By Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Citizens’ pension plan to lift nearly million out of poverty

Nearly a million pensioners, most of them women, will be lifted from “abject poverty” if the cabinet accepts Alan Johnson’s plans to revolutionise Britain’s welfare state. The work and pensions secretary plans to replace the system of the past 50 years with a new “citizen’s pension.” Residence, rather than national insurance contributions, would become the criterion for a basic state pension. The current system has an in-built bias against carers or those without continuous full-time employment.

Source:- The Guardian January 29 2005 page 1

Parents lose court battle over keeping critically ill girl alive

The parents of desperately ill baby Charlotte Wyatt have lost the latest round in their legal battle to give their daughter the chance to live.

Source:- Daily Telegraph January 29 2005 page 2

The row over sandwiches that sparked a riot

A jail riot that caused £3 million in damage began with a row over sandwiches, Leicester Crown Court heard. Prisoners took control of Lincoln prison for more than eight hours in October 2002, smashing everything in their path and looting the pharmacy for drugs – with one inmate dying after an overdose. Six rioters were jailed for nine years.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday January 29 2005 page 9

New inquiry into care for over-65s

The architect of the government’s plans to double spending on the NHS will today launch an investigation into the Cinderella services of social care. Sir Derek Wanless’s inquiry will focus initially on the needs of older people in England.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday January 31 2005 page 2

‘Ban surrogacy’ call after mother dies in childbirth

Pro-life campaigners yesterday called for surrogacy to be banned after a mother of two died giving birth.

Natasha Caltabiano, 29, who had developed high blood pressure, suffered a ruptured aorta and died 90 minutes after the boy arrived.

Source:- The Mail on Sunday January 30 2005 page 44

Labour plays its own race card to trump Tory migration plan

Tony Blair will steal Michael Howard’s key policy when he launches Labour’s own crackdown on illegal immigration next week.

The Prime Minister has insisted that an Australian-style points system to grade would-be migrants seeking a new life in Britain is included in a raft of measures. The deportation of thousands of failed asylum seekers will also be made a top priority.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page 2

Brown to raise minimum wage above £5 barrier

Gordon Brown will announce that the minimum wage is to rise above the symbolic £5 mark for the first time in a Budget expected to launch Labour’s election campaign.

He will raise the minimum hourly rate for adult workers from £4.85 to £5.05 in October, and to £5.30 the following year.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page 2

Girl gang-raped

A girl, 14, was gang-raped as she walked home from the Hackney Empire, east London.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page 2

Psychosis linked to cannabis, says studies

Mental health campaigners are calling for a government inquiry into the effects of cannabis one year after the drug was reclassified from Class B to Class C.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page 4

Anti-gay bullying forces thousands of pupils to leave school after GCSEs

Homophobic bullying in British schools is forcing thousands of gay pupils to leave school early, prompting calls from gay equality charity Stonewall for the introduction of sexual orientation lessons in the curriculum.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page 16

Ministers go to war on class pranksters

A war on classroom pranksters and persistent attention-seekers will be declared by Ruth Kelly, the secretary of state for education.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page 16

Families reunited

How would you feel if a stranger turned up out of the blue claiming to be the son or daughter you never knew you had? Why changes to the law will make such daunting, tearful encounters much more common.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday January 30 2005 page 18

Row erupts over secret filming of hospital filth

Health bosses claim that patients were ‘put at risk’ by nurses who captured appalling conditions for a shocking Channel 4 documentary. Hidden cameras were used to film Royal United Hospital, Bath and Ealing Hospital in west London.

Source:- The Observer January 30 2005 page 5

Racism ‘ingrained into prison culture’

Judy Clements, the prison service’s first race equality adviser, found a deeply ingrained culture of prejudice in the prison service, the inquiry into the death of Asian teenager Zahid Mubarek has been told.

Source:- The Observer January 30 2005 page 15

Search for missing boy

Police are searching for Ben Wilson, 9, who went missing from his home in Witham, Essex. He was last seen by a neighbour on Saturday afternoon.

Source:- The Times Monday January 31 2005 page 2

Ministers may face revolt over disability benefit cuts

The government moved yesterday to head off a backbench rebellion over its planned reform of benefits for the long-term sick and disabled in an attempt to reduce the £6.7 billion a year cost of the programme. Alan Johnson, secretary of state for work and pensions, insisted that the reforms, to be announced this week, would not be about cutting benefit rates. But he said the design of the benefits would have to change. Incapacity benefit is also to be renamed and reformed in an attempt to get hundreds of thousands of claimants back into work.

Source:- The Independent Monday January 31 2005 page 18

Scottish newspapers

Prostitution plan naïve

Proposals to legalise prostitution in Scotland will lead to a surge in people trafficking and organised crime, child protection experts claim.

They say the Scottish executive plans fail to take into account the fact that a growing number of foreign women and children are being forced to work in brothels.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 30 January

NHS staff angry over the use of armed guards and handcuffs for asylum seekers

Asylum seekers from the Dungavel detention centre have been degraded and humiliated in a series of “horrific” incidences while receiving treatment at Scottish NHS hospitals.

Medical workers at Wishaw General Hospital and Hairmyres Hospital have raised concerns about a number of cases including that of a woman being shackled to her bed while awaiting surgery and a man who was escorted from a psychiatric unit by armed guards following treatment for mental health problems.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 30 January

While we’ve been waiting for the Scottish Executive’s sexual health strategy chlamydia among teenagers has jumped by 50%, 38,000 teenagers have become pregnant and 16,000 of them have had an abortion. So why after all this time is it so toothless?

Background news feature on the reasons for reforming Scottish sexual health legislation and how the subject is taught in schools, focusing particularly on the repercussions of the high rates of underage sex in Scotland.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 30 January

Gordon’s army of 1 millions helpers

Gordon Brown will throw his weight behind the Year of the Volunteer campaign by launching a bid to recruit up to a million young people for voluntary work. He says Britain's response to the tsunami in Asia has boosted his hopes of a good response.

Source:- Daily Record Monday 31 January

Archbishop: sexual health u-turn a victory

A war of words has erupted between a senior Catholic Church figure and supporters of sexual health reforms.

Mario Conti, the archbishop of Glasgow, said the executive’s support for “abstinence” was a clear rejection of the “safe-sex” mantra that had failed Scotland. However, one former Labour minister criticized the executive for “caving in” to the church.

Source:- The Herald Monday 31 January

Welsh newspapers

I’ll sue cops over trial fiasco!

A victim of child sex abuse said he will launch legal action against North Wales police after being cleared of benefit fraud.

Stephen Messham was accused of benefit fraud to the sum of £33, 000 between 1995 and 2000.

He has previously spoken out against North Wales Police and Flintshire Council in an inquiry into abuse at the former Bryn Estyn children’s home in Wrexham in 1997.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 30 January

Hunt on for mother of dead baby

Police said that they were concerned for the welfare of the mother of a dead newborn baby whose body was found in a garden in Cardiff yesterday. The boy was found in the back garden of a house in the Splott area of the city yesterday by the owner of the house.

Police appealed for the mother to come forward.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 30 January

Schoolgirls’ web shock sparks warning

Parents were urged to be more thorough in monitoring their children’s use of the internet after two Swansea schoolgirls put sexual photos of themselves on the web.

One 13-year-old girl sent a photo of herself in underwear and with handcuffs and a whip to a website. She had taken the photo herself with a webcam. The other 14-year-old girl sent photographs of herself naked, which she had taken, to her friends via an online messaging service.

Both girls were pupils at Cefn Hengoed Community School and the deputy head teacher Geoff Brookes urged parents monitor their children’s online activity more closely.

Source:- Wales on Sunday Sunday 30 January

Infant’s mum ‘could be teenager’

Fears that the mother of a new born baby found dead in a backgarden in Cardiff could be as young as 13 were being raised last night.

Police are concerned for the mother’s welfare and are trying to locate her.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 31 January

Mother’s ordeal while split from her baby

A Welsh nurse has described the moment that she saw her six-month old baby for the first time in 18 days yesterday.

Diane Jelich’s estranged husband Steve went into hiding in his native New Zealand shortly after the couple split up just before Christmas.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 31 January