Press release me, let me go

OK, it’s not a surprise that countries have “hit lists” (not music charts) and that their intelligence services bump people off, as the deceptively cosy phrase has it. But what to make of the US giving a special media briefing to...

“Men are superior to the woman because they have paid ‘bride price’ to bring the woman into the man’s household. He can therefore do with her as he pleases.” That was the view of one man in Uganda who took part in an Amnesty-run group...

So at last here it is the countdown to the election has finally begun. And the big question is which of the two main parties can really make a difference. Enough of the small talk, who’s going to win? Will it be the ruling United...

Best April Fool of the day? The Guardian’s page three on Labour’s “ Gordon gets violent” election campaign ? Not bad. The Times’ page 19 ad for anti-sweat “Miracle Shirts” (a “real” spoof from Gillette”)? Yes, quite good (like the eye...

The sight alone of the Taser XREP – or ‘super Taser’ – is enough to send chills down the spine of even the bravest person. Described by my colleague Oliver Sprague as a ‘ shotgun that fires electric-shock bullets ’, the XREP is a...

Reading about the 17 Indians sentenced to death in the UAE after an alleged gang attack where someone was stabbed repeatedly (shades of the Victoria Station school attack), you might think … OK, fair enough. They had it coming...

Reports that the Lord’s Resistance Army carried out a brutal massacre against men, women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s north-eastern Orientale province last December have been today refuted by the rebel group...

The news story about George W Bush, seemingly wiping his hand on someone’s shirt, after having shaken hands with a Haitian earthquake survivor, caught my eye today. It was interesting because that ‘someone’ was none other than Bill...

Budget day, eh? Not being fantastically fiscally-minded, I can’t claim to have waded through the news in full. But clearly it was a bad day for cider drinkers (though a good day if you were wondering what had happened to The Wurzels...

I was struck by a number of things today, which got me thinking about justice, and whether delayed justice loses a degree of its value. The life imprisonment ot former SS leader Heinrich Boere, at age 88, might not have been witnessed...

'Inquire Within Upon Everything' was, apparently, a Victorian compendium of advice on every conceivable subject, from alleviating aches and pains to social etiquette. (It was reportedly the initial inspiration for Tim-Berners Lee when...

So the Hogwarts castle has burnt down in “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows”. Or rather, a studio set in Leavesden near Watford did on Friday. No-one hurt. Fine. Which got me thinking … how would this have gone down if the filming...

This week the Damos de Blanco (Ladies in white) descended on the streets of Cuba. They are a group of Cuban women relatives of men who were arrested in a major crack down by Fidel’s authorities in March 2003. Many of the men arrested...

One of the most seductive misperceptions that humans tend to be inclined toward, is the belief that they would not be capable of committing atrocity. Especially today, in post World War Europe. There is an unerring confidence that we...

Spiked batons, thumb cuffs and stun belts are not exactly commodities you’ll see on a shopping channel or your average retail catalogue here in the UK. But these tools of torture – which really are the stuff of nightmares – are...

What is it with Sri Lanka? All I’d like is a country that could be transparent and allow fair trials. However, that all seems a little bit beyond Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country’s president. What am I talking about this time? Nothing...

… so says the father of one of the Children Of Gaza in the new Dispatches programme, which screens tonight (8pm, Channel 4). “Oh no, not that”, you might think. Don’t we already know all we need to know about this depressing subject...

I’ll be heading back to Leamington Spa this weekend to see my mum, armed with a mothers’ day card and a badly-wrapped book that she’s probably already read. As you may have noticed online and in the press, there’s been a lot of focus...

There’s been a frisson of film fun here in the east London office of Amnesty because a film crew has been outside half the day. There’ve been stunts, explosions (really) and lots of people walking around with walkie-talkies. Blimey. I...

Memories are notoriously slippery. For instance. Being a (relatively) old codger, I think I can remember the first moon landing. I was five. And I recall watching the not-very-clear B&W images on our 60s TV (fat body, spindly legs)...