In the past decade torture has never been very far from the headlines but the recent outbreak of protests across the Middle East has put the issue right back in the spotlight. Activists from Egypt to Libya, and Bahrain to Yemen have all included torture among the list of crimes allegedly committed by security forces. Understandably they want the perpetrators brought to justice. But as our story this week demonstrates, while legal sanctions can sometimes be applied, the physical and mental scars from torture take a very long time to heal.

In the mid 1970s a coup brought a military junta to power in Argentina. Its leader General Jorge Videla was a fanatical anti-Communist who fought a five-year dirty war against opponents. More than 30,000 people were imprisoned, tortured and murdered by the army and secret police. Though Videla was eventually convicted of crimes against humanity – and he and other junta leaders are now back in court facing further charges, only one of the people who did the actual torturing has ever been confronted with the human cost of his crimes. We first showed this film by Rodrigo Vazquez in 2009, but its themes are as relevant today as they were then. Some of the images are disturbing.

Marie Trigona:
Landmark Human Rights Case in Argentina Puts Torture on Trial
Memory and Justice: A Photo Essay on Argentina's Human Rights Movement

Japanese researchers have confirmed that a 13-meter tsunami hit a shelter one kilometer from the coast of Rikuzen-takata City in Iwate Prefecture on March 11th. The researchers from the University of Tokyo and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology say that the tsunami reached beams near the ceiling of a gymnasium where many people were sheltering after the initial quake. Many of them were swept away and drowned. The researchers say the tsunami travelled at a speed of more than 40 kilometers per hour and the waves were so powerful that they carried mountain rocks weighing about 20 tons each to places around the sports center. A researcher said he believes the tsunami quickly reached the 2nd floor of the gymnasium and it would have been very difficult for people to evacuate to higher places. The researchers also found that an estimated 16-meter tsunami struck a hotel on the coast of the city. They confirmed that the waves destroyed facilities up to the 4th floor of the building. Sunday, March 27, 2011 20:08 +0900 (JST)

Tokyo Electric Power Company has retracted its announcement that 10 million times the normal density of radioactive materials had been detected in water at the Number 2 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The utility says it will conduct another test of the leaked water at the reactor's turbine building. The company said on Sunday evening that the data for iodine-134 announced earlier in the day was actually for another substance that has a longer half-life. The plant operator said earlier on Sunday that 2.9 billion becquerels per cubic centimeter had been detected in the leaked water. It said although the initial figure was wrong, the water still has a high level of radioactivity of 1,000 millisieverts per hour. Sunday, March 27, 2011 22:02 +0900 (JST)

Delaware Department of Transportation crews escorted by state police tore down basketball hoops this morning in two neighborhoods in Claymont amid protests from residents who say the nets aren't harming anyone. (03/25/11)

Prudish Police State: Cops executed late-night, no-knock entry into family's home, after photos printed at local Wal-Mart show nudity of 35-yr-old women mistaken as a child. Court rules the entry a violation of Fourth Amendment law governing the obligation to knock and announce.

It is estimated more than 250,000 people from across Britain have taken part in a demonstration in central London against government spending cuts. The march and rally, organised by the TUC, have been largely peaceful, but a separate group of several hundred people has attacked shops and businesses in the West End. The BBC's Home Affairs correspondent Tom Symonds reports.

Rudy Cech: IMAGES
AllVoices: UK March for the Alternative: Few hundred mar protest, 214 arrests and 84 injuries - Video