A senior member of the Council of Europe today called the European Union’s new human rights agency “a horrible waste of money,” and suggested the EU leave monitoring of rights issues to the Strasbourg-based watchdog.

The head of the Council of Europe’s legislature today warned that Saddam Hussein’s death sentence would send a “dangerous message to the region”.

European investigators looking into claims of secret CIA prisons will release an interim report today saying US agents illegally transported and held terrorist suspects on the continent, the leader of the inquiry says.

Europe’s leading human rights watchdog said today it soon hopes to be able to monitor satellite footage of suspect sites in Romania and Poland as part of its investigation into alleged secret CIA prisons and flights in Europe.