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Pray| Showing page 7 of 25 1... 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ...25 | Last update: Wednesday 25th March |
| One youngster a day is being convicted of sexual offences against a child, figures show. Last year 357 aged 18 and under were found guilty by the courts of offences including rape of another child, sexual assault on a child aged under 13, sexual grooming, incest and the taking or possessing indecent photographs of minors. The total includes 136 children aged between ten and 15 who have been convicted of sex offences against other children and who are, in effect; paedophiles. The others were aged 16 to 18. | |
| Young People | The Daily Mail 03.09.2012 |
| A coalition of children's charities has accused the Government of making its consultation on blocking online pornography deliberately complicated. Ministers are asking parents and children's organisations for their views on whether to impose tougher controls to protect youngsters from seeing hardcore pornography on the internet. The consultation asks people if they would like to see an 'opt-in' system or a less stringent solution, known as 'active choice'. Under the first system, porn is automatically blocked on people's computers unless they 'opt in' to see it, while under the second it is only blocked if they apply to have such material filtered. John Carr, from the Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety, said ministers wanted the less stringent solution, meaning they are doing all they can to prevent parents and charities from putting forward their view. He said the consultation, by the Department for Education, was much shorter than the usual length for government consultations - ten weeks instead of 12 - and has been timed for the summer to prevent people having their voices heard. He added that the web page set up for people to respond is confusing and complicated, deterring many from taking part. Instead of the usual situation, where people can type in their comments directly on the page, in this case they have to down-load a Word document and fill in a long list of questions, before re-uploading the document. They also have to go through a time-consuming security check. | |
| Education | The Daily Mail 03.09.2012 |
| Britain's dumbed down exams system is 'patronising and cruel', David Cameron said yesterday. The Prime Minister said it was right to raise exam standards, even if that means that results sometimes go down. He added: 'The easy road on education is to cave in to the unions who want to keep inflating the GCSE and A-level grades and pretend that standards are rising each year. So this Government is being braver. In schools, there will be no more excuses for failure - no more soft exams and soft discipline. 'We saw that change in the exam results this year. When the grades went down a predictable cry went up: that we were hurting the prospects of these children. To that we must be very clear. What hurts them is dumbing down their education so their potential is never reached and no one wants to employ them.’ | |
| Education | The Daily Mail 03.09.2012 |
| It seems mother was right after all. Relationships that start slowly are more satisfying in the end. A study of hundreds of couples found those who waited to have sex were happier in the long run. Women particularly benefited from not leaping into bed at the first opportunity. Marriage also seemed to make them happier than co-habiting. The researchers said delaying sex gave couples time to get to know each other and work out just how compatible they were. Without this period of courtship, judgment can be clouded, leading to couples falling into unfulfilling long-term relationships. The study's authors said: 'Precocious pre-marital sexual activities may have lasting effects on relationship quality. Courtship is a time for exploration and decision-making about the relationship, when partners assess compatibility, make commitments and build on emotional and physical intimacy. The rapid entry into sexual relationships may, however, cut short this process, setting the stage for "sliding" rather than "deciding" to enter co-habiting unions.' | |
| Sex | The Daily Mail 03.09.2012 |
| A former Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday accused David Cameron of going back on his promise to support the rights of Christians to wear a cross in the workplace. Just five months ago the Prime Minister insisted that Christians should be allowed to display a token of their faith, yet his Government lawyers are now preparing to tell European human rights judges the opposite. They will call on the European Court of Human Rights to reject the arguments of former British Airways check-in clerk Nadia Eweida and NHS hospital nurse Shirley Chaplin, who have asked the court to rule that they should have been allowed to wear a cross with their uniforms. Lord Carey, who stepped down from Lambeth Palace in 2002, said yesterday: 'Sadly, the Government has passed up its opportunity to support the right of Christians to express their faith and have a reasonable accommodation in the law for freedom of conscience. It is now down to the European Court.’ | |
| Religious Persecution | The Daily Mail 03.09.2012 |
| Children are being prescribed unlicensed medicines that could be causing harm, a report has warned. The Government study is demanding an urgent investigation into the 'unacceptable' fact that almost a third of drugs given to sick children are officially approved for only adult use. It warns of 'a high number of drug errors' in which children may be wrongly prescribed too much of a medicine because the doses are meant for adults. Historically, pharmaceutical companies have not had an obligation to test medicines on youngsters. The law changed in 2007 and new drugs coming to market must now be tested on children before they can be used on them. But this still means about 30 per cent of drugs prescribed to under-18s - and up to 95 per cent of drugs given to babies in intensive care - have never been tested on children. These include common antibiotics, painkillers, asthma inhalers and cancer medicines. | |
| Health | The Mail on Sunday 02.09.2012 |
| Channel 4 is at the centre of a storm over a programme it broadcast on the history of Islam. Islam: The Untold Story has triggered nearly 550 complaints to both the television regulator Ofcom and Channel 4 itself. It has also sparked a bitter war of words on Twitter involving leading historians and Islamic scholars. Since it was screened, presenter Tom Holland, a historian with a double first from Cambridge, has been subjected to a torrent of abusive tweets, some of which have included physical threats. He is accused of distorting the history of Islam by claiming the Koran makes little or no reference to the religious city of Mecca. The Islamic Education and Research Academy has published a lengthy paper denouncing the programme. Ofcom, which has received 150 complaints about the programme's alleged bias, inaccuracy and offence caused to Muslims, is considering an investigation. | |
| Media | The Mail on Sunday 02.09.2012 |
| The new chief executive of Barclays fears that interest-only mortgages could become the next 'mis-selling' scandal, potentially costing billions of pounds and engulfing the bank in customer complaints. He said he is confident that the bank's handling of other complaints such as PPI mis-selling and interest rate swaps is improving, but admitted that Barclays has a very large book of interest-only mortgages and was starting to see the 'first few thousand’ who faced problems with repayment of the capital. The new chief's foreboding over interest-only mortgages is grounded in the City watchdog's apparent determination to act on the issue. In a report prefaced by incoming boss Martin Wheatley, the Financial Services Authority talked of 'significant increases' in the number of interest-only mortgages reaching maturity where borrowers could not repay their debt. At present the average value of the loans reaching maturity is £60,000, but this is forcast to rise to more than £160,000 by 2020…Recently major lenders have been dramatically scaling back their involvement in interest-only lending. Barclays' own lending offshoot, Woolwich, will not lend on an interest-only basis unless a home¬owner has at least £150,000 of equity. | |
| Money | The Mail on Sunday 02.09.2012 |
| More than 2,000 students face deportation from the country after the Government stripped a university of its right to admit foreigners. London Metropolitan University has had its Highly Trusted Status (HTS) for sponsoring international students revoked and will no longer be allowed to authorise visas. The move could mean more than 2,000 students being deported within 60 days unless they find another sponsor. Universities Minister David Willetts has announced the formation of a task force to help overseas students affected by the decision. | |
| Education | The Sentinel - August 31, 2012 |
| Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pulled out of an event because he refuses to share a platform with Tony Blair. The veteran peace campaigner said Mr Blair's support for the Iraq war was 'morally indefensible' and it would be 'inappropriate' for him to appear alongside him. The pair were due to take part in a one-day leadership summit in Johannesburg, South Africa tomorrow. Mr Blair's office said the former prime minister was 'sorry' the Archbishop had decided to pull out. | |
| Media | The Sentinel - August 29, 2012 |
| The UK was facing more economic uncertainty after the European Central Bank (ECB) failed to deliver measures for tackling the regions debt crisis. Markets fell sharply as ECB president Mario Draghi dashed hopes that he would signal an imminent move into bond markets to ease Spain’s borrowing costs. Uncertainty over the future of the euro has already deepened the UK’S double-dip recession, with output down 0.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012. Hopes that that the ECB would introduce new measures were stoked a week ago when Mr Draghi said he would do whatever it takes to save the euro. | |
| Money | The Sentinel – 3rd August 2012 |
| The number of forged passports spotted at British ports and airports has fallen by almost half over the past five years, it was revealed. Some 1,858 fakes were detected by border officials last year, down from 3,300 in 2007, according to figures obtained under Freedom of Information legislation. The UK Border Agency said that the introduction of biometric data had made it more difficult for criminals to forge documents. | |
| Travel/Tourism | The Sentinel – 6th August 2012 |
| The economy will grind to a halt this year as the threat from the eurozone tough austerity measures and tight lending conditions drag on the economy. In its quarterly inflation report, the Bank of England slashed its growth forecast for 2012 to around zero from 0.8 per cent in its May report. | |
| Money | The Sentinel – 9th August 2012 |
| Critics have hit out at a Government initiative which could see NHS hospital’s set up profit-making branches abroad. The Patients Association claimed the scheme could shift focus away from local services and Labour said that ministers should concentrate on patients not profits. Some of Britain’s best known hospitals, such as Great Ormond Street, and the Royal Marsden, could take part in the initiative to raise funds for patients at home and promote the international profile of the NHS. | |
| Politics | The Sentinel – 22nd August 2012 |
| Energy firm SSE is increasing its domestic gas and electricity prices by an average of nine per cent. The company blamed the increases which come into effect in October – on the extra cost of using the gas and electricity networks and rising costs in energy wholesale markets. SSE – which also trades as Scottish Hydro and Swalec – said five million electricity customers and 3.4 million gas customers would be affected. | |
| Money | The Sentinel – 23rd August 2012 |
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