Three men get life after killing woman for the sake of family ‘honour’

By Mithran Samuel, Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Three men get life after killing woman for the sake of family ‘honour’
 
A man was jailed for life yesterday, along with his brother and another relative, for murdering his daughter in a so-called ‘honour killing’.
Mahmod Mahmod will serve at leat 20 years for commissioning the murder of his 20-year-old daughter, Banaz, because she fell in love with the wrong man.
His brother Aria Mahmod will serve at least 23 years for planning the murder and Mohamad Hama was jailed for at least 17 years for strangling Banaz in her south London home.
 
Source:- The Times Saturday 21 July 2007 page 25
 
Review 24-hour drinking law, urges chief medical officer
 
Chief medical officer Liam Donaldson has called for a large increase in alcohol taxes to cut rising consumption.
He also called for recent legislation extending licensing hours to be reviewed, following evidence of a tripling in the number of people taken to accident and emergency for alcohol-related reasons.
 
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 21 July 2007 page 1
 
Teenagers fuelling rise in sexually transmitted infections 
 
Rates of some sexually transmitted infections rose steeply among teenage girls and young men from 2005-6, the Health Protection Agency has warned.
The HPA partly blamed media images of unsafe and casual sex for the rises, whcih included a 16% hike in herpes diagnoses among teenage girls, compared to a 9% rise for the general population.
Rates of sexually transmitted infections have risen steeply since 1997.
 
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 21 July 2007 page 11
 
Repeat offenders
 
Young offenders breached the conditions of intensive supervision and surveillance orders – the government’s flagship community punishment scheme – over 40 times on average before being returned to court, Oxford University research has found.
The findings relate to young people on 12-month ISSPs, which are only given to serious offenders.
 
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 21 July 2007 page 12
 
Debunked: politicians’ excuse that cannabis has become stronger
 
The last official report examining the strength of cannabis, in 2005, concluded that it had changed little over the previous 30 years, contrary to politicians’ claims it had increased significantly.
The 2005 Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report also found that skunk – the strong form of the drug – was two to three times stronger than conventional cannabis, not 25 times as strong, as has been claimed.
The government has announced a review into the 2004 decision to reclassify cannabis as a Class C drug.
 
Source:- The Independent Saturday 21 July 2007 page 15
 
Efforts fail to improve rape conviction rates
 
Just 6% of rape complaints end in a conviction, according to a study of almost 700 cases from 2003-4.
Most cases were dropped before reaching trial, despite the police deciding that a crime had taken place in most instances.
The most frequent reasons for dropping a case were insufficient evidence (40% of cases) and the victim withdrawing her complaint (35%).
 
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 21 July 2007 page 20
 
Mother calls social workers’ removal of her baby inhuman
 
A couple have hit out at a council’s decision to remove their baby daughter because of the mother’s history of mental illness.
A family court ruled that the baby should go into care because she had been cared for deficiently while under the surveillance of social workers.
However, the judge ruled that the mother now appeared to be in good mental health.
 
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 22 July 2007 page 12
 
Adoption rewards under review
 
Cash incentives for councils to increase adoptions may be scrapped in a review of government targets, the Department for Children, Schools and Families has revealed.
 
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 22 July 2007 page 12
 
Banned paediatrician to have sentence reviewed
 
Controversial paediatrician Dr David Southall will have a three-year ban from child protection work, imposed in 2005, reviewed tomorrow.
The General Medical Council imposed the ban after Southall concluded that Steve Clark – wife of Sally Clark – was responsible for murdering their two children, the crime his wife was wrongly jailed for in 2003.
Southall made the judgement from watching a television programme on the case.
 
Source:- The Observer Sunday 22 July 2007 page 12
 
Miliband: time to stop knocking the young

The government needs to do more to end the perception that most teenagers are involved in crime or antisocial behaviour, Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband has said today.

Miliband, the youngest member of the Cabinet, was speaking ahead of the publication of a government review which is likely to call for the first expansion in youth services for 50 years.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 23 July 2007 page 1, 10

Social housing targets to rise by 20,000

Nearly half the extra 40,000 homes the government expects to build each year will come from the social housing sector, ministers are expected to say today.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 23 July 2007 page 7

Judge halts BBC programme featuring mother with IQ of 63

A High Court judge has blocked a BBC programme about a woman with an IQ of 63 and a mental disorder whose daughter was taken into care and placed for adoption.

Mr Justice Eady made the move after the official solicitor concluded that the woman was unable to give informed consent and that the documentary would expose her to abuse and hostility locally.

The programme was designed to form part of a series on adoption and fostering next week and was to examine the issue of concurrent planning – where a child is placed with foster parents with the possibility of adoption, while at the same time parents’ suitability to keep hold of their child is assessed.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 23 July 2007 page 13

Child use of antidepressants up four-fold over past decade

The use of antidepressants and other pills to combat mental health problems among children have qaudrupled in the past decade.

Under-16s were given drugs for mental health problems more than 631,000 times last year, compared with 146,000 in the mid-1990s, a rise which politicians and children’s charities branded as “very dangerous”.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 23 July 2007 page 1

Drinking guidelines

Drinking guidelines should take into account age as well as gender to protect consumers’ health, Mary Gilhooly, professor of gerontology at Brunel University, said.

Source:- The Times, Monday 23 July 2007, page 18
 
 
Mother invented children for fraud

A woman who claimed to have mothered three sets of twins and two sets of triplets has been given a nine-month suspended prison sentence after admitting fraudulently obtaining £30,000 in benefits.

Source:- The Times, Monday 23 July 2007, page 23
 
 
Holocaust survivor’s children sue over psychological damage

Thousands of Israelis whose parents were persecuted in the Holocaust have filed a joint lawsuit against Germany to force it pay for psychiatric treatment for problems arising from their blighted childhoods.

Source:- The Times, Monday 23 July 2007, page 30
 
 
Mum, nothing works. I can’t move

ME is difficult to treat but Leo, 13, is learning to take control of his condition.

Source:- The Times, T2, Monday 23 July 2007, pages 7-8

Scottish news

Moves to dump methadone thwarted as SNP backs report’s endorsement

Methadone should continue to be the main treatment for addicts in Scotland, but more support needs to be in place to encourage users to become drug-free. That is one of the recommendations from a series of reports scrutinising the heroin substitute programme.

A review was ordered by previous First Minister Jack McConnell, in the wake of the death of toddler Derek Doran. The two-year-old died after drinking methadone in his parents’ home in 2005.

It found that 10% more people were receiving methadone treatment than the previous estimate in 2004, and that around one third have children under the age of 16 living with them, all or part of the time.

Source:- Sunday Herald, 22 July

Policeman who is registered homeless

Housing prices in the west Highlands are so high that policemen are unable to afford accommodation – one has registered homeless, another lives in a van and a third has a houseboat as a home.

The Police Federation is furious that Northern Constabulary is doing nothing to resolve the crisis and has warned that the force, currently trying to recruit officers, may lose serving policemen and women.

In Fort William, the situation is particularly bad for officers who earn around £21,000 a year.

Source:- The Herald, Monday 23 July.

Inquiry into people-trafficking ‘gateway’

Illegal immigrants are avoiding tight border checks by entering the country via the Faroe Islands and Shetland.

Immigration officers have discovered a number of illegal workers living in the North-east who had exploited common travel areas between Denmark, the Faroes and Shetland to reach the UK.

The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) believes this could be the tip of the iceberg and now the minister in charge of immigration has pledged to investigate the scale of the problem.

Source:- The Scotsman, Monday 23 July

Welsh news

Assembly seeks champion for older people

The first commissioner for older people in Wales is set to shortly be appointed by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Experts have welcomed the creation of the post but said that whoever is appointed must ensure they celebrate the contribution older people can make and don’t view them as a problem.

Source:-Western Mail, Monday, 23 July 2007-07-23

Deaf man attacked for smoking at bus station

A deaf man was beaten up at Cardiff central bus station for smoking on Tuesday.

Someone asked him to stop but due to his hearing difficulties he did not respond.

He was then attacked.

Source:- Western Mail, Saturday, 21 July 2007