Full Coverage: Europe

31.10.2007 "Da un'Europa sconvolta dai recenti conflitti nei Balcani ad un Europa che, valorizzando etnie, lingue e religioni, sappia cogliere le tante opportunità anche attraverso l'allargamento dell'Unione". E' questo l'appello che è emerso dalle relatrici alla Conferenza internazionale promossa venerdì scorso a Bolzano dalla World Social Agenda nell'ambito della manifestazione "Libera Europa–Freies Europa". La conferenza ha concluso il ciclo di riflessione quadriennale sui continenti nei quali donne dell'Africa, America Latina, dell'Asia, dell’Europa dell’Est e dei Balcani hanno presentato le loro attività e la loro visione di un mondo "diverso, multiplo, mescolato". Dal prossimo anno, la World Social Agenda proporrà percorsi, dibattiti e eventi a Padova, Trento e Bolzano sugli "Obiettivi del Millennio" proposti dall'Onu.

31.10.2007 Spain's new electronic ID cards will reach 30 million citizens soon. The Interior Ministry has already distributed 1.2 million chip-based cards and expects to issue at least 800,000 more by the end of the year.

31.10.2007 As the UN Human Rights Committee begins to scrutinise Britain's rights performance, Article 19 calls on the committee to question the government on its plans to reduce use of the Freedom of Information Act, the ban on unauthorised demonstrations near Parliament Square and the high cost of defending libel actions.

30.10.2007 As the Kenya Human Rights Commission prepares to sue the British Government for personal injuries sustained in detention camps by survivors of the Mau Mau war for independence, Mukoma Wa Ngugi unravels the colonial myths of Christianisation and civilisation and exposes the reality of torture, murder, slavery, landlessness, dehumanisation and internment.
From: Pambazuka News

30.10.2007 Three French journalists have been charged in Chad with kidnapping minors and fraud for covering the alleged attempt by Arche de Zoé (Zoé’s Ark) to evacuate 103 African children to France.

30.10.2007 British MPs pledge not to forget Burma, via a YouTube video.
And following performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, OId Vic and Soho Theatre, the dramatised story of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, The Lady Of Burma, comes to London's Riverside Studios from 7 November.
+ Children Bought and Sold by Army Recruiters

29.10.2007 In the wake of the conviction of the 'Cambridge letter bomber' in Britain, The Muslim News sets out to find why, unlike numerous cases involving Muslims, Miles Cooper - who had searched the internet, amassed explosives and activated bombs to make a political point - was not arrested or charged under the new terror legislation.
From: The Muslim News

29.10.2007 NEW YORK, Oct 29 (OneWorld) - Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. secretary of defense, is facing criminal charges in France for ordering the torture of prisoners in Iraq and at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

29.10.2007 Spain and France have sent diplomats to Chad where 16 of their nationals are still under arrest accused of child trafficking after being caught on Thursday trying to fly 103 young children out of the country to France.
From: EuroNews

27.10.2007 The UK Government must act on UNEP Global Environment Outlook, says 'climate change' MP.

27.10.2007 Five Tanks at the Hackney Empire won’t make you cry with laughter or rock you in your seat; the staging needs tightening, the acting needs a little more edge. But the basic concept – the reactions and interactions of staff in a call centre on the day a bomb fails to explode on a 26 bus – is interesting and writer Lab Ky Mo has talent.

27.10.2007 The UN Children's Fund has criticised an attempt to separate more than 100 young Chadian children from their parents and take them to France for adoption as “illegal and totally irresponsible".

27.10.2007 A citizen held electronic health card (eCard) will enable people to access online electronic prescriptions in Bulgaria. The pilot project will be tested by 1,000 patients who will use their eCard at both their GP and pharmacy.

26.10.2007 Six women from various nations in Africa recently traveled to the UK to raise awareness about fistula, an easily preventable but debilitating disease that pregnant women develop after extremely long and difficult labor. Meet the women and read about their efforts to promote more regular and safer maternal care in their home countries.
From: UN Population Fund

26.10.2007 The majority of the 42 million people with HIV live in Africa, but the fastest growing HIV infection rate in the world is in Russia where prostitution and drug use with unsanitary needles is driving the epidemic.

26.10.2007 European Union Environment Commissioner Dimas is for the first time proposing to ban two types of genetically modified maize because of the risks they pose to the environment.

26.10.2007 Organic food labels on imports flown in from developing countries will in future be granted only if they meet Fairtrade standards as well as high environmental standards, the UK Soil Association announced, but it ruled out a ban on all air-freighted organic food imports.
From: UK Soil Association

24.10.2007 Some 15,000 lobbyists work in Brussels where they meet secretly with European Union officials to try and influence the rules that govern the 27 countries that together form the world's most powerful economic bloc. New guidelines will attempt to make this lobbying more public and reveal conflicts of interest. Pratap Chatterjee reports.
From: Corpwatch

24.10.2007 The UK population is forecast to increase by 4.4 million to 65 million by 2016, according to new population projections.
From: UK National Statistics Office

23.10.2007 A Burma democracy demonstration will be held outside the Chinese embassy on Wednesday, the day Aung San Suu Kyi reaches 12 years in detention, noon-1pm, 49 Portland Place, W1.