There is something genuine about Barack Obama's desire to bring governance and people closer together, says Simon Barrow. This is an approach we need to emulate in Britain, where cynicism is eroding social hope.
Black church leaders have joined health experts in welcoming findings from a new opinion poll showing widespread public opposition to adding the DNA of innocent mental health patients to the National Criminal DNA database.
US police have staged preemptive armed raids targeting protesters and alternative media around the Republican National Convention - including thousands of people demonstrating about war world poverty throughout the week.
The calls for Sir Ian Blair's resignation as chief of the Metropolitan police may be a distraction from the real issues, says Simon Barrow, reflecting on the 2005 Stockwell terror shooting tragedy.
Civil rights group Liberty is furious that the Association of Chief Police Officers appears to have undermined a Council of Europe statement on Britain's involvement in CIA 'torture flights'. It wants a proper investigation.
Peace and civil liberties campaigners have welcomed a legal victory by a group of UK anti-war demonstrators who have established that their rights to public protest were violated when police stopped them from attending a non-violent action against the Iraq war at an airbase.