News In Brief
Midland Expressway Limited (MEL), the company behind the Birmingham Northern Relief Road, are in a little financial strife thanks to a long public enquiry and the occupation of the site by protesters. After a 3 year delay the cost of the road has doubled, and now MEL is being relieved by a shortlist of 8 of yer favourite banks. MEL are looking for a little spare change from the banks, somewhere in the region of £700 million, to make sure the road goes ahead.
Passengers on a no. 15 Stagecoach bus in London took a ride with a difference when the bus suddenly met a woman holding a banner, ordering the vehicle to ‘Stop in the name of Love!’. Stagecoach were targeted as they are part-financing the anti section 28 campaign. As the bus drew to a halt members of the Lesbian Avengers group commenced their mission - hanging banners stating ‘Repeal Section 28’, distributing leaflets to the passengers and painting the bus bright pink! Contact: Lesbian Avengers, 0181 374 9885 ‘Keep the Clause,’ in their quest for spreading hateful, homophobic rhetoric have a Freepost address which has been bombarded with empty envelopes, old beer mats, telephone books, and it was a rumoured, a paving slab. Keep the Clause. Freepost SCO 5219, Perth PH2 8BR.
Canadian Pacific Coastal Airlines recently barred a member of Greenpeace from boarding one of their planes because it regards Greenpeace as a ‘quasi-terrorist organisation’.
West Country Activist has been revamped as Action South West, and they are looking for people to re-subscribe. Send donations, spare stationary, stories, or office equipment to Box 80 Greenleaf, 82 Colston St. Bristol. BS1 5BB, tel. 07931 268966. e-mail wca99@hotmail.com
The U.S. Department of Justice has officially declared E.L.F. spokesperson, Craig Rosebraugh, a target of a federal grand jury investigation in Portland, Oregon. USA. Rosebraugh says "This investigation is obviously nothing more than a fishing expedition. These governmental agencies clearly have no idea who is conducting these actions so they are going to harass the only public face they can identify and relate to this subject, the spokesperson. Meanwhile, underground actions in protection of the earth and its creatures continue. This is a movement the government cannot stop."
The outgoing head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) became the latest victim to be pied last Sunday. In a farewell speech at a meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Bangkok, Michel Camdessus' claim that the IMF "are best friends of the poor" was clearly too much for one outraged person, who pied him full in the face. Splat!