The ongoing trial of a Burlington, Ont., woman charged with mischief after giving water to pigs headed to a slaughterhouse might be a legal first, but the underlying arguments around whether animals are property or sentient beings who should not be subject to undue suffering.

Moscow's major bookstores have pulled all copies of the Pullitzer-Prize winning graphic novel "Maus", because it features a swastika on its cover -- an apparent violation of Russia's new law banning "Nazi propaganda".