A new study brings to light a potentially dangerous link between chemicals used in ordinary products, such as baby shampoos and lotions, to reproductive problems in children. The chemicals, called phthalates, have been under attack by some environmental advocacy groups, according to a Feb. 4, 2008 AP News article, although experts are uncertain what dangers they might pose. The study, which appears in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics, found ...

Nick Julian At the heart of President Bush's plea to give telecommunications companies legal immunity is the contention that these companies were merely being patriotic corporate citizens when they facilitated the warrantless wiretapping of Americans. FBI Director Robert Mueller undercut that argument Wednesday, telling Congress that the 'good faith' argument should have nothing to do with whether or not ...

European judges have delivered a landmark ruling in the so-called 'war on terror', says Robert Verkaik, Law Editor, and it is one that we should all have reason to celebrate Buried deep beneath the welter of publicity covering Prince Harry's secret deployment to Afghanistan was the release of another piece of news concerning the Allies' so-called "war on terror". A judgment published last week by the European Court of ...

Sir Ian Blair says scheme would have obvious benefits for crimefighting Computing Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has called for the UK’s controversial DNA database to be extended across Europe to help bridge the intelligence gap caused by the removal of many of the EU's internal borders. He made the proposal at the first pan-European Serious Organised Crime Conference in Liverpool yesterday, claiming also that a Europe-wide automated fingerprint recognition and ...

By Christine Sexton THE DNA profiles of more than 30,000 Essex children are being kept on a police database. Figures released in response to a Freedom of Information request also reveal that 12,345 of those young people are under 15. The news comes after it was reported how the profile of a 13-year-old boy from Benfleet boy was being kept on the DNA database, despite police admitting he had been wrongfully arrested. The ...