Extremist group Boko Haram has reportedly seized yet another major Nigerian town, killing at least 100 civilians in the process. Nigeria's Daily Post reports that Gwoza, one of the most populated areas in the northeastern Borno State, was seized by the group at dawn, who came in using armored tanks and Toyota Hilux pickup trucks. Local news agency Sahara Reporters says that the attack began at dawn, and the town was under Boko Haram control by late morning. Nigerian soldiers were reportedly outmatched by what SR calls, worryingly, Boko Haram's "increasingly sophisticated weaponry."

Benefit concerts make for strange bedfellows. A few hours into Amnesty International's nearly endless show at Brooklyn's Barclays Center last night, a tall man with silver hair named Kerry Max Cook walked onto the stage to talk about the death penalty. Cook served 22 years on death row in Texas after being wrongfully convicted for the rape and murder of a 21-year-old woman named Linda Jo Edwards; he was released in 1997. During his time in prison the state of Texas executed 144 people. Cook, a prominent anti-death penalty advocate, told his story—on the one hand the obscene horrors of death row, on the other his small measure of good fortune in being able to speak for the executed—smoothly and without the aid of the teleprompter that earlier had tripped up celebrities like Bridget Moynahan, who wore a fedora.

The bloody and endless Mexican Drug War, which exists largely due to America's unwinnable "War on Drugs," is having a predictable salutary effect: increased mass torture, by police. From the LAT:

Sure, stoning is a harsh punishment. But how about having your spinal cord severed on court orders? That's what one man in Saudi Arabia is facing, after paralyzing another man in a fight over two years ago. A little brutal?

[via Animal NY]

Amnesty International, well known whiners for freedom, released a new anti-torture ad last week. And it's really good! The ad, not torture. At the very least, it's the most stylish portrayal of waterboarding America has seen since it became the hot new YouTube trend. There's also a nice, subtle nod in here to overblown bottled water ads; both are bad things that will kill you. Through economic paralysis and environmental degradation. Oh, the waterboarding will also kill you by drowning. The ad, which Dick Cheney doesn't even realize is supposed to be disturbing, is after the jump.

Could it be true that advertising is nothing more than the tools of liars? That ads are designed to get you to purchase things that often you don't need and perhaps believe things you shouldn't? Advertising copywriter Copyranter brings you instances of advertising lies and the lying liars who sell them.