One of the things you tend to notice in doing human rights work is the amazing calm of people who have suffered horrible experiences. I’m sure there are also embittered people who are always unpleasant to everyone they meet after what...

Words (almost) fail me. Cuba’s detained a singer from a rock band and is reportedly set to charge him with the super-vague offence of “social dangerousness” or “subverting communist morality”. Ok, it might seem ludicrous (it is), but...

This morning's news that there’s been a bomb attack on a hospital in Pakistan is chilling. Coming so soon after Pervez Musharraf’s resignation yesterday, you really get a feeling of a country “in turmoil” (to use the pundit-friendly...

The disturbing and immensely depressing events in Georgia/South Ossetia/Abkhazia have, of course, dominated the news for the entire weekend. Google News this morning shows 11,111 news items and counting, and even the Beijing Olympics...

Like a certain pair of British protestors highlighting Tibet and human rights in Beijing yesterday, George Bush’s recent remarks about China and human rights were well-timed. A “blunt condemnation” according to the Times, and there’s...

Too late for the UK papers, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s death last night is, as you might expect, featuring heavily in online and broadcast coverage today (and Global Voices has some blog reaction). For anyone who cares about literature...

They went barmy in Berlin. It was delirium in Deutschland. Ok, so Barack Obama is looking like the world’s “hottest” politician. Or at least the most popular foreign one in Germany. The “JFK in ’63” comparisons are everywhere. This is...

I always think those posters of missing dogs or cats on lampposts are unbearably sad. Someone loves those animals. The owners are heartbroken and desperate. They go to the trouble of putting up posters. They offer rewards. And then...

I think it would be fair to say that the nation is rarely riveted to the Parliament Channel. Aside from the very punchiest Punch and Judy moments of PMQs, it doesn’t really have too many watercooler moments. Or any. But human rights...

Im old enough to remember the first pop video. Or at least the first really popular one. Vienna, Ultravoxs ice-cold classic (This means nothing to me / Ohhhh, Vienna!) might not be quite as a cool as it was in 1981 ok, it hasnt been...

Two things today, neither nice. Rape and racism. Yesterday the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police John Yates (“Yates of the Yard”!) called for all police forces to set up a specialist unit to investigate rape allegations...

Say what you like about the “odd couple” journalistic brothers Peter and Christoper Hitchens – they are “up for it”. Peter, for example, renowned mauler of all things liberal, will always go on the radio to debate, for example, why the...

Phew, that’s that out of the way then! The football. Now it’s just the tennis, the cricket (remainder of), the Olympics, the start of the new football season …. Your non-sport-loving correspondent didn’t watch any football these past...

Just bought a car recently. (I’ve already mentioned my car in an earlier post – apologies bike-lovers!). Anyway, we’re getting rid of the clapped out left-hand drive Italian one (pictured) that we’ve been knocking about in for the last...

You wait ages for one … and then two come together. There’s overnight news that a US appeals court has ruled that an “enemy combatant” at Guantánamo is wrongly held and should be either freed, transferred or brought before a court to...

Last night the BBC lit up the central London sky with a tower of light as a tribute to journalists killed doing their job. Your trusty blog correspondent was in the area (Portland Place) armed with his projector pencil and canny Canon...

Blimey! Yesterday’s high political drama has left me shakin all over. The David Davis bombshell! The Guantánamo court ruling shocker! Well, while the Davis resignation is obviously the really BIG news on the UK media scene, the US...

Total British military deaths reaching 100 since 2001 is dominating the news today – one of those sad milestones that pretty much speak for themselves. In the office we also noticed that an Afghan journalist working for the BBC was...

So, the media’s been awash with 42 days – news, blogs, comment, cartoons, more comment – for oh, about 42 days now. There’s a letter in the Guardian today saying that the almost weird fascination the government has with the magical “42...

“Italians riot against Gypsies in their midst; South Africans riot against Zimbabweans and other immigrants. In troubled times, the foreigner is always hated.” So says Theodore Dalrymple, writing in today’s Times. And I would add: not...