Fire Minister Brandon Lewis probably had a fair idea what Sir Ken Knight would deliver when he asked him to conduct an "independent" report into fire and rescue services in England.
As LGBT activists worldwide celebrate anti-homophobia day we are reminded of prevailing prejudice
Bradford has seen the launch of a new campaign to battle the sources of child sex exploitation - and combat far-right bids to make it a racial issue
HUNDREDS of Argentinians could be charged with torture, disappearances and kidnapping babies during their country's "dirty war" after the Supreme Court decided on Tuesday to cancel amnesties passed in the 1980s.
STUDENT activists and opposition supporters are among thousands of people who have been arrested across Ethiopia following political unrest in which police killed 36 people, Human Rights Watch reported yesterday.
PHILIPPINE President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo refuses to respond to opposition allegations that she rigged last year's election, her spokesman said yesterday, when the political crisis sparked by mysterious wiretaps deepened.
THE number of refugees around the world rose by one million to 11.5 million last year, the independent US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants said yesterday.
AMNESTY International urged Western countries and India yesterday to cut off all military aid to Nepal's royal dictatorship until it ends widespread killings and torture in its fight against Maoist rebels.
THE UN committee probing the world body's oil-for-food programme announced on Tuesday night that it would again investigate secretary-general Kofi Annan after two previously unknown e-mails emerged which suggested that he may have known more than he claimed about a multimillion-dollar UN contract awarded to the company that employed his son.
SENIOR Iranian envoy Sirus Nasseri suggested yesterday that Iran might again turn to the nuclear black market, saying that countries are bound to do so if international embargoes block them from acquiring sensitive technology.
SPANISH police have arrested 16 Islamist terror suspects in raids in several cities, including 11 men who are accused of having ties to the al-Qaida in Iraq group and recruiting people for suicide attacks there, officials said yesterday.
PAKISTAN lifted a travel ban on rape victim Mukhtar Mai yesterday, days after her name had been placed on a list of people who are barred from leaving the country.
VETERAN Hong Kong civil servant Donald Tsang effectively won the Chinese territory's leadership race yesterday, filing papers which showed that he had the solid backing of an election committee that selects Hong Kong's leaders.