UK news archive

19.05.2004 The government must get tough on arms sales according to a cross-party report published by the Quadripartite Committee. Oxfam and Amnesty International have welcomed the report.

19.05.2004 Three quarters of the public say the government should cut traffic levels on Britain's roads and seven out of ten want more spending on public transport, a survey for Friends of the Earth has revealed.

18.05.2004 Gordon Brown will launch a new project today to mobilise more than one million British workers in support of economic development and workers’ rights in Africa. The Africa Matters project is a joint initiative by Amicus, Britain's largest private sector union, and Action for Southern Africa, campaign group and successor to the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

14.05.2004 Oxfam and the UK’s largest independent coffee roaster, Matthew Algie, have announced plans to launch a chain of fair trade coffee shops, called Progreso, in partnership with coffee grower co-operatives.

14.05.2004 Two of the Britons released from detention at Guantanamo Bay have written an open letter to US President George Bush detailing tortures which they allege were inflicted upon them at the American camp for suspected terrorists in Cuba.

14.05.2004 The UK will spend £80 million over the next two years to support peace and development in Nepal, announced Gareth Thomas MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development, in London.

14.05.2004 One in three donations to UK charities are now tax-effective according to Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). However, many charities are still failing to reclaim tax on their donations and to address this. CAF is hosting two new workshops to help charities understand and exploit tax-effective giving.

13.05.2004 Senior politicians from the three main parties have held a series of private meetings amid growing anxiety about the threat posed by the far-right British National party in next month's local and European elections.

12.05.2004 The government is failing to promote the use of renewable biomass energy, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has said. Biomas energy has benefits for climate change as well as UK agriculture, forestry and the security of the UK’s energy supply, the Commission’s Tom Blundell said at the launch of the RCEP’s report.

11.05.2004 UK Armed Forces in Iraq have shot and killed Iraqi civilians, including an eight-year-old girl and a guest at a wedding celebration, in situations where there was no apparent threat to themselves or others, says a new report from Amnesty International.

11.05.2004 While the government and health campaigners attempt to raise awareness of the benefits to infants and mothers of breastfeeding during National Breastfeeding Awareness Week, a new report reveals that companies in the UK are routinely violating marketing regulations for breast milk substitutes and encouraging mothers and health workers to favour artificial feeding over breastfeeding.

10.05.2004 The government must implement international labour standards if the exploitation of Britain’s one million homeworkers is to be halted, says a new report – Made at home – published today by Oxfam, the TUC and the National Group on Homeworking.

10.05.2004 As London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics steams ahead Ken Livingstone’s London Development Agency has been threatening residents of the proposed Olympic site with Compulsory Purchase Orders if they do not agree to sell their homes and businesses, and relocate to make way for the developers, an investigation by Corporate Watch reveals.

07.05.2004 The government will push ahead with axing the Commission for Racial Equality and imposing a new single equalities body even if the majority of people are against it, Black Information Link reports.

07.05.2004 Greenpeace has accused Tony Blair of retreating on his commitment to fight global warming after the government scaled back its plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 16.3%.

07.05.2004 A group of lawyers is in a race against time to bring legal action against British authorities over the killing of Iraqi civilians. Public Interest Lawyers, a group based in Birmingham, will go to court next week alleging that British troops acted unlawfully in killing civilians in Iraq.

06.05.2004 New plans to strengthen corporate reporting, announced by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, could fail to improve performance unless they are significantly toughened, Friends of the Earth has said.

06.05.2004 A leading British cancer charity has rejected a £1m approach from Nestlé over accusations that the Swiss food conglomerate promotes unsafe baby milk powder in developing countries. Visit Baby Milk Action for more information about boycotting Nestlé.

06.05.2004 Secretary of State for International Development Hilary Benn has announced a new commitment of up to £10million for humanitarian assistance in the Darfur region of Sudan.

05.05.2004 Blair's Africa Commission, which started on 4 April, is an "unnecessary diversion from real action for Africa", the World Development Movement has said. The campaign organisation has produced a briefing on the commission.