International

Animal protection activists want to know where a sum of €12m for aid to stray animals in Greece has disappeared to. SP Euro-MP Erik Meijer is taking up the cudgels on their behalf in Brussels and is also anxious to find out why the work of Greek and other animal welfare organisations, including some from the Netherlands, is being deliberately thwarted by Greek Agriculture Minister Konstantinos Kiltidis.

It sounds like something used in an annual check-up, but the bodyscan is actually a security device. Already being given a trial run at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the bodyscan produces a kind of X-ray enabling a security guard to look right through your clothing to see whether you are carrying a gun next to your skin, or a knife down your underpants. No longer can any nook or cranny of your body escape Big Brother's investigating eye. Only after the debate did MEPs receive the information necessary to decide whether this was acceptable.