BY THE end of the decade there will be 10,000 asbestos-related deaths each year in this country. That is twice the number killed on the roads. These people are almost exclusively working class men and women who were exposed to lethal asbestos dust at work.
PEOPLE IN the poor African country of Somalia feared this week that they were to become the latest targets in the US "war on terror". The US, and key allies Britain and France, have increased surveillance flights to four or five a day over Somalia in the last week.
THE RESULT of the hysteria whipped up around paedophiles by papers like the News of the World was shown just before Christmas. George Crawford was due to appear in court in January.
BOSSES GAVE thousands of workers the sack for Christmas. Former newsagent John Menzies announced around 1,200 job cuts. Menzies has recently become an airport services operator, and plans to axe some 200 jobs at Heathrow airport.
THE DISGRACED New Labour cabinet minister Peter Mandelson topped the recent list of parliament's top earners. Among the lucrative concerns Mandelson registered were a directorship with Clemow Hornby Inge.
AN ASYLUM seeker deported by the British government has been beaten and tortured in Zimbabwe. Gerald Muketiwa, who supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was deported from Britain on 16 December last year after his plea for asylum was turned down.
NEW LABOUR looks set to bail out Britain's air traffic control network less than six months after it was privatised. The government sold off 46 percent of the National Air Traffic Service for £750 million to a consortium of airline companies last July.
MORE THAN 20,000 elderly people died from cold-related illnesses in England and Wales last winter, despite the government's claims to be helping the poorest elderly people. Mervyn Kohler of Help the Aged says the number of winter deaths among old people is a "peculiarly British problem.
THE government quietly gave the go-ahead to the Sellafield mixed oxide (mox) nuclear plant in Cumbria just before Christmas. British Nuclear Fuels Limited opened the plant just hours after gaining an operating licence from the government.
AFTER PASSING its draconian Terrorism Act at the end of last year, the government is set to clamp down even more on our civil liberties. Ministers plan further restrictions on a defendant's right to choose trial by jury. They want to bring in a new criminal court which could slash the number of jury trials by 70 percent. The government also plans a new youth court with a judge and two magistrates. The move could mean the end of public jury trials for all 16 and 17 year olds.
A SPONTANEOUS uprising. That was what followed when demonstrators took to the streets of Argentina five days before Christmas. At least 23 people were killed in a vain attempt to break up the demonstrations. But the hated economics minister, Domingo Cavallo, and the president, De la Rua, were forced to resign.
