This professional service draws attention to current and important items of news
 and members are directed to the hosts' websites

Conservation

EU seal ban challenged by Canada - 27 July
The EU has agreed to ban the import of seal products - prompting a challenge from Canada which culls hundreds of thousands of seals each year. European foreign ministers agreed on the ban following years of appeals from animal rights campaigners. Products from traditional hunts by indigenous peoples in Canada and Greenland will be exempt from the ban. - BBC News website

Italy

Mafioso to be sent packing - 25 July
A fortnight ago a court in Palermo, Italy, dismissed Vito Palazzolo's appeal against a 2006 conviction for "Mafia association" and sentenced him to nine years' imprisonment. He was convicted in absentia. The South African justice ministry has now revealed that then-justice minister Enver Surty had signed the extradition papers as requested by the Italian authorities, but the process had been delayed because of the appeal proceedings in Sicily. In an article in La Voce, a newspaper for South Africa's Italian community, Palazzolo was quoted as saying he planned to turn to the European Court of Human Rights to plead his case for justice. - IOL website

InfoUpdate : an Information Service supplied by the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society