Full Coverage: United Kingdom

31.03.2004 The home secretary, David Blunkett, has ordered a review of the accountability of immigration officials after he was forced to admit that he and his deputy, Beverley Hughes, had not been told of systematic migration scams in eastern Europe, despite details being passed to civil servants 18 months ago.

31.03.2004 Draft legislation to regulate the chemical industry could save billions of pounds on health care and environmental clean ups, figures published in the government's official consultation document reveal. The potential savings dwarf the costs of implementing the legislation, cited as a major obstacle by the chemicals industry.

31.03.2004 The oldest trees in St David's Wood, Blackwood, Wales, were among the last to fall. But, say locals and supporters, the resistance is not over. The trees may be dead, and the road itself underway, but there is still the question of the two bypasses, which are due to connect to the road.

30.03.2004 The Home Office was last night urgently investigating claims that thousands of would-be immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria are buying their way into Britain on forged documents after the consular official who leaked the claim to the shadow cabinet was suspended.

30.03.2004 A British couple murdered by gunmen in the East African state of Somaliland were the victims of an al-Qaeda cell sent to kill humanitarian workers, the country’s interior minister has claimed, reports The Scotsman.

29.03.2004

29.03.2004 NGOs have been lobbying the UK government to commit to choosing the “best candidate regardless of nationality” to replace the IMF’s current managing director Horst Koehler on 2 April. NGOs, including Jubilee Debt Campaign, ActionAid, CAFOD, Oxfam and Save the Children, are calling for an end to the long-standing process of unquestioningly appointing a European head of the IMF while leaving the World Bank top post to an American.

26.03.2004 PARIS, Mar. 26 (CSM) -- In a land where babies drink Evian and consumers pay a premium for 'natural,' revelations about chemical content has postponed the launch of Coca-Cola's 'Dasani' brand treated tap water.

26.03.2004 London Mayor Ken Livingstone has slammed the governments’ proposed single equalities body, saying it would marginalise all equalities subjects and become an “inaccessible monolith”.

26.03.2004 The Home Office has announced that it plans to begin deportations to Baghdad shortly but Iraqi asylum seekers in the UK believe that the country remains unsafe - a view shared by the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees has launched a campaign in protest.

25.03.2004 More than six months after the release of a British man arrested following the fatal shootings of two Afghans, questions continue to surround the decision to let him go under an amnesty ordered by Afghanistan's President Hamed Karzai.

25.03.2004 The UK government has ended its 10% bonus on payroll giving donations, to the disappointment of the Charity Aid Foundation, and instead is offering companies with less than 500 employees Payroll Giving Grants to assist the establishment of new company schemes.

24.03.2004 Local poetic activists are coming together at the Youth Anti-Racist Open Parliamentary School to perform material on the impact of living in a culturally diverse society, the legacies of enslavement and colonialism, violence, exclusion, and disadvantage, 25 March, from 5 to 9pm at the Houses of Parliament. Jeremy Corbyn MP is hosting the event.

24.03.2004 The first refugees to take part in a government refugee resettlement scheme have arrived in the UK. The programme will be run on a quota basis, initially set at 500 people a year. The first group of refugees to arrive in the UK escaped war in Liberia and have been living in refugee camps for up to ten years in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

24.03.2004 Patenting the genetic make-up of England's wildlife could lead to companies commercialising genes without any benefit for the British public or the environment and should be resisted by the government, according to Friends of the Earth. The warning comes as English Nature is said to be "on the verge of striking a deal to bio-prospect some of Britain's most famous Nature reserves".

23.03.2004

23.03.2004

23.03.2004

23.03.2004 Visit the Carbon Gym, 2-16 April, and trim down on your carbon emissions through a programme of activities at the Centre for Alternative Technology. The action-packed activities and workshops are design for young people to reduce their impact on our planet. Call 01654 705 982 for further details and try out the Carbon Gym multimedia CD.

23.03.2004 The UK government should ban enrofloxacin, an antibiotic that is added to the drinking water of chickens and turkeys, says the Soil Association following a recent ban in the U.S. There are concerns that bacteria are becoming resistant to a closely related drug because of its overuse in the intensive poultry industry.