Friday 26 August 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Benefit fraud falls but still hits £780m

Ministers have hailed a 41 per cent reduction in fraud and error in
claims for unemployment benefit but the taxpayer still lost
£780 million last year, latest figures reveal.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 26 August 2005 page
4

Migrants boost population

England’s population has risen above 50 million and the
UK’s to 60 million, with the effect of net immigration
outstripping that of natural growth – more births than death,
according to official figures.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 26 August 2005 page
4

Squalid prison cells condemned

Prisoners are being held in parts of a jail criticised today as
being unfit for human habitation.

Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons, said that some cells at
Norwich prison have cardboard furniture and no electricity.

Source:- The Times Friday 26 August 2005 page 17

Youth attacks baby in pushchair

A baby was punched in the face and stomach by a youth who tried to
snatch her from a pushchair in the street.

Ten-month-old Sarah Ali was cut and bruised by a teenager who tried
to kidnap her.

Source:- The Times Friday 26 August 2005 page 17

Thousands pay respects to victim of race attack

Around 3,000 people attended the funeral of Anthony Walker, 18, who
was killed by racists with an axe in Liverpool.

Source:- The Times Friday 26 August 2005 page 19

Autistic boy, 5, dies after US therapy

An autistic child who travelled from Britain to the US to undergo a
form of alternative therapy for his condition has died after
treatment.

The US authorities have begun an investigation into the death of
Abubakar Nadama, 5, who lived in Batheaston, Somerset.

He underwent three rounds of Chelaton therapy at the Advanced
Integrative Medicine Centre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at which
point his heart stopped, according to a coroner.

Source:- The Times Friday 26 August 2005 page 21

Charlotte keeps up fight as appeal fails

The Court of Appeal has refused to overturn a judgement allowing
doctors to let a desperately ill baby girl die.

Debbie and Darren Wyatt returned to court armed with a
doctor’s letter admitting that their daughter Charlotte, 22
months, had made “remarkable progress” since a High
Court fight over her right to be resuscitated in hospital
began.

Source:- The Times Friday 26 August 2005 page 28

Family of five deported to Malawi

A family of five were deported to Malawi last night.

Verah Kachepa and her children, Natasha, 21, Alex, 17, Anthony, 16,
and Upile, 11, were escorted by immigration officers from their
home in Weymouth, Dorset, to Heathrow airport.

Their application for discretionary leave to remain in Britain was
refused, despite evidence that they would be endangered by
returning to Malawi.

Source:- The Times Friday 26 August 2005 page 40

Suspicious in infant deaths falls sharply

A sharp reduction in potentially suspicious infant deaths was
reported by the Office of National Statistics yesterday as coroners
adjusted their approach in the wake of the court of appeal’s
decision to overturn the convictions of mothers accused of child
murder.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 26 August 2005 page 12

Why did no one act to curb child-snatchers?

Social workers were under fire for removing children from couples
with low IQs as long as five years ago, it emerged yesterday.

A Department of Health report found families with
‘slow’ parents were being needlessly broken up by
officials not qualified to assess them.

Source:- The Daily Mail Friday 26 August 2005 page
23

Kids in ‘no sex’ show

Twelve teenagers will be challenged to go without sex for five
months in a new BBC reality show.

Source:- The Sun Friday 26 August 2005 page 25

Paedophile ‘free to work with kids’

Gavin Seagers, a paedophiles jailed for downloading 47,000 images
of children being raped and abused, has been told by police he is
now free to work with youngsters. Last night child protection
agencies reacted with horror to the decision by Kent police.

Source:- The Daily Mirror Friday 26 August 2005 page
4-5

Hoodie law

Campaign group Mothers Against Guns called for a ban on replica
guns following an incident in Knutsford, Cheshire, where a youth
waved a ball-bearing gun at passers-by.

Source:- The Daily Mirror Friday 26 August 2005 page 1 and
11

Scottish news

Police ask psychologist to help track down mum

A psychologist who specialises in cases involving abandoned babies
has been brought in to help detectives in their search for the
mother of baby Gary Holyrood.

Baby Gary was found abandoned in a plastic carrier bag on the edge
of Holyrood Park almost two weeks ago.  Despite appeals for his
mother to come forward she remains unknown and police hope the
psychologist will be able to give a profile that helps track her
down.

Source:- The Scotsman Friday 26 August

Truants quizzed in hunt for killer

Police think pupils playing truant on the day 11-year-old Rory
Blackhall disappeared may hold vital clues about his killer.

Officers visited primary and secondary schools in Livingston to
trace children who skipped classes last Thursday, the day Rory was
last seen alive. Those who were genuinely off sick have been
identified and the others are being questioned.

Source:- Daily Record Friday 26 August

Welsh news

Dementia ward closure threat

A ward for older dementia sufferers where some people have been for
years may be closing.

Money saved by closing the ward at Cefn Coed Hospital will be spent
on community care to help keep people out of hospital.

The 18 female patients who live on the ward could now be moved to
different beds or to another hospital.

Source:-thisissouthwales Friday 26 August