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In the News

  • Independent: Teenage girl dies from blood clot after taking contraceptive pill
    January 21st, 2016
    A teenage girl died from a blood clot after taking the oral contraceptive pill, an inquest heard. 
     
    Sophie Murray, from Accrington, Lancashire, became ill in September, complaining of chest pains and a shortness of breath that prevented her from walking up stairs, the inquest at Blackburn Coroner’s Court heard. 

    Deputy Blackburn coroner Derek Baker recorded a verdict that the 16-year-old died from “pulmonary embolism as a result of deep vein thrombosis.” 
     
    The inquest heard the teen had been on the common contraceptive pill Microgynon and that one of the listed side effects of it was linked to an increased risk of thrombosis, or blood clots. 
  • BBC: More than 400 children under 10 referred for 'deradicalisation'
    January 21st, 2016
    A total of 415 children aged 10 and under have been referred to the government's deradicalisation programme in England and Wales over the last four years, the BBC has learned.
     
    Figures obtained by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) also show 1,424 children aged 11 to 15 were referred.
     
    The "Channel" scheme, set up after the 7 July London bombings, aims to steer people away from extremism.
     
    The government says the scheme has successfully deradicalised people.
     
    A freedom of information request by the NPCC found a total of 1,839 children aged 15 and under were referred over concerns they were at risk of radicalisation between January 2012 and December 2015.
     
  • Christian Today: MPs outraged despite assurances that Sunday schools will not face Ofsted inspections
    January 20th, 2016
    Assurances that Ofsted inspectors will not inspect Sunday schools have failed to satisfy Christian MPs who today expressed outrage at the government's "astonishing" and "worrying" proposals.
     
    Ahead of a well-attended and lively debate this morning, David Cameron wrote to Tory MP Gerald Howarth saying the government "is not proposing to regulate institutions teaching children for a short period every week such as Sunday schools or the Scouts".
     
    However MPs told Christian Today they were deeply dissatisfied with the response. Catholic MP Sir Edward Leigh, who led the animated debate, said he anticipated the government's angle but he remained unhappy.
     
  • BBC: Muslim boy, 10, probed for 'terrorist house' spelling error
    January 20th, 2016
    A 10-year-old Muslim boy who mistakenly wrote that he lived in a "terrorist house" during an English lesson at school has been investigated by police.
     
    The pupil, who attends a primary school in Lancashire, meant to say he lived in a "terraced house".
     
    The boy was interviewed by Lancashire Police at his home the next day and the family laptop was examined.
     
    Teachers have been legally obliged to report any suspected extremist behaviour to police since July.
     
    The boy's family said they were left shocked by the 7 December incident and want both the school and police to apologise.
  • Times (£): Abortion trial delayed by legal aid dispute
    January 20th, 2016
    The trial of a woman accused of procuring abortion pills for her daughter has been delayed by a dispute over legal aid. 
     
    Amnesty International said the woman, from Belfast, was being prosecuted under laws that punish poorer women and that it is concerned she may be forced to wait even longer for her case to be heard. 
     
    The woman, who is in her thirties, appeared before Belfast magistrates’ court last year charged under a 19th-century law with supplying pills to induce abortion to her daughter. 
     
  • BBC: Most of 2.6 million stillbirths are 'preventable'
    January 19th, 2016
    Over 3,000 lives are lost to stillbirth a day across the world - most of which are preventable, according to studies published by The Lancet.
     
    Two-thirds of last year's 2.6 million stillbirths were in Africa.
     
    Half of stillbirths happen during labour as a result of preventable conditions, notably syphilis and malaria, they add.
     
    The studies argue stillbirths are preventable through high-quality antenatal care.
  • BBC: Morgan launches anti-extremism drive
    January 19th, 2016
    An "educate against hate" website is to be launched by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, as part of a renewed drive against extremism.
     
    The website will hold information for schools and parents to tackle the "spell of twisted ideologies".
     
    There will also be a "tougher approach" to preventing illegal, unregistered schools.
     
    Mrs Morgan says the aim is to protect "impressionable minds from radical views".
     
    The measures will be announced at Bethnal Green Academy in east London, a school attended by three girls who ran away to Syria last February.
  • BBC: Muslim women's segregation in UK communities must end - Cameron
    January 18th, 2016
    A £20m fund to teach Muslim women in the UK to speak English will tackle segregation and help them resist the lure of extremism, David Cameron says.
     
    While there was no "causal connection" between poor English and extremism, language lessons would make communities "more resilient", Mr Cameron said.
     
    But some Muslims have accused him of wrongly "conflating" the two issues.
     
    The PM also suggested failing to learn English could affect people on spousal visas who wanted to settle in the UK.
  • Mail: Thousands of children as young as 13 have been diagnosed with STIs in the last five years
    January 17th, 2016
    Experts have urged adults to give youngsters better sex education as thousands as young as 13 are diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
     
    According to the Daily Star Sunday a Public Health England study revealed that in particular contractions of chlamydia in teenagers were rife with 178,845 cases in those under 19 and 2,938 in those between 13 and 14, in the past five years.
     
    The shocking research also showed that more than two teenagers under the age of consent are contracting diseases like genital herpes every day.
  • Sunday Times (£): 'All families now at risk' after adopted boys taken into care
    January 17th, 2016
    An evangelical Christian couple who adopted two boys who were later taken from them by social services are to argue at the Court of Appeal that the state should allow a family to stay together even if it thinks the children could be better cared for elsewhere.
     
    Supporters of the couple see them as victims of “state suspicion” of Christian parenting.
     
    The boys’ adoptive father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told The Sunday Times: “Social workers do seem to be trying to socially engineer families to fit their idea of how families should be. No family can conform to that ideal, so they are all at risk.”