Tuesday 15 November 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Simeon Brody and Amy Taylor

Creeping menace of crystal meth, the drug more dangerous than crack
The government is considering the reclassification of the class B drug methamphetamine, known as crystal meth, believed to be taking hold of the gay club scene after police warnings that it is dangerous and is now being made within the UK for the first time.
It is also known on the street as “ice,” “meth,” “Tina,” and “Nazi crank.”
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 3

Two deny murder of student in axe attack
Paul Taylor, 20, and Michael Barton, 17, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Anthony Walker, 18, at Preston crown court yesterday.
The student was attacked with an axe in July as he walked with his girlfriend near his home in Huyton, Merseyside.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 7

Alarm in prisons at Scientology drug cures
The Prison Service has warned that activists linked to the Church of Scientology are targeting offenders in British jails with unauthorised anti-drug and education programmes.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 13

Third teenager attacked at school
Danielle Price, 15, a teenager who says she was attacked by a group of jealous girls who apparently envied her academic success said yesterday she feared returning to school and facing the bullies again.
Police are investigating the alleged assault after the incident at Llangatwg comprehensive in Neath, south Wales. The attack follows two other similar incidents in Surrey and Sheffield.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 13

Ex-council chief on sex charges
A former police authority chairman who defied David Blunkett over sacking a chief constable after the Soham murders has been charged with 14 counts of indecent assault on children. Colin Inglis, 48, who was leader of Hull Council until May, will appear at the city’s magistrates court today. He has always denied allegations of child abuse dating back to the 1980s when he was a care worker at a children’s home in Hull.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 13

Toddler curriculum criticised by European education expert
The government’s “national curriculum” plan for babies and toddlers in England risks creating an “industrial model” of early years education in which workers follow a manual to ensure children conform, according to a leading childhood expert.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 13

Lobby warning by Home Office was ‘hypocrisy’
The Home Office was accused of gross hypocrisy last night for instructing senior managers in the probation service not to lobby against the government’s reform plans for the service – in the same week that senior police officers were urged to lobby MPs on anti-terror laws.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 15

Record £1bn NHS deficit equals huge rise in cost of bureaucrats
The health service is facing its biggest deficit of nearly £1 billion despite record investment of £74.5 billion. Official figures show the cost of bureaucracy leapt by £1.3 billion between 2000 and last year.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 1

Taxman to snoop in your home
Council tax inspectors will be able to enter people’s homes and take photographs even of their bedrooms.
Whitehall documents reveal they will be allowed to “obtain factual information from internal inspections” as part of the revaluation of 22 million properties in England.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 1

Automatic access for parents rejected
A move to give divorced parents an automatic right of access to their children was defeated in the House of Lords.
Children’s charitiescwarned that the plan would put children at risk from violent parents.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 4

Gipsies win battle with Prescott to stay on Green Belt land
A group of gypsies yesterday won a High Court battle with the government to stay on green belt land in Bedfordshire they occupied without planning permission.
A judge ruled that the government failed to consider the educational needs of the children.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 10

Probation staff “must not lobby”
Top probation officers have been banned from lobbying against government policy.
The ban was disclosed in a leaked letter sent by Roger Hill, director of the National Probation Service, on the day chief police officers were lobbying MPs on the terror laws with the backing of the Home Secretary.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 15 November 2005 page 12

Welsh news

Danielle fears ‘jealous’ girls may attack again
A Welsh schoolgirl who had to be treated for facial injuries in hospital after being attacked by a gang of girls spoke of her fears of being attacked again yesterday.
The girls assaulted Danielle Price, 15, at her school, Llangatwg Comprehensive, near Neath last Friday. The attack happened after she had won two awards for academic achievement.
She told ITV1’s GMTV programme that she was worried that she could be assaulted again and that it could be “even worse”.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 15 November

Mother takes on drugs firm over her disabled son
The Welsh mother of an 11-year-old disabled boy is to take a number of drugs company to court claiming that her son’s disabilities were caused by medication she took during pregnancy.
Kay Short, who is epileptic, took sodium valporate while she was pregnant to suppress her convulsions.
However, she claims that the drug has caused her son Kyle to be born with multiple disabilities including autistic tendencies.
Short is planning to seek compensation from firms who manufacture the drug including Sanofi-Synthelabo.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 15 November