The former boss of one of Cardiff’s biggest shopping centres is facing a string of allegations that he downloaded pornography at work. Michael Kelly has been charged with 15 offences of taking or making indecent images of children and two offences of possessing indecent pictures.

The violent nature of society has led to a “deplorable” increase in attacks on Welsh teachers and pupils, teaching unions warned yesterday. The claim came as figures revealed nearly 5,000 Welsh pupils were excluded from schools in this country in the past academic year for violent offences.

People who abuse or assault NHS staff are more likely to be dealt with in court after an agreement between the Welsh Assembly Government and the Crown Prosecution Service. Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons yesterday said the threat of prosecution was the “ultimate deterrent” to such behaviour.

Every week eight council employees in Cardiff are physically or verbally attacked, it has been revealed. And more than a quarter of the 412 incidents last year involved attacks on staff at city schools, according to figures released to the Echo under the Freedom of Information Act.

Protestors against a new Gwent centre for former drink and drug addicts say their fight against the plans is continuing. Caerphilly county borough council’s cabinet decided this month that the proposal would go ahead.

New cancer drugs proven to prolong life have been refused to patients in the latest row over medical funding. The drug Nexavar will not be available on the NHS in Wales, even though research has found it can extend patients’ lives. There are few other effective treatment options available to people with advanced kidney cancer.

A Screaming three-year- old Swansea girl was tied to her heroin addict dad with a safety strap as he shot up in a city centre toilet.Thirty-one-year-old Peter Walsh pleaded guilty to child neglect at Swansea magistrates court yesterday.

Campaigners are calling for all young girls to be given a cervical cancer vaccine by the end of the next school year.

Magistrates have agreed to close down a second drugs den in Wrexham. The doors of the property on Caia Park will be sealed for three months after magistrates granted a closure order under the Anti-social Behaviour Act.

The battle over whether council houses should remain in local authority ownership has led to allegations of blatant misrepresentation as tenants vote on the issue in Wales’ second city. Mick Bennett, the director of Community Housing Cymru, the umbrella body for housing associations, said he was appalled at claims made in leaflets distributed in Swansea.