News In Brief

• The 4 co-ordinators of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign were remanded on trumped-up charges of incitement in mid August. They have since been released with strict bail conditions.

• Nick Pyne, veteran of the 3rd Battle of Newbury and other road campaigns, has died. He will be greatly missed.

• Respect is due to the three teenagers this summer who regularly dressed up like traffic police, complete with a hairdryer / speed-gun, and bluffed speeding drivers into slowing down through their car-blighted village.

• The vehicles of 5 Huntingdon Life Sciences workers were destroyed on August Bank Holiday.

• British Animal Lib prisoner Barb Trenholm has been released from prison having served a ten year sentence.

• Oscar Horta is an eco-activist who refused to be conscripted into the Spanish army because of his commitment to animal/earth liberation. Although he faced fines or a possible prison sentence, in court he only received a disqualification for standing for public office. (shucks!)

• Jose Marlucio da Silva, a Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) activist, was shot and killed on the 25th July during an anti-biotech action in Recife, the capital of the north eastern Pernambouc state in Brazil. After occupying an Argentine boat carrying GM crops, the MST attempted to storm & occupy a bank. Jose was shot by police during the action.

• Jose Bove, the French organic sheep farmer turned environmental activist, has been sentenced to 3 months in prison for leading an action on a McDonald's construction site in August 1999.

• GM-giant Novartis has announced it will guarantee all its foods free of GM ingredients due to consumer pressure. Asked if Novartis’ anti-GM stance conflicted with its position as a vociferous promoter of GM seeds, the spokesman said: "That's a totally different question."

• On July 15th, Manchester's gay rights and equality groups marched 'Out on the Streets' in protest at the failure of the government to repeal Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. This law encourages discrimination against lesbians and gay men and discourages accurate information on sexual issues. www.stonewall.org.uk

• Everyone beware of 'green-nazi' actions coming to the UK, maybe based around "Alt Green", a fascist ecology journal by nazi sympathiser Richard Hunt.

• A Man climbed part way up the London Eye millennium wheel as part of a weekend of protest against sanctions on Iraq. He was there between 7am and 8.30am, came down voluntarily and was released without charge. Contact: (0) 20 78725451