Fritanke.no, the newspaper of the Norwegian Humanist Association has announced that selected articles from its Norwegian edition will also be available in English. The English language articles can be found at http://www.fritanke.no/ENGLISH/ The first two articles on the site relate to the important developments and arrangements made by a joint National Assembly relating to the State-Church relation in Norway.

The Secular Coalition for America has announced a Lobby Day to follow the 2008 World Humanist Congress. The Lobby Day will be an ideal opportunity for U.S. citizens to influence their elected representatives.

Freethinkers in France will remember fondly the Easter weekend of 2008 for many years. On the allegedly Good Friday of 21 March about 50 banquets were organised by Freethinkers. This is a tradition that goes back to a grand anti-religious banquet organised in 1868 in Paris, at the behest of Sainte-Beuve, Ernest Renan, Prince Napoleon and other republicans of the time: it was to break a religious taboo as on this day it was traditionally forbidden to eat ‘flesh meat’.

In a shocking affront to freedom of expression, the Government of Punjab, India, has banned four rationalist books and threatened legal action against the authors and translators, Tarksheel Society of Punjab reports. The supposed grounds for the ban is that the books are "incorrect literature" about Hindu deities.

British Humanist Association has launched a new website of resources to support learning about Humanism at www.humanismforschools.org.uk, including videos featuring celebrated children’s author Philip Pullman. At the heart of the new site are six ‘toolkits’ of resources, each containing a slideshow of videos and other content, supported by teachers’ notes and student worksheets. In addition, downloadable PDFs contain revised versions of the BHA’s briefings on ethical and philosophical issues from a humanist perspective, previously hosted on the BHA’s main website and much used by teachers and students. Videos integrated into the toolkits (but also available to download from the site for use in other contexts) include humanists talking about their beliefs and values.

Joris of IHEYO writes: The conference takes place in Washington, DC, USA from Wednesday 4th until Sunday 8th June, alongside the IHEU Congress. Registration for the latter conference is required to take part in ours, as we will be attending some of the IHEU sessions when we're not busy discussing the future of Youth Humanism.

Fields of Fuel, a documentary in which IHEU member organization American Humanist Association was a partner and fiscal sponsor, won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The award was presented to the film’s director, Josh Tickell, a Humanist, at the Saturday night, January 26, awards ceremony, hosted by actor William H. Macy.

IHEU International Director Babu Gogineni is helping to organize a lecture in Hyderabad, India, to be given by Prof. D. D. Bandiste, Indore on 24 February 2008.

IHEU member organization American Humanist Association writes: What do nontheists (atheists and agnostics), such as humanists, do for the holidays?

The 77th National Convention of the Rationalist Association of India meeting in Palanpur, Gujarat, with over 200 Human Rights, Humanist, Rationalist, Secularist, and Atheist participants from various parts of the country, expresses its horror, and condemns in the strongest terms the threats held out to our Humanist colleague Taslima Nasrin by Muslim fundamentalists, and the subsequent reaction by the state government of West Bengal.