In Today's Papers

By Amy Taylor, Shona Main and Alex Dobson.

Poor areas to benefit from £40bn funding rise

All English councils will get at least 3 per cent extra in government grants next year, with some receiving as much as 13 per cent under a new formula to help the poorest areas.

However, some of the most deprived areas will receive less than they had hoped because ministers have decided that to award all councils with an above-inflation rise.

Shire councils in the South and South east have received less than poorer areas in the North and the Midlands, leading to claims that they will have to increase council tax by 15 per cent.

Source:- The Times Friday 6 December page 13

Joy of sanctuary for Sangatte men

The first 40 of 1,200 migrants from the Sangatte refugee camp in France arrived at a central London hotel yesterday and declared their happiness at being in Britain.

The group of male Iraqis and two Afghan families will be offered free full-board in the hotel for three months.

They said they were ready to work having received four-year working visas in the unusual deal the Government brokered to close the French refugee camp.

Source:- The Times Friday 6 December page 16

Boy stowaways clung together for warmth as they died

Police have been unable to identify two African boys, aged 12 to 14, found dead in the wheel compartment of an aircraft at Heathrow.

The boys are believed to have climbed up the undercarriage of a DC10 jet at Accra airport in Ghana.

Source:- The Times Friday 6 December page 16

Gays win same rights as married couples

People in homosexual relationships are to be offered the same rights as married couples under government plans to create legally recognised civil partnerships.

The proposals, being lead by Barbara Roche, the minister for Social Exclusion and Equalities, aim to confer property and inheritance rights on homosexual men and women for the first time.

Under the plans, to be published in a consultation paper, those who register their partnership will also gain next-of-kin status.

Source:- The Independent Friday 6 December page 1 

Recruitment firms offer helping hand to Sangatte migrants arriving in Britain

Recruitment firms have already offered to find jobs in catering and hotel companies for migrants who started arriving in Britain yesterday from the shut down Sangatte refugee camp in France.

Source:- The Independent Friday 6 December page  2

Race bias asylum seeker gets £9,000

A Palestinian immigrant who was racially discriminated against while working at a hostel for asylum seekers has won £9,000 in compensation.

Mohammed Abu-Zahra, 30, was fired after four days as a night porter, employed by a company under contract to the Home Office.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 6 December page 8

Cardinal admits to abuse case mistakes

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, has dismissed calls for his resignation last night over accusations that he failed to act against paedophile priests.

The Cardinal admitted he had made mistakes but he said that his fellow bishops and the Catholic community now expected him to implement the guidelines on child abuse drawn up by Lord Nolan.

The controversy resurfaced last month when Michael Hill, a convicted paedophile priest who the Cardinal had allowed to continue practising despite warnings from medical experts, was found guilty of further offences against boys.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 6 December page 9

'Use ex-addicts to lead the fight against heroin'

Rehabilitated drug addicts should warn young people about the dangers of hard drug use, such as heroin, a senior Labour backbencher said yesterday.

Chris Mullin, chairperson of the home affairs select committee, also called for a change in the law to allow ecstasy to be reclassified.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 6 December page 14

Scottish Papers

Executive in the dock as poverty traps more Scots

Nearly a quarter of the Scottish population and one third of its children live in poverty.

A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has revealed that 1.2 million people live below the breadline and that levels have risen by 2 per cent in the last five years.

The figures are sure to cause major concern for the executive, which claimed to have put tackling poverty and social exclusion at the heart of its agenda.

Source:- The Herald Friday 6 December page 11

 

Refugees are offered Highland home

 

Refugees could help “breathe life” back into the Highlands, a Scottish enterprise leader said yesterday.

 

Jim Hunter, chairperson of the Highlands and Islands Enterprise, called for some of the 1,200 asylum-seekers moving from Sangatte to be sent north. He claimed that they could help reverse the brain drain and boost dwindling population levels in the highlands.

 

The Home Office said there were no plans to send the refugees to Scotland.

 

Source:- The Scotsman Friday 6 December page 8

 

Welsh Papers

 

Refugee council settles in

The new offices of the Welsh Refugee Council have opened in Cardiff.

Welsh assembly Minister for Open Government Carwyn Jones said that the new premises would provide essential facilities needed to help vulnerable people who sought asylum in south Wales.

The new offices will house the council’s first drop-in and community centre, where many of Cardiff’s 1,500 asylum seekers can learn English and other skills.

Source:- South Wales Echo Thursday 5 December page 23

Man died of heroin overdose while Christmas shoppers passed by

The death of a homeless man who took an overdose in Swansea city centre as Christmas shoppers passed by has highlighted the hard drug problem in Wales.

A post mortem found that John Milligan, 36, died following an overdose of illegally produced heroin and alcoholic poisoning.

Earlier this year, south Wales coroner Philip Walters expressed his sadness at having to deal with drug-related deaths on an almost daily basis.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 6 December page 11