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A woman jumped to her death from a cliff top because she feared she was developing the dementia she had seen take a grip of her late mother. Unable to face becoming a burden on her family, Judith Iles, 60, wrote a suicide note to her husband and son which read: ‘So sorry – I’m [...]

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“As of January 7, 384 children have been killed, most are boys,” Rima Salah, acting UNICEF deputy executive director, told a press briefing in Geneva. She said about 380 children have been detained, “some less than 14 years old.” The figure was revealed as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said violence claimed at least [...]

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She strikes a pose for the camera, her bright eyes shining and a smile playing on her lips. A favourite picture from her family’s album shows Alisa Dmitrijeva a few weeks after she arrived in Britain to start a new life. The pretty Latvian teenager was excited about her future. She enrolled at a college [...]

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It’s Wednesday afternoon on a week without children and I’m working at the kitchen table. In front of me are three mugs of tea in various stages of neglect, an empty yoghurt pot, some tangerine peel and, mystifyingly, a single sock. There are several teetering piles of papers, a toolbox, a jar of face cream [...]

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A new offence of drug-driving is to be created after David Cameron met the parents of a teenager killed by a speeding driver who had been smoking cannabis. The Prime Minister will announce the legislation amid evidence that motorists high on drugs are escaping punishment because of gaps in the law and a lack of [...]

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A British pensioner has been charged with murder after strangling an 11-year-old boy he believed had tortured one of his dogs, Bulgarian police say. The 71-year-old, identified only by his initials DB, had confessed before a judge to killing the boy, the Interior Ministry said.He became enraged because he suspected the boy of torturing his [...]

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The morning school run is never gloomy for South Grove Primary School pupils in Walthamstow, thanks to one very special lollipop lady. Arlene Cameron has become a local celebrity, singing, dancing and wishing drivers “Good morning” as she helps children safely over the zebra crossing. Lorry drivers, ambulances, police patrols and even grumpy commuters honk [...]

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The mother of a man left severely disabled at birth following a hospital blunder has finally succeeded in a battle for £6million compensation to pay for his care. Ronak Patel, 29, does not have the use of his arms and legs, has little speech or vision and cannot roll, sit unaided or stand because his [...]

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The world’s biggest console maker reported a net loss of Y48.4bn in the nine months to the end of December, compared with a profit of Y49.6bn (£398m) a year earlier, and warned it is heading for a full-year loss of Y45bn – dwarfing previous estimates. It also cut its forecasts for sales of the Wii [...]

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A burglar who was freed from prison because he had five children to look after is facing another jail term for assault. Wayne Bishop carried out the attack just a few weeks after he was controversially let out of prison last year. In a decision that sparked outrage, Appeal Court judges released him from an [...]

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Kiddicare, the online baby products retailer acquired by Morrisons last year for £70m, has bought the 10 shops exited by the electricals retailer Best Buy UK this month. Carphone Warehouse, which has discontinued the joint venture with Best Buy’s UK stores, has paid Morrisons £40m to take over the leases on the shops. Kiddicare will [...]

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The body of Latvian Alisa Dmitrijeva, 17, from Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, was found in a field near Anmer on the Norfolk estate on New Year’s Day. Alisa was last seen alive in August and police believe her body had been in the field since September. They have now established that she spent the early hours of [...]

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Scott, 52, “lost his mind” and slammed into cars and buildings after children on the street called him a “fat b******”, made V-signs and shouted “how fat is your wife?”. He lurched towards them and lost control of his vehicle in Carshalton High Street, Sutton, south London, causing £260,000 of damage to cars and to [...]

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Hornby has warned its year profit would be below expectations after shoppers bought fewer higher-priced toys in the run up to Christmas. The manufacturer of model railways, Scalextric and Airfix said growth in sales in the UK was muted in the pre-Christmas period compared to a year earlier, largely due to a drop in sales [...]

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The family of a baby who died from a bacterial infection in Londonderry have said there are still questions to be answered about his death. Caolan Campbell died in Altnagelvin in December, just weeks before three babies died from a different strain of the Pseudomonas bacteria in Belfast. The family’s solicitor said a public inquiry [...]

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An eight-year-old disabled boy who couldn’t swim drowned after falling into a canal while picking blackberries, an inquest heard yesterday. Matthew Cartwright, who was born with part of his lower left arm missing, slipped on the bank and disappeared beneath the water as his eight-year-old cousin watched in horror. A passer-by heard the children’s screams [...]

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There’s plenty of data around on the cost of living generally, but not so much on the cost of specific things like raising a child. According to the latest figures from Liverpool Victoria (LV=) it costs around £218,000 to raise a child in the UK. This equates to around £10,400 a year, £865 a month [...]

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A mother found a two-inch sewing needle inside a Bernard Matthews turkey drummer as she made dinner for her young daughter. Kelly Brettingham, from Chesterfield in Derbyshire, was dishing up the meal for one-year-old Elise when the sharp pin dropped onto the plate. It is thought the food had been deliberately tampered with after analysis [...]

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Schoolchildren across the UK are being invited to come up with ideas for food to be served at Buckingham Palace to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The Duchess of Cornwall launched the British Food Fortnight competition on a visit to a school in Swindon. Pupils from the top four winning schools will see their ideas [...]

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Every woman knows, deep down, that the much-vaunted maternal instinct isn’t nearly as ‘natural’ as society makes it out to be. In fact in my experience – and I know I will be roundly condemned for this view – this means that some women can even be better at taking care of and understanding a [...]

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The mixed breed dog stayed with Mr Holder, 73, when he fell 40ft down a ravine and blacked out as the waters rose around him. Mr Holder, who had suffered six broken ribs and a head injury, regained consciousness 15 minutes later to find his loyal pet watching him. The 11-year-old dog then left him [...]

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Schools are ranked on league tables within each local education authority by the average points score per student at secondary school. A-level grade A* scores 300 points, A = 270, B = 240, C = 210, D = 180, E = 150. via A-level league tables: compare your school’s performance – Telegraph. » Inline Ad [...]

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Qamar Hashim is in third grade at school, and top of his class. His favourite subject is art, and he wants to be an actor when he grows up. So far, so normal. But this eight-year-old boy, born just a few months after American forces captured the city of Baghdad in 2003, has recently been [...]

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One of Damilola Taylor’s killers, who was recalled to prison after breaching his bail, has been released. Ricky Preddie was jailed for eight years in 2006 with his brother Danny after being convicted of the 10-year-old’s manslaughter in south London. He was released in September 2010 on licence but was returned to Pentonville prison in [...]

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Its stated intent is to take thrill-seekers ‘through the sky on its mission of complete annihilation’. But theme park bosses might have hoped that a test run would not prove it quite so literally – after dummies sent on £20million ride The Swarm came back with limbs missing. Officials at Thorpe Park in Surrey needed [...]

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I became an adult at the age of 38 when I held my dead daughter in my arms. Until that moment my husband and I had led a breezy sort of life, taking nothing terribly seriously. We moved to New York, had two children in swift succession and raised them in a loving if chaotic household [...]

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A schoolboy died in freezing temperatures just 100 yards from his front door after disappearing on his way home from a party. Scott Campbell, 16, was found dead after police launched an air, land and sea search for him when he failed to return. The teenager is believed to have died from exposure in Culduthel, [...]

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The typical debt owed by a UK family has soared by 48% since January 2011, as rising inflation has taken its toll on household incomes, according to the latest Aviva Family Finances report. Research by the insurance company found that the typical UK family owes £7,944 in unsecured borrowing on credit cards, loans, overdrafts and [...]

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A school on Teesside has enlisted the help of a dog to improve the reading skills of its pupils. Audrey, a three-year-old Italian Spinone, visits Redcar Community College once a week and sits next to the children while they read aloud. She’s registered with the charity, Pets as Therapy, which works with schools, care homes [...]

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Sink taps were the source of an infection which killed three babies at a Belfast hospital, the Northern Ireland health minister has confirmed. Edwin Poots told the NI Assembly that the Pseudomonas bacteria had been traced to taps at a neo-natal unit in the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital. The unit was deep cleaned at the [...]

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A schoolboy fell down a flight of stairs and died after smoking strong cannabis, it emerged today. David Norkett, 16, died from brain injuries six days after he staggered backwards and plunged down seven steps at a multi-storey car park used as a frequent haunt for drug taking, a coroner was told. At an inquest [...]

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A man was today being questioned by detectives following the death of a five-year-old boy. Police were called after the ambulance service attended a house in Wakefield, at 11.40am yesterday. The boy was taken to nearby Pinderfields Hospital but he died later from his injuries, West Yorkshire Police said. via Man, 34, arrested after boy, [...]

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A father whose son drowned in rough seas off Anglesey has praised the “unstinting bravery” of the friend who died trying to save him. Lewis Darroch, from Valley, dived into the water at Cable Bay on 24 August last year when Callum Mackay, also 22, from Llanfairpwll, got into trouble. Mr Darroch was forced to [...]

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The stunt was risky enough when only the family’s crockery was at stake. But no one – least of all the unwitting child stars of a YouTube hit – could have anticipated that a traditional tablecloth stunt could go so wrong. The incredible video, watched 1.3million times, shows how the trick caused a bookcase to [...]

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Over the weekend we reported that two undercover police officers had secretly fathered children with political activists they had been sent to spy on and later disappeared completely from the lives of their offspring. One of the officers was Bob Lambert who infiltrated animal rights and environmental campaigns in the 1980s, the other was not [...]

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A pedestrian killed on a road in Cumbria died saving his disabled son’s life, his family has said. George Tyson was walking with his son on the A5087 at Conishead Bardsea on Sunday when they were hit by a car. The 61-year-old, of Ulverston, died at the scene. His son, Garry, was injured, but not [...]

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Anger management is being offered to children as young as five in a bid to curb their bad behaviour at school. Psychologists and other mental health professionals have been drafted in to help pupils at Hillcrest Primary School, in the run-down Leeds suburb of Chapeltown. The moves comes after Ofsted inspectors labelled conduct at the [...]

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When it comes to stereotypes, there are few that are more deep-set than the old ‘women love shopping’ rule. But for one woman, the ‘shopaholic’ label is far more than a joke – Dana, 48, is so reliant upon spending that her illness has been categorised alongside alcohol and drug addiction by a psychotherapist. So [...]

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A herd of grieving elephants gathers round the lifeless body of a little calf after she died of a heart defect. Three-month-old Lola was due to receive groundbreaking surgery for her condition but passed away during a preliminary scan. Keepers at Munich’s Hellabrunn Zoo decided to return her body to the enclosure so mother Panang, [...]

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The presenter of Desert Island Discs said that “life is complicated” and that that her children will be “bloody lucky” if they even glimpse true happiness. The 43-year-old, who has two daughters and two stepchildren, was speaking as the BBC radio programme, the world’s longest running, celebrated its 70th year. The fourth presenter of the [...]

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Andrew Smith, 40, a carpenter, said he and his wife Sarah had taken their two children to a park to use a telescope which was a Christmas gift to their daughter Evie when she was savaged by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. He told how he and his wife, 39, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, tried to [...]

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An 11-year-old schoolgirl collapsed during an afternoon lesson and died shortly afterwards of a brain haemorrhage. Megan White was laughing and joking with school friends when she suddenly collapsed shortly after lunch. Staff at All Saints’ Academy, in Cheltenham, immediately called an ambulance on Friday, January 13, and Megan was rushed to hospital. Doctors soon [...]

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A fit and healthy British woman enjoying a skiing holiday in the Alps died after collapsing in a chair lift next to her teenage daughter. Cheryl Fairbrother, 45, was making the ascent up Monetier’s L’Yret at Serre Chevalier, the resort in south-east France where her daughter Jade Ramsden, 19, was working. Attempts to resuscitate her [...]

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A News of the World journalist told police they got Milly Dowler’s mobile phone number and pin from other schoolchildren, a report revealed today. Details of exchanges between police and the Sunday tabloid over the apparent hacking of the murdered schoolgirl’s phone were released by Surrey Police. An individual from the newspaper admitted in April [...]

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A burglar persuaded a six-year-old girl to break into a house by pretending she had lost her keys, Swansea Crown Court has heard. Karen Richards, 23, from Swansea, allegedly told the girl she would pay her if she climbed through a conservatory window as a favour. When the girl could not unlock the front door, [...]

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One in seven parents are unwittingly risking their children’s safety by putting them prematurely into forward-facing car seats, a new report warns today. Studies show that rear-facing child seats are up to five times safer than those facing forward. Today’s report calls for ministers and manufacturers to make the ‘safer’ rear-facing child seats more available [...]

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Large families are once again in the spotlight as the £26,000 annual benefits cap proposed by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith would hit them the hardest. Tim Leuning explains on Comment is free: “The worst hit, of course, are large families in the south-east, where rents are higher. Even in Tolworth, described by [...]

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Should parents in the UK be encouraged to keep their children in rear-facing car seats for longer? Yes, according to a campaign launched by Motors.co.uk. It is calling on the government, retailers and manufacturers to make it easier for parents to research and buy rear-facing seats for children aged one and over, which it suggests [...]

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The girl, who has not been named, received plastic surgery after her ear was severed in the unprovoked attack at midday on Saturday, and is still recovering in hospital. A 56-year-old man was arrested yesterday (SUN) on suspicion of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control, after handing himself in at Chingford police [...]

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Britain is braced for a sharp rise in home repossessions as the consumer squeeze forces thousands of struggling families to the wall. Low interest rates and lower-than-expected unemployment kept repossessions at relatively small numbers through the recession and they eased again as the country struggled into a tepid recovery. However, with incomes failing to rise [...]

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