The European Union's Human Rights watchdog has said that Britain's forthcoming general election will be in breach of human rights because prisoners aren't allowed to vote. The Committee of Foreign Ministers said it was seriously concerned by the British government's failure to apply an EU ruling that banning prisoners from voting was illegal. The Committee said it would consider the issue again in June, which would most likely be after the British election.
Scientists think they found a species of tiny wood-eating marine crustaceans that could help them develop new bio-fuels. They say the creatures called gribble have a unique digestive system that can turn wood into sugar. With more details, here is our environment reporter Matt Mcgrath.
The wood-boring gribble have long been the bane of sailors' lives, causing large amounts of damage to boats and piers. But researchers at two British universities say the creatures' unique abilities to digest the apparently indigestible could be very useful in converting wood and straw into liquid bio-fuels. Enzymes found in the stomachs of gribble are able to turn the cellulose and lignin in wood into sugars. The scientists hope to be able to decode the genes that make these enzymes, and then produce them on an industrial scale. Sugars could then be fermented to produce alcohol for fuel.
State media in Cuba has accused a dissident journalist of blackmail, 12 days after he began refusing food in protest against the treatment of political prisoners. In its first reference to the hunger strike, the Communist Party daily Granma accused the journalist Guillermo Farinas of being an American agent.