Heather Mills has launched a pro-vegan campaign with racy billboards in the UK in November. Mills is a celebrity and ex-wife to Beatles Paul McCartney - see the ads

Rocker Chrissie Hyde of The Prentender, a long-time vegetarian and animal rights advocate, opened her own restaurant in Ohio, USA. At the grand opening of VegiTerranean in September, Hyde performed a free concert for adoring fans.

Grade 'A' student was expelled from Russia’s most prestigious university for refusing to cut up a frog. Roman Belousov now wants to take his professor to court to reverse the decision. "I refused to experiment on a frog because I had to paralyze it and operate without anesthetic. I think these tests are senseless especially for someone who doesn't intend working with animals in the future."

A Britain-based company offers reduced priced life insurance to vegetarians as a reward for making healthy lifestyle choice, The Guardian paper in UK reported. The policy is called "No Meat Rewards" and is offered by Animal Friends International (AFI), a dog and cat health insurance company. This policy gives a vegetarian an approximate 10% savings on the premium over the life of a policy. AFI's goal is to get enough people to sign up for the discount to convince their corporate underwriter to create a separate policy recognizing diet as an important lifestyle factor.

France has announced a ban on the planting of genetically engineered crops until the safety of the crops can be further assessed. French President Nicolas Sarkozy indicated that the decision was based on the desire to err on the side of safety. "I don't want to be in contradiction with EU laws, but I have to make a choice. In line of the precautionary principle, I wish that the commercial cultivation of genetically modified pesticide GMOs be suspended."

A groundbreaking ballot initiative campaign to place the California Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on the November 2008 ballot has been launched, and more signatures are needed. If you live in California or know someone who does, please find out how you can help.