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Sixth-form teachers are to stage a walkout in a row over cuts to funding and pay, a union announced today. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said its members working in sixth-form colleges had voted in favour of strike action in protest at the Government’s funding cuts, and cuts to their pay and conditions. A date for [...]

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An Australian woman who was a strong supporter of home births has died tragically, delivering her own baby daughter at home. Caroline Lovell, 36, was rushed to hospital in a critical condition after giving birth but could not be saved. Her daughter Zahra was delivered healthily. A professional photographer, Mrs Lovell was a powerful advocate [...]

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Amanda Holden was today discharged from hospital after her life-threatening childbirth ordeal. The Britain’s Got Talent judge was said to be “thrilled” to be back at her house in south-west London with new daughter Hollie. Holden, 40, was in intensive care for several days following the birth eight days ago. She is believed to have [...]

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Set on a 40-acre farm, between two wildflower meadows, this idyllic little holiday home is the perfect base for a taste of country life – children can become junior farmers, helping out at animal feeding time. The “cottage” itself looks like it’s been lifted straight from a children’s storybook and put on wheels. Hand-made by [...]

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Young-at-heart Kathleen Connell celebrated her 100th birthday and shared the secret of her long life – playing on her handheld games console. Instead of knitting or playing bingo, Kathleen – known to all as Kit – spends two hours a day tapping away on her Nintendo DS Lite. Instead of knitting or playing bingo Kathleen [...]

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Milk has long been known to help build healthy bones and provide the body with a vitamin and protein boost. But now it’s being hailed as a memory aid after a study found those who regularly have milk – and other dairy products such as yoghurt, cheese and even ice cream – do better in [...]

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A grandmother was able to diagnose a toddler’s one-in-a-million illness – which had left doctors baffled for years – after spotting the symptoms on television. Carol Hayton, 44, was watching a BBC Three documentary series Underage and Pregnant when she saw a child demonstrating the same symptoms as her two-year-old grandson Declan. The youngster was [...]

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A Parliamentary answer by David Gauke, a Treasury minister, disclosed that HM Revenue & Customs was missing its target of dealing with child benefit claims within 23 days. Instead, it has taken an average of 29 days to process the claims, and will not hit its target until next financial year. Mr Gauke said the [...]

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The research, by Sheffield Hallam University, showed that a basket of frozen family groceries cost just £15.45, whereas the same items bought fresh would cost £23.25. By opting for frozen versions of family favourites – such as broccoli, salmon and sausages – families could save almost £8 per supermarket trip. Charlotte Harden, a nutrition and [...]

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Two men were jailed yesterday for trying to blackmail Coleen Rooney for £5,000 to return pictures of her footballer  husband Wayne and their son. The photos were on her digital camera which ended up in the hands of Lee Platt after she lost it at a concert. Platt, 29, recognised personal pictures of Manchester United [...]

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The bodies of civil servants Robert Kamin, 55, and Susan Poff, 50, were found under blankets in a parked car outside their home in Oakland, California. They had been strangled. Police believe someone then tried to set light to the car which was charred. Friends and relatives said the couple had worked tirelessly for the [...]

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When his son Daniel was given just months to live without a lifesaving transplant, devoted father David made a brave decision. His son was suffering from a rare liver condition and it was unlikely that surgeons would find a donor liver in time. So he decided to step forward and risk his life to donate [...]

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Charlie Taylor, the Coalition’s top expert on behaviour, said thousands of pupils were being consigned to the “scrapheap” after being kicked out of mainstream education. He insisted that the most unruly children lacked proper boundaries after being referred to specialist units and often drifted towards local gangs to find a “sense of belonging”. In a [...]

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Mohammad Shafia, the girls’ father and husband of the fourth victim, was secretly taped by police describing his daughters as a “disgrace” and complaining that they dated boys and wore inappropriate clothes. He was sentenced to life in prison along with his second wife, Tooba Yahya – who he was married to illegally – and [...]

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Parents who neglect basic duties such as preparing meals and enforcing bedtimes are breeding a feckless ‘underclass’ who cause mayhem on the nation’s streets, it was claimed yesterday. Charlie Taylor, the Government’s behaviour tsar, criticised homes with ‘little conversation’ where children as young as eight are left to fend for themselves at mealtimes and play [...]

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It’s only when a child neglect case goes irreversibly, tragically wrong – as with the death of Baby P in 2007, which inspired this new and astonishingly revealing documentary series – that anyone really thinks about what social workers actually do. The rest of the time, most of us prefer not to confront the suspicions [...]

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Inspections of child protection services in England are to be unannounced, more intensive and child-focused, the inspecting body, Ofsted has announced. Under the plans, inspectors will speak directly to children and their families for the first time. Inspectors will also look at how social work departments communicate with other bodies such as the police and [...]

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Dalisha Adams, 26, left her children aged three and five on a cold street in Brooklyn at around 3pm on Sunday afternoon. They were spotted by an elderly couple playing on the pavement as cars raced by them. Both girls were dressed warmly, in bright purple and pink winter jackets and fluffy boots, but appeared [...]

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Universities have suffered the steepest fall in applications since records began, with the total number of students seeking places this autumn plummeting by 8.7 per cent as the true impact of tuition fee increases is felt. Click here to see the ‘University Crisis’ graphic Last night, there were warnings that the decline would lead to [...]

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She began fertility treatment aged 44 and went on to give birth to twin daughters Eden and Savannah. But despite hailing her girls as ‘a miracle’, Marcia Cross has no illusions about having children later in life. When asked about being the ‘poster girl’ for older mothers, The Desperate Housewife star, who had a difficult [...]

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Jacqueline Wilson, 66, is the award-winning children’s author of books such as Girls In Love and Lily Angel. She has sold more than 30 million books in the UK alone and in 2008 she was made a Dame.   I first met Nick about 21 years ago, after I had written The Story of Tracy [...]

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A schoolgirl was listening to music on her headphones when she was killed by a train on a level crossing, police suspect. GP’s daughter Katie Littlewood, 15, was struck at high speed while using the pedestrian crossing. A pair of headphones were found near her body at Johnson’s Footpath in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, and British [...]

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A 10-year-old boy has undergone two major operations after a Staffordshire Bull Terrier ripped a large hole in his leg in Greater Manchester. Mohammed Ali Kamal has returned home after spending four nights in hospital since the dog attacked him in Miles Platting, Manchester, last Thursday. His parents heard his screams and ran to his [...]

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Prince Harry has said he does not believe the Queen can now carry out her public duties without the Duke of Edinburgh by her side. In an interview to mark her Diamond Jubilee, the prince pays tribute to his 85-year-old grandmother’s stoicism and sense of duty. But he makes it clear that none of her [...]

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A few years ago I found a small, cold, barefoot child on Hampstead Heath early on a Sunday morning. It was a forlorn sight, as he picked his way across the gravel path, and other dogwalkers turned to look at him because it was so unusual to see such a small child alone. I decided [...]

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Four young thugs who beheaded birds and caused nearly £10,000 worth of damage at a horticulture centre all tried to blame each other for their crimes, a court heard. Gavin Wellesby, 19, and three male youths aged 12, 16 and 17 all admitted to being at the centre but tried to cast the blame on [...]

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Surgeons were today preparing to operate on a three-year-old boy to remove the body of a ‘parasitic twin’ growing inside his stomach. Isbac Pacunda was left with the rare condition after absorbing his would-be sibling inside the womb. Doctors in Peru say the partially formed foetus has eyes, bones and hair on the cranium, but [...]

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Taking fish oils during pregnancy could protect your unborn baby from eczema, scientists say. In tests, children whose mothers took omega 3 supplements were a third less likely to develop the dry skin condition. Expectant mothers who take fish oils during pregnancy could protect their unborn babies from eczema, scientists claim They were also 50 [...]

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The death of the 13-year-old son of a US Air Force lieutenant colonel from gunshot wounds has been described as a “tragic accident” as police launched an investigation into the incident. The 13-year-old boy was shot in the head at a house in Souldern, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, on Sunday morning. He died at the John [...]

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The 26-year-old said the only way she was able to get over her learning disability was by reading the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, and imagining what Thompson would do in her shoes. Knightley, who was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of six, said she was a “huge fan” of the 52-year-old actress and [...]

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Giving his personal reflections on his grandmother in a rare and candid interview to mark her Diamond Jubilee, the Prince raised the sensitive subject of the monarch’s advancing years and her ability to cope with her massive workload as she approaches her 86th birthday. Meanwhile his brother, The Duke of Cambridge, disclosed that the Queen, [...]

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Courses in subjects such as horse care, customer service, nail technology and practical office skills will no longer be listed as “equivalent” to GCSEs under new plans. The change is being made by the Department for Education as part of sweeping reforms designed to raise school standards and stop teachers pushing teenagers onto inappropriate qualifications. [...]

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Trevor Evans, 17, was expelled from West Kirby Grammar School, on the Wirral, in October last year amid rumours that he and his then girlfriend had had intercourse in a store cupboard and a school lavatory. But an independent tribunal has thrown out the school’s decision, ruling that it failed to investigate the claims properly [...]

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Two fortysomething women, no make-up on and hair tousled, are sitting around a messy table in west London cooing over photographs and swapping motherhood tips. “But how do you crack the naps?” Kate Silverton asks fellow BBC newscaster Fiona Bruce. Bruce (who’s popped in on the way to present the evening bulletin) shrugs and laughs. [...]

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In London, this figure rises to 35 per cent of households. Among young couples in Britain, the proportion is 38 per cent. Nearly one in three parents think their home is too small, according to the study of 2,000 adults by property website FindaProperty.com. Research also found that of the million people in Britain who [...]

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A couple in their fifties who looked after a baby girl for a year have been told they are too old to legally adopt the child. The foster parents in Whitley, Berkshire had looked after the child to help out her 17-year-old natural mother and had raised the little girl since last March. But after [...]

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Even if the arch feminist Germaine Greer did once dismiss Cherie Blair as a mere “concubine”, women’s rights have always been close to the heart of the former prime minister’s wife. Now, however, Mrs Blair, who runs a foundation for women, says it is a “myth” that members of her sex can ever have it [...]

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The body of Betty Yates, 77, was found at her remote property near Bewdley, Worcs, on Jan 4. She is believed to have been beaten with her walking stick and stabbed in the neck two days earlier. Police suspect her death may have been the result of a burglary gone wrong but Hazel Costello, Mrs [...]

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Children whose mothers are more attentive during infancy go on to develop more nerve cells in their hippocampus, a region of the brain which plays a key role in memory and emotion, researchers found. Although the findings do not prove that the mothers’ behaviour caused the improved brain size, measured during later childhood, they suggest [...]

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Grammar school nostalgics are having a moment. On a BBC documentary this month, Michael Portillo described the decision to turn his old school, Harrow County, into a comprehensive as “vandalism”. A forthcoming book of grammar school memoirs, School Songs and Gymslips, includes a piece by the home secretary, Theresa May. Meanwhile, unless Labour persuades the [...]

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An adventurous, fit teenager died of meningitis within hours of complaining of a headache. Fit and healthy Welsh student Hannah Gwilliam, 19, was her ‘usual bubbly self’ in college but became ill just hours after arriving home. Health chiefs today confirmed Hannah died of the meningococcal group B strain of the deadly brain virus. Hannah’s [...]

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Syrian security forces tried to smuggle Syrian President Bashar Assad’s family – including his British-born wife – out of the country. Rebel forces claim a convoy carrying Asma Assad, a graduate of King’s College, London, and a former investment banker, tried to flee. The President’s children his mother and cousin were also onboard. Sources told [...]

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For millions of young people, the Bank of Mum and Dad was the only way to get on to the property ladder. But even that has hit upon hard times – and granny and grandpa have stepped into the breach, a report reveals. It said rising numbers of young people struggling to buy their first [...]

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How could we have forgotten about vitamin D? Suddenly newspapers are reporting that one in four toddlers do not get enough and rickets is emerging again. The chief medical officer in England, Dame Sally Davies, has reminded doctors that children under five are one of a number of groups who need supplements. A recent survey [...]

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He loves riding his bike, plays football every day and always eats his vegetables. So four-year-old Logan Knowles’s mother was stunned when she received a letter from the NHS saying he was ‘clinically obese’. The letter warned that the little boy was so ‘overweight’ he was at risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. At [...]

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Dressed in matching skin-coloured caps, round spectacles and grey moustaches, these young children are taking part in a lookalike record attempt like no other. The 485 children donned matching outfits in honour of Mahatma Gandhi, the iconic Indian spiritual leader who was assassinated 64 years ago to the day. As well as the peace leader’s [...]

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Johnson & Johnson has recalled thousands of tubes of its Aveeno Baby Calming Comfort Lotion after a sample contained too much bacteria. Tests by the Food and Drug Administration found a batch of the lotion contained more of a form of naturally-occurring bacteria than specifications allow. Around 2,200 bottles of the lotion – with lot [...]

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If giving birth to a 13 pound baby isn’t enough to earn a title of Wonder Woman after labor, how about doing it au naturale? An Iowa woman delivered her second son to weigh over 11 pounds Thursday after opting to forgo a cesarean section as well as pain killers. At precisely 13 pounds and [...]

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Couples trying for a baby should take a sunshine holiday – and not just because it may put them in a more romantic mood. Sunlight boosts fertility in both men and women by increasing their levels of vitamin D, a study has found. Known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is also key to balancing [...]

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Forty-nine per cent of British children aged 12 and under, would be sad without access to the web, while one in five would be lonely. The ‘Digital Futures’ project, which surveyed 1,000 young people in the UK between the ages of eight and 16 about the impact of the internet on their lives, found that [...]

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