Latest news & blogs

British scientists have restored vision to blind mice in the world's first successful transplantation of light-sensitive cells into retinas. It may in the distant future lead to transplants in humans to relieve blindness.

Human Rights Watch has presented Beatrice Were, national HIV/AIDS coordinator for ActionAID International, and a leading advocate for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, with its highest honor, the Human Rights Watch Defender Award. Listen to her recent BBC radio interview.

A bill of rights for the internet age has been proposed at the UN Internet Governance Forum in Athens. The bill would update and restate rights that have been enshrined for centuries, said Robin Gross of civil liberties group IP Justice. See the Bill of Rights IGF Workshop wiki for more details.

Researchers in Australia have found that a simple Google search can solve diagnostic problems which mystify even the best GPs. It got the correct diagnosis in more than half of the hardest cases they tested.

A popular blogger in Bahrain, Mahmood Al-Yousif, has had his blog reinstated after public protest, while one of his Egyptian supporters, Abdelkareem Soliman ("Kareem"), well known for his stance on human rights, has been thrown into jail because he would not retract anything he wrote on his own blog. To stay updated on the campaign, read the Free Kareem blog started by his friends, and join the…

- the first to be dedicated to a particular human language and culture - and the history of the Catalan campaign to win it.

All wild seafood will have disappeared from the world's menus within 50 years if current trends in overfishing continue according to one of the most comprehensive studies of marine life - see map of evidence. But the study has been dismissed by the fishing industry.

Fears that the UK would "sleep-walk into a surveillance society" have become a reality, the government's information commissioner has said. Privacy International comments and the full article is available here (PDF).

A BBC investigation has revealed that the US and UK military have continued to use depleted uranium in weapons despite warnings from scientists that it poses a potential long-term cancer risk to civilians.

A senior executive for Microsoft has said the firm could pull out of non-democratic countries such as China.