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Ine don't want to work on Zynga's farm no more

Yanukovych victory may redraw spheres of influence in eastern Europe. Afghan police detained after killing of children. North Korea frees American missionary. Iranian president calls for enrichment work to begin. French police in scuffle with migrants. All this and more in today's update.

Conscript Tolya has been moved again, this time to a show regiment. Life suddenly looks rather better, but is it for real?

Rediscovering and reshaping a world in which husbands were house-bound and families were free, what are the skills and virtues needed for a life of radical voluntary domestic simplicity?

Dissension over the legality of the Iraq war, and the history of western military interventions since 1945, reveals the paucity of international law's moral underpinnings. The article continues our series Lest we forget: remembering historic conflicts, openSecurity’s new editorial project in association with History & Policy, asking historians to reflect on wars gone by and the light they shed on present conflicts.

Charlie Baker, who has worked for regeneration cooperative URBED in cities across northern England, looks at the causes of prejudice and segregation in Britain’s racial hotspots

The ongoing saga of the British parliamentary expenses crisis crossed a major watershed with the charging of three Labour MPs and one Tory peer

A spell-binding history of cannibalism in the middle ages: its use as a propaganda tool, and place in Christendom's self-image; the cannibal as a philosophical hypothetical, and a justification for colonialism; and Richard the Lionheart's fondness for "Saracen's head's all hot"

Humu Tavawallie went to school for an education, but was forced into sex with her teacher to pay for her exams. This is an all too common problem in Sierra Leone, and entrenched social attitudes make it difficult to tackle, writes Annabel Symington

The economic crisis has hit Russian regions hard. Natalya Zubareivch deems government solutions to the resulting unemployment to be mainly a smoke and mirrors job, which conceals a real unemployment figure of 8%.

In his speech on Tuesday, the Prime Minister announced that he had asked the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, to “consolidate the existing unwritten, piecemeal conventions that govern much of the way central government operates under our existing constitution into a single written document”, clearly ignorant of the fact such a document already exists. Here, Stuart Wilks-Heeg, of Democratic Audit, points Sir Gus in the right direction.

The exhaustion of the planet and existing ways of life presents a creative challenge: exploring “uncivilisation”. Paul Kingsnorth introduces the Dark Mountain Project.

The Barack Obama administration’s plans for subduing the Taliban are endangered by continuing insecurity in Iraq

Throughout Russian and Soviet history, the intellectual has played a central and hugely influential role in society. Today, that has changed. A recent internet vote on the country’s most influential intellectual saw instead postmodern ambiguity emerge victorious, writes Lyubov Borusyak

Kenya tightens security on its north-eastern border with Somalia. Troops deployed as violence intensifies in Karachi. Clinton denies rumours of US-Iran prisoner swap. Rwandan opposition candidate attacked by mob in Kigali. Curfew declared in Srinagar, Kashmir, after days of violent protests. All this and more in today's briefing.

What's depressing is the film's theory of value