Birmingham Post

5pc Pay Rise for City Council

Members of Birmingham City Council are set to vote themselves an above-inflation pay rise of five per cent. The proposed increase in allowances and special responsibility payments will bring the annual salary of council leader Mike Whitby to pounds 67,000 and that of his deputy, Paul Tilsley, to pounds 54,000.

The Holy Grail's Home Is in the Midlands

The Holy Grail is located within the grounds of the late Royal photographer Lord Lichfield's ancestral home in Staffordshire, a Canadian codebreaker claimed yesterday. Louis Buff Parry also maintained the mythical relic is not, in fact, a cup but two "grail stones" or pillow stones from the graves of the Biblical figures Rachel and Jacob.

Nec Now Looks Certain to Be Site Council Will Back for Casino

Leaders of Birmingham City Council are expected to give their formal backing to a super-casino at the NEC on Monday, effectively putting paid to a rival scheme at the Blues. The cabinet will decide to join Solihull Council in promoting the National Exhibition Centre as the best location in Britain for an American-style regional casino with unlimited cash prizes.

Midland: News Digest - Blast Inquiry

Detectives investigating an explosion that killed three children and a man, have sought further help from the public. Staffordshire Police stopped motorists and pedestrians in Cheddleton, near Leek, Staffordshire, on Thursday - exactly a week after the blast at a house in Hillside Road.

Midland: News Digest - Taxi Plea

Police are appealing for two women who tried to hail a cab, after it hit a p e n s i o n e r i n Birmingham. A 69-year-old was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries, after he was struck by a burgundy Hackney cab in Woodlands Road, Sparkhill, at about 2.45pm on Thursday.

Midland: News Digest - Mown Down

A Staffordshire woman was mown down by thieves who stole a car from her Staffordshire home. The 38-year-old was run over by a male offender who burst into the house in Cannock to grab the keys to a grey Honda Civic, registration LC55 NTE, which was on the driveway.

Midland: News Digest - Death Appeal

Police have launched a fresh appeal after a man died following a road accident outside a Sandwell pub. The 48-year-old died at Sandwell Hospital on Thursday four days after the accident near the Old Cross Pub, in Oldbury. The 23-year- old driver was treated for minor injuries.

Midland: More Arrests After Racist Chanting and Violence at Match

Eight more people were arrested yesterday by police investigating racist chanting and violence which broke out during last month's FA Cup clash between Stoke City and Birmingham City. It brings the total detained in connection with events both inside and outside Stoke's Britannia Stadium on February 19 to 21.

Midland: If Only Everest Had Its Own Escalator ; a Team of Army Mountaineers Came to the Nec Outdoors Show Yesterday to Showcase Their Skills On a Climbing Wall. Emma Pinch Tightened Her Chin-Strap and Stepped Up to the Challenge

As any hardy mountaineer will tell you, the key to success is preparation. The crack Army team hoping to make the first British assault on the treacherous West Ridge of Everest has spent three years getting into the zone, both physically and mentally.

Midland: Phone Vat Scam Retrial

A mobile phone tycoon jailed for seven years after being found guilty of a "classic carousel fraud" costing the taxman pounds 16 million has had his conviction quashed by the Appeal Court. Monmohan Sandhu (38), of Walsall Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, was jailed after a Southwark Crown Court jury found him guilty in October 2003 of cheating the public revenue. He was later served with a pounds 7.1 million confiscation order.

Midland: 'Most Hospitals Not Getting Into This Financial Trouble'

The majority of NHS trusts are improving patient services without getting into the kind of financial difficulties which forced a Staffordshire hospital to announce up to 1,000 job cuts, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt insisted yesterday. Ms Hewitt said the Government's reforms of the NHS were bringing to light financial problems like those seen at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent.

Midland: Ambulance Bosses Had to Apply for New Jobs

Ambulance bosses in the Midlands were "obliged" to apply for new posts created as part of the Government's reorganisation of the service or lose out on their redundancy deals, it was claimed yesterday. Malcolm Hazell, chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire Ambulance Service, spoke out after two other trust bosses resigned after not being appointed as the head of a proposed new Central West region.

Midland: Nurses Voicing Fears for Patients As More Redundancies Loom

Nursing unions yesterday warned frontline care in Midland hospitals could worsen if more cashstrapped trusts make rafts of redundancies. The warning came as NHS Direct - which has a call centre in Dudley - last night announced plans to cut the number of nurses and call handlers, as well as some of its centres, in an attempt to cover a large financial deficit.

Midland: Nec Casino Win-Win Is a No-No

The possibility that profits from an NEC super-casino could be used to build a 55,000-seat multi-sports stadium and new home for Birmingham City Football Club has been thrown into doubt. A legal agreement prevents the football club benefiting from a casino on any site other than The Wheels - the chosen location for the Blues' own super-casino plan. The exclusivity agreement, between the Blues, Birmingham City Council and Las Vegas Sands International, effectively precludes the club from becom...

Midland: Ignore Gambling Licence Says Mp

Clare Short, the MP whose constituency includes the site of Birmingham City Football Club's proposed casino, has urged the city council not to bid for a casino licence. Ms Short (Lab Ladywood) said the West Midlands did not need a casino at all.

Midland: Olympic Hopes Take to Water in Brum

A project aimed at creating the next generation of Olympic champions in water related sports, particularly sailing and canoeing, was launched by the Environment Agency yesterday. Sir John Harman, chairman of the agency, set out ways to improve the environment in where athletes would train and compete when he launched "A Better Place to Play" in Birmingham.

Midland: Pregnant Sheep Taken

Thieves have stolen 25 pregnant sheep valued at pounds 2,500 from a field in Malvern, Worcestershire. The animals, which were black-faced Suffolks, Welsh mules and charolais, were taken from Cowleigh Road between 9am on Tuesday and 12.30pm on Thursday.

Midland: We Need Longer Terror Sentences, Says Judge

A judge has called on the Government "urgently" to consider providing greater sentencing powers as he jailed a terrorist for just nine years. Mr Justice Fulford said Pakistan-trained Mohammed Ajmal Khan was a "person of authority" in an organisation with "clear links" to al Qaida as "quartermaster" for the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyiba - the so- called Army of the Righteous.

Midland: Eyeball-to-Eyeball Dean Still Looking Around Brum

The new Dean of Birmingham has a story which, in a nutshell, sums up his philosophy on human relations. The Very Rev Canon Robert Wilkes, who is installed at Birmingham Cathedral today, spent ten years in Afghanistan working with the International Ministry Association, including the period of the collapse of the Soviet regime.

Midland: Reprieve for Army Repair Base

The army engineering and repair workshops in Castle Donnington, Shropshire, are to remain open. But the future of the facility, which employs 628 people, is still not assured.