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The privately-owned children’s home accused of failing to protect a victim of the Rochdale sex abuse ring is being investigated by standards watchdogs. Inspectors turned up unannounced at the single-occupancy home which is now part of a group owned by an Anglo-American private equity company. The education watchdog Ofsted, which is responsible for standards in [...]

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Security forces in Cambodia have killed a teenage girl during a clash with villagers armed with axes and crossbows in the latest of a series of violent evictions aimed at clearing land for development. Reports said that during a clash between up to 400 soldiers and police and villagers in Kratie province in the east [...]

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A 15-year-old youth is facing a life sentence after being found guilty of stabbing a student to death in a row over conkers. The youth was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering architecture student Steven Grisales, 21. Mr Grisales died after he went over to remonstrate with three boys throwing conkers still in [...]

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A mother whose baby died after being deprived of oxygen when he was born has told an inquest that she is “tortured” by the memory of his birth. Noah Tyler died 10 months after suffering irreversible brain damage at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, a pathologist said. A midwife admitted making “catastrophic mistakes” [...]

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Schools in England will be banned from taking pupils’ fingerprints and using face-recognition technology unless they get permission from parents. New government guidance says written parental permission must be obtained to use students’ biometric data. Pupils themselves will also be allowed to refuse to participate. Schools can use fingerprinting or face scanning for recording attendance, [...]

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Lady Gaga will have to cancel her sold-out show in Indonesia following protests by Islamic hard-liners and conservative lawmakers, who said her sexy clothes and dance moves will corrupt young people. National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, responding to the pressure, said today that the permit for her 3 June “Born This Way Ball” concert [...]

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A mother-of-four who killed her children and then herself early on Tuesday morning said she wanted to be cremated with them, in a harrowing text message sent to a friend hours earlier. Sheriff’s deputies in Brevard County, Florida said 33-year-old Tanya Thomas shot her four children, who ranged in age from 12 to 17. They [...]

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Women’s empowerment guru, Tyra Banks, has spoken out in support of Vogue’s decision to ban rail thin models from its pages. The 38-year-old media mogul and former supermodel praised the fashion glossy’s 19 editors today for banding together to put a stop to ‘thinspirational’ editorial and called for a toast ‘over some barbecue and burgers’. [...]

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A schizophrenic who knifed a schoolboy to death and wounded three other pupils after failing to take his medication was today jailed for at least 20 years. Serif Aslan stabbed Kasey Gordon, 15, in the heart in front of horrified shoppers. Aslan, 34, who was free to roam the streets despite a long history of [...]

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Five family members were arrested after authorities found a one-year-old child and 58 dogs living in near squalor and surrounded by filth. Teresa Weldon, 48, from Springtown, Texas, claimed to run an animal rescue operation from her home and had as many as 200 dogs sent to her over the space of two years. However, [...]

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Police missed chances to bring a takeaway owner to justice earlier for a string of sexual offences against under-age girls, a judge said today. Several witnesses, including a 12-year-old girl, complained about Azad Miah pestering them for sex in exchange for money but no action was taken and he continued his “corrupting and degrading” sexual [...]

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A “wicked and controlling” man who murdered his “fun-loving, mischievous” stepson has been ordered to serve at least 17 years in prison. Elvis Lee, 34, was found guilty yesterday of murdering Tyler Whelan, five. Lee admitted he kicked and bit Tyler on the day of his death but denied murder. The kick was so hard [...]

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A homeless man was discovered sleeping on an “all mod cons” children’s ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Bosses launched an investigation after the man wandered on to the site in Bloomsbury through a fire door. Staff had apparently confused him for the parent of a patient, the hospital said today, because he was “smartly [...]

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A married couple living in Spain masterminded the kidnap of a British boy by an armed gang in Pakistan, a court heard today. Four masked men wielding assault rifles and hand grenades seized Sahil Saeed, five, while he was visiting his grandmother’s home in Punjab, prosecutors said. Muhammed Zahid Saleem and his wife Monica Neruja [...]

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Levi Brailsford’s grandmother was reportedly driving when she heard him unbuckle the harness in his car seat and friends say she was trying to pull over to re-fasten the buckle when the door opened and he fell out.   Police are investigating the possibility that Levi was then crushed under the wheels of the car [...]

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A workman who cut the base of a lamp post that later fell, fatally injuring a baby, wishes he had died instead, an inquest heard today. Tommy Hollis suffered severe head injuries when he was struck by the falling lamp post as he was sleeping in a pram being pushed by his nanny in Chiswick, [...]

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When Maria Concetta Cacciola drank the bottle of acid that would kill her in August last year, one can only imagine what was going through her mind. The mother of three, 31, had effectively been imprisoned in the family home in the dreary town of Rosarno, in the southern Italian region of Calabria, and probably [...]

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No three-year-old’s birthday would be complete without a brightly-coloured cake with candles on top. But Oscar Barlow was left in tears when police swooped on his party at a play centre – after staff said his cake was a health and safety risk. Bosses at Rumble Tumble play centre said the candles constituted a safety [...]

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Like most loving parents, Chris and Kathy Coker were anxious when their son Bradley embarked on his gap-year trip around the world. Even though they knew he was sensible, it was hard not to worry about what could go wrong. And so, the Cokers recall, they breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that [...]

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Thousands of children have lost the chance of a decent life because of the ban on mixed-race adoption, the state equality chief has admitted. Trevor Phillips said it was his greatest regret that he failed to challenge the race rules which denied children the chance of a loving family and instead left them at the [...]

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A Carlisle takeaway boss has been convicted of attempting to recruit four girls aged between 12 and 16 into prostitution. Azad Miah, 44, was also found guilty at Carlisle Crown Court of running a brothel from his business and paying for the sexual services of teenagers. The owner of the former Spice of India restaurant [...]

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The 14-year-old half-brother of six children who died in a Derby fire says the family is “struggling” to come to terms with their loss. Five children aged between five and 10 died in the early hours of Friday after the blaze at a property on Victory Road in the Allenton area. A sixth child, 13-year-old [...]

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Rhys Watkins is just 11 years old but he has been forced to battle cancer twice in little over a year. His latest operation, in the week before Christmas, was to remove a very aggressive, tennis ball-sized tumour from his lung. His family were not expecting him home in time for Christmas Day. However, he [...]

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One in four women do not have  a midwife present during the crucial moments of giving birth, according to a new study. The research, for the Royal College of Midwives, reveals that women across the country are being let down by under-staffed maternity services. On average, a quarter of women said they did not have  [...]

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Police are warning primary school pupils about chatting online amid fears that paedophiles are targeting children on websites such as Moshi Monsters and Club Penguin. Bedfordshire Police is sending officers into more than 300 schools to raise awareness about online imposters after parents highlighted possible ‘grooming’ incidents. One mother told police that her son was [...]

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A 15-year-old schoolgirl died of tuberculosis after a series of doctor errors missed the chance to detect and cure her disease, with her GP claiming she was ‘lovesick’, an inquest heard today. Alina Sarag died in January last year after a GP allegedly advised her that her physical deterioration was due to mental health problems. [...]

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Oversleeping or being late for the bus are both excuses that teachers across the world have to put up with from pupils who are late. But one primary school pupil in Chongqing, south west China had somewhat different reason last week for being delayed. This boy became stuck when he tried to squeeze his body [...]

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Child minders may be allowed to look after more children, particularly toddlers, so that the costs associated with care are spread between a greater number of parents. Other rules may also be relaxed to make it easier for parents and grandparents to look after one another’s children. A recent study by the OECD found that [...]

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A mother from Wandsworth who has been charged with the murder of her two children suffered a tragedy four years earlier, it has emerged. Felicia Boots’ brother Scott Sinclair committed suicide after suffering severe depression. On Saturday the 34-year-old banker’s wife, appeared at South Western Magistrates’ Court, in Battersea, charged with the murders of her [...]

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A nine-year-old boy is dying from a rare form of brain cancer after telling his mother to stop his painful treatments after battling the disease for five years. Ryan Kennedy, from Clarkston, Michigan, has undergone seven surgeries, two rounds of radiation and four different kinds of chemo since he was diagnosed with ependymoma at the [...]

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Children are being detained in ‘degrading and disgraceful’ conditions for long periods of time at Heathrow Airport by the UK Border Agency, a damning report found. Youngsters of all ages are held in rooms which are small, stuffy and have no natural light – sometimes over night – for immigration purposes, the airport’s Independent Monitoring [...]

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The vast majority of UK adults [84 per cent] think children should be protected from marketing by tobacco companies, according to new research by Cancer Research UK. Four out five people believe tobacco marketing is harmful to children, while more than two thirds agree that eye catching logs, colourful and distinctive branding on packets make [...]

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The UK Border Agency (UKBA) is detaining children in “degrading and disgraceful” conditions at Heathrow airport, an official report claims today. Children are held “almost every day and sometimes overnight” in premises that are “wholly unsuitable for the detention of children”, the Independent Monitoring Board for Heathrow said. The board said little had changed since [...]

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A boy and a girl rescued from the River Avon after a boating accident in which their father and brother died are still being treated in hospital. The family’s rowing boat capsized in strong waters at a weir in Barford on Saturday afternoon. The bodies of the man, named locally as Julian Mynott, and boy [...]

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A 13-year-old boy has died in hospital days after five of his siblings were killed in a house fire in Derby. Duwayne Philpott and his brothers and sisters were asleep upstairs in their Allenton home when the blaze began. Their father Mick Philpott, who is believed to have 17 children, made “valiant attempts” to save [...]

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Nine men have been arrested by detectives investigating a suspected second child grooming gang in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The alleged victim is reported to be one of 47 girls questioned by police in relation to an earlier child sexual exploitation ring in the town. That case concluded on Wednesday when nine Asian men received jail [...]

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Felicia Boots’ brother Scott Sinclair committed suicide in his apartment in Toronto, Canada four years ago, neighbours of Mrs Boots’s parents told the Telegraph. On Saturday, Mrs Boots, 34, appeared at Lavender Hill Magistrates Court, in Battersea, London, charged with the murders of her 10-week-old son Mason and 14-month-old daughter Lily. She was remanded in [...]

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The father of a six-week-old baby girl has been arrested, along with the child’s uncle, on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly trying to bury her alive in the belief it would protect his other children from illness. A worker at a burial ground in Pilkhuwa, 100km south-west of New Delhi, alerted police after he [...]

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Once a month, usually on a Saturday, Kasiani Papadopoulou packs a bag with children’s presents and takes the bus from her one-bedroom flat in a dusty suburb of Athens up into the cool hills outside the Greek capital that overlook the sea. The 20-mile journey is an emotional one for her, but she would not [...]

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When I was young, I had everything I needed, but I wanted more. My head was turned by the glamour of music videos and I felt I wouldn’t be happy until I had £90 trainers. My mum and dad couldn’t afford them, so I started dealing – it was all around me on the estate in London where [...]

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A schoolboy may never be able to smile again after he was shot in the face by a sniper with an airgun. Jordan Winstanley, 13, was blasted by a gunman hiding in bushes as he walked with friends. The teenager collapsed to the ground with blood pouring from a hole in his cheek. He was rushed to [...]

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Children in Hackney wait the longest in England to get adopted — an average of two years and nine months. Another London borough, Merton, has the second longest time at two years and eight months with Liverpool third at two-and-a-half years. Nationally children in care in England are forced to wait an average of 20 [...]

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A school has become entangled in a legal row after confiscating pupils’ phones and refusing to hand them back for weeks. City of London Academy Islington has brought in a new hardline policy of hanging on to mobiles, refusing even to return them to parents, until the end of term. But a lawyer says the [...]

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Horrifying footage has emerged showing a Malaysian mother repeatedly hitting, kicking and her defenceless ten-month-old daughter. The distressing clip which is just over four minutes in duration has caused fury on the internet, with many users who watched the video labelling the mother as ‘sadistic’ and ‘not fit to be near children.’ A friend of [...]

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My son is 21 and stopped going to college last year. Our problem started a very long time ago when we failed to secure a place for him in the secondary school to which he passed the entrance exam. We had to send him to another private school, where he was not welcomed and lost [...]

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The case of a baby girl who was allegedly buried alive in the state of Uttar Pradesh has shocked many Indians, as the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder reports. Inside a filthy paediatric ward at a government hospital in Meerut, a short drive from Delhi, two-month old Radhika lies quietly on a bed. Incredibly frail and weak, [...]

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Footage from a traffic camera broadcast on Chinese state television shows the child slipping out of the front door of the car and onto the road, narrowly missing the back wheel of the car.   The child falls into the path of a taxi following behind which manages to pull up just in time. via [...]

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Proposals for a default block on internet pornography have been criticised as impractical and potentially counterproductive by technology experts and civil liberties campaigners, setting them at loggerheads with groups such as the NSPCC ahead of a potentially stormy government consultation. David Cameron announced last week that the government would consult on methods to improve online [...]

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The parents of murdered American teenager Trayvon Martin have called on British people to stop racially profiling each other during an emotionally charged visit to London in which they met with Stephen Lawrence’s mother Doreen. The remarkable meeting brought together two families on different sides of the Atlantic who both suffered the tragedy of having [...]

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Police have been extra 24-hours to continue questioning Felicia Boots about the deaths of her 10-week-old son Tej and 14-month-old daughter Lily-Syke, whose lifeless bodies were discovered by their father Jeffrey at their £1.2 million London home on Wednesday evening. But friends said the 34-year-old jewellery designer had been in a “bad way” after her first [...]

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