After the flare-up over Sharia law in the UK, the Church of Englands back in the news after a Synod debate yesterday on terrorism, security and human rights. Passing a motion by a whopping majority of 235 votes to two, the churchmen...

So the director of Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark (and my personal favourite) Duel, has made headlines by saying he would not take up his role as the Beijing Olympics artistic director . Steven Spielbergs decision, backed by another...

Just how far does the United States think it can go with its sham justice process at Guantánamo? After six years and massive criticism for holding hundreds of prisoners in illegal detention, the US is now compounding its mistakes by...

With Super Tuesday mania spilling into Wednesday a big US story has snuck out over CIA chief Michael Hayden admitting for the first time that Americas intelligence officials have been waterboarding prisoners held in the war on terror...

The police are definitely in the news today! I dont know about more bobbies on the beat, but theres definitely quite a lot of the boys and girls in blue on their give us more pay demo: over 18,000 theyre saying . Cant resist repeating...

Stop the violence, cure the sick. Well its an aspiration. Tragically, for the last 24 hours theres been media report after media report of terrible violence in several spots around the globe - from Sri Lanka (mentioned in yesterdays...

The waterboarding row rumbles on. Theres a lot of coverage of remarks from the US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, whos been giving his take on the issue. Waterboarding would be excruciating," hes quoted as saying in...

Kenny Richey , the Scottish man who was on death row for nearly 21 years is due to be released tonight! Hed already won his main appeal and in a typical American legal deal, he is now pleading no contest to reduced charges of...

So the Omagh bombing trial has collapsed and nearly a decade on theres still no justice for the 29 victims of the worst terrorist atrocity in Northern Ireland. Its a sad pattern across the world that far too few mass killers are ever...

This has been the year of remembering the end of the Atlantic slave trade and the Daily Mail has got a big feature on the history of slavery today. We've all become used to talking about the horror of slavery - I remember when Roots...

Guantánamo Bays back in the news, on a couple of fronts. First, we had The New York Times reporting yesterday that there had been another particularly horrible suicide attempt at the camp. The camp authorities say that a prisoner has...

Big news overnight on the notorious case of Yahoo and how it handed across information on Chinese activists who later got imprisoned. Yahoo has settled a lawsuit with the families of Wang Xiaoning, a pro-democracy blogger and Shi Tao...

As our clear winter skies were shrouded with thick plumes of black smoke rising from the warehouse fire in East London, today further reports of political turmoil emerged from Pakistan amid mounting international pressure on General...

After last weeks Saudi visit - and graphic evidence that neither the Queen or Parliament has yet chucked out the chintz - today weve got the Queens Speech . So, theres much media anticipation of the colourful ceremony, of men wearing...

You, like me, probably think Google Earth is pretty impressive. Along with Google Map (and quite a few other G products it has to be said!) I think the search tools are nothing short of amazing. (I especially like the hybrid map view...

Two legs bad, four legs good. Remember that? Anyway, two blogs for the price of one today. First a quickie from me, then over to our NYC blogger. Main news is the unbelievable bloodshed that greeted Benazir Bhutto , only hours after...

Its all Ming today and while we welcomed his comments a couple of months ago on human rights, China and the Olympics, we havent got a lot to say here in the office about his age and what happens next. Too old? Too well-dressed? Should...

More tragic news from Iraq, with reports saying that 15 women and children were killed yesterday in a US air strike in northern Iraq. The American military has apologised, while saying that the attacks were targeting senior al-Qaida...

Yes, a bonus blog today! Im just back from the big Burma demo in Trafalgar Square - a fantastic, moving event. The place was swathed in red: armbands, headbands, flags and plenty of Amnesty banners. Check my flickr pics here. There...

First do no harm. Thats the ethical code that doctors sign up to, so an execution chamber is a strange place to find them. As Amnesty shows in a new report out today , doctors, anaesthetists and other medical personnel have been using...