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All families keep secrets, and some secrets are bigger than others. My father kept a very big secret. It concerned the war. It’s August 1942. My dad, Enos Norman, and mum, Lilian Victoria Griffiths, are living at 32 Wolsey Drive, Kingston upon Thames, midway between Hampton Court and Wimbledon Common. Friends refer to them as [...]

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The father of missing York woman Claudia Lawrence has said he is “still hopeful” she will be found alive. Peter Lawrence was speaking on the third anniversary of her disappearance. Ms Lawrence, who was 35 when she vanished, was reported missing in March 2009 after failing to turn up for work as a chef at [...]

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The parents of Madeleine McCann said today a police review of her case was ‘a huge step’ in the effort to help trace the missing girl. A team of detectives in Portugal has been re-appointed to re-examine the original investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, after she vanished while on a family holiday in the Algarve almost [...]

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All families keep secrets, and some secrets are bigger than others. My father kept a very big secret. It concerned the war. It’s August 1942. My dad, Enos Norman, and mum, Lilian Victoria Griffiths, are living at 32 Wolsey Drive, Kingston upon Thames, midway between Hampton Court and Wimbledon Common. Friends refer to them as [...]

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The first thing I notice about Holly Branson is her socks. They are Burlingtons, with a jacquard diamond pattern, and while it’s tempting to say that they peek out of her loafers, it’s probably closer to the truth to say that the loafers peek out of them. The look is so casually naff they are [...]

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Research found grown men favour their mother’s culinary skills because they rustle up more traditional, hearty dishes than their spouses. The study also found mothers rarely serve up ready meals, have a wider repertoire of meals and always cook something they know he likes. Wives and girlfriends, on the other hand, are likely to dish [...]

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The agonising dilemmas which can result from gay parenthood arrangements were highlighted yesterday by a leading judge. Lady Justice Black was ruling on a case in which a gay man agreed to father a child for a lesbian couple – but then asked to share in his son’s upbringing. She and two other Appeal judges [...]

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Nissan’s low-slung Deltawing will take to the track at the Le Mans 24 Hours race this year – and the 1.6-litre vehicle could change motor racing forever. The turbo-charged, direct petrol-injected vehicle is half the weight of conventional endurance racing cars – but can achieve similar lap times. It will race from ‘Garage 56′, the [...]

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…  She writes: “The first time I saw my husband after our separation I realised, to my surprise, that he hated me. I had never seen him hate anyone: it was as though he was filled up with something that was not of himself, contaminated by it. “For months black poisonous hatred has flowed from [...]

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In an “unusual if not unique” case, three Appeal Court judges ruled that the father should not be treated as a “secondary” parent because his son was living with two women. They found that three parents can be as good as two. The case, which hinged on questions of “biology, human nature and the hand [...]

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Around 300 had been invited to the Anglo-American event of the year and Clooney was given a seat at the top table with the Camerons, Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle. Among the guests were movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, The Wire star Idris Elba, Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern in a black strapless [...]

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Tash Ozimek was 16 years old when her father John sat her down one evening and pointedly asked: ‘What is the most embarrassing thing I could ever do to you?’ She was stumped, because, like most teenagers, she found all dads embarrassing. So, after racking her brains for a few minutes, she flippantly replied: ‘Probably [...]

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Circumcision may protect against prostate cancer, a study shows. A study found that men who had been circumcised before they had sex for the first time were on average 15 per cent less likely to develop the illness than uncircumcised males. They were 12 per cent less likely to develop less aggressive prostate cancer and [...]

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When his son was diagnosed with a rare medical condition that attacked his kidneys, Duane Harvard, 51, didn’t think twice about donating one of his own. But his grateful 10-year-old son Raphael has nicknamed him ‘Superdad’ as a result. ‘I don’t think of that, it was a privilege, an honour, it’s the least I could [...]

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A diet high in saturated fat has been linked with a reduced sperm count. A study of 99 men attending a US fertility clinic found those eating junk food diets had poorer sperm quality. High intakes of omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and plant oils, were associated with higher sperm concentration. More work is [...]

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It looks like Seal is keen to be a good father despite his painful split from Heidi Klum. For the English hitmaker was spotted with his daughter Leni as they enjoyed watching the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Boston Celtics last night. And the duo were doubtlessly smiling from ear-to-ear by the end of [...]

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Nigel Robinson, 43, had been trying to download a Slash album when he opened files that turned out to be indecent images of children. He told his wife immediately and then contacted Humberside Police to report the discovery on his laptop. However, social services then told him he would only be allowed supervised access to [...]

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As a seven-year-old boarder at an English Catholic prep school in the 1970s, there were many rituals to be endured in a bewildering world. I remember standing in a queue of shivering boys, all in white Y-fronts having just taken their weekly bath, waiting for an old matron aptly named Mrs Holyland. When it was [...]

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It has been two days since you left us. Did you know that Toby understands the word umbrella? Clock? I don’t expect you do, after all you haven’t been able to take much in about our son since the big black dog settled in your head and your heart more than six months ago. The [...]

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The calm in Amanda and Phil Peak’s living room is broken by a squeal of delight as their daughter, Angel, bursts in from the kitchen clutching a gnawed apple, juice dripping down her chin. ‘Mama!’ she says, holding it out to her mother. It’s not the most appetising of offers, but Amanda’s face lights up [...]

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Women have long suspected they still do more of the housework than their husbands. And the next time there’s a row over the chores, they’ll have proof. Eight out of ten married women do more housework than their partners, according to figures compiled by the Institute for Public Policy Research. Much the same: After 40 [...]

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A team of detectives based in Oporto in northern Portugal has been appointed to re-examine the original investigation into the little girl’s disappearance from the Algarve in 2007, the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias reported. Scotland Yard officers have been carrying out their own review since last May. It is understood that the team from [...]

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About 72,000 of the most troubled families, 60 per cent of those being targeted by the Government, are headed by a single mother. The rate is about triple the national average. An official review into the causes of last summer’s riots is expected to highlight the lack of “male role models” for many of the [...]

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It was all going so well. Marcus Rutherford was – still is, always will be – my first and most precious son, best friend, calming influence and trusted confidant. He has long been (it’s OK, his mum and brother already know this) the most important person in the world to me. My reason for living. [...]

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She’s one of the most lusted after women in the world, and regularly delights fans with the sexy pictures she posts on her Twitter page. But Rihanna’s father has come forward to admit that last time he saw the singer, he told her she was too fat. In an interview with heat magazine, Ronald Fenty [...]

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Barack Obama’s former nanny, a transgender woman named Evie, has been overwhelmed after being catapulted from anonymous slum-dweller to local celebrity in Indonesia. TV crews have been trooping in and out of her tiny concrete home in Jakarta. Estranged relatives have said they want to meet up. She has even had a promising job offer. [...]

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A British man fell to his death on the last day of a holiday in Spain as he tried to get into his apartment after locking himself out. Father-of-four Tyrone Jones, 42, had lost his key and tried to get into the Benidorm flat by stepping on to a wall, unaware of a four-metre drop [...]

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There’s a queue every day outside Abercrombie & Fitch’s flagship London store on Savile Row. The “lifestyle concept” shop opened in 2007 and, given its conspicuously preppy image, its location seemed not entirely ill-fitting: if Abercrombie’s customers really are the wealthy college kids portrayed in its advertising, they might conceivably be the sort to buy [...]

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The father-daughter duo who have been the focus of national attention since he shot her laptop, following a Facebook rant against her parents’ chore demands, seem to have come to a truce. Speaking out about the incident for the first time, Tommy Jordan’s daughter Hannah Marie tersely admitted to learning her lesson. ‘We got home, [...]

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If Duncan Bannatyne seems less eager than usual to declare “I’m in” when would-be entrepreneurs try to persuade him to invest his hard-earned money in their business schemes on Dragons’ Den, his divorce from Joanne McCue is to blame. Bannatyne says the demise of his second marriage has left him in no position to pour [...]

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The biggest challenges for Norwegian women are the usual suspects: sexual violence, lower wages and less power than men. And yet the biggest advance for Norwegian women this year was about giving more money to men. In April 2011 the government announced that the paid maternity leave period reserved for dads was to be increased [...]

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Like all three-year-olds, Susan Beatie is fascinated by animals. She wants to be a vet — maybe even a vet and a princess — when she grows up. At bedtime, she loves to climb onto her father’s knee and demand a story about a hungry caterpillar, a greedy bee or a snail sailing away on [...]

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The family of a man with 10 brain tumours say their prayers have been answered after a generous stranger agreed to pay for a life-prolonging drug denied to him by the NHS. Father-of-two Glen Cunningham, 29, who suffers from a rare form of cancer called gliosarcoma, had been planning a fundraising mission after he was [...]

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A father who claims he accidentally downloaded child porn has been banned from seeing his eight-year-old daughter. Nigel Robinson, 43, was trying to get music off a file sharing website when he says he inadvertently opened up indecent images of young girls. He immediately alerted his wife, Liz, 33, who suggested calling the police. But [...]

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The son of fugitive Lord Lucan today confirmed that he WAS sent on a trip to Africa, where it is claimed the missing Earl would watch him from a distance. Speaking for the first time in years, George Bingham, the 8th Lord Lucan, said he remembers going to Kenya around 1985, but ‘to his knowledge’ [...]

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A six-year-old girl endured a year of painful ear, nose and throat problems – because bungling medics failed to spot a wooden bead that was stuck up her nostril. Jaina Haq went from being a bubbly and chatty girl to having no confidence after suffering months of pain and broken sleep. The trapped bead caused [...]

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The daughters of Christopher Swain, 61, claim their father’s advisers were negligent in allowing him to sell £5 million in shares two weeks ahead of a scheduled operation from which he did not recover. Had Mr Swain waited until after the procedure to carry out the deal, his family would have inherited the shares instead [...]

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A young father suffering from 10 brain tumours is making a last-ditch bid to raise funding for cancer treatment after his local primary care trust refused to pay for a drug that could prolong his life. Glen Cunningham, 29, from South Shields in Tyneside suffers from a rare form of cancer called gliosarcoma, and believes [...]

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The natural father of Baby Peter has been awarded £75,000 in damages after the publishers of The People wrongly accused him of being a sex offender. The newspaper said the father, known only as KC, was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl, the High Court heard. The judge said it was “difficult to think of [...]

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The figure is up by almost a third from £10,000 just five years ago, according to a report by Scottish Widows, the pensions and investment company. The money is being loaned by parents to help their children get on the property ladder, pay off debts and fund day-to-day living. However the money is not just [...]

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Home Secretary Theresa May will reveal four areas in England and Wales where the trial will take place. It comes after a campaign for a change in the law to help protect women from domestic abuse by Mr Brown. His daughter, Clare Wood, was strangled and set on fire by her ex-boyfriend, George Appleton, at [...]

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She may have been ceremoniously dumped from Daybreak but Christine Bleakley is all smiles as she reveals she just loves not getting up at 3am. And the presenter, fresh from Dancing On Ice fame, has said she is just relieved she can spend more time with her fiancé footballer Frank Lampard. Despite publicly falling from [...]

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Late one afternoon in October 2006 Benjamin Mee was sitting in the kitchen of his new family home, contemplating a list of jobs, when his brother ran in shouting, ‘A big cat has escaped. This is not a drill.’ The home, which Mee had moved into four days earlier, was a dilapidated zoo, and a [...]

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The roles that men and women play in the home and as parents have evolved dramatically over the years as responsibilities continue to be more evenly divided. But a new study exploring the ways in which maternity and paternity leave is used suggests that men are still not pulling their weight when it comes to [...]

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Theresa May will say next week she plans to introduce “Clare’s Law” in four areas for a year, before extending it across England and Wales. Mrs May is thought to have decided to give women – or men – the right to ask police about a partner’s history. A tougher option, to give an individual [...]

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Research shows that “harsh and inconsistent” discipline in the home is breeding a generation of young children with anger management problems, poor attention spans and low levels of literacy. The report warned that the link “remained true even after a range of socioeconomic factors were taken into account”, suggesting that children brought up in middle-class [...]

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The roles that men and women play in the home and as parents have evolved dramatically over the years as responsibilities continue to be more evenly divided. But a new study exploring the ways in which maternity and paternity leave is used suggests that men are still not pulling their weight when it comes to [...]

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On our daughter’s last birthday, my husband wrote in her card: ‘How old are you?’ He said it was a joke, but I know better. He was not entirely sure if she was 11 or 12. He emailed me recently from work asking me to ‘confirm the full names and dates of birth of the [...]

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A former banker is spending £10,000 of his own cash to stamp out dog fouling in his home town. Gary Downie has vowed to clean up the streets after he faced the ‘grim reality’ of pushing his seven-week old baby’s pram through streets covered in canine faeces. He’s bankrolled the launch of StreetKleen, a charity [...]

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This is the moment when an emotional Royal Navy sailor returned home to his family after spending six months in the Middle East. Sean Doyle was welcomed home by his wife Gemma and his five-year-old daughter Tierney after  HMS Somerset sailed into Devonport, Plymouth, on Friday morning. It is the first time little Tierney has [...]

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