Latest news & blogs

Iran has ratified the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, bringing the number of countries that have deposited their instrument of acceptance to 100, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has announced.

Dongtan, the world's first eco-city, is leading the way in urban sustainability, say Resurgence. By 2010 it will be a compelling model that may well be too persuasive to ignore.

A combination of higher public interest in the environment, and a revamping of tax regulations is boosting efforts to reverse the country's lingering legacy of environmental degradation.

The United States has defended its treatment of foreign terrorism suspects held abroad, telling a U.N. committee it backed a ban on torture and stressing there had been "relatively few actual cases of abuse". Human Rights Watch reports.

Repressive regimes are taking full advantage of the net’s ability to censor and stifle reform and debate, reveals a report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to mark Press Freedom Day.

Further to our news item last week, Yahoo Inc. has been cited in a Chinese court decision to jail a dissident Internet writer for 10 years for subversion in 2003 -- the fourth such case to surface implicating Yahoo!. Reporters Without Borders has now called on Yahoo! to withdraw its Internet servers from China.

Christian Aid’s Wish you were here…? show garden at the July 2006 Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (4-9 July 2006) will focus on the importance of education in the fight against the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The idea of forcing ISPs to record their customers' online activities for future police access is gaining ground in US state capitols and in Washington DC. The European Parliament's vote in December for a data retention requirement seems to have attracted broad interest.

Human rights activists have condemned the arrest of at least 30 peaceful protesters at demonstrations on 26 and 27 April, held in support of pro-reform judges.

The European commissioner for external relations said she raised the issues of free expression and imprisoned Internet users in her meetings with the Prime Minister and foreign minister Nguyen during her visit to Vietnam on 21-21 April.