Wildlife groups will boycott Sri Lanka's first census of elephants because they fear the count is a smokescreen for capturing and domesticating the animals.

Te inquiry into whether British security services were complicit in the rendition and torture of terrorism suspects was thrown into chaos yesterday when a key group of human rights lawyers and campaign organisations pulled out.

Israeli politicians were last night debating a bill that would punish any of its nationals who call for a cultural, academic or economic boycott of Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.

The decision of major companies, including Ford, Virgin Holidays and Lloyds to cancel, suspend or reconsider advertising contracts could potentially hurt the News of the World long before any public inquiry opens.

The former Bosnian Serb army commander, Ratko Mladic, will boycott the UN war crimes court, where he is scheduled to enter a plea today against charges of genocide during the Bosnian war. Arrested in May after 16 years on the run, General Mladic, 69, was formally charged by the tribunal in The Hague last month when he refused to plead and rejected war crimes charges against him as "obnoxious" and "monstrous".

Shahid Afridi will boycott his disciplinary committee hearing on Wednesday, his lawyer said today, arguing that the Pakistan Cricket Board panel has already made up its mind to punish him.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended his first cabinet meeting for more than a week yesterday, dismissing rumours of a damaging split with the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to reports. Mr Ahmadinejad's close relationship with the senior cleric, who has the last word in the Islamic Republic's affairs, was strained two weeks ago, according to some analysts.

In the wake of Michael Yardy leaving the World Cup because of depression, some deeply unfortunate comments were made by Geoffrey Boycott. These were rightly castigated by everybody else in cricket, whether current players, former players or reporters.