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The number of people being executed around the world rose significantly in 2008 compared to the previous year, according to Amnesty International.There were 2,390 executions worldwide last year, with an overwhelming 72 per cent of those being carried out in China (the host of the Olympics).Japan executed highest number for over 30 years, while Belarus…
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A plaque was due to be unveiled today in memory of Jimmy Murphy, the coach who helped nurture Manchester United’s legendary Busby Babes and led Wales to their only World Cup finals.Murphy, born in the Rhondda of a Welsh mother and Irish father, was the man who stepped into Matt Busby’s shoes after the Munich…
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I never thought I’d ask this question but where is Tony Blair?As Hamas and the Israeli government square up – home-made rockets against F-18s – just where is our Middle East “peace envoy”?I thought he might have come out and done something (although on past behaviour I don’t know what I could have been expecting.)The…
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On Friday, the world said goodbye to Studs Terkel.Studs might not have been so well known on this side of the Atlantic but in the United States they are paying tribute to a “true American hero”.Studs was a performer, a journalist, an oral historian and a “rabble-rouser”.McCarthy tried to have him testify against leftist friends;…
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Psst, do you want to know a secret?It’s the story of a heroic Welshman, although it doesn’t start off very courageously.I mean, our heroes are rarely “mean-spirited” and “bony-faced”.They don’t normally have ill-shaped ears, or make a spectacle of themselves by only putting in their false teeth to eat.What manner of hero is this, I…
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Michael O’Brien spent 11 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit.In December 1999, after judges quashed his conviction, he asked me to write a piece about his two-week appeal.That request turned into a plan to write a complete book of Mike’s life.It is an incredible story.Mike’s arrest and life sentence for the murder…
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This short report on Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s visit to Gaza is only two minutes and three seconds long.Watching it won’t take up much of your weekend. But his words might stay with you for much longer.
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Back in the 1970s the BBC produced a critically-acclaimed drama series called Secret Army.The programme followed the exploits of a group of ordinary Belgians who ran an evasion line, helping Allied airman return to Britain after being shot down.The series was based on the Comet Line, a network established by a young Belgian girl, Andrée…
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Here’s a great snap. It shows a road traffic accident from almost 90 years ago. Even with so little traffic on the road in those days, this crash was certainly unusual enough to be marked and turned into a postcard. The card is captioned “Army (I think) Lorry Accident Caerleon Bridge, October 6, 1919″. It…
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Farewell to Tower Colliery – and best wishes to all the miners who made the final march from the pit today.Tower, a workers’ co-operative, was the last deep coal mine in South Wales. It is a remarkable story, which has been told many times. Despite the understandable mythologizing, the colliery has always been about basic…
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Greg Lewis 