Pakistan has told the European Union that more attacks on EU diplomatic missions abroad cannot be ruled out unless the European Union represses freedom of expression, The Daily Times of Pakistan reports.

A new Labour Humanist Group will be launched later this month. It aims to spread awareness of Humanism and Humanists within the Labour Party and to promote Humanist and Labour values, and facilitate a community for Labour Humanists.

The group is working on meeting the requirements to become an official affiliate of the UK Labour Party and a web site has been launched as a source of information on the group's activities.

IHEU congratulates Maryam Namazie who is the first recipient of the UK National Secular Society's NSS-Irwin Secularist of the Year award. The £5,000 annual prize, sponsored by Dr. Michael Irwin, was presented by Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee at a lunch at the Montcalm Hotel in London.

Namazie is a well known campaigner for secularism and refugee and women's rights, and against political Islam. She is host of TV International, a Central Council member of the Organisation of Women's Liberation, and director of the International Relations Committee of the Worker-communist Party of Iran. She has campaigned against stoning and executions in Islamist societies, has opposed Shari'a laws, defended the banning of religious symbols from schools and public institutions, opposed the incitement to religious hatred bill in the UK, and called for secularism not only in her native Iran but in Britain and elsewhere.

With deep regret, IHEU records the death of Prof. Hermann Bondi, one of the most distinguished Humanists of our time.

A mathematical physicist and astronomer, Prof. Bondi had been President of the British Humanist Association, and an active presence on the Humanist scene till Parkinson's struck a few years ago. Acclaimed as a genius, Prof. Bondi has held several positions of distinction in the UK and in Europe, including that of Head of the European Space Agency. Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, UK for nearly 8 years, he was best known as a propounder of the Steady State Theory of the Universe, as a science populariser and for his book Cosmology.

The One World Trust, which works with global organisations towards the eradication of poverty, injustice and war, is putting on a fundraising concert in October in celebration of the United Nations' 60th Anniversary - and in aid of the One World Trust.

The concert is on 20th October at the Royal Albert Hall and will feature Benjamin Grosvenor, the 11-year-old winner of the Piano section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2004 - and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the acclaimed Welsh conductor, Owain Arwel Hughes.

He was bidden farewell with full state honours. The Chief Minister of Karnataka State as well as a former Prime Minister of India came to pay their last respects. The Legislative Assembly of Karnataka State adjourned after a reference to his death, and students and teachers pressed for postponement of exams in their hour of grief. The media was full of stories about how this rationalist and Humanist legend lived and worked.

Dr. H. Narasimhaiah, who delivered the inaugural address at the IHEU's Mumbai World Congress, was one of India's best known rationalists. This founder of the Bangalore Science Forum and former President of the Indian Rationalist Association had a Doctorate in Nuclear Physics from Ohio State University but was also known as an educationist with clear insights. When he was appointed Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University, he constituted a committee to investigate Satya Sai Baba's claims of miraculous powers. After much controversy, he resigned his position rather than compromise with the forces of reaction that opposed his step.

Humanist, freethinker, intellectual, iconoclast and fierce critic of Islam, Bangladeshi Prof. Humayun Azad, 57, was found dead in his University residence in Munich, Germany on 11 August 2004.

Prof. Azad came to the world's attention when he was grievously wounded in an attack by Islamic fundamentalists in Dhaka in February 2004. The attack followed publication of his novel Pak Sar Jamin Saad Baad, which exposed the Islamic fundamentalists in his country.

In Solidarity

Statement by IHEU President and Executive Director following September 11 events.

In this time of tragedy and great distress, on behalf of the IHEU we would like to share with you all our feelings of solidarity and togetherness.

There is disbelief and disgust for what has happened. The horror of the human devastation was as intense as the incomprehension and anger at the spontaneous jubilation in some parts of the world. Never, it seems, are human values more urgently needed than now. In the past, civilisation has ultimately triumphed against such barbarity, and we hope this will be the case now as well.