In Today's Papers

Failed asylum seekers reapply
Hundreds of failed asylum seekers who have exhausted all avenues of appeal have been allowed to reapply, new figures show.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 19 January 2007, page 9

Council tax to hit average of £1,300
The average council tax bill is set to pass £1,300 in England this April after the government refused to increase the funding settlement for local councils, the Conservatives said last night.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 19 January 2007, page 1

Britons spend more on gambling than fruit or veg

The average British family spends more on gambling than fresh vegetables, fresh fruit or holidays abroad, according to an official analysis of family spending.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 19 January 2007, page 13

Folic acid boosts minds of over-50s
Absent-mindedness in the over-50s is significantly improved when people take folic acid supplements, according to a large study reported in today's Lancet. Short-term memory, mental agility and verbal fluency tests were all better among people who took high doses of the supplement for three years, compared with a group given a placebo.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 19 January 2007, page 9

Blunkett admits failure of Asbos
Antisocial behaviour orders have not worked as well as expected, David Blunkett the former home secretary has admitted.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 19 January 2007, page 2

Medics call for guidelines over the 'right to die' issue
Doctors yesterday called for a review of laws that led to a woman in a persistive vegetative state being given an experimental drug against her family's wishes.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 19 January 2007, page 2

NHS blunders kill 200 a year
More than 200 patients died last year as a result of mistakes made by hospital staff while another 1,800 were made worse during treatment, it has been revealed.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 19 January 2007, page 8

Christening killer struck again two weeks later
A teenager from Angola who was granted asylum in Britain killed two women within two weeks, shooting one in the head and stabbing the other, it emerged yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 19 January 2007, page 9

Scottish news

Disabled and homeless may lose funds to the Olympics

Thousands of community projects in Scotland face collapse because of the rising cost of the London Olympics, the head of Scotland's biggest lottery fund has warned.
Scotland was already facing the loss of about £80 million in lottery cash to help pay for the games, but the Big Lottery Fund Scotland is warning that bill will rise far higher.
Dharmendra Kanani, the fund's director, says community groups north of the border could lose up to £51 million.
Among the type of projects which could lose out are those supporting disabled children, homeless young people and local sporting facilities as well as larger initiatives such as major community land purchases.
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 19 January  2007

Tories pledge extra £100m for drug rehab
A Conservative administration at Holyrood would spend an extra £100 million a year on drug rehabilitation programmes.
Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie said the effect would be a £1 billion boost as every pound spent on rehab saves at least £9.50 in crime and health costs. The pledge came as senior Tories from Westminster joined leader David Cameron in Edinburgh for a meeting of the shadow cabinet.
She said: "We will be waging a war against crime and drugs and putting this commitment at the heart of what we are offering the Scottish people in May's parliamentary election."
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 19 January 2007

Welsh news

Homelessness levels falling
Homelessness in Wales is falling according to a new report from the auditor general for Wales.
The statistics show that the number of people recorded as homeless has decreased from around 2, 600 in the third quarter of 2004 to 1, 900 in the second quarter of last year. But there has been a slight increase over the past six months.
Source:- Western Mail, Friday 19 January 2007