A town council has said it will continue a campaign to stop sex offenders being housed at an open jail. Three child rapists and a number of other inmates have absconded from Prescoed jail near Usk, in Monmouthshire, since 2004.

A patient has been admitted to a Welsh hospital suffering from the new, potentially lethal superbug PVL-positive MRSA. This is the same bug that killed a nurse and a patient in the West Midlands last year, and is thought to be one of the first cases of its kind in Wales.

Welsh nursing leaders have said they need to be convinced patients will still receive high standards of care if a popular Swansea hospital is axed.The Royal College of Nursing Wales said plans to shut Fairwood Hospital and ward one of Hill House Hospital had sparked widespread concern.

Racist incidents at Swansea Council have rocketed for another year.The number reported has gone up by more than 50 per cent. Council chiefs have put the latest increase down to greater awareness and confidence that complaints will be taken seriously.

A town council has said it will continue a campaign to stop sex offenders being housed at an open jail. Three child rapists and a number of other inmates have absconded from Prescoed jail near Usk, in Monmouthshire, since 2004.

Eight of the top 10 sickest places in Britain are in south Wales, according to a survey. Merthyr Tydfil is named as the most unhealthy place in the UK, with Rhondda Cynon Taf and Neath Port Talbot coming third and fourth. Carmarthenshire, Caerphilly, Torfaen and Bridgend also have the highest levels of serious illness and the poorest diets, the report claims.

The government is to raise the legal minimum age at which tobacco can be bought in England and Wales from 16 to 18 years from October. The move, announced by Public Health Minister Caroline Flint, will follow the introduction of a ban on smoking in public and work places later this year.

Scientists at Cardiff University have developed a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers said they had created an antibody which could block the production of brain chemicals linked to the debilitating disease.

{mosimage}Dr Emma Kidd, who led the research team, said the results of the tests were “highly encouraging”.

There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s, which causes irreversible loss of brain function and memory.

The disease affects one in 20 people aged over 65 and a fifth of all people aged over 80 in the UK. The results of the study show that it is possible to decrease production of a protein called amyloid, which is believed to be the main cause of the disease.

Rapists and paedophiles living in Wales are this year receiving a Christmas card from the police, we can reveal. South Wales Police confirmed the decision to send out the cards last night, saying it was a reminder to sex criminals that the force knew where they were living.

More needs to be done to protect the public from dangerous paedophiles living in their communities, Welsh politicians said yesterday. Their calls came as a report revealed Craig Sweeney, who was jailed for sexually assaulting a three-year-old Cardiff girl, had inappropriately approached children while he was on licence for a previous conviction.