Boy, people sure seem to be litigious of late. In France, Prime minister Dominique de Villepin is mighty upset at veteran investigative reporter Jean-Marie Pontaut and fellow journalist Gilles Gaetner, the authors of two books about a nasty scandal that allege Villepin once asked an intelligence officer to find compromising evidence against his rival, Nicolas Sarkozy. So upset, the BBC reports, he's suing them for libel, denying that he was involved in any "dirty tricks" against his rival for the PM post.

Meanwhile, a suit launched in Britain wants authors of factual books should have a higher "duty of care" than journalists working for daily newspapers because they had more time to verify allegations and were not facing immediate deadlines. The suit - which pits ex-policeman Michael Charman against Graeme McLagan, the BBC's expert on police corruption for more than 20 years, is believed to be the first suit against a publisher making use of the so-called Reynolds defense (which the Guardian explains theoretically allows the media to print allegations that are in the public interest, irrespective of whether their truth can be ascertained, so long as certain important tests are applied.)