News

Media star Afua Hirsch, pictured, was applauded by Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger at the launch of new website - Guardian Law.

Rusbridger paid respects to Hirsch’s talent saying that she came to the Guardian as an inexperienced journalist having qualified at the Bar but has beaten an enviable path to becoming a star Guardian writer and now head of the Guardian Law website.

Rupa Jha on BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents has been looking into the Commonwealth Games taking place in New Delhi next month.

India saddles new and old worlds - a booming economy and an information Technology hub alongside extreme poverty. All this against, what some might argue is an unsustainably rising population.

Britain styles itself as a representative democracy; yet while Black and other minority ethnic (BME) communities account for 10% of the population just 26 of the 650 MPs that make up our House of Commons are from a BME background.

All the numbers point to a Parliament that’s suffering from a serious democratic deficit.

As London suffered the full force of the German Luftwaffe bombing raids 70 years ago this week the story of Nigerian Ita Ekpenyon has been uncovered by the City of Westminster Archives.

As London suffered the full force of the German Luftwaffe bombing raids 70 years ago this week the story of Nigerian Ita Ekpenyon has been uncovered by the City of Westminster Archives.

The legacy of an anti-racist music festival axed by the Mayor of London will live on now campaigners plan to stage the show independently.

Finsbury Park residents Freya Van Lessen and Mike Barnard have fought a 18 month long campaign to resurrect the Rise Festival after the Mayor announced in April 2009 he could not justify spending £551,000 to fund the free concert.

French designer Christian Dior is being heavily criticised for photographs using Chinese extras and a prominent white model standing out in clothed in Dior.

The pictures are rumored not to be part of the official Dior campaign and were taken by a Chinese photographer, but Dior is still being attacked by many on the internet with some saying that the inference of the shots are that all Chinese people look alike and that white women are the beauty standard to which women of all other races must aspire.

British schools are failing to implement recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry some 10 years since the report was published.

Russia has defended itself against the accusation that it has failed to tackle serious racism in football and wider society.

Recent controversy in a league game where Lokomotiv Moscow fans celebrated Nigerian Peter Odemwingie's sale in the transfer window with a banner showing a banana and the message: "Thanks West Brom" have raised further concerns about racism in Russia.

Alex Sorokin speaking on behalf of Russian Football Union told BBC Sport:

Six African-American teenagers drowned in a single tragic incident in the United States Louisiana last month.

The tragedy has prompted many questions about the widely held perception about why many Black people have not learned to swim. The BBC recently explored this subject.