In Pennsylvania last month judge Mark Ciavarella, and the judge of the juvenile court  Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty to having accepted $2.6m (£1.8m) from the co-owner and builder of a private prison where children aged from 10 to 17 were locked up.The cases of up to 2,000 children put into custody by Ciavarella and Conahan over the past seven years are now being reviewed in a scandal called "kids for cash".

French students are out of the classroom and back on
the street. On Thursday, 29th January, students and teaching staff
joined in the national strike that had an estimated 2.5 million French workers
marching in the major cities to prove to President Sarkozy that his provocative
remark in the summer of 2007- ‘These days, when there’s a strike in France,
nobody notices,’ was as wrong as it was rash.

Last November we
reported how Binyam Mohamed had been tortured with the enthusiastic participation
of the British security services. 

Miliband has
slapped a gagging order on the High Court to hush up the incident on the ground
that it endangers national security. It is quite clear is all that is really endangered
is the Miliband’s reputation How can the man possibly posture before the world as
a democratic and defender of civil liberties if this shameful secret comes out?