Midwives yesterday called for more to be done to encourage women in Wales to give birth at home in order to meet health targets. The Royal College of Midwives said although Wales was leading the UK when it came to home births, more ambitious steps needed to be taken if the country was to reach its Welsh Assembly- backed target of 10% of births taking place at home.

A dedicated unit in the Assembly Government is to be set up to tackle soaring rates of e-crime in Wales, Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies will announce today. Details of the unit will be unveiled at the third Wales e-Crime Summit, to be held today at the Celtic Manor resort in Newport.

Plans for a new £64m community hospital in the Cynon Valley have been approved by the Welsh Assembly Government. The 128-bed facility in Mountain Ash aims at replacing two local old community hospitals by the end of 2010.

A council has launched an inquiry into how failures in its schools criminal checking system were obtained by BBC Wales. Powys Council said it had uncovered “weaknesses” in its Criminal Records Bureau procedures after inquiries by the BBC Wales News website.

A police chief says officers are winning the war on drugs in a Gwent town. Inspector Marc Budden says new legislation allowing police in Abergavenny to serve notices on suspected drug dens is already having a massive impact on the community.

Detectives are quizzing a man in connection with three suspected arson attacks at primary schools in the Flint area. St Mary’s Catholic Primary School was targeted on Tuesday night – the third attack in two weeks on Flint schools.

A carer who stole more than £50,000 from a 92-year-old woman – and blew it on her gambling addiction – was yesterday ordered to pay some of the money back. Wendy Jones was told to hand over £8,000 she made from the sale of her house.

Parents with severely autistic children will no longer have to send them outside Wales for year-round residential education. The first 52-week residential school for autistic children has opened in Bronllys, near Brecon, with spaces for eight pupils. The first pupil was due to start this week.

Customs officers says it has uncovered a huge illegal distillery in Cardiff, capable of producing thousands of litres of counterfeit vodka. The distillery, on the Curran Embankment, Grangetown, was uncovered by HM Revenue and Customs on Thursday.

Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons has set out plans for a Wales-wide shake-up of social services. The assembly government’s 10-year strategy will aim to give people who need social services more say over the care or support they receive.

{mosimage}It calls for more emphasis on caring for disabled and elderly people at home and taking fewer children into care. Plaid Cymru have given it a cautious welcome but are concerned it could prove no more than a “wish list”. Social services officials at the assembly government say they have learned lessons from political rows sparked by the planned hospital shake-up in Wales.

They insist the strategy entitled Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities should have the knock-on effect of easing pressures on hospitals and make that re-organisation more effective.