Thursday 9 October 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Judge blasts new hole in asylum crackdown

A high court judge has ruled that the government’s decision not to
tell failed asylum seekers that they might qualify for free
accommodation while they await a return to their country is
“unlawful”.
He made the comment in the case of two failed asylum seekers,
Ibrahim Salih, an Iraqi Kurd, and Iranian Behname Rahmani, who have
been ordered to return home.
Salih was unable to do so however because Britain could not secure
a safe passage back to Iraq. Rahmani had been granted exceptional
permission to challenge the rejection of his asylum claim after the
Home Office agreed that his case was “not wholly
unmeritorious”.
Both men were eligible for free, full-board accommodation provided
for failed asylum seekers who are unable to return home through ‘no
fault of their own’, but they said they had not been told about the
service.
Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 9 October page 15
Fury over Yeo’s pledge to abolish new maternity and
paternity rights

New rights for extra maternity and paternity leave could be ended
under a Conservative government.
Speaking at the Conservative Party conference yesterday, the shadow
trade and industry secretary Tim Yeo promised to review a range of
employment rights and end those that are too much of a drain on
business.
Yeo said regulation was damaging business, particularly small to
medium size employers. He explained that the Conservatives would
apply two “sunset clauses” that would revoke two employment laws
introduced by Labour – the Employment Regulation Act 1999 and the
Employment Act 2000.
Source:- The Financial Times Thursday 9 October page 4
UK accused of failing child victims
Some of Britain’s most vulnerable children facing poverty,
imprisonment and neglect, are being failed by the government, a
coalition of 180 charities and other organisations have
warned.
The Children’s Rights Alliance has given a report to children’s
minister Margaret Hodge charting the government’s progress since
the United Nations condemned their  record on supporting children a
year ago.
The coalition, which includes charities including Barnardo’s, Save
the Children and the Howard League, as well as smaller
organisations and local authorities, found that children were being
failed in juvenile justice, asylum and corporal punishment.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 9 October page 1
Vatican: condoms don’t stop Aids
The Catholic Church is telling people in countries were Aids is
rife not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them
through which HIV can pass – potentially putting thousands of
people at risk.
The church has made the claim in four continents despite the World
Health Organisation stating that they are untrue.
The church’s claims are uncovered in a BBC1 Panorama programme,
‘Sex and the Holy City’, to be broadcast on
Sunday.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 9 October page 2
Scottish newspapers
Glasgow Priory to take NHS patients

Drug abusers and people with alcohol problems in Glasgow could soon
be entitled to treatment at the famous clinic, The Priory.
The private hospital in the south of the city yesterday unveiled a
£1 million addiction unit, which will be open to NHS and
private patients.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 9 October
Pupils’ drugs game shock
Pupils as young as eight have been caught playing a new game at
school – drug dealing.
Five pupils at a primary school were found with packages of white
powder in the playground. They were pretending to buy and sell the
substance, later found to be flour.
Teachers at the school in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, immediately called
in the parents of the five children, who claimed to have copied
drug deals they had seen on television.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 9 October page 1
Father Ned taken to mental ward
A priest dubbed Father Ned was taken to a hospital for people with
mental health problems last night following allegations that he
threatened parishioners with a garden hoe.
Passers-by called police when they became alarmed by Father John
Robinson’s behaviour outside his parish house.
Last night there were claims that the Roman Catholic Church should
have acted more quickly after the congregation at Sacred Heart in
Penicuik, Midlothian, were split over the fiery priest.
One supporter said that parishioners could see the priest was
experiencing problems.
He quit his post in August after rows about his parish hit his
health and church leaders said he needed mental and physical tests
before he could be given another ministry.
Source:- Daily Record  Thursday 9 October page 7
Witness tagging outrage
Fury erupted yesterday after Labour announced plans to
electronically tag court witnesses.
Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, announced the plans as part
of a package of reforms to speed up the justice system.
But the move caused outrage among Labour’s Liberal Democrat
coalition partners. Lib Dem MSP Donald Gorrie said it was
“unacceptable” and “raises a lot of civil and
human rights issues”.
Several Labour MSPs are also against the move.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 9 October page 8
Welsh newspapers
He’s bad not mad

A man who claimed he bludgeoned his friend to death so he could
become a vampire was found guilty of murder and jailed for life
yesterday.
A jury unanimously rejected Allan Menzies’ claim that he was
deranged when he stabbed his childhood friend, Thomas McKendrick,
to death.
Menzies boasted to detectives that he drank the blood of the
21-year-old and ate a piece of his skull.
Psychiatrists believed that Menzies exaggerated his obsession with
the dead in a bid to get off with a lighter sentence.
But judge Roderick MacDonald ruled at the high court in Edinburgh
that Menzies should serve at least 18 years yesterday.
Source:- Daily Record  Thursday 9 October page 12 and 13
My Son Died In A Suicide Pact
A grieving father, whose son died in a suicide pact with his
girlfriend, has blamed social services for the tragedy.
An inquest was told that Naunton Beecham’s son Shaun took an
overdose with his girlfriend, Shelley Williams, who survived.
The couple had sparked a major search after abducting their baby,
which was being taken into care. The child was later found safe and
well.
Beecham believes that losing his child pushed Shaun into taking his
own life.
Source:- South Wales Argus Wednesday 8 October pages 1 and 7
Patients blocked as NHS loses a fifth of its beds in 10
years

New figures reveal that the NHS in Wales has lost a fifth of its
hospital beds.
The figures show that Welsh hospitals lost 3,820 NHS beds in the
past 10 years – the equivalent to more than four hospitals the size
of Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales.
The losses are contributing to the long waiting times being endured
by many people who need treatment in the principality.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 9 October page 2

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