Latest news & blogs

A high ranking French government official has called for open standards for software to be adopted by all European countries: "To counter the risk of the impoverishment of IT because of the practices of some large world actors, it is important that we propose that our European partners adopt the principle of interoperability as regards data processing, to guarantee the development — even, in…

Supermarkets are putting pressure on organic food watchdogs to lower standards so they can fully exploit a billion-pound industry which is growing by 30% a year, according to leading figures in the movement. The Soil Association has refuted claims that its organic standards and principles were 'slipping' under pressure.

The future for barn owls looks extremely bleak following the worst breeding season for 20 years, according to the Barn Owl Trust.

A secret US program to monitor millions of international financial transactions for terrorist links violated Belgian and European law and will have to be changed. "SWIFT breaks EU law to comply with US law".

The Kalahari Bushmen of Botswana have made a desperate appeal for help to Leonardo DiCaprio, who stars in the forthcoming film ‘The Blood Diamond' - "...When we were chased off our land, officials told us it was because of the diamond finds....". The Gana and Gwi Bushmen's organization First People of the Kalahari launched their own website earlier this month.

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the closure of Advar News, a website linked to an independent student group, which has been shut down since intelligence agents raided its office on 19 September. A blog service, persianblog.com, was also briefly blocked “by mistake” by Iranian ISPs.

Amnesty International reports that the Pakistani government has committed numerous human rights violations as a result of its cooperation in the US-led "war on terror". See the Press Release and the full Report.

The state of California, already in the forefront of the fight against global warming, filed an unprecedented lawsuit against six leading car manufacturers yesterday, arguing that exhaust fumes caused untold millions of dollars in damage to the state's weather, economy and public health.

The DPP yesterday backed a call by the attorney general for the removal of the ban on using phone-tap evidence in court. He said: "It's very, very important we do everything we can to achieve this because we've got a big prize in prospect if we manage this. The big prize is public safety - convicting dangerous criminals." Liberty welcomes phone-tap evidence use in criminal cases.

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has catalogued a roll call of death of the 221 asylum seekers and migrants who have died either in the UK or attempting to reach the UK in the past seventeen years. Read the full report (PDF format).