The law on the retention of DNA samples in Scotland could soon be tightened by the closing of a “legal loophole”. Currently, people who accept “direct measures” such as fines, as an alternative to prosecution, cannot have their DNA kept in the police database. Nationalist MSP Stewart Maxwell plans to amend a bill at Holyrood…
UK drugs test for claimants sparks row over unemployment benefits
Controversial government plans to allow Jobcentre staff to “order” benefit claimants to undergo tests for drug and alcohol dependency are in breach of European law and unlikely to work, according to leading addiction charities. The proposals, outlined in the welfare reform bill, which is due before the House of Lords next month, are part of…
Fergie calls in lawyers to halt child abuse row
Michael Gillard reports new developments in the previously reported matter of Turkey’s complaints about Sarah Ferguson (the Duchess of York) concerning her undercover exposé on the condition in state-run orphanages: The Queen’s lawyers have intervened to block the publication of a book about the Duchess of York’s exposé of child mistreatment in Turkey’s state-run orphanages….
Sweat Becomes Offenders’ New Snitch
Fredrick Kunkle and Derek Kravitz report: The government has buried its nose in Bari Lynne Williams’s personal business. Almost literally. Twenty-four hours a day, whether she’s jogging, sleeping or managing a pool hall, Williams wears a high-tech sensor on her ankle that can detect the faintest whiff of alcohol in her perspiration. If she sneaks…