Thursday 27 March 2003

By Clare Jerrom, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Asylum requests may be handled in Russia

Plans to be presented by the home secretary to his European
colleagues tomorrow will suggest sending asylum seekers arriving in
Britain to a ‘transit processing centre’ just outside
the EU boundaries to have their claims decided.

The scheme, which would apply to all asylum seekers arriving in
the unions, and could involve them being sent to Ukraine or Russia,
has been put together by the government’s asylum taskforce as
a further deterrent to those who enter the EU illegally and make
unfounded asylum applications.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 27 March page 13

100pc increase in teenage girls using morning-after
pill

The number of teenagers using the morning-after pill has more
than doubled since it became available over the counter.

The emergency contraception is taken by one in five 16-year-old
girls each year, and some use it repeatedly, according to
government statistics yesterday.

The rules were changed in January 2001, to allow chemists to
sell the pills. Before this, less than one in 12 teenage girls took
the morning after pill.

Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 27 March page 23

Murder suspect, 16, sent to mental hospital

A 16-year-old boy arrested in connection with the murder of
Marsha McDonnell has been sent to a secure mental health hospital,
police said yesterday.

The teenager, who was arrested following a tip-off, is unfit to
be interviewed by police and has been detained under the Mental
Health Act.

Source:- The Independent Thursday 27 March page 14

Scottish newspapers

Teenage girls are becoming
more violent

Teenage girls are becoming more
violent, according to new research.

A study of 170 Scottish 14 and
15-year-olds has discovered that, while boys offend at a younger
age and are involved in a wider range of delinquent acts, girls are
just as likely to be involved in physical violence.

Source:- The Herald
Thursday 27 March page 11

Care homes call off threat
to contracts

All sides in the damaging care homes
dispute were celebrating a breakthrough yesterday after care home
owners agreed to call off their threat to cancel council
contracts.

The initial offer from the executive
and COSLA, £406 per person per week in nursing homes and
£346 for residential, will now be accepted, but, without the
extra conditions originally demanded by the executive.

Source:- The Scotsman
Thursday 27 March page 13

Welsh newspapers

Care home patient, 28, found dead in bath

An investigation is underway after a 28-year-old man with
special needs apparently drowned while taking a bath at his care
home.

Philip Bargewell was found dead by a carer at the home that is
run by the organisation ‘Drive’ in Llanharry in south
Wales.

A spokesperson for the Glamorgan coroner Philip Walters said an
inquest had been opened and adjourned pending further tests.
Initial indications however are that Bargewell drowned. It is
understood that he lived at the home for the last decade.

Source:- South Wales Echo Wednesday March 26 page 1

Care home owners demand fairer price

More than 600 care home owners, carers and relatives marched on
the Welsh assembly yesterday demanding a fairer price for private
homes.

With the sector in crisis, they came from across Wales to make
their protest at the bleak future that they claim lies ahead,
unless politicians and local authorities redress the gulf between
independent and public sector funding.

Source:- Western Mail Thursday 27 March page 9