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Claims that the police are misusing their stop-and-search powers under the anti-terror laws were voiced last night after the publication of official figures showing a surge in their use since summer 2007.Ministry of Justice figures show that stop and searches under the controversial section 44 of the counter-terror legislation soared from 37,197 in 2006-07 to 117,278 in 2007-08. The official statistics also disclose that black and Asian people were disproportionately targeted within the use of stop-and-search operations in the aftermath of the failed london bombing in the Haymarket.The number of black people stopped under these powers rose by 322%, compared with an increase of 277% for Asian and 185% for white people.Corinna Ferguson, a human rights barrister at Liberty, said the threefold increase in anti-terror stop and search operations was a clear sign that the powers were being misused: 'Only six in 10,000 people stopped were arrested for terrorism, let alone charged or convicted,

The ACT Opposition says the Government is ignoring the needs of a quarter of the Territory's disabled students by excluding private schools from its review into special education.

A new, unflattering biography of Alex Rodriguez reportedly says he may have used steroids as early as high school and even after he joined the New York Yankees. Rodriguez admitted in February to using steroids while with the Texas Rangers from 2001-03, but...

About 169 000 American children found themselves with a day off.

US carmaker Chrysler is to file for what the White House calls a 'surgical short bankruptcy', and has formed an alliance with Fiat.

Hard on the heels of his voluptuous version of 'La traviata', David McVicar's 'Così fan tutte' - ravishing to look at and consistently funny - packs a hefty punch, writes Andrew Clark

On April 24, 2009, CDC reported eight confirmed cases of swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) virus (S-OIV) infection in Texas and California. The strain identified in U.S. patients was confirmed by CDC as genetically similar to viruses subsequently isolated from patients in Mexico.

Justice David Souter is planning to retire after nearly two decades on the Supreme Court, giving President barack obama his first chance to fill a vacancy on the high court. The White House has been told that Souter will retire in June, when the court...

The BBC reports that Norway is experimenting with a system that would let secondary school students take their school exams on laptop computers. According to the article, using computers for exams isn't new there, but it's been on fixed machines rather than personal computers that the students can take with them and use for other purposes throughout the school day. Having suffered through three years of exams taken on the awful SoftTest (inflexible, single-platform, ugly, buggy), I hope they do a better job — this is something that is all too easy to get wrong. of this story at Slashdot.

The governing body for Texas high school athletics has decided to go ahead with regional track competitions and push the state meet into June.