Hes a judo black belt and likes to be photographed doing manly things like shooting and fishing, but has outgoing Russian president Vladimir Putin been a force for good? In a big BBC World Service opinion poll out today opinions are...

One year ago, 23-year-old Egyptian blogger Karim Amer was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for the "crime" of blog entries (at Karam93.blogspot ) that was said to be critical of Islam and Egypts President Mubarak. Yet another slap...

A bit of a round-the-world round-up for you today. A trip from Pakistan to Israel via Iran. Firstly, Pakistan and the fall-out from Mondays elections continues unabated. The latest move seems to be a determination from US and UK...

Whatever you think of Steven Spielberg - and I think some of his films are great! - you certainly cant keep China, the Olympics and human rights out of the news now. The latest case to come under the spotlight is Yang Chunlin, a former...

Its all go in the Amnesty press office today as two bits of breaking news filter through. Theres the news that Fidel Castro is to step down as president of Cuba, and then theres wholesale change in Pakistan as the election results...