Friday 6 February 2004

By Natasha Salari, Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

New crackdown on heroin users
Using heroin could become a criminal offence on the same level as
possessing the drug, under new government plans.
A Downing Street report recommends that using heroin becomes an
offence with a punishment of up to seven years in jail.
Currently the law is based around possession or dealing in the
drug.
Source:- The Independent Friday 23 January page 1
Blunkett faces setback to asylum centres plan
Campaigners opposed to the building of an accommodation
centre for asylum seekers on a site in Oxfordshire won the right to
take the case to court yesterday.
The government had planned for the facility in Bicester to become
the first in a string of new accommodation centres. However, the
high court has granted a judicial review into the government’s
decision to overturn a planning inspector’s decision that the
centre was unsuitable.
Source:- The Independent Friday 23 January page 12
‘Voices’ told addict to push man under train
A drug addict pushed a man under a tube train because “voices in
his head” told him to do it hours after he was refused help from a
psychiatric hospital, the Old Bailey heard.
Stephen Soans-Wade pushed Christophe Duclos at Mile End station in
East London. Duclos was rescued by emergency services, but died
from multiple injuries three days later.
Soans-Wade told station staff at the scene that he had carried out
the attack after being sent away from Whitechapel hospital.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 23 January page 7
Scottish newspapers
Parents may not film own children
Parents could be banned from taking pictures of video film of their
children during school activities, after Aberdeenshire’s
education authority agreed controversial plans yesterday.
Pupils may not be photographed or filmed “under any
circumstances”, unless their parents have given prior
permission.
Councillors claimed the policy was “political correctness
gone haywire”.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 6 February
HIV fear of woman, 71, stabbed by a syringe
An older woman was yesterday left facing an anxious wait
for the results of HIV tests after she was stabbed twice by a
syringe while trying to prevent a robbery.
The 71-year-old shop assistant received puncture wounds to her hand
from a hypodermic needle when she tried to stop a man from stealing
joints of meat from a shop on Wednesday lunchtime.
Grampian police said a 30-year-old man had been arrested in
connection with the incident.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 6 February
Parents to demand home schooling if council closures
agreed
Parents will demand to have their children educated at home or move
away if the Scottish Borders Council ploughs ahead with plans to
close village schools in Berwickshire.
Opponents say the closures will leave large areas of the county
with no small schools forcing young families to leave.
The council says it needs to shut down 11 of its 71 primary schools
to bridge a funding gap in a £68 million public private
partnership bid aimed at improving school buildings.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 6 February
Social workers to star on BBC
Edinburgh council’s social work staff are set to star in a
new BBC fly-on-the wall documentary.
Camera crews spent six months following frontline social workers as
they carried out their duties across the capital.
A series of 30-minute programmes exposing the realities faced by
social workers is due to begin later this month.
Source:- Evening News Thursday 5 February
Law lords give refugees right to live where they want in
UK
Refugees have the right to live anywhere they want in Britain
following a House of Lords ruling yesterday.
Asylum seekers are dispersed across Britain when they first arrive
in the UK to alleviate pressure on London and the south east. But
law lords have ruled that this does not mean they should have to
stay in the dispersed location once they are granted asylum.
Councils warned the ruling could mean an exodus of refugees to the
south east.
Source:- The Herald Friday 6 February
Hard up old folk turning to crime
Desperate older people are so short of money they are committing
crimes to make ends meet, according to a new survey.
Older people who haven’t felt forced to break the law have
returned to work as they cannot afford full-time retirement.
Researchers who carried out the survey for the Prudential found
that 2 per cent of older people either committed crimes or
considered doing so during 2003.
Source:- Daily Record Friday 6 February page 15
Benefits workers to strike
A two-day strike is to be staged by tens of thousands of workers in
Jobcentres and benefit offices later this month.
The move follows the collapse of talks between workers and
management at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Source:- Daily Record Friday 6 February page 27
Welsh newspapers
Children’s centre gets the go-ahead
Plans for a new children’s centre for High Cross in Newport
have been approved by the city council.
When the centre is completed, more than 1,200 disabled young people
from Newport, Torfaen and south Monmouthshire will benefit from the
new facilities.
Source:- South Wales Argus Thursday 5 February page 4
Fury of residents at asylum bombshell
The Welsh assembly has given the go-ahead for a controversial
asylum appeals centre to be built in Langstone, Newport.
Campaigners have reacted angrily to the decision that came during a
public inquiry, and say that the location is unsuitable for the
proposed centre.
Source:- South Wales Argus Thursday 5 February page 5
Care home death
There have been calls for every care home in Wales to be checked
for fire safety after a blaze at a home for older people near
Tenby, left an 83-year-old woman dead.
Five other residents from the Old Rectory residential home were
taken to hospital after the fire suffering from smoke
inhalation.
Help the Aged spokesperson Andrea Lane said that a root and branch
review of fire safety was required in all care settings across the
UK.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 6 February page 1
Asylum seeker mother may be separated from new
baby
An asylum seeker from Zimbabwe fears that she may be separated from
her newborn baby because of government regulations.
The new mother gave birth to her daughter in Cardiff last week, but
has lost her appeal for asylum and is currently living with her
sister who is supporting her.
The Reverend Aled Edwards, chairperson of Displaced People in
Action, has presented an emergency report on the case to the Welsh
assembly’s equality of opportunity committee.
Source:- Western Mail Friday 6 February page 5