American doctors say evidence suggests that circumcision is the kindest cut. But why then is it causing controversy around the world?
Common symbols can have a multiplicity of meanings from the mundane to the bizarre, writes Patrick Barkham.
Albie Sachs was nearly killed in 1988. He survived, and saw apartheid end, but how much should he tell his young son?
The tiny town of Grantham bore the full force of the Queensland floods last month, with homes swept away and children torn from their parents’ arms.
With the aid of a toy microscope, Professor Ian Shanks came up with an idea that has improved the lives of millions of people.
Once the economic darling of Europe, Ireland’s fortunes have dipped — and its people are paying dearly for others’ greed.
If YouTube has sprung from nowhere in five years, will it be in the internet graveyard alongside Friends Reunited in five years’ time?
It’s time to tackle homophobia on the terraces and in the dressing room, say many people in football. Patrick Barkham reports.
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/ 22 January 2010
Patrick Barkham explains why international TV phenomenon <em>Top Gear</em> is more than just a television show.
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/ 8 December 2008
Patrick Barkham thought he was a good driver until a green driving test showed he wasn’t.
After discussing famine in Africa, the peckish politicians and five spouses took on four bite-size amuse-bouches to tickle their palates.
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/ 22 January 2008
Peter Singer helped to create the animal rights movement and now he wants to change the way we eat. He tells Patrick Barkham why McDonald’s, GM crops and food miles are not all bad.
It was billed as the day they would bring the eight most powerful nations to their knees by sitting in the road, but by 9am the idealists, anticapitalists and anarchists had already been forced to take a hike. James Foley (22), a student from Glasgow, Scotland, had risen at 7.15am at the tent city in Rostock to join thousands of anti-G8 demonstrators marching on the luxurious Baltic spa resort of Heiligendamm, where world leaders were gathering.
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/ 27 February 2007
The hairdressers at Esther’s Haircutting Studio in Tarzana, California, were locking their doors for the night last Friday when a cavalcade of cars drew up outside. Britney Spears jumped out of one of the vehicles and, accompanied by her bodyguards, marched into the salon. When owner Esther Tognozzi refused to shave off the pop star’s hair, Spears took hold of the clippers and removed her locks herself.
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/ 5 December 2006
Popular fascination with Ned Kelly, Australia’s iconic horse thief and bank robber, has soared since Peter Carey’s <i>True History of the Kelly Gang</i> won the Booker Prize last week. But not everyone is happy about the growth of Kellymania, writes Patrick Barkham.
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/ 1 December 2006
Americans turned Sacha Baron Cohen’s spoof documentary into a box-office hit. But now that the victims of its send-ups are seeking compensation, Patrick Barkham asks who will have the last laugh?