The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 8

HOME NEWS 1 9 The Guardian Saturday December 30 1995 Howard tour to explain asylum cuts jjjjj fJ jjjj pPB- Mr Howard said on BBC Radio's Today programme that asylum claims from such countries were generally not well founded, though each would continue to be treated on its merits. Applicants from India and Pakistan will have the right to appeal to an independent adjudicator, but no right of appeal to the Immigration Appeal Tribunal. Last year there were 2,030 asylum applications from India. Five were granted asylum by independent adjudicators and 30 were given exceptional leave to remain. There were a further 2.380 applications in the first nine months of this year.

Last year 1,810 applied for asylum from Pakistan, of whom five were granted asylum and 25 were given exceptional leave to remain. In the first nine months of this year, 2,130 applied for asylum. Mr Howard said both governments "understand the pressures we are under and they do not want to do anything to encourage bogus asylum Patrick Wintour, Chief Political Correspondent THE Home Secretary Michael Howard yesterday started a two-week tour of India and Pakistan to review the granting of visas and to explain his plans to cut the number of asylum seekers from the two countries. He will also offer help to reduce the trade in heroin to Britain. Home Office officials insisted Mr Howard was not travelling to the two countries to justify the Asylum and Immigration Bill.

Mr Howard insisted he had not had any representations from the two governments about the bill. India and Pakistan are on the white list of seven countries designated in the bill as not posing a serious risk of persecution. Appeals by asylum seekers from the two countries will be subject to a fast track procedure, expected to take 10 days. scoundrel'. He will be brought to life at PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID SILLITOE Past life A visitor to the Museum of London contemplates a puppet of Izaak Caltrop, a 17th-century London sedan chair carrier and 'street the museum today and tomorrow by puppeteer Stephen Wisdom who made the puppet in rubber and performs the piece he also scripted News in brief "It has always been an unbearable thought to me that someone could inspect one of my products and find, it inferior in some way.

For that reason I have consistently tried to produce products wriich can withstand the closest scrutiny, products which prove themselves to be superior in every respect." Robert Bosch (1861-1942) Meningitis kills boy sent home by hospital A FIVE-WEEK-OLD boy died of meningitis hours after being sent home from a hospital casualty unit in Northern Ireland late at night, it was revealed yesterday. Wendy Smith of Londonderry woke a few hours later to find her son Ryan dead in bed beside her. Ms Smith said her pleas to have Ryan admitted to Altnagel-vin hospital were ignored. "I was just turned awayasafussy first-time mother. They thought I was overreacting but I knew something was very wrong.

I can't describe what it was like to wake up and find Ryan dead beside me. I haven't heard from the hospital but nothing they could say or do would help now." Ms Smith first became worried about Ryan on the evening of the Thursday before Christmas and called out her GP who said he might have meningitis. The couple took the baby to the hospital where a doctor told Ms Smith to go home and return next day if his condition had not improved. She and boyfriend Paul Boreland are due to meet hospital authorities next week. A hospital spokesman said yesterday: "The baby was seen by a doctor and the doctor, from his diagnosis, didn't believe there was a problem." A coroner's inquiry is to be held but, said the hospital, no internal inquiry.

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The final BBC World Service programme in French is being withdrawn to help save money. The first BBC broadcasts to Europe in French were made in September 1938 at the time of the Munich crisis. General de Gaulle made his historic rallying call to the French Resistance in 1940 on the BBC. Direct broadcasts have gradually been withdrawn and the last remaining service, BBC Infos, which offered a 24 hour feed of news and music via satellite from London to 100 radio stations in France, is now to go. BBC World Service broadcasts to France in English and French broadcasts to Africa remain.

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It said he should face a jury at a higher court on charges of offending public morals and publicising sexual exploitation. According to the prosecution, Stamford used a homosexual travel guide called Spartacus as a front fora mailing service offering information on child prostitution in Thailand, Brazil, the Philippines and other nations. Stamford had denied the child sex charges and claimed to be the victim of an anti-homosexual campaign. tM KTR 1670 Larder Fridge CFC and HFC free 3 height adjustable safety glass shelves Auto defrost Capacity 5.4 cu ft (net) Bosch KGU 3201 Fridge Freezer "Frost-Free" system Totally CFC and HFC Free Separate temperature controls Fridge capacity 6.8 cu ft (net) Freezer capacity 3.6 cu ft (net) 1 Agents sue conductor CONDUCTOR and orchestra director Christopher Hogwood is being sued for more than 160,000 by his agents Harrison Parrott. A writ just issued at the High Court claims that Mr Hogwood has breached an agreement the agents claim was made in 1981, when Hogwood appointed the firm as his sole worldwide manager and agent and agreed to pay 15 per cent commission on money paid to him on engagements negotiated by them.

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Pnces shown are manufacturers suggested sale prices between 26th Dec 1995 and 31st January 1996. Pre-Christmas manufacturers suggested selling price. Excellence conies as standard 1 50m cannabis bonfire IRISH police burned a 15-tonne haul of cannabis with an estimated street value of 150 million in the furnaces of a power station in Co Offaly. The drugs were seized in a raid in Co Kilkenny last month and destroyed in a secret pre-Christmas operation. Police believe the drugs may have been intended for the British market.