Imran Khan pulls out of conference over Salman Rushdie booking
Pakistani cricket-star-turned-politician drops out of India lineup after learning of Satanic Verses novelist's participation
Scientists use Thoreau’s journal notes to track climate change
Researchers use Walden author's tables of flowering dates in 1840s Massachusetts to show temperature has risen 2.4C
British author’s ‘mommy porn’ becomes US bestseller
EL James is the toast of literary circles, where she is credited with introducing 'graphic, heavy-breathing erotica'
Doonesbury strip on Texas abortion law dropped by some US newspapers
Several papers decline to use cartoon strip, which depicts state-required sonograms as Republican-approved rape
Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoğlu and James Robinson – review
Two US academics offer a compelling analysis of the world’s financial malaise, writes Paul Collier
Thomas Aquinas, part 6: natural law
Tina Beattie: How to believe: Modern thinkers who appeal to natural law as a foundation for morality often lose sight of Aquinas's more flexible naturalism
Was colonialism to blame for the spread of HIV in Africa?
A provocative new book argues that the late 19th-century 'scramble for Africa' may created the ideal conditions for the spread of HIV
Claude Lanzmann: the man who stood witness for the world
Claude Lanzmann has lived a remarkable life yet is best known for his epic film, Shoah. Now, aged 87, he tells Ed Vulliamy his own extraordinary story
Institutional sexism of books world needs new girls’ network
Womens' entry to the present old boys' club is not the only solution to gender inequality
China stops Tibetan blogger receiving Prince Claus award
Poet Tsering Woeser says she is under house arrest in Beijing after police tell her not to attend ceremony at Dutch embassy
Real-life Watership Down fights housing development
The Berkshire setting for the 1972 book about countryside under threat faces the same fate, with the author leading the fight
Thomas Aquinas, part 5: what does it mean to be human?
Tina Beattie: How to believe: For Aquinas, the link between consciousness and matter is our desire for God as an expression of the life of the Trinity
The readers’ editor on… how too much coverage of some people can annoy
Chris Elliott: Open door: The prominence given to Christopher Hitchens, the Duchess of Cambridge, Fabio Capello and Harry Redknapp irked readers
Anthony Sampson: the private world of the man who knew everyone
The papers of the author and Observer journalist, made public for the first time, reveal an irresistible listener, says Robert McCrum
The Man Without A Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen – review
James Meek applauds a courageous book that delves into the Russian prime minister's shady past