>> On April 16, the Anti-vivisection League, an animal rights group in Italy, asked Pope Benedict to stop wearing fur as a sign of respect for the "sacredness of all living species'. The Pope wears a red velvet hat trimmed with white ermine fur, known as "camauro'. They made the appeal ahead of a papal visit to Pavia, a northern town where Italy's fur-makers are based.

>> Swedish search service company Picsearch is launching a carbon-free programme. It plans to plant 1,000 trees for every gigawatt-hour consumed, to use carbon-free electricity that follows the highest standards of production and to earn carbon in exchange of the energy it consumes.