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By his own admission, Philip Thomas leads a charmed life. He takes holidays in far-flung locations and frequents art galleries and expensive restaurants at the weekends. His career is rewarding and his relationship a source of great joy. However, Philip is not entirely fulfilled. Why? Because he is childless and knows that, at 45, the [...]

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A gang of teenagers cleared of starting a blaze that shut the M1 for almost a week were today spared jail for a separate arson campaign that caused £30,000 worth of damage. Luke Matthews, 18, Jake Johnson, 17, and Craig Headech, 16, were found not guilty of involvement in the £4.5million motorway inferno last month. [...]

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A grandmother faces eviction from her home after waging a 12-year campaign of harassment against her neighbours during which she made their lives a ‘living hell’. Joan Nisbet, 71, sprayed weedkiller in a woman’s face, blared gangster rap music, took part in naked sex acts and drove one neighbour to the brink of suicide. In [...]

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A teenage boy has admitted religiously harassing a McDonald’s worker – by persistently mocking her because she is a Pagan. The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, visited the fast food restaurant frequently over a period of more than six weeks to taunt the woman over her beliefs. The case is understood to [...]

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Her Majesty unveiled a plaque at Ynysowen Community Primary School during the second and final day of her Diamond Jubilee visit to the principality. A total of 144 people, including 116 children, lost their lives when a coal waste tip slid down a mountain, engulfing a school and surrounding houses in Aberfan in 1966.   [...]

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A child dubbed “turtle boy” because of a shell-like birthmark on his back can finally lead a normal life after surgery by a Great Ormond Street consultant. Didier Montalvo, six, from Colombia, had struggled with a rare condition that covered nearly half of his body. But thanks to leading plastic surgeon Neil Bulstrode, who operated on [...]

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If your daughter is your best friend forever, you’ve hit upon the latest parenting technique. Gone are the days when parents believed their offspring should be seen and not heard. Today, mothers and daughters are more likely to be trading dating advice on Twitter, plundering each others wardrobes and partying together. Once mothers had little more to [...]

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A man accused of murdering a 57-year-old supermarket worker had a hit list of men he planned to kill in an attempt to rid the world of “paedophiles”, a court has heard. Christopher Hunnisett, 28, is accused of killing Peter Bick at his home in Bexhill, on 11 January. Lewes Crown Court heard there was no evidence [...]

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Most little girls grow up playing with Barbie dolls. Some even want to look like them. One 21-year-old has become one, or so she says. Valeria Lukyanova has become an internet sensation in her home country of Russia, claiming on her blog to be the most famed woman on the Russian-language internet. Her doll-like features, [...]

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It is hailed by estate agents as the ‘ultimate status symbol’. But teacher Piers Casimir-Mrowczynski snapped up the tiny Mackenzie Island, near the isle of Islay, to be his final resting place. Mr Casimir-Mrowczynski, 50, who is head of ICT at Beechwood Park boarding school in St Albans, Hertfordshire, purchased the uninhabited island for £55,000 [...]

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When distinguished diplomat Duncan Taylor became the Governor of the Cayman Islands, he promised that his family would strive to get to know the locals. Two years later his 25-year-old son Max has rather exceeded those expectations by fathering a child after a brief liaison with the daughter of a prominent local businessman. Their daughter, [...]

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When a thief stole Barry Monaghan’s keys and sped off in his car he didn’t realise he had met his match. The brave grandfather clung desperately onto the back of his Ford Mondeo as it travelled at an incredible 80mph hurtling along country roads in scenes straight out of a James Bond movie. He then managed [...]

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Women have named the contraceptive pill, push-up bra and the washing machine as the greatest inventions of the last century. The comprehensive study of thousands of women found they credit these three products with changing their lives more than any other. The pill topped the poll – with 65 per cent of 2,000 UK women saying [...]

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A father who visited his local bookies to put a bet on the Grand National found his luck was in – after the bookie diagnosed his baby’s life-threatening condition. Mark Parsisson popped into his local William Hill to place a bet on the popular horse racing event, with little Amelia, who was unwell. He got [...]

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This female brown bear looked like she was having a ball with her young cubs as she enjoyed some fun with her offspring. The mother bear was spotted splashing around with a yellow ball as her cubs looked on in the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. While her two youngsters appeared a little apprehensive at taking a dip [...]

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A crime-fighting schoolboy was hailed a hero after thwarting a would-be thief in the middle of a £1,000 raid. Brave Dominic Stickley managed to grab the cash from the hands of the raider who had snatched the money from the till at a branch of B&Q. The 16-year-old, who dreams of becoming a policeman when [...]

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Thusha Kamaleswaran was hit as Nathaniel Grant, Anthony McCalla, and Kazeem Kolawole hunted down a rival at her aunt’s shop in south London. Judge Martin Stephens QC told the men: “Not one of you has shown a sliver of remorse. Shooting into a shop, a confined space where it was known there were people present, [...]

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Many families are spending more on fuel than their weekly food shopping because of record petrol prices, the AA has found. The cost of filling up once a week is more than the average spending on groceries for some families. The motoring group said prices at the pump hit a new high of 142.48p per litre [...]

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Protective instinct: Women less likely to take risks around babies (even if it’s not theirs) In contrast, men don’t alter their risk-taking behaviour around youngsters By CLAIRE BATES PUBLISHED: 13:15, 18 April 2012 | UPDATED: 13:16, 18 April 2012 Comments (12) Share The maternal instinct is one of the most powerful in nature – now [...]

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It is usually the incoming tide that spells the end for sandcastles. But this 13ft-high fortress, built to mark the 100-day countdown to the Olympics, did not even stand long enough to have the waves lapping at its walls. Instead, after £5,000 was spent on building the castle over four painstaking days, it was knocked [...]

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Massacre of emos in Iraq goes to core of a damaged society This killing campaign – targeting women and men, with children the preferred victims – has a grimly familiar paranoia Share 339 Comments (286) Scott Long guardian.co.uk, Sunday 18 March 2012 14.20 GMT Article history Moqtada al-Sadr, right, and the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani [...]

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Anglican schools ‘to expand to combat secularism’ Hundreds of new Church of England schools are to be opened to spread Christianity and combat “aggressive secularism”, it emerged today. Hundreds of new Anglican schools could be created under plans to be unveiled by the Church of England this week. Photo: ALAMY By Graeme Paton, Education Editor1:53PM GMT [...]

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‘I feel pretty awesome!’: Brave mother who saved children from tornado but lost both of her legs is released from hospital with fighting spirit Stephanie Decker, 37, told children: ‘You’re not going to die. We’ll make it’ Lost one leg, the other foot, suffered seven broken ribs and punctured lung Eight-year-old son and five-year-old daughter [...]

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KONY 2012 director and co-founder of Invisible Children Jason Russell was arrested by police in San Diego Thursday evening. Russell was detained in the Pacific Beach neighborhood, with charges of public drunkenness and lewd behavior, NBC San Diego reports. The 33-year-old father of two shot to fame this month after the 30-minute documentary film he [...]

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Photography teacher Julian Fawkes assaulted boy at Talybont A college photography teacher has been convicted of assaulting a 13-year-old boy after leaving a Gwynedd caravan park. Caernarfon magistrates heard that Julian Fawkes, 36, from Birmingham, wrongly believed the youth had picked up his wallet after he drove away from the site at Talybont near Barmouth. [...]

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Lucky strike! Teenager hit by lightning TWICE in an afternoon says he survived because his novelty hat took the damage By DAILY MAIL REPORTER PUBLISHED: 19:52, 13 April 2012 | UPDATED: 00:49, 14 April 2012 Comments (8) Share The chances of being struck by lightning once are high enough. But a teenager has declared he [...]

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Me and my school photo: David Bellamy remembers lessons in air-raid shelters and finding his vocation By RICHARD WEBBER PUBLISHED: 22:30, 13 April 2012 | UPDATED: 22:30, 13 April 2012 Comments (0) Share Flashback: Botanist, writer and broadcaster David Bellamy, 79, now lives in County Durham This is my first school photo, taken in 1939. [...]

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One in four women buy wrong medication after misdiagnosing themselves on the internet Women with embarrassing medical problems are misdiagnosing themselves after consulting ‘Dr Google’, research suggests. Women are misdiagnosing themselves because they turn to ‘Dr One in four women have bought the wrong medication after misdiagnosing themselves on the internet and one in ten [...]

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Study claims women choose ‘briefcase over baby’ if they find it hard to attract men Forget ambition, financial security and that first-class degree. A controversial study has concluded that the real reason women pursue careers is because they fear they are too unattractive to get married. The research team, made up of three women and [...]

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Gun-toting granny, 73, arrested for ‘supplying marijuana to her entire town and ran lucrative four-state drug ring’ By DAILY MAIL REPORTER A 73-year-old gun-toting grandmother was arrested after authorities seized nearly $300,000 in cash and four pounds of marijuana from her home. Oklahoma police raided the home of Darlene Mayes in rural Craig County. In [...]

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Having a giraffe! Young addition to zoo who just loves playing with friendly butterflies By LAURA COX   A baby giraffe showed off her dancing skills as she enjoyed the sunshine gracefully frolicking around with a butterfly at the Bronx Zoo. The month-old calf caught a glimpse of the butterfly as it flew into her [...]

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Schoolboy takes home unusual memento from York Minster after getting his fingers stuck in collection box By JILL REILLY Giving to charity is meant to bring you good luck, but not for one six-year-old boy who got his finger stuck in a cathedral donation box. Oliver Hallidie Smith became trapped when he put his finger [...]

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Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown had ordered the girl held last month because she has a history of running away. On Monday, he said she would be freed with a GPS ankle bracelet after prosecutors and the girl’s attorneys agreed to the release. The teen’s detention was seen by some as victimising her a second [...]

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Carjacker bundled heavily pregnant woman out of Range Rover after pushing ‘sharp object’ into her stomach Robber drove off with the woman inside the car then forced her out after pointing a sharp object at her bump A heavily pregnant woman was bundled out of her Range Rover by a carjacker who pushed a ‘sharp [...]

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‘We thought more sand might come down and kill us’: Girls, 9, and 12, who were buried alive describe beach cliff horror Jodie Leach, 9, buried up to neck after landslide Three men dig by hand to rescue schoolgirls Two schoolgirls have described their dramatic rescue after almost being buried alive when a beach cliff [...]

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Teen, 17, was throttled, bound, gagged, beaten with a baseball bat and shot in face from point-blank range ‘for fun’ A teenager was subjected to a sickening attack when he was throttled, bound and gagged, locked in a cupboard, beaten with a baseball bat and then shot at point blank range to the face with [...]

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A tiny children’s book created for a royal doll’s house is to be published in human scale. With pages scarcely bigger than a postage stamp and intricate drawings by a celebrated cartoonist, the miniature volume is a prized object in the Royal Collection. But from next month youngsters everywhere will have the chance to read the [...]

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Watch out ‘ridiculously photogenic guy’ there’s a new photo meme stealing hearts – or at least pages of swooning captions. It’s the ‘ridiculously photogenic puppy,’ a bounding orange and white dog riding the same wave that carried a previously unknown South Carolina jogger to world-wide attention thanks to his toothy smile and perfectly styled hair. [...]

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Nathaniel Grant, Kazeem Kolawole and Anthony McCalla were last week convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey of causing grievous bodily harm to Thusha Kamaleswaran. She was shot in the chest as she danced and played in her aunt’s shop in south London in March last year with the subsequent injuries leaving her paralysed [...]

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Huq, 36, and husband Charlie Brooker, the comedy writer, have named their first child Covey Brooker Huq. He was born 10pm on Friday night at an undisclosed central London hospital and weighed in at 6lb 2oz, Huq’s agent Jonathan Shalit said. Huq said: “A real cutie. We are chuffed to bits, he is absolutely gorgeous.” [...]

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Women carrying faulty genes have an almost three in four chance of developing breast cancer and feeding their babies naturally is one of the few ways they can reduce that risk, researchers have found. A study has found that women carrying the BRCA1 gene were 32 per cent less likely to develop breast cancer if [...]

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Circumcision may help prevent prostate cancer, but only if the operation takes place before the person has sex for the first time. Jonathan Wright at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues asked 3000 men – around half of whom had prostate cancer – if they had been circumcised and when they first [...]

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Children who are encouraged to drink large amounts of fruit juice as part of their ‘five a day’ could be damaging their teeth, dentists have warned. They are concerned that health- conscious parents who regularly give their children juices and smoothies bursting with fruit could be doing long-term damage. Kathy Harley, dean of the dental [...]

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Russian prosecutors have launched a murder investigation after a fire in a flat near the Urals city of Perm killed seven young children and their parents. The children, aged between four and 13, died of carbon monoxide poisoning along with their father, 34, and mother in the village of Mokhovoye. An eighth child, a boy, [...]

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The parents of a 15-year-old girl who saw them on a TV programme cavorting in a swinger’s club in Germany have won £160 each in damages from a broadcasting company. The 15-year-old had switched on the programme to see her mother in stockings and suspenders in a cage while her father was dressed as Batman [...]

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Lesbian lovers Kirsty Cox and Anna Jones have both become mothers after DIY artificial insemination from the same sperm donor. The married couple are bringing up three-month-old Scarlett Marie and Alfie, who are half brother and sister to each other. The babies were conceived just two weeks apart with the help of friend Nick Lacey, [...]

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Boys should be able to wear skirts to school because  uniforms ‘should not discriminate’, a children’s adviser has claimed. Tam Baillie, the Scottish parliament’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, has backed 13-year-old Luca Scarabello, who is fighting for a ban on ‘gender-specific uniforms’. Mr Baillie said that Luca, a pupil at St Mungo’s High [...]

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Grandparents should be able to maintain contact with their grandchildren after a family breakdown or divorce, ministers will say today as they unveil a huge shake-up in family law. Parenting agreements between separating mothers and fathers will be amended to emphasise the important role grandparents play in children’s lives, Government sources said. The Daily Mail [...]

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It’s not every day that a news story makes the Comment desk doff its cap in respect. But the news that two Canadian teenagers have sent a Lego man into space, using nothing but a bit of ingenuity, some equipment bought off Craigslist, and a few video cameras, had many of us held in awe. [...]

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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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