns. A grand jury was convened and district attorney Robert Johnson’s office joined the NYPD’s internal affairs bureau in a four-month investigation.

Haste’s attorney, Stuart London, has argued that his client had no choice but to shoot Graham after he failed to show the officer his hands. According to London, three members of Haste’s team have stated they saw a gun on Graham in the moments that led up to his killing.

The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment. The next court hearing in the case is scheduled for 26 March.

In the wake of Graham’s death, Kelly ordered a review of the narcotics enforcement units, which were credited with reducing heroin and crack dealing on the streets of New York in the 1990s and more recently have concentrated on marijuana. This has been a source of controversy, with officers accused of forcing suspects to reveal small amounts of marijuana in their pockets, despite a ruling by Kelly that police should not make arrests for the possession of small amounts of cannabis in private.

Graham’s family hope that the legacy of his death is an overhaul of police practices. In the freezing cold on Saturday, Graham’s mother, Constance Malcolm, addressed the crowd of supporters. “We want people to remember what happened to Ramarley and hope another family doesn’t feel the pain we’re feeling. It’s a pain I hope no other parent will have to go through.”

Russia and Iran meet Syrian opposition leader

Rare sign of progress as foreign ministers meet Moaz al-Khatib for first time, but death toll in Syria continues to rise

The Russian and Iranian foreign ministers met the Syrian opposition leader, Moaz al-Khatib, for the first time on Saturday in a rare sign of diplomatic progress, but the bloodshed from the conflict continued to worsen, with nearly 5,000 people reported dead in January alone.

The latest death toll was reported by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a dissident group whose casualty estimates have been consistently confirmed by the UN. Its director, Sami Abdulrahman, said his researchers had recorded the deaths of 4,851 people in January, of whom 1,030 were members of the Syrian regular security forces while 3,305 were civilians or rebel irregulars.

It marks the second worst month of the 23-month conflict. Abdulrahman said the death toll appeared to reflect the widespread and intense nature of recent fighting and the regime’s heavy use of aerial bombardment of rebel-held areas.

At Munich, where a global security conference was held this weekend, there was some progress on the diplomatic front towards breaking a deadlock that has prevented a concerted international response to the conflict.

Khatib, the leader of Syria’s National Coalition opposition group, widely recognised in the west and the Arab world as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, met the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran, the Assad regime’s only major supporters on the world stage.

The opposition leaders also met the US vice president, Joseph Biden, and the UN special envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, at the margins of the Munich conference.

Following Khatib’s offer to hold preliminary talks with the regime, conditional upon the release of political prisoners, the discussions raised hopes that a way could be found around the stalemate in the UN security council.

After his meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, the Syrian opposition leader said: “Russia has a certain vision but we welcome negotiations to alleviate the crisis and there are lots of details that need to be discussed.”

The Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran would hold further meetings with Khatib and called for the formation of a joint transitional government from among members of the regime and the opposition under UN supervision leading to elections and a new constitution.

However, there was no sign of a breakthrough over the central sticking point that has divided the security council and prevented Syrian peace talks: the fate of Assad.

Lavrov told the Munich conference: “The persistence of those who say that priority number one is the removal of Assad is the single biggest reason for the continuing tragedy in Syria.”

Salehi was less specific. His prescription for a transition to democracy made no mention of Assad, but he asked: “If you ask for the government to stand down before negotiations, who do you negotiate with?”

On Saturday, Biden gave his full support to the opposition stance that Assad has so much blood on his hands that he could not be part of a transition government. Biden said the White House was “convinced that President Assad, a tyrant hell-bent on clinging to power, is no longer fit to lead Syrian people and he must go”.

Moscow has become increasingly isolated in its personal backing for Assad. Brahimi, the UN envoy, told the security council last week that the implication of an agreement of major powers last year in Geneva was that Assad should have no part in the transition process.

The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, ridiculed the idea that the Syrian leader should remain in power to oversee a transition.

“It’s easy to say the opposition should sit down with him now after 60,000 people have been killed,” Davutoglu said. “If they held an election in his presence who would guarantee the security of the opposition? There should be an election, but first someone should be [held] responsible for all the killing.”

The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jaber al-Thani, said repeated attempts to organise talks between Assad and the opposition in the early months of the Syrian uprising had failed because of “the intransigence of the regime”.

“I have no doubt Assad will leave, because he cannot stay with so much blood on his hands,” he said. He also criticised Israel for its air strikes in Syria last week, which he said would “add fuel to the fire”.

In the first direct comment by an Israeli official on Tuesday’s air strikes, Ehud Barak, the outgoing defence minister and deputy prime minister, appeared to confirm widespread reports that it was targeted at anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“What happened in Syria several days ago … that’s proof that when we said something we mean it, we say that we don’t think it should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon,” Barak told the Munich conference.

Bashar Assad said on Sunday that his military was capable of confronting any “aggression” that targeted the country, in his first remarks since the Israeli strike.

The Syrian Observatory’s estimate of the total number of dead from almost two years of conflict is 51,167. That is below the UN estimate of 60,000, but the Observatory’s methodology is more conservative, requiring confirmation of the names of the dead. Of that total, 3,717 of the war’s victims were children and 2,144 were women.

Inside Gao where Arab jihadis took bloody sharia retribution on Mali’s black Africans

The people of Gao endured nine months of amputations and floggings under the rule of Islamist rebels – much of it aimed at ethnic groups

The jihadis carried out amputations in the sandy square where the residents of Gao used to watch basketball. The men who ruled Gao for nine months, until French and Malian troops drove them out last weekend, replaced the words “Place de l’Ind pendence” in the green, red and yellow of the national flag with simple white on black: Place de la Sharia.

A thief would lose his right hand. Those accused of burglary would lose both right hand and left foot. On 21 December last year, people were assembled, as they had been several times before, and told to watch.

“No one was allowed to speak,” said Issa Alzouma. “Then they cut off my hand with a knife.”

Alzouma had been accused of stealing a motorbike, which he denies. At 39, he made a living digging gravel for construction companies. It was enough to support his wife and three children. Now he roams Gao in tattered clothes, the stump of his right arm wrapped in a grubby bandage, a flimsy black plastic bag dangling from his remaining wrist. Inside he keeps a few antibiotics and replacement bandages given by a Red Cross doctor who treated him at Gao hospital a week after his amputation.

“The doctor had to cut in and remove flesh because it was infected,” he said. “Under the bandage you can see my bones. It hurts and I feel as if my bones are coming out.”

Alzouma has no idea how he and his family will survive. “My wife just cries and cries,” he said. His friend Algalas Yatara, who was also accused of stealing a motorbike, carries a sheaf of papers in Arabic in his remaining hand. He thinks it is the judgment but is not quite sure, as neither man can read Arabic.

At least 12 men had hands or feet cut off after MUJAO (Movement for Jihad and Unity), and its allies in AQIM (al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb), took control of Gao last April. The exact number is not known because some were amputated in the military base where no non-jihadi was allowed. The mayor’s office, a few yards from the punishment ground, was turned into a sharia court. Outside, the sand has turned black where the enforcers of hesbah, or justice, ground down cigarettes and whipped those found smoking. Inside, the floor is littered with documents, including a ring-binder with details of the women flogged for not wearing the veil. Family members were made to put a thumbprint to show they acknowledged the punishment and would supervise the accused in future.

Suspects were confined to a small room where they were tied up and beaten, before being brought before Islamic judges, known as marabous, who sat every Monday and Thursday.

Ali Altini and Mohammed Aklini were due to be executed for homosexuality the Friday before last. French air strikes saved their lives, as the jihadis who would have carried out the sentence were killed or fled. The two men, who deny they are gay, were arrested on 12 December, bound, beaten, then interrogated. ” They asked me where the brothels are,” said Altini. “I answered that I didn’t know. Then they asked me to show them where people made pornographic movies. I answered again that I didn’t know.” According to Altini, his six interrogators were Pakistanis, who communicated through a local translator. Altini and Aklini were arraigned before three marabous, one of whom they believed to be a Tunisian.

“The jihadis had their own marabous,” said Altini. “They asked me if the rumours that I slept with men were true. They said that before the time of the Prophet such things were allowed, but now it is condemned by Islam.” One marabou suggested that the men should be given a second chance, but another said they should face the death sentence. The final decision seems to have been taken by Abdul Hakim, a Moroccan who was MUJAO’s leader in Gao, and Aliou Muhammar Tour , a local man who was appointed Islamic police commissioner.

“Abdul Hakim and Aliou Muhammar came to visit us in the police station after the judgment,” said Altini. “Aliou said: ‘I will tie their hands and feet myself.’ Abdul Hakim replied: ‘Well, I will cut their throats myself.’ Aliou wanted my parents to witness the execution.”

According to Gao residents, the victims of sharia punishments were from Mali’s black African ethnic groups, while the jihadis were mostly lighter-skinned Arabs – both Malian and foreign – and Tuaregs. Tour , of the Songhai tribe, was one of the few black Malians to join MUJAO.

“If you are a Tuareg or Arab, or if you look like them, they don’t threaten you,” said Alzouma, the amputee, who is from the Bella, the group traditionally used as slaves by the Tuareg. “Their people smuggle drugs, cigarettes and everything, but they don’t threaten their own families, just black people – the Songhai, the Bella and the Bambara.”

A year ago Tuaregs rose to demand an independent state in the north. Many Tuareg officers deserted the army to join the rebellion. Some joined forces with jihadis, mostly Algerian or Malian Arabs, who were using the desert for kidnapping and smuggling. During the past nine months, in which they established an Islamist mini-state, jihadis from across the globe arrived in northern Mali.

Ethnic tension has already led to reprisals. Graphic footage shows a mob tearing a jihadi fighter limb from limb. A vigilante group calling itself the Patrollers of Gao is combing the town for members of MUJAO. Last week they seized and beat several men in the marketplace, and one who was hiding in the hospital. Malian soldiers rescued the men, but they too speak with vitriol about those they see as traitors, especially the Tuareg. “We invited them into our homes and ate with them, but they turned their guns on us,” said a senior army officer in Gao. “How can we trust them again?”

In the last few days, the mayor of Gao, who returned from the capital, Bamako, last Sunday, has used local radio to call for tolerance and the rule of law, but neither the police force nor local administration has yet been reinstated.

Lindsey Hilsum is international editor for Channel 4 News

Four US states considering laws that challenge teaching of evolution

Critics charge ‘academic freedom’ legislation in Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma is just creationism in disguise

Four US states are considering new legislation about teaching science in schools, allowing pupils to to be taught religious versions of how life on earth developed in what critics say would establish a backdoor way of questioning the theory of evolution.

Fresh legislation has been put forward in Colorado, Missouri and Montana. In Oklahoma, there are two bills before the state legislature that include potentially creationist language.

A watchdog group, the National Center for Science Education, said that the proposed laws were framed around the concept of “academic freedom”. It argues that religious motives are disguised by the language of encouraging more open debate in school classrooms. However, the areas of the curriculum highlighted in the bills tend to focus on the teaching of evolution or other areas of science that clash with traditionally religious interpretations of the world.

“Taken at face value, they sound innocuous and lovely: critical thinking, debate and analysis. It seems so innocent, so pure. But they chose to question only areas that religious conservatives are uncomfortable with. There is a religious agenda here,” said Josh Rosenau, an NCSE program and policy director.

In Oklahoma, one bill has been pre-filed with the state senate and another with the state house. The Senate bill would oblige the state to help teachers “find more effective ways to represent the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies”. The House bill specifically mentions “biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning” as areas that “some teachers are unsure” about teaching.

In Montana, a bill put forward by local social conservative state congressman, Clayton Fiscus, also lists things like “random mutation, natural selection, DNA and fossil discoveries” as controversial topics that need more critical teaching. Meanwhile, in Missouri, a bill introduced in mid-January lists “biological and chemical evolution” as topics that teachers should debate over including looking at the “scientific weaknesses” of the long-established theories.

Finally, in Colorado, which rarely sees a push towards teaching creationism, a bill has been introduced in the state house of representatives that would require teachers to “respectfully explore scientific questions and learn about scientific evidence related to biological and chemical evolution”. Observers say the move is the first piece of creationist-linked legislation to be put forward in the state since 1972.

The moves in such a wide range of states have angered advocates of secularism in American official life. “This is just another attempt to bring creationism in through the back door. The only academic freedom they really want to encourage is the freedom to be ignorant,” said Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Over the past few years, only Tennessee and Louisiana have managed to pass so-called “academic freedom” laws of the kind currently being considered in the four states. Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University and close observer of the creationism movement, said that the successes in those two states meant that the religious lobby was always looking for more opportunities.

She said that using arguments over academic freedom was a shift in tactic after attempts to specifically get “intelligent design” taught in schools was defeated in a landmark court case in 2005. Intelligent design, which a local school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, had sought to get accepted as legitimate science, asserts that modern life is too complex to have evolved by chance alone. “Creationists never give up. They never do. The language of these bills may be highly sanitized but it is creationist code,” she said.

The laws can have a direct impact on a state. In Louisiana, 78 Nobel laureate scientists have endorsed the repeal of the creationist education law there. The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology has even launched a boycott of Louisiana and cancelled a scheduled convention in New Orleans. Louisiana native and prominent anti-creationist campaigner in the state Zack Kopplin said that those pushing such bills in other states were risking similar economic damage to their local economies. “It will hurt economic development,” Kopplin said.

There is also the impact on students, he added, when they are taught controversies in subjects where the overwhelming majority of scientists have long ago reached consensus agreement. “It really hurts students. It can be embarrassing to be from a state which has become a laughing stock in this area,” Kopplin said.

Others experts agreed, arguing that it could even hurt future job prospects for students graduating from those states’ public high schools. “The jobs of the future are high tech and science-orientated. These lawmakers are making it harder for some of these kids to get those jobs,” said Boston.

Israel faces repercussions of air strike on Syria

Jewish state maintains its traditional silence in the face of accusations that it violated Syria’s sovereign territory

Israel faces threats of retaliation after Wednesday’s bombing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, with Russia and the Arab League describing it as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty. Syria and Iran threatened to respond to the military intervention, which was widely ascribed to Israeli forces.

Warplanes targeted a “scientific research centre” near Damascus, according to Syrian state television. Other reports said a convoy believed to be carrying Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles across the border to Hezbollah in Lebanon was struck.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

A spokesman for the Arab League said the bombing was a “glaring violation” of Syria’s sovereignty. The “silence of the international community about Israel’s bombing of Syrian sites in the past encouraged it to carry out the new aggression, taking advantage of political and security deterioration in Syria,” Nabil al-Arabi, the league’s head, said.

The Russian foreign ministry said: “If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violates the UN charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it.”

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamic militia, pledged full solidarity with the Syrian regime, saying Israel had “perpetrated a barbaric attack”.”In line with its inherent spirit of aggression and criminality, and in accordance with its policy of preventing any Arab or Islamic power from developing technological and military capabilities, Israel perpetrated a barbaric attack against a Syrian installation for scientific research on Syrian territory, causing the death of a number of Syrians, the injury of others, and the destruction of the installation,” the Hezbollah statement read. Two people were killed and five wounded in the attack, according to Syrian state television.

The Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdul-Karim, said Damascus retained “the option… to retaliate”. The Iranian deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, was quoted as saying the attack would have significant implications for Tel Aviv, which is within range of Hezbollah rockets.

The US administration was warned of the attack, according to the New York Times.

Israel continued to maintain an official silence on the air strike, following a pattern of previous military interventions attributed to its forces. Some analysts said this was to minimise the likelihood of retaliatory action.

“Clearly someone attacked something on the Syrian-Lebanese border,” said military expert Yossi Alpher. “But it’s extremely important in these situations that Israel does everything possible to avoid being accredited with these actions. There’s a danger of retaliatory action, whether by Syria or Hezbollah.”

Alpher said he was “not in the least surprised” by the attack. In the past few days, high-level Israeli emissaries have been despatched to Washington and Moscow, while warnings that weapons, both chemical and conventional, could reach Hezbollah or jihadists inside Syria had become more shrill.”Anyone who puts two and two together is likely to come to this conclusion [that Israel was responsible],” Alpher said.

Gerald Steinberg, of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, said Israel’s political, military and intelligence leadership would have made calculations about the risks of retaliation before ordering air strikes. “This is a government that is very focused on rational cost-benefit analyses. There is no question in my mind that they would have calculated the risks. The costs of not acting would be deemed to be greater than the potential repercussions,” he said.

Israel, he added, had “not acted nor spoken publicly about the upheaval in Syria for almost two years. If something has changed, it’s because something has changed on the ground.”

Amid confusion over the target or targets of the air strike, reports suggested that a convoy carrying conventional weapons, most likely Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, from Syria to Hezbollah depots in Lebanon was targeted.

“These are game-changing weapons,” said Miri Eisin, a former Israeli military intelligence officer. Syria, she said, had received cutting-edge military hardware from Russia, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles. “These are some of the most advanced technologies. If they go to Hezbollah – a non-state terror actor on Israel’s border – that’s a game-changer. Then you are going to prefer pre-emptive action.”

The pre-dawn air strike on the Syrian-Lebanese border closely followed reports of intensive sorties by Israeli military planes. United Nations forces on the Israel-Lebanon border “recorded a high number of Israeli overflights throughout the day and the night”, UN spokesman Andrea Tenenti told the Guardian.

UN forces had no evidence of illegal weapons or increased Hezbollah presence in their area of operations, close to the border with Israel. “We haven’t seen any suspicious activities in the south,” he said.Israel is widely believed to be behind previous attacks that it never publicly acknowledged. In 2007 Israel was accused of destroying a site in Syria that was believed to be a nuclear reactor under construction. Syria claimed it was a non-nuclear military site.

Israeli fighter planes are believed to have carried out an air strike on an arms factory in Khartoum last October and an attack on an arms convoy in 2009, also in Sudan, in which scores of people were killed. Both were thought to be aimed at preventing the manufacture or transport of weapons to Hamas in Gaza.

Medvedev: Assad’s chances of retaining power in Syria are shrinking

Russian prime minister suggests Syrian president’s days could be numbered, according to interview transcript

The Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, has said Bashar al-Assad’s chances of retaining power in Syria are getting “smaller and smaller” every day, according to the transcript of an interview with CNN released by Medvedev’s office.

His remarks were the most vocal Russian statement that Assad’s days could be numbered. But he reiterated calls for talks between the government and its foes and repeated Moscow’s position that Assad must not be pushed out by external forces.

“I think that with every day, every week and every month the chances of his preservation are getting smaller and smaller,” Medvedev was quoted as saying. “But I repeat, again, this must be decided by the Syrian people. Not Russia, not the United States, not any other country.

“The task for the United States, the Europeans and regional powers … is to sit the parties down for negotiations, and not just demand that Assad go and then be executed like [the late former Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi or be carried to court sessions on a stretcher like [Egypt's] Hosni Mubarak.”

Russia has been Assad’s most important ally throughout the 22-month-old Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful street protests and evolved into an armed uprising against his rule.

Moscow has blocked three UN security council resolutions aimed at pushing him out or pressuring him to end the bloodshed, which has killed more than 60,000 people. But Russia has also distanced itself from Assad by saying it is not trying to prop him up and will not offer him asylum.

Medvedev made some of Russia’s harshest criticisms of Assad to date, placing equal blame for the escalation into a civil war on “the leadership of the country and the irreconcilable opposition”. He also said Assad was far too slow to implement promised political reforms.

“He should have done everything much faster, attracting part of the moderate opposition, which was ready to sit at the table with him, to his side,” Medvedev was quoted as saying. “This was his significant mistake, and possibly a fatal one.”

The wording of the interview suggested it was not just Assad’s grip on power that was under threat, but his life. Medvedev’s remark about the chances of his “preservation” diminishing came when he was asked whether Assad could survive.

Russia has repeatedly called on western and Arab nations to put more pressure on Assad’s foes to seek a negotiated solution, but Medvedev acknowledged that Moscow’s influence on the Syrian president was limited.

“I have personally called Assad several times and said: conduct reforms, hold negotiations,” said Medvedev, who was Russia’s president until last May. “In my view, unfortunately, the Syrian leadership is not ready for this.

“But on the other hand, by no means should a situation be allowed in which the current political elite is swept away by armed actions, because then the civil war will last for decades,” he said.

Russia has given frequent indications it is preparing for Assad’s possible exit, while continuing to insist he must not be forced out by foreign powers.

Russia sells arms to Syria and uses a naval facility on the Mediterranean coast that is its only military base outside the former Soviet Union.

But analysts say its policy is driven mainly by the desire of the president, Vladimir Putin, to prevent the United States from using military force or support from the UN security council to bring down governments it opposes.

Brazil nightclub fire causes high death toll

Police and emergency services estimate 232 deaths after revellers suffocated or trampled in Santa Maria blaze

At least 232 people have been killed in a Brazilian nightclub fire sparked by what witnesses described as a flare or firework lit by members of a band performing onstage.

Many of the victims died inhaling toxic fumes during the rush to escape through the venue’s single exit, according to local media reports in the southern city of Santa Maria.

Police Major Cleberson Braida Bastianello said officials counted 232 bodies brought for identification to a makeshift mortuary at the city gymnasium. He lowered the death toll from the 245 earlier believed killed.

Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless, young male partygoers joined firefighters in wielding axes and sledgehammers, pounding at windows and walls to break through to those trapped inside. Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately trying to find help others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms.

“There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead,” survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

Silva added that firefighters and ambulances responded quickly after the fire broke out, but that it spread too fast inside the packed club for them to help.

Michele Pereira, another survivor, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage and that the fire broke out after band members lit flares.

“The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward. At that point the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak but in a matter of seconds it spread,” Pereira said.

After the fire was extinguished, bodies were ferried by truck to the gymnasium. The Globo newspaper said the first truck carried 67 bodies and the second 70.

“People started panicking and ended up treading on each other,” a fire chief, Guido de Melo, told local media.

Fire department officials will issue a detailed report after a full investigation.

Many of the dead are likely to be students because Santa Maria is a university centre for the Rio Grande do Sul region and the usual class schedule had been disrupted by strikes.