Family Follow

"There is no longer a case of a winter beds crisis-there is a total beds crisis all the time." That was the reaction of a worker at the Whittington Hospital in north London after the furore that erupted over the treatment of 94 year old Rose Addis. Rose's family complained that she was left unwashed for three days in the hospital's casualty department.

"WE WILL never give up fighting to find out who killed my brother, Roger Sylvester. We have found out that the police, judiciary and Crown Prosecution Service all work together to protect a system of injustice" said Bernard Sylvester. He spoke out as over 100 people joined a candlelit vigil on Friday of last week called by the family of Roger Sylvester, a young black man who died in police custody three years ago.

US BOMBS, missiles and cannon fire slaughtered at least 207 Afghan people in the village of Niazi Qalaye in Afghanistan last Sunday. Villager Janat Gul was distraught after the US bombs killed 24 members of his family. "People are very upset," he said. "There are no Al Qaida or Taliban people here."

Alem is 14. He is both Eritrean and Ethiopian, and Eritrea and Ethiopia are at war. Alem's father finds that his family is unwelcome in either country. He brings Alem to Britain and leaves him there, where he thinks he will be safe. The book follows Alem as he gets to grips with England, the weather and the immigration system. He suffers many major setbacks.

Five boys from the same family torn to pieces. A Palestinian leader and two aides killed by a helicopter gunship. A murdered taxi driver. A 13 year old boy and a 15 year old shot dead. Political offices and security posts blown up in the Gaza Strip.

If you have been impressed by headline news that the government is going to let parents with kids opt for "family friendly" shifts at work, look again. This is a measure that is supposed to help working mothers the most.

"We want the truth-we want justice," pleaded Rhoda. She is the sister of Ricky Bishop, who died in police custody last Thursday. Rhoda was surrounded by a shocked group of family, friends and supporters who gathered to demand answers outside Brixton police station last Sunday. Ricky Bishop was a healthy 25 year old black man.

The new film Gabriel and Me is set in Newcastle against the backdrop of derelict shipyards. The story revolves around Jimmy Spud and his family. Jimmy's ambition is to become an angel to "save people from the intolerable burdens society places on their shoulders".

The Scottish legal system was slammed as incompetent and racist by two official reports last week. The reports gave damning evidence of the way the police and courts failed to bring justice to the family of a young Sikh murder victim in Lanarkshire, Surjit Singh Chhokar.

SAUDI ARABIA is at the centre of US policies in both the Middle East and Central Asia. This Western ally, one of the world's biggest oil producers, is ruled by the royal family-and there is no democracy whatever. The US and Britain armed Saudi Arabia, and used it as the key military base in the war against Iraq.

"I've come to realise that those at the top in British society merely got rich and profited from my family, and other people who have not received justice." Those were the bitter words of Darshan Singh Chhokar, speaking at a 130-strong rally last Saturday for justice for his son who was killed in 1998. The family demanded at the Glasgow meeting that a public inquiry is held into the investigation of Surjit Singh Chhokar's death.

The family of a black postal worker driven to suicide by racism at work have won the first step in their battle for justice. The victim's parents won the right this week to a posthumous employment tribunal hearing over racial discrimination. Jermaine Lee, a 26 year old Birmingham postal worker, hanged himself in November 1999.