November 7, 2009, 5 am in the morning, a 20-year-old girl gave birth to a brown-skinned mixed-race baby in the People’s Liberation Army 411 hospital in Shanghai.

Cockburn’s right. Khaled Sheikh Muhammad’s forthcoming execution should dovetail very nicely with the 2012 election, especially given his self avowed eagerness for martyrdom. Given the torture employed to get a lot of the evidence against him, the trial may well put a practical end to the “fruit of ...

Good cause but some branding difficulties: The engagement of men and boys is integral to achieving an end to violence against women and girls. In this vein, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the formation of a Network of Men Leaders who will work to inspire men everywhere through their commitment ...

I can’t find it right now but I believe I blogged about the pishtaco – legendary Peruvian human fat vampires – before, in connection with Shining Path. The Senderistas used to tell peasants in remote areas that rambling foreign backpackers were pishtaco, with the result that several were murdered, much ...

What makes an American lady and what makes a Chinese lady? People’s Daily reader forums are fascinating. And check out this interview with the webmaster for the Chinese Ministry of Defence: The Ministry of National Defense's website emphasizes more exclusive and authoritative information. When unexpected ...

By augmenting a low-cost Motorola phone with GPS and a battery of applications, Dominguez’s goal is to help illegal immigrants complete safe border crossings without being sent back by the Border Patrol or getting shot in the face by American “patriots.” The primary goal of the Transborder Immigrant ...

Arguably, Stoke is already England’s greenest city on the grounds that there isn’t much industry left, or that much employment of any other kind. Still, nowt wrong with making a virtue out of necessity: This evening, in St Margaret Ward Roman Catholic high school, Stoke-on-Trent is set to become the ...

Just to show you that I haven’t been completely wasting my time, here’s an assessment, a survey – nay, an overview – of Polish beer. But where to begin? I’d like to say ‘they’re all good’, but sadly it wouldn’t be true. Actually, I’m not sure if any of them are actually good in the CAMRA sense. What ...

...but I just thought you should know.

If you’ve noticed a slight lack of inspiration round here recently then you’re not alone. I’m off on holiday soon anyway, but I think it’s time as well that I took a short break from blogging. Or maybe not so short. We’ll see. I started doing this on impulse so I suppose I’ll start doing it again when ...