>> A report released on May 7 by the pressure group, Media Matters for America, says minorities and women get less space in prime-time news programmes in the us. The three-week study said most of the hosts and guests on the shows at msnbc, Fox News and cnn were white males. On some networks women representation was 18 per cent.

>> On May 8, Friends of the Earth, Europe, said it would approach European regulators against a Royal Dutch Shell Plc advertisement, which says the oil company uses waste co₂ to help grow flowers. The organisation said the advertisements were misleading since only a fraction of the co₂ emissions are used in this way.