Should standups write their own jokes, and who are the 50 funniest people?

Also in this week's roundup, Fawlty Towers becomes embroiled in a Major debate and Mrs Brown's Boys gets a fourth series

Lance Armstrong has been stripped of his Tour de France titles for using performance-enhancing drugs – so should standups lose their comedyawards if they use writers? One of our readers, PoorButNotAChav,supplies this week's most intriguing story, culled from a conversation between Absolute Radio host Frank Skinner and his co-presenters last weekend.

Discussing the disgraced cyclist, Skinnersaid: "I've done panel shows where there have been other [comics] on as guests, and I've found out after that they've had four or five writers. That's not a level playing field, is it? They're using performance-enhancing writers. At home, people are thinking they're funnier than that Frank Skinner. In fact, it's five or six to one. I wonder if Oprah knows about this."

Skinner's comments – made, of course, in jest – add to mounting discontent within comedy at the glibness and hyper-competitiveness of TV panel shows. "Effectively, these comics are miming to someone else's jokes," Skinner concluded. "Comedians should start returning their awards if they've been on shows that use writers."

There is one panel show, however, that is above most criticism – and it's in the news this week, as Tim Brooke-Taylor tells a Bristol audience whyI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue never transferred to TV. As Chortle reports, the Radio 4 show's regular panellist told a Q&A session at the city's Slapstick festival: "We did a pilot for ITV, and they said: 'Yes, we'd like to go along with it. But can we have some younger people doing it?' I think they missed the point somewhat." The show this year celebrates its 40th birthday on radio.

From one well-loved comedy veteran to another – but this week, Billy Connolly is the target of fury, as animal rights activists attack the Big Yin for accepting a gift of, er, stingray-skin shoes from a film crew while he was working on The Hobbit. A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said: "Stingrays are fascinating, gentle sea animals, and they don't deserve to be slaughtered for a pair of joke shoes that will likely never even be worn."

Rolling Stone magazine has named "the 50 funniest people now", and neither Brooke-Taylor nor Connolly make the cut. Brits are few and far between, in fact, and seemingly selected on the basis of US profile alone: Daniel Kitson at 46, John Oliver at 26 and Ricky Gervais at 16 are among the lucky few. Tina Fey, satirist Stephen Colbert and, at the top, the much-hyped Louis CK occupy the medal positions. Back in Blighty, the funniest people of tomorrow were assessed at last weekend's prestigious New Act of the Year award. The winner was Paul F Taylor, sidekick to Edinburgh Comedy award nominee Nick Helm in the double-act Helm and Taylor, and purveyor of "a mix of offbeat banter, studentish charm and tinges of Harry Hill," according to critic Bruce Dessau, reporting on Sunday evening's event.

A TV future probably beckons, perhaps in sitcoms like The Wrong Mans, in which Dawn French – it's just been announced – is to play James Corden's mum. Meanwhile, Sky1's hit comedy Spy is to be remade in the States, the sketch troupe Jigsaw (Nat Luurtsema, Dan Antopolski and Tom Craine) have been picked up by Radio 4 and the sitcom Fresh Meat is to be made into a movie.

Best of the Guardian's comedy coverage

• "You get about three minutes for free, by being well-known. Then you have to deliver" – Harry Hill on returning to standup after seven years away.

• "I did laugh out loud at Louie, but not as often as I'd hoped" – The Observer's Phil Hogan on Louis CK's sitcom.

• "Sayle redux brings back a quality of political disgust that comedy has been sorely lacking" – my review of the great Alexei's return to standup.

• "With the loud shirts, wild hair, dumb grins, dead voice, staring eyes – and with his bad jokes – he is less a standup than a parody of one" – Leo Benedictus covers wordplay king Milton Jones in this week's Comedy Gold slot.

• Chris Addison, Rebecca Front and others sign up to a new series of comedies on Sky Living, as reported by John Plunkett.

Controversy of the week

Regular Guardian readers will be up to speed with this one already: theBBC's decision to censor Fawlty Towers has been the talking point of the week. The episode in question, predictably enough, was The Germans – but it wasn't Basil's goosestepping that was deemed likely to cause offence. For the episode's broadcast on Sunday 20 January, the Beeb edited out a speech by Fawlty's regular guest the Major, which referred to "niggers" and "wogs". The cut was made, said a BBC spokesperson, to reflect changing public attitudes, and "to allow the episode to transmit to a family audience at 7.30pm on BBC2".

Never shy when a chance arises to bash the Beeb, the Daily Mail went big on the story, quoting correspondents to the BBC's Points of View messageboard who criticised the move. "I doubt if anyone but the terminally thin-skinned could be offended by the Major," wrote one. Another complained: "How sad BBC [that] you have finally succumbed and lost the guts to transmit the episode … It's about time you grew up BBC and trusted your audience." The Guardian's Mark Lawson joined the debate, while our readers offered their opinions – mostly against the cuts – below the line.

Best of our readers' comments

News that BBC1 sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys – loved by its vast audience, hated by the cultural cognoscenti – is to return for a fourth seriesinspired heated debate below the line. Brixtonian52 tried to put things into perspective:

If Mrs Brown's Boys was a Swedish import called Mrs Larsson's Boys and was shown on BBC4 with subtitles on a Saturday evening at 8.30 before The Killing or Borgen etc, then I am fairly confident most of the 'anti' people on here would all be falling over themselves saying how wonderful it was.

The came a comment from Mrs Brown's native Ireland, from a correspondent called festinog, which took some pleasure in most of our readers' dislike of the show:

Sorry my British cousins, but you owe us for 1,000 years of oppression and a famine. I feel that dumping this horrible little man on you has gone some way towards evening the score. Take Enda Kenny off our hands and we'll call it quits.

Alexei Sayle's article in advance of his long-awaited return to standup was followed by a gleeful wallow in his finest jokes from yesteryear. Treat yourself to a nostalgic chuckle, thirtysomethings, by reading the whole thread, which includes this corker, contributed by DmIsTheSaddestKey:

I got me girlfriend into a bit trouble recently. Yeah. I got her involved in the civil war in Angola.

Another comment, from Scriberpunk, inspires amusement and philosophical reflection in equal measure:

I always wanted more money than sense. I've got a fiver. I'm half way there.

Fight of the condor: Peru bull fiestas threaten future of rare Andean bird

Dramatic Yawar festivals are designed to show the triumph of indigenous culture over colonial influence, but the number of condors injured and killed raises fears for the species' survival

At a raucous mountain festival high in the Peruvian Andes, a brass band and booming loudspeaker herald the arrival of the most eagerly awaited spectacle.

With the wings of an angel and the horns of a devil, the tonne of life that flaps and bucks and charges into the bullring at first resembles a strange mythological beast.

Snorting and kicking up dust, the hybrid – a raging bull with a condor strapped to its back – strikes awe in a watching crowd as it thunders into the arena, then excitement as it repeatedly attempts to gore a matador. The closer the enraged beast comes to a lethal connection, the louder the cheers of "Olé!".

The spectacle is dramatic, comic and tragic at the same time. While the bull provides the sound and fury, the Andean condor on its back cuts a ridiculous and pathetic sight as it flails wildly back and forth, beating its wings to retain balance on a bucking perch.

The ritual appears designed to show the triumph of indigenous culture over colonial influence. The Andean bird rides the symbol of Spanish virility and is then released, while the bulls are often slaughtered.

But there are accidents. The giant bird – the biggest in the western hemisphere – loses feathers and risks breaking bones or being killed if its mount crashes into the wall or stumbles on its side.

Such customs might barely register overseas if they were rare and the population of Andean vultures was abundant. But the opposite is true, which has created a mounting conservation concern.

"We know there are up to 55 Yawar fiestas a year, some of which use several condors. And some condors are dying.

Undoubtedly it is a threat to a species that is at a very much reduced population level," says Rob Williams, Peru co-ordinator for the Frankfurt Zoological Society, who estimates there may be just 300-500 left in the wild in Peru. "We are on a threshold and if we push the condors much further over this threshold, it will be very difficult for them to recover."

The origins of the fiestas are obscure. Locals say they date back before the Incas. But it's impossible that bullfighting took place before 1528, when Francisco Pizarro brought the tradition from Spain. Now the events marry those colonial influences with the Andean worship of the condor – considered a messenger between earth and the heavens.

At Ihuayllo, a village of several hundred people living at an altitude of 3,100 metres (10,000ft), the festival begins with a parade of their captive condor, which is dressed up and pulled through the streets by the tips of its wings to the accompaniment of a brass band and the cheers of dancing locals.

It is a noisy, two-day affair fuelled by the fermented maize drink chichaand marked by no little blood. One bull is dispatched in the arena and then has its throat cut and hooves carved off in the middle of the crowd. Soon after, a spectator is gored after stumbling drunkenly into the bullring. Bleeding from the groin, he is driven to the village clinic. Seeing him carted off, a local shrugs and says: "It's a festival. This is normal."

The gory glory of the Yawar was made famous by the 1941 novel of the same name, subtitled Fiesta de Sangre (Festival of Blood) by José María Arguedas, an author, anthropologist and champion of Quechua culture known as the Hemingway of the Andes.

His book barely mentions the condor, but an image of the bird is almost always on the cover. Partly as a result, communities that had never used a condor in their Yawar festivals now do so with increasing frequency.

"This has changed an awful lot in the past 40 years. Many people because of their beliefs in the importance culturally of the Yawar fiesta – because of Arguedes' book – have begun to do Yawar festivals," says Williams. "Many of these towns who say it is a very important tradition have actually only been doing it for 20, 30 or 40 years."

Peru's booming economy is adding to the pressures. With GDP growing at about 6% each year, more and more rural migrants are making it rich in the cities and then returning to their home villages with enough money to sponsor a Yawar fiesta – the ultimate status symbol.

Samuel Rojas, the patron of the fiesta in Ihuayllo, works for a trading company in Lima. He is proud to put up the fee for a condor – without which festivals risk turning into a damp squib.

"I feel so lucky that this year, my year, they managed to trap a condor," he says over a glass of chicha. "If a condor isn't trapped the people can be so disappointed that sometimes they don't even go to see the bull fighting."

The bindings for the condor are sewn into the hide of the bull. Agitated by the stitches in its back, the beat of wings above its head and the matador's provocations in front of its eyes, the enraged bull storms around the ring with the condor lolling from side to side.

There are no definitive figures on the mortality rate of condors at Yawar festivals, but environmentalists estimate 10% to 20% are killed during the fights, while others break or dislocate bones and are likely to struggle to survive after their release.

While other factors – hunting, habitat loss and the modernisation of farming – have also played a role in the decline of the condor, the festivals are seen as an illegal and growing threat.

The condor – one of the world's biggest birds, with a wingspan of up to three metres – is supposed to be protected by a 2004 presidential decree. But police, judges and village leaders join the festivals, which are regulated at a local level even though they are forbidden by national laws.

The sponsor's brother, Donato Rojas, says provincial authorities grant permission for Yawar fiestas to use condors, which are usually captured by using a dead horse as bait. "But if the bird dies in the fight, it can lead to fines or imprisonment."

Not long ago, the revered bird was also seen as a pest and a threat. Some herdsmen are still happier if condors are accidentally killed. "I prefer that they die because they harm my livestock. Every year they eat six or seven calves and that hurts me," says Victor Tello, a herdsman dressed, like many festival-goers, in brightly coloured Andean garb.

Drunken revellers try to pluck feathers from the birds while they are tethered close to the bullring before their fight, but the condors' handlers push them away.

The mayor of Ihuayllo, Bruno Guillen, emphasises that the regulations are designed to protect the bird. "The condor is a symbol of our region, Apurímac, and every year we have a festival with a condor," he says. "We limit its participation in the bullring to three occasions, then it is returned to those in charge of caring for it. Afterwards it is released in a farewell ceremony, with its crown and money, by way of thanks, and it returns to its home."

The ceremony takes place the day after the fights. At Ihuayllo, handlers give the condor a parting drink of chicha, tie a scarf and money around its neck, then the brass band plays as the bird stretches its battered wings, hops on to a rock, and waits for an updraft of air. Even in the wild, the heavy vulture-like creatures cannot support their own weight without the assistance of an air current. With the added trauma of captivity and bullfights, the released bird struggles to reclaim its freedom.

With a crowd watching, the condor twice fails to lift itself in the air, flaps frantically down the slope and crashes clumsily into a thicket before being dragged back again to higher ground. By the third attempt, the watchers are anxious. The band falls silent.

The sponsor waves his arms like wings urging the condor on, knowing a dead bird is not just bad luck but could result in a fine. This time, though, the condor lifts off and soars towards the peaks, prompting a volley of fireworks and the brass band to strike up a celebratory tune.

"El Cóndor pasa!" exclaims a joyous observer, looking up at the bird banking back and forth above the village.

How much longer the condor and the Yawar can continue to grace the Andes looks likely to depend on whether the festival can undergo another evolution to add that most modern of ideas – conservation – to the blend of local traditions and foreign influences that already constitute the Yawar fiesta.

Williams and others want to work with the central and local governments to change attitudes while maintaining traditional culture. "If we can't conserve the Andean condor here, then we can't conserve it anywhere," he says.

The US-born soldier fighting for Israel: 'Women should have the privilege'

Corporal Arielle Werner, now a member of the IDF, welcomes the US decision to allow women to serve in combat roles

When she was a child growing up in Minnesota, Arielle Werner dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. Now the 21-year-old spends her days and nights patrolling the harsh desert landscape through which the Israeli-Egyptian border runs, wielding a gun, trained and ready to kill in defence of her country.

"If at the age of 19 you'd told me I'd be a combat soldier, I would have told you that you're crazy," she said in an interview with the Guardian. But, she added, "it's totally worth it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world – university, travelling. This is the place for me."

Werner is one of a small number of women combat soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Since the state lifted its restriction on women serving in combat roles in 2000, only 4% of soldiers in fighting units are women.

But the principle of equality is important to the IDF, and to other countries which allow women to serve on the frontline.

Last week, the US officially lifted its ban on women in combat roles, with President Obama saying: "Today every American can be proud that our military will grown even stronger, with our mothers, wives, sisters and daughters playing a greater role in protecting this country we love."

Werner joined the IDF after immigrating to Israel from the US 18 months ago. "There was never any doubt in my mind that combat was the place for me. I wanted to give my all, physically, mentally, everything I had. And I have done that," she said.

She serves in the mixed-gender Caracal unit, named after an androgynous desert cat. "The unit drafts guys and girls equally, we're in the same groups and we do everything together. We have guy commanders, girl commanders, everything's just about equal, we become really good friends, just everyone together. We don't really even notice the genders after a while."

Training took seven or eight months. "It was tough. You have to learn how to shoot a gun, and there are physical tests in running, push-ups, an obstacle course. That was the hardest thing for me – you have all your gear on, your vest, gun, helmet, you run, you do a bunch of obstacles, like jumping over walls, climbing ropes, more running, and if you don't pass within the time, you have to do it all over again."

The training was the same for both male and female recruits, except women were allowed a little longer to complete their exercises. But Werner, who spoke only basic Hebrew before coming to Israel, faced an additional challenge. "I got to the state where I totally could handle anything they threw at me on the physical side. But the Hebrew – holding a conversation or understanding some of the lessons – that was very tough for me."

She found it challenging "because it's the army, not because I'm a woman. But I had enough motivation, enough will-power to get through everything."

Werner has never regretted joining a combat unit, although "there have been a couple of times when I have wanted to call my mum and tell her I was scared. But in the end everything's fine, I'm still here."

Last September, a male soldier in the unit was killed in a clash with militants who had managed to cross the border. A female soldier, named only as S, received a citation after firing two shots at the head of one of the militants, who was wearing a suicide belt. "I knew we were in mortal danger," she said at the time, adding that there was no room for hesitation or mistakes.

But another female soldier was reprimanded for hiding in bushes for more than an hour during the skirmish, while her comrades hunted for her, believing she had been killed or kidnapped. According to an Israeli radio report, she admitted she was afraid.

Werner conceded that some aspects of soldiering are more difficult for women. "For example, tanks are a little harder for women to be around – if you're stuck in a tank for three days … And there are some jobs that have a lot of mental strain, even on the men and I'm not sure if women could take it."

Israel is the only country which requires women to do military service, although in practice only around half of 18-year-old women enlist compared to 70% of young men. According to the IDF, 92% of roles in the military are open to women.

In May 2011, Orna Barbivai became the first woman to be promoted to the rank of major general. "I am proud … to be part of an organisation in which equality is a central principle. I am sure that there are other women who will continue to break down barriers," she said at the time.

Werner, whose interview with the Guardian was monitored by the IDF, said she had not encountered sexist attitudes among male soldiers in her unit. "The guys in my unit are actually pretty chilled. What the girls do here is tough so there's a lot of respect."

But other former women soldiers have told the Guardian of a pressure to be tough. "If you want to survive as a woman in the army, you have to be manly."

Inbar Michelzon, who later joined Breaking the Silence, a network of former soldier raising concerns about military practices in the occupied Palestinian territories. "There is no room for feeling. It's like a competition to see who can be tougher. A lot of the time girls are trying to be more aggressive than the guys."

Asked if she considers herself a feminist, Werner said: "I see myself more as an equal opportunist. I believe men and women should be treated as equals." Femininity on frontline, she conceded, was "a little tough, but we get by. Make-up and nail polish and earrings – that doesn't happen here. Everyone is wearing the same uniform."

She welcomed the US decision to allow women to serve in combat roles.
"I think it's fantastic. I think women should have the privilege of defending their country just like men. It's not a country of men, and a country of women, it's both. So both should have equal opportunities."

Vittorio Missoni disappearance: bag from plane found on island of Curacao

Luggage belonging to Italian who missed flight is found on island 200 miles west of resort where missing plane took off

The first sign of debris from a missing plane that was carrying the Italianfashion executive Vittorio Missoni has surfaced on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.

A German tourist found a bag belonging to an Italian who missed the flight but whose luggage was on board the plane that vanished shortly after take-off on 4 January.

Curacao lies about 200 miles west of the resort islands of Los Roques, from where the BN-2 Islander plane departed for Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, with Missoni, three other Italian tourists and two crew members on board.

Norman Serphos, of Curacao's prosecutor's office, said the German tourist had found the bag along the island's rocky north coast and contacted its owner in Italy, who in turn called police in Curacao. Police received the bag on Friday and were working with authorities inVenezuela and Italy, Serphos said.

An official at the Italian embassy in Caracas said they were aware of the discovery.

Italy's air safety agency has said the pilot of the missing plane had an expired medical fitness certificate and the company operating the aircraft was not yet authorised to fly. However, the agency said neither factor was yet being blamed for the disappearance.

Seven minutes after take-off the pilot reported that he was at 5,000ft and 10 nautical miles from the Los Roques airport, according to the agency. The last radar readings showed the aircraft accelerating at 5,400ft before it quickly lost altitude and speed, veering to the right until it disappeared from the radar.

Brazil nightclub fire mourners march through Santa Maria

Police estimate 35,000 join procession to commemorate 231 victims of Kiss club fire and demand justice against perpetrators

Tens of thousands of Brazilian mourners joined a procession through the streets of Santa Maria on Monday evening to commemorate the 231 victims of the weekend's nightclub fire and to demand justice against those responsible.

Amid rising anger and concern at the lax safety regulations that resulted in the country's deadliest fire in more than 50 years, the marchers – many wearing white clothes or carrying white flowers – paraded from Saldanha Marinho square to the sports centre that has been turned into a makeshift mausoleum.

Some carried mounted photographs of the dead. Others held banners with the names of the victims and slogans decrying the poor law enforcement that contributed to the high death toll.

"Why the regulations? Why pay taxes? What is the government doing?" read one carried by university students who had lost friends in the fire.

During the 90-minute procession, the participants recited prayers, sang anthems and chanted for justice when they passed what is left of the Kiss nightclub.

According to the police, 35,000 people participated in the march, which was organised on social networks as an expression of public sentiment about the disaster.

The authorities have promised to take note. In a speech on Monday, President Dilma Rousseff said administrators bore a heavy responsibility to prevent a recurrence of similar disasters.

"The pain I have witnessed is indescribable … we have a duty to ensure that it will never happen again," she told a meeting of Brazilian mayors and ministers.

Police have detained four people in connection with the fire, including two of the owners of the nightclub and the band's lead singer and production engineer. Anticipating future legal claims for compensation, state lawyers have also blocked the assets of the nightclub owners.

Criminal charges are also possible. The state prosecutor, Nilton Leonel Maria, told local media the owners have not been co-operating with the investigation and may have tampered with the evidence. CCTV surveillance footage that might have shed light on the incident is missing. It is uncertain if the cameras malfunctioned or the tapes were removed.

Fire investigators have identified a long catalogue of negligence. Fire extinguishers failed to work, there was a lack of emergency exits, no backup lighting, and security cameras were reportedly out of action. Unaware of the blaze, the club's bouncers initially prevented people from escaping because they thought they were trying to leave without paying.

Such revelations have raised questions about other entertainment venues elsewhere in Brazil, particularly ahead of the World Cup and Olympics.

"So many young ones with all of their lives ahead of them," Brazilian soccer legend Pelé wrote on Twitter. "The government has to make a priority of event security in this country!"

Several municipalities announced plans for new inspections and meetings with owners to review safety procedures. In Manaus two nightclubs were temporarily closed and fined after it was revealed their licenses had expired and their emergency equipment was substandard.

Valdeci Oliveira, a legislator in Rio Grande do Sul state, said he and his colleagues would seek to ban pyrotechnic displays in closed spaces such as nightclubs. "It won't bring anybody back, but we're going to introduce the bill," Oliveira said on his Twitter feed.

Tighter controls are also being sought on polyurethane foam, which is widely used for soundproofing in clubs. This material has been banned in clubs in the US since a nightclub fire killed 100 people in Rhode Island in 2003.

Google partnership will see thousands of UK children get Raspberry Pis

Total of 15,000 credit card-sized, bare-bones systems will be given away to encourage them to develop programming skills

Thousands of children in the UK are to receive free Raspberry Picomputers to encourage them to develop programming skills.

A total of 15,000 of the credit card-sized, bare-bones systems will be given away in a collaboration between the Raspberry Pi Foundation and Google.

Speaking at Chesterton Community College in Cambridge, where a group of students received the first batch of free machines, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said he hoped the project would lead to more children and young people learning to write code.

"Britain's innovators and entrepreneurs have changed the world", he said. "The telephone, television and computers were all invented here.

"We've been working to encourage the next generation of computer scientists, and we hope that this donation of Raspberry Pis to British school pupils will help drive a new wave of innovation."

Schmidt, a vocal critic of the UK's computing curriculum, attacked the lack of attention paid to programming in his 2011 MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. Tuesday's event saw him deliver a programming lesson to students alongside Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton.

Upton said the partnership with Google could reverse the decline in students applying to study computing science at British universities, where applications have dropped by almost a quarter in the last decade.

"Fewer young people are applying to courses, which seems paradoxical when you think of the number and sophistication of digital devices they're using," he said.

"But generally the more sophisticated a device is, the harder it is to program. There's no lack of interest in technology, but there's a barrier between being a user and becoming a producer of content."

Upton argues the Raspberry Pi exemplified the spirit of a more open era where users could more readily program their devices. "In the 1980s people bought 8-bit computers like the ZX Spectrum and the BBC Micro," he said. "They might have got them to play games or do their school work, but they also came with all the tools needed to write professional software."

But, he said: "That ecosystem has been eaten by PCs, which are programmable but require users to go and find the right tools, devices like smartphones and tablets which aren't designed with programmers in mind, and games consoles which aren't programmable at all."

Almost a million Raspberry Pis have been sold since the system's launch in March 2012, many to adult computer enthusiasts.

"A comparatively small number of those sales have been to schools", Upton said.

"But there are teachers who are dedicated hobbyists who have bought Pis with their own money and used them for after-school programming clubs. If schools are lucky enough to have those motivated, passionate teachers then they're part of the vanguard. Hopefully the partnership with Google will allow us to broaden our reach. We're particularly keen to get machines into disadvantaged schools and to introduce more girls to coding."

The machines will be distributed through educational organisations including Coderdojo, which runs free, volunteer-led classes for children interested in programming.

Lindsay Macvean, a professional web designer and Coderdojo mentor, said children had shown great enthusiasm for the Raspberry Pi.

"It's a fascinating looking machine", he said. "The fact that you can actually see all the working parts draws kids into computing in a very raw way. We've had programming sessions with members of the original Raspberry Pi team and we've had kids using the Pi as a synthesiser to make music."

Macvean said the free systems would encourage children to explore computing science in ways that might not otherwise be possible.

"The fact that it's free means that there's no fear about breaking it", he said. "Parents aren't going to tell these kids: 'don't touch that, you might damage it' as they might with a family PC. They'll be able to play with these systems at a very fundamental level and see how things break and how to fix them, which is a very big thing in computing.

"They're understanding the concept of an operating system, learning to use a command line, and as none of the software is proprietary they don't have to stick with one company's products – they can chop and change things however they like."

The project marks the latest in a series of efforts by Google to promote programming education in the UK. The company had previously worked with the charity First Teach to provide computer science specialists to teach in schools.

Upton hopes other companies will follow suit. "It's good to see Google putting their money where their mouth is", he said.

"They've been vocal about promoting computing in the UK, and hopefully other organisations will have the same mindset.

"Sometimes individual companies can be apprehensive about getting involved because there's always the risk that you make an investment and the improved talent pool will go and work for your competitors, but if the whole industry gets together then we could do something on a massive scale."

British man held over French murder

Man arrested over death of woman who was attacked while out jogging in Nimes, south-west France

A British man has been arrested in France over the murder of a woman who was attacked while out jogging, police said.

The woman's body was discovered on a track in Nimes, south-west France, last Thursday. Reports said the arrested man was 32 and originally from Chatham, in Kent. He is understood to have been living in the region with his mother.

A local police spokesman said: "A British man has been arrested. The matter is now being handled by police in Montpellier."

The dead woman – understood to be a 33-year-old mother of three of Tunisian origin – was reportedly found near a cemetery a few hundred metres from a police academy and detention centre. There were traces of blood on two stones and a blade found close to her body, according to the regional newspaper La Dépêche.

She appeared to have been badly beaten, with blows to the face and neck. A postmortem examination revealed she also had knife wounds.

The woman had been reported missing by her partner after he was contacted by the children's school when she failed to collect them, La Dépêche reported. The woman was said to go jogging regularly in the quiet Courbessac area where she lived.

Qatar 2022 World Cup will exploit migrant workers, says report

• Human Rights Watch chronicles abuse of workers in Gulf state
• Forced labour, low pay and insanitary conditions rife

The World Cup due to be played in Qatar in 2022 will be "a crucible of exploitation and misery" for poorly paid migrant workers who will toil on the country's construction sites, the campaigning organisation Human Rights Watch will warn in a report due to be published on Thursday.

In its World Report 2013, HRW is expected to say workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal and other south Asian countries suffer forced labour, low pay, insanitary and overcrowded living conditions and other violations of their human rights when they arrive to work in Qatar, one of the world's richest countries.

HRW says the Qatar government has not fulfilled pledges made when Fifa awarded the World Cup to the country, to improve the conditions for workers who will build nine new stadiums and massive infrastructure projects for the tournament. Although there are concerns within the football establishment about players and supporters enduring the heat of Qatar if the tournament is played in the summer of 2022, HRW argues no similar care is being taken for the workers labouring in that summer heat every year.

HRW, which published an extensive report into workers' human rights in Qatar in June, found that some workers have to live in "overcrowded and unsanitary labour camps", which lacked clean water, ventilation or air-conditioning, "crucial elements for adequately minimising the risk of heat stroke".

Many of the 1.2 million migrant workers, who form 88% of the country's population, suffer the kafala sponsorship system, which ties them to a single employer. That means they cannot change jobs without the consent of that employer, other than in exceptional cases, and to leave Qatar they need the sponsoring employer to grant an exit visa, which can be refused. Employers "routinely" confiscate workers' passports, HRW says.

"Qatar has some of the most restrictive sponsorship laws in the Gulf region and forced labour and human trafficking are serious problems," the HRW World Report will state. "The government has failed to address shortcomings in the legal and regulatory framework despite the initiation of many large-scale projects for Qatar's 2022 World Cup."

Qatar's bid included commitments that the situation of workers in the country would be improved but HRW argues little progress has been made. There remains no legal right to form or join a trade union and no minimum wage. Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said that, combined with the kafala system, workers are suffering "forced labour" in Qatar.

"The World Cup in 2022 was awarded by Fifa to a country which treats workers as modern-day slaves," Burrow said. Calling on Qatar to improve its labour laws and practices, including outlawing recruitment fees charged to workers, she cited figures from the Nepal government that 200 Nepali migrant workers died last year working in Qatar. "More workers will die building World Cup infrastructure than players will take to the field," Burrows predicted.

The Qatar 2022 supreme committee told the Guardian it has nearly finalised a "migrant worker charter" for all World Cup-related projects, that it will include labour requirements in its tender documents and work with HRW and other stakeholders to seek "the highest health and safety and worker welfare standards to the benefit of all major projects in Qatar".

The Qatari government, contacted via the embassy in London, did not respond to the Guardian's request for comment on the issues raised by Human Rights Watch.

Mali conflict: African and western nations pledge $450m for military force

Japan, which saw the heaviest losses at the In Amenas gasfield siege in Algeria, among the biggest donors with $120m

African and western nations have pledged more than $450m (£286m) to fund an African-led military force to fight Islamists in Mali, as Britain and Germany increased logistical support to the French intervention on the ground.

The African-led support mission in Mali, known as Afisma, has already seen troops arriving steadily from several countries including Nigeria and is eventually expected to take over operations from France. But the needs of the sudden and laborious mission have mushroomed and the overall budget is likely to be nearer $960m.

Among the biggest donors was Japan, which suffered the heaviest foreign losses in the In Amenas gasfield siege in Algeria last week with 10 workers killed. Tokyo said its pledge of $120m in aid and support for refugees reflected its "unshaken resolve to fight terrorism".

France, which has 3,500 troops on the ground in Mali, is paying for its own initial intervention, codenamed Operation Serval. It has not asked other western nations to contribute ground forces, but there was relief in Paris as Britain, the US and Germany increased their support in terms of logistics, transport and intelligence.

There had been tension between France and the US at the end of last week when Washington handed Paris a $20m bill for the use of its transport flights. Irked, Paris calculated that it amounted to $50,000 dollars per hour of flight time, according to Le Monde.

The bill was dropped and the differences appeared to have been patched up at the weekend when the US announced it would fly tankers to refuel French fighters and bombers, stepping up the American involvement considerably and effectively directly supporting military attacks.

Germany's offer of a third transport aircraft to carry west African troops to Mali was looked upon favourably by France after the Mali operation initially seemed to put strain on the Paris-Berlin relationship and their different views of intervention abroad. Germany is traditionally reticent to intervene, as it showed by standing back from the recent Libya campaign.

Germany pledged $20m to the UN fund for the African mission in Mali, but its foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, pointedly noted: "In the long-term there can only be a political solution" to Mali's problems.

European government officials met in Brussels on Tuesday to decide how to put together a 500-strong military training mission to be sent to Mali in a fortnight, amid growing complaints about how the war in Sahel is highlighting an EU security policy and defence capacity vacuum.

Amid speculation that an EU "battle group" of 1,700 troops on constant standby for emergency deployment could be rushed to Sahel, senior officials in Brussels admitted this was a non-starter. The group's main real function was for practice, senior sources said.

The necessary consensus of 27 EU governments on a deployment was impossible to reach in any case and had not been attempted. While use of the battle group had been discussed in Brussels, the issue had not been raised with EU governments as there was no point.

General Patrick De Rousiers, the French air force officer who heads the EU's military committee, said the French-German-Polish group currently on standby was "useful for keeping up the level of the unit. The aim is to foster interoperability between nations."

He added: "When will at last the battle groups be deployed? When the 27 agree." Since being formed six years ago, the rotating six-month battle groups have never seen action.

De Rousiers stressed that France was receiving logistical help from 10 EU countries. "The training mission in Mali is really the sign that the EU is engaged," he said. "France is not alone at all. France, I imagine, should be happy having what it has."

A French diplomat said of the Mali ground operation: "The decision was taken by France to go in alone. We knew from the start that it would be an operation supported by African forces. It was never a question of a European ground troop mission. But Europe's role in training the African force has now been accelerated. Things are falling into place, we don't have any criticisms to make."

Colonel Michel Goya, a senior French officer, told the EUobserver website: "The EU doesn't know how to wage war. It's not prepared to launch military operations of this type."

He said it was difficult enough waging war by Nato committee, as in Libya or in 1999 in Serbia and Kosovo. "It would be even worse at EU level. If we do it alone, it's more efficient in military terms. We have more freedom of action if we do it alone."