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Court orders MMR jabs for girls "If we ever doubted that the world is going mad, here's proof..." 11 Million children in South Africa living in poverty Learning - a brand new course! Millions set to benefit from new Tax Credits Italy: Police Probe 399 in Child Pornography Sweep
WORK
AND PENSIONS SELECT COMMITTEE POINTS "Despite increased resources for childcare over the last five years, there is still a childcare lottery in this country whereby access to childcare depends on where families live, their income and employment status. The lack of affordable childcare means parents are either unable to work or forced to make huge sacrifices and children miss out on the benefits of quality childcare. Families lose out and Britain loses out. "Childcare
benefits everyone. Investing in childcare is an investment in all our
futures." Court
orders MMR jabs for girls Mr Justice Sumner was ruling in two separate cases heard in private where the fathers wanted immunisation protection for their daughters who live alone with their unmarried mothers. The judge said: "Here there is a dispute and the court has to decide whether immunisation is in their interests, whether the mothers' opposition should prevail, and whether an order should be made. "Recognising the anxieties of the mothers and that an adverse decision will be upsetting, the children's best interests are served by receiving a programme of immunisations and an order should be made." He told the court the benefits of the triple vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella outweighed any risks. Mr Justice Sumner said he was aware that a civil trial was pending in April 2004 by the parents of children who claim the MMR jab was linked to autism. None of the parties or their lawyers was in court and the judge made an order banning any information that could lead to the identification of the children. By coincidence, the controversial MMR jab will be debated by GPs at a conference later. Doctors are urging the Government to provide single jabs for measles, mumps and rubella while parents remains unsure about the safety of the joint vaccine. The Government insists the combined MMR injection is safe but many parents are refusing to take their children for the jab over fears it might be linked to rising cases of autism. GPs attending a British Medical Association conference will be debating immunisations including the MMR jab. And one motion tabled for debate calls on doctors to condemn the Government's "lamentable failures to persuade the public of the safety of the MMR vaccine". It states that the fact GPs are paid if they reach immunisation targets has contributed to the lack of confidence in the jab. The motion says: "It is indefensible to deny the alternative of separate immunisations to vulnerable children while the public remain unsure of the safety of the MMR vaccine". The conference, which is being attended by more than 500 GP representatives, was also expected to debate the NHS Direct helpline. One motion
for debate states that doctors deplore the resources being "wasted"
on it and calls on the Government to "abandon the white elephant."
Company
delivers 'rap' water "S-Cool" will perform educational songs to emphasise the importance of drinking water instead of fizzy pop. The group is part of the company's "Cool Schools" campaign which aims to provide chilled water coolers in local schools. Since its launch in June 2002 more than 200 coolers have been installed. Company spokeswoman Jackie Abusin said: "It is about changing perceptions, but to achieve this we didn't want the children to sit through a dull lecture. "S-Cool is educational in an engaging and fun way." The performances,
aimed at Key Stage 2 children, will be accompanied by discussions on
where water comes from and its importance to everyday life. "If
we ever doubted that the world is going mad, here's proof..." But it isn't just the anti-virus community which is outraged. End users have also been expressing their concerns over the university's plans. One head of IT within a large UK firm, who wished to remain anonymous, told silicon.com: "I think the best reaction would be for the business community to inform the university that their graduates will not be considered for employment." Nigel Pindar, data and security technology architect at Kinnect, added: "The University of Calgary better have some good public liability insurance to cover the cost of getting sued in corporate class actions by victims of viruses written by their students." silicon.com reader Hywel Clark was more direct in his criticism. He said: "If we ever doubted that the world is going mad, here's proof."
"The human race's penchant for self destruction continues to amaze me," he added. But not everybody has come out against the planned course. silicon.com reader Marcus Hanwell believes education is key in terms of virus protection. He said: "I would honestly say that this is a good move. The best way to prevent viruses from spreading is to educate people on how they are written and what they do. That way the software they write should have countermeasures in place." Ben Kwaan, another silicon.com reader, added: "While teaching students to write viruses may seem like institutional encouragement, in reality such a course, presented and run carefully, will go a long way to producing graduates with a great deal of knowledge invaluable to them in preventing and combating viruses." silicon.com Child
safe house 'may close' The only one of its kind in the UK, the West Sussex Safe House was set up three years ago to prevent 16 and 17-year-old girls who claimed asylum at Gatwick falling prey to traffickers. But the council says the six-bed facility, which operates from two semi-detached houses in a suburban street, is no longer needed because fewer girls are now at risk. Sexual exploitation Unicef has called on the Department of Health to fund the house, which it says is a model for how to care for and protect young women forced into prostitution. A spokesman for Unicef said: "This safe house needs to be kept open. "Looking across other countries in Europe it is by far the most effective means to help victims of trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation." He said the government should guarantee the future of the safe house to back up its new Sexual Offences Bill Testify against traffickers "You need a government-funded service to protect and take care of victims because only then can they feel safe and testify against the traffickers," he said. But West Sussex County Council said the number of teenagers assessed to be at risk had dropped from 21 in 2000 to none in 2003. "Undoubtedly the provision of a safe house has affected trafficking patterns in West Sussex," a spokeswoman said. "However, it is less clear whether it is the disruption caused to the trafficking trade - and a subsequent move of that trade to other areas - or the service provided by the safe house that has been most effective." Threaten retribution The safe house supports young women in resisting traffickers who threaten retribution against themselves or their families if they do not co-operate. But social services managers argue they can use the money saved by closing the house to help all young people under 18. They also hope to provide more anonymous accommodation for victims because the location of the safe house is now widely known to traffickers. "There
is no intention to remove all protection and support to victims of child
trafficking," the spokeswoman said.
Eleven
million SA children live in poverty The university said in a statement released on Monday, the beginning of Child Protection Week, that poverty, child abuse and violence and HIV/Aids were the major challenges facing children in South Africa. "A rapid assessment on the situation of children in South Africa recently completed by the Children's Institute has indicated that key stakeholders in the children's rights sector view poverty and HIV/Aids as part of the underlying and exacerbating causes of violations of children rights," the statement read. "To protect children, we therefore need comprehensive programmes that adequately support children and families living in poverty and those affected by or infected with HIV/Aids." In the study poverty was measured in different ways. When using an absolute poverty measure of R490 household income per month, the study found that 75% of children under the age of 17 lived in poverty -- an estimated 14,3-million or three out of every four children in South Africa. If a monthly minimum income of R245 per household was used, 57% of children younger than 17 lived in dire poverty -- an estimated 11-million. "Whether analysing child poverty using an absolute or relative measure, it is evident that between 57% and 75% of children in South Africa are living in poverty of varying degrees." Of the children living in poverty, 23% were in KwaZulu-Natal and 21% in the Eastern Cape. Seventeen percent of Limpopo children lived in poverty while in Gauteng the figure was 10%. The Northern Cape had the fewest number of children living in poverty with only two percent. Children younger than eight who were living in poverty had the right to assistance through social grants. In October last year only 42% were, however, benefiting from Child Support Grant (CSG). "While the government has implemented different poverty alleviating mechanisms and this year announced a roll-out extension of the CSG to children up to 14 years over a three-year period, these efforts still fall short of meeting children's basic needs and promoting their socio-economic rights." Confusion over the extension of the Child Care Grant saw many parents and other care-givers being turned away from registration points. A lack of staff, offices and other resources also made it difficult for the social welfare department to register children aged seven and eight for grants, despite a clear stipulation that they qualified for the extensions. "There is an urgent need to re-examine the Government's poverty alleviating interventions. "Most importantly, South Africa does not have a comprehensive and integrated national poverty strategy and interventions therefore appear to be uncoordinated and fragmented." - Sapa Johannesburg
Mail Learning - A New Course.... Working on their communication skills this week are the students signing up for a course in... wait for it... "How to use your mobile phone" (stop laughing at the back). The Learning and Skills Council is offering adults the opportunity to find out more about these new-fangled gadgets and it is even offering to teach them the joys of SMS - which is 'GR8 news 4 txtually frustr8ed adults'. Isn't it? Unsurprisingly the scheme has received fierce criticism in some quarters, where phrases such as 'a waste of the tax payers' money' have been used with a liberal disregard for clichés. In its defence the Learning and Skills Council claims the course will only cost £100 of tax payers' money (approximately 0.00025p each), though some may still claim that's 0.00025p too much. However, one reader said: "I think my mother would find it beneficial, if only to demonstrate the redundancy of a mobile phone that's permanently switched off." The
course will also be used to educate people about such issues as SMS
voting in general elections, which it is hoped will help overcome voter
apathy and increase turn-out - so it's surely not all bad.
Millions set to benefit from new UK Tax Credits
Those with a joint income of up to £58,175 (£66,350 in the year of birth of a child) may be able to claim the new working tax credit and child tax credit that will replace the old working family tax credit, disabled persons credit and children's tax credit. Depending on their circumstances, parents may be entitled to between £10.40 and £93.30 per week. The new child tax credit will be of particular interest to those with children of school age and below. Those who give birth to a new baby in 2003 may also receive additional support. The credit will be paid into the main carer's bank account. To receive full entitlement for the first year, it will be necessary to file a claim with the Inland Revenue by 6 July 2003. Not knowing the extent of your income for the year is not an acceptable excuse for missing the deadline. In those circumstances, it will be necessary to submit a protective claim to ensure you do not miss out. Catherine Vernalls, tax advisor at PKF said, "The old style tax credits were only introduced three years ago and many people will find it difficult to tackle a whole new set of rules. The Government is still producing the legislation governing the new scheme so the tax credit guide issued with the forms is already out of date - however, we would urge parents to spare the time to battle their way through the paperwork as they may find a very pleasant surprise at the end of it. "Those employees who received the old credits through their pay-packets will now need to supply the Revenue with details of their income and the credits will be paid into their bank account. For taxpayers that already file tax returns, a second set of forms will need to be submitted to the Revenue with details of their own and their partners' income. There are also subtle differences between what is classed as income and deductions for tax credits and the amounts that are entered into your tax return, so caution must be exercised." Claimants
will need to fill in the new form TC600, which can be obtained by calling
the freephone helpline on 0800 500 2222 or if you have access to the
internet you can make a claim online at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/taxcredits
or email catherine.vernalls@uk.pkf.com for professional advice.
Italy: Police Probe 399 in Child Pornography Sweep
ROME (Reuters) - Italian police launched a huge overnight raid on a suspected child pornography Internet ring, placing 399 people in 53 towns under investigation in an operation dubbed ''Eurololitas,'' officials said on Tuesday. The surprise sweep apparently led one 25-year-old man to commit suicide, leaping from his bedroom window in the apartment he shared with his parents, one of the chiefs of ''Operation Eurololitas'' told Reuters. ''He threw himself from the fourth floor this morning at about 6:30 while our men were going up after having called on the intercom,'' Carlo Lavinia said. More than 1,000 police carried out hundreds of searches as part of the operation centered in the northern town of Asti. Those under investigation, aged 25 to 40, are suspected of acquiring and distributing child pornography over the Web. Police did not immediately say how many arrests were made. ''Some of our men infiltrated the Internet pretending to be buyers and intermediaries, working through various pay sites,'' Lavinia said. They discovered that the suspects often used the software WinMX, used to trade music files, to swap the child pornography. The
children exploited were estimated to be between the ages of two and
10. Mystery of the eight missing babies A MOTHER facing a police investigation into allegations that seven of her children died under the age of two was rushed to hospital yesterday after apparently attempting to take her own life. Roberta Bibby, 61, was said to be in a serious but stable condition after apparently taking a drugs overdose as it emerged that she was at the centre of a wide-ranging inquiry into her family history. Detectives are examining claims that seven of her children died in the 1960s and 1970s, when she lived in Edinburgh, West Lothian and the north of England. Police were alerted by a psychiatrist, who reported that Mrs Bibby had made a series of claims during her outpatient counselling for a mental illness. The investigation centres around claims that she had seven children who all died within months of birth. Mrs Bibby, who is disabled and lives with her third husband, Peter, in Livingston, raised doubts about the deaths two years ago in remarks she made as she began having psychiatric treatment at St John’s Hospital in the town. A doctor alerted managers at the hospital, suggesting she may have suffered from Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, a psychiatric illness which in extreme cases can lead to sufferers harming children to gain attention. A report was submitted to the procurator fiscal at Linlithgow, who decided not to take action, but the case was reopened last month after he received fresh information. Mrs Bibby is expected to be interviewed by detectives along with the psychiatrist who has been treating her. Before an ambulance was sent to take her to St John’s Hospital in Livingston yesterday, Mrs Bibby denied killing her children. "You never forget losing your kiddies and I still think about them all every day of my life. But I can tell you one thing: I’m no killer and I didn’t harm my babies," she was reported as saying in the Daily Record. When asked if she had confessed during therapy to killing her children, Mrs Bibby replied: "Absolutely not." She added: "I had psychiatric treatment about five years ago, but I was never in such a state that I didn’t know what I was doing. "I am absolutely gobsmacked to be told the police might be investigating. "They were hard times when I had the children, but I didn’t kill them. I can’t believe anyone would think I have done anything wrong. I want to find out where all this is coming from." Mrs Bibby has been known by a variety of names. Her maiden name is thought to be Blake. She married her first husband, William Cunningham, an Edinburgh bus driver, in February 1961, when she was 19. Their first son, Brian , died at the age of two months in 1962, with the cause of death certified as bronchial asphyxiation. Her second marriage, reportedly to John Delaney, was in Hawick in 1969, and she married her third husband, Peter Bibby, in 1978. It is understood she has lived in several areas of Scotland, including Dumfries and St Andrews, and also lived in Leeds and had homes in at least two other areas in the north-east of England. Mr Bibby was quoted in the Daily Record as saying: "I’ve got absolutely no idea where this is coming from. I don’t know what to think at the moment. "I knew she had lost a couple of children to cot deaths and that was it. But that was before I met her. "She doesn’t have any children, although for a long time she used to carry a photograph of a little girl. She used to carry it all the time and told me it was her daughter who had died. "I can’t see how anything like that could have gone on that long and then suddenly come up like this," he added. "It seems completely ridiculous. Certainly, I knew she had a history of psychiatric treatment, but she has been perfectly all right for 20 years. "She was seeing a psychiatrist again two or three years ago, and the doctors were treating her for depression. I wasn’t there, so I’ve got absolutely no way of knowing what she might have told the psychiatrist. "She has always been very secretive about her past. I am hoping she is innocent." Mr Bibby told the Daily Record that his wife took an overdose when details of the police investigation emerged. He added: "I found a couple of tablets on the floor in the kitchen. She had said she was going to lie down so I went to the bedroom and tried to wake her and saw more tablets on the floor." Neighbours at the couple’s cul-de-sac home in Ladywell, Livingston, where they have lived for nearly five years, were astonished to learn of the police investigation into Mrs Bibby’s past. One neighbour said: "She’s a disabled lady and often uses an electric wheelchair to get around and, to be honest, seems to be in the care of her husband most of the time. He does all the shopping and most of the talking whenever they are out together. "She is the last person you would expect to be at the centre of a major police investigation. "There were rumours that she took an overdose last year. The entire neighbourhood has been speaking about this investigation and I know a lot of local parents have been very upset by the publicity it has already gathered, especially as it is the kind of thing that can play on young children’s imaginations. " A team of Lothian and Borders Police officers, led by Detective Superintendent Alan McNally, is working on the case at Livingston police station. One of their first tasks is to establish whether Mrs Bibby has had seven children and that they all died. Police are searching archives for the relevant birth and death certificates and medical records before they move forward with the inquiry. Officers believe the investigation may last as long as a year as detectives seek to unravel Mrs Bibby’s complex family history. A spokeswoman for the Crown Office said: "The fiscal at Linlithgow instructed police to investigate the deaths of a number of babies after information came to his attention. "That information suggested the circumstances of some of the deaths might be suspicious." by DAN MCDOUGALL AND PAUL GALLAGHER - The Scotsman 7.3.2003
Days out From the Jorvik Viking Festival to junior karting, Sally Varlow tells you how to keep the children entertained The latest
addition to the Museum of British Road Transport in Coventry is the
Spirit of Speed gallery built around two amazing cars, ThrustSSC, first
to break the sound barrier on land in 1997, and Thrust 2, which brought
the world land speed record back to Britain 20 years ago. An audiovisual
show gives the background to each car, then the screen rolls up to reveal
the real thing. But the gallery's highlight is the simulator where you
ride in a reconstruction of ThrustSSC's cockpit, bumping over the Nevada
desert, feeling the jolts as it kicks up to 763 mph. Allow an hour if
you want to linger in ThrustSSC's back-up trailer for all the design
and technical data. And two hours more for the rest of the museum -
Britain's biggest on road transport, with hundreds of motor vehicles,
bicycles and a quarter of a million model vehicles.
Telegraph Chatroom
Dangers The television and radio messages, which are being broadcast throughout January, aim to make parents and youngsters aware of how to surf the web safely. They coincide with a new set of guidelines for internet service providers who offer chat and instant messaging services. The government wants to see more measures such as clearly written and easily accessible warning information and report buttons. The aim is to discourage attempts by paedophiles to 'groom' youngsters online, and help children to tell chatroom providers about inappropriate contact or abusive incidents. It is claimed that the guidelines, called The Models of Good Practice and drawn up the government's internet child protection taskforce, are the first of their kind in the world. Advertising campaign An estimated five million youngsters under 16 have private access to the internet and nearly half of 16-year-olds use chatrooms, according to research published last year. The advertising campaign will mark the first time such advice has featured on television and radio. Tips for parents Talk to your child about what they do online Keep a 'favourites' folder of agreed sites Ask your ISP about safety features Online advertising will also run on teen websites and chat rooms from January to the end of March. The Home Office hopes the campaign will give parents the skills and confidence needed to address the issue without demonising the internet. Last year's campaign, according to the government, resulted in an 11% increase in awareness among children to not give out their personal details online. Trust abused Home Office Minister Hilary Benn said: "The internet has opened up a new world for children which is educational, informative and, most of all fun. "But we are aware of the potential for paedophiles to misuse modern technology to abuse the trust that children place in them by attempting to 'groom' them through chat rooms. "We want to encourage parents to help their children protect themselves so they can surf safely." Tips for young surfer Do not meet a stranger alone Tell your parents if exposed to anything you dislike "ISPA and its members want to make the UK Internet as safe as possible for younger users." The guidelines and awareness drive follows recent proposals outlined in the paper 'Protecting the Public' for a new offence of sexual grooming. There could also be a new civil order intended to protect children
from inappropriate sexual behaviour by adults. |
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