Round-up

1. The police should no longer be accused of institutional racism, the UK's equalities chief has said. In a speech marking 10 years since the Stephen Lawrence murder report, Trevor Phillips is expected to say the UK and the police have changed massively. He says that Britain is "by far the best place in Europe to live if you are not white".

Expect some civil rights group to come out now and furiously declare that Phillips has got it all wrong, and that Racism is Alive and Well in Britain today.

2. A case of clear racism:

Three Boston (USA) men, bitter about the election of the nation's first black president and furious in their belief that minorities would gain more rights, torched the partially built church of a black congregation just hours after Barack Obama's landmark victory, authorities said yesterday.

"We did it," one of the men said, "because it was a black church."