An economics and employment expert has lashed out at the government’s construction industry watchdog, saying the body ineffectively regulates migrant worker mistreatment through sham contracting, writes Crikey intern Katie Weiss.
Amnesty international
‘It felt like an electric shock’: life inside Malaysian detention
Asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia are often subjected to judicial canings, long periods of incarceration and arbitrary arrest, according to reports from within the country’s immigration detention system.
Amnesty’s 2009 death penalty report
Amnesty International has released its annual report into death sentences and executions: at least 714 people were executed in 18 countries last year — but that doesn’t include the thousands of “secret” executions in China.
Google’s China move: fresh pressure to heed human rights wrongs
Internet and media companies desperate to gain a share of the massive Chinese market are now facing fresh pressure to heed human rights concerns, following Google’s announcement that it will cease to censor search engine results in China.
Aboriginal Australia: like the poorest of Africa, says Amnesty chief
The Secretary General of Amnesty International has likened conditions in Central Australia to the poorest parts of Africa and Asia, and described the gap between rich and poor in this country as the most stark she’s even seen.
busted 
The cruel craziness of Japan’s death row
It’s not just innocent people on death row that has Amnesty giving the Japanese legal system a swerve. Prisoners are being driven clinically insane and then executed anyway.
No sunshine for Fijian journalists
Fijian authorities are censoring and intimidating the media with ‘Gestapo-like’ tactics, including arrests and interrogations, finds a damning new report on Fiji released by Amnesty International, titled Fiji: Paradise Lost.
Shell questions Amnesty report on Nigerian oil
Amnesty hopes a report condemning oil companies for pollution and poverty in the Niger Delta will make it a top priority for Shell’s new CEO; the company is claiming it’s full of “unsupported allegations”.
Anti-abuse ad batters women when no-one’s looking
Amnesty International has installed a new anti-domestic-abuse ad in Germany which uses an eye-tracking camera to sense when someone is looking at it — and when they’re looking away.
Jailed Azerbaijani newspaper editor wins media award
Azerbaijani newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev has been given a special award for “journalism under threat” in the Amnesty International Media Awards.
I didn’t know David Irving read Crikey
Having been with Crikey since day one, it’s distressing to discover the freaks, fanatics and fringe dwellers that are reading us nowadays – the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fan club, laments Christian Kerr.
A portrait of the week that was…
What a week! And First Dog On The Moon looks at Crosby-Textor’s poll monster.
