Stress, hooding, noise, nudity, dogs

It was the young officials at Guantánamo who dreamed up a list of new aggressive interrogation techniques. But it was the politicians who set the ball rolling. Philippe Sands follows the torture trail right to the top

UK version of Cruise book scrapped

I am sad to see that Andrew Morton's biography of Tom Cruise will not be published in Britain. Macmillan have "bowed to pressure" from Cruise and scrapped plans to publish a UK version of Tom Cruise: An Unauthorised Biography.

Dream warrior

Award-winning Aboriginal writer Alexis Wright tells Stephen Moss about fighting 'white resistance', why her success is a ray of light for her people, and why Australia's new PM was right to apologise to them

Harry Potter and the battle of court 24A

J K Rowling had flown from Scotland to appear at a trial in which she is seeking to block the publication of an unauthorised encyclopaedia to the Harry Potter series

Man of war

He's the Beirut-based reporter who has met Bin Laden and infuriates Bush's America. Robert Fisk tells Rachel Cooke about a life in the line of fire

Poles to get lessons in Goody English

A Polish TV channel is airing old series of Channel 4's Big Brother to help viewers learn English as a 'living language'. By Hilary Davies and Leigh Holmwood

27m to gain ‘language of prosperity’

Britain is preparing to fund an ambitious education project in Bangladesh to reverse a decline in English skills. The aim is to make the language more of a feature of everyday life, reports Max de Lotbinière

The end of the line?

Jon Henley reports on the uncertain fate of the semicolon, this most subtle and misused of punctuation marks