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No more tag or touch football for the students at Armatage Elementary in south Minneapolis. The school now has an official "no touch" policy. Originally the rule, circulated to parents Thursday, banned even casual touching such as hand-holding and hugging. But Principal Joan Franks has now refined the policy to target aggressive and "unsafe" behavior such as play-fighting, pushing and shoving. And tag. Some parents are not happy. Nan Carlson, a mother of two children who attend Armatage Elementary, said it is "ridiculous" -- both overly politically correct and hard to enforce. "I think [Franks] has the best interests of...

"Last month, Angela's youngest daughter, 16-year-old Lisa, ran away from home to be with Glyn's father, Nigel, who, at 46, is precisely 30 years her senior. Lisa was due to sit her GCSEs this week and was expected to achieve a succession of As and A*s. Nigel Trowbridge is an unemployed father of five - including a daughter who is a year younger than Lisa - and would not strike you as a particularly ideal catch for anyone, let alone a girl who is meant to be taking her GCSEs. To say Angela is horrified is an understatement. This, after...

SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation's largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings. The justices' 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice Ron George wrote the opinion. The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march. The case before the court involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law...

Children better prepared for school if their parents read aloud to them Young children whose parents read aloud to them have better language and literacy skills when they go to school, according to a review published online ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Children who have been read aloud to are also more likely to develop a love of reading, which can be even more important than the head start in language and literacy. And the advantages they gain persist, with children who start out as poor readers in their first year of school likely to...

Apparently it is more egregious to oversleep in Hemet, California than it is to commit armed robbery. After delivering a pizza Jeremy Queen was robbed at gunpoint then hit on the head with the weapon. The police were called, the report was made and the police drove Mr. Queen around in their squad car to see if they could find who had attacked him. They couldn't and have said they probably never will. Back at work Mr. Queen was chastised for taking so long to make the delivery and told that since the delivery was made, he was no longer...

WARSAW (Reuters) - Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who saved thousands of Jewish children during World War Two by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, died in the Polish capital on Monday after a long illness, local media said. Israel's Holocaust remembrance authority, Yad Vashem, said in a statement that it mourned her death. The web portal of Poland's leading daily, Gazeta Wyborcza, said Sendler, 98, died in Plocka Street hospital early on Monday. The hospital declined to comment on the report. Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said: "Irena Sendler's courageous activities rescuing Jews during the Holocaust serve as...

Texas authorities have asked foster care providers to immunize every FLDS child - despite some parents' concerns about possible negative effects. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services sent letters to 16 group homes and shelters this week asking them to line up shots for the children. "It appears to be a totally unimmunized population," said Patrick Crimmins, department spokesman. "We're the legal parents of the children and we would like for them to be immunized." Crimmins said the state requires all children in custody to be immunized for their "health and safety." He said no one would be...

Bond measure to improve children's hospitals on ballot A $980 million bond measure aimed at modernizing and expanding children's hospitals in California has qualified for the November ballot.

"My Mommy Wears Combat Boots," was written by Sgt. 1st Class Sharon G. McBride before her second deployment, partly to explain to her daughter why she would be gone. The book was published in February. Photo by courtesy WASHINGTON (Army News Service, May 8, 2008) - A new children's book, written by a former Soldier and single mother, helps to explain why mom deployed and how to cope with the emotions associated with her departure. "My Mommy Wears Combat Boots," written by Sgt. 1st Class Sharon G. McBride, is geared to young children and toddlers to help explain why mom...

There are 5,000 child prostitutes living in the UK - and over three-quarters of them are girls, according to a new report. The report, by Save The Children, criticises the Government for "not doing enough to respond to the plight of children in this inhumane situation". But Bill Bell, Save the Children's head of protection, says child slavery is still a major problem today. "There are still millions of children in both rich and poor countries who are being forced to lead slave-like lives under horrific conditions of humiliation and abuse," he said. He called on world leaders to "act...

There are children's books that explain our digestive system, and others that explore grief and jealousy. These important works help kids to understand complex truths and difficult emotions, and also pooping. But there has always been a gulf in this field of literature, a topic unexplored. No longer. Now, at long last, we finally have a book written for the confused children of mommies who abruptly come home one day with huge fake boobs. My Beautiful Mommy, written by a Florida plastic surgeon who fancies himself a leading expert in breast implants (closest known rival: Charlie Sheen), chronicles the inspiring...

TOKYO — Japan celebrated a national holiday on Monday in honor of its children. But Children's Day might just as easily have been a national day of mourning. For this is the land of a slow-motion demographic catastrophe that is without precedent in the developed world. The number of children has declined for 27 consecutive years, a government report said over the weekend. Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908. The proportion of children in the population fell to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. That number has been falling for...

The mother of a two-year-old Wisconsin boy shared a marijuana blunt with her child as friends laughed, filmed the child smoking, and asked, "Hey buddy, are you stoned?" Krystle Leigh Weber, 20, was charged yesterday along with two male friends with pot possession and contributing to the delinquency of a minor (Weber was also hit with a child neglect rap, also a misdemeanor).

CHICAGO (AP) -- American children take anti-psychotic medicines at about six times the rate of children in the United Kingdom, according to a comparison based on a new U.K. study. Side effects including weight gain and heart trouble have been reported in children using anti-psychotic drugs. Does it mean U.S. kids are being over-treated? Or that U.K. children are being under-treated? Experts say that's almost beside the point, because use is rising on both sides of the Atlantic. And with scant long-term safety data, it's likely the drugs are being over-prescribed for both U.S. and U.K. children, research suggests. Among...

Following are excerpts from a Hamas TV show featuring two puppets, Kuku and Fufu. The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008. Kuku: We will persevere, Allah willing, and we will return to our land, Allah willing. We will return to Jaffa, Acre, Lydda, Ramle, and Ashdod. We will return to all these cities, Allah willing. Fufu: Kuku, where are you from? Kuku: I am from Tel Rabi'a, which they have named Tel Aviv. Allah is our support. I say that we must return to our homes, and to our lands, God willing. [...] Fufu: What's now, Kuku?...

Parents 'abdicating responsibility for their children' By Graeme Paton, Education Editor Last Updated: 1:13AM BST 05/05/2008 Parents are “abdicating their responsibility” by leaving children in school for up to 10 hours a day, according to a leading head teacher. Extended schools open to 6pm, providing 'wraparound' childcare to help mothers return to full-time jobs Some mothers and fathers “dump” pupils at breakfast clubs and pick them up late in the evening because of the demands of work, said Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers. Britain’s so-called “back to work culture” - which has also prompted...

BASRA — Residents of Basra, Iraq have been steadily returning to their daily lives and rebuilding their infrastructure in the city as well as other support services. The Basra Children’s Hospital is one of those services being rebuilt with the assistance of the Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South Coast Basrah Office. Iraqi workers on the project are currently installing lighting and running plumbing lines inside the building. The hospital’s primary mission is a cancer treatment facility, which will be run by western standards. (Multi-National Division South East PAO)

Staff Sgt. Joseph Marcy, of the 511th Military Police Co., shares a moment with Iraqi children after a food distribution mission in the Zuwerijat district of Al Kut, Iraq, April 30. U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Daniel T. West. FOB DELTA — Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and American Soldiers recently gave humanitarian assistance to more than 200 families in the Zuwarijat district of al-Kut, 163 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, as part of Operation Thunder II. The humanitarian mission furthered the operation’s goal of establishing a permanent ISF presence in the area.During Operation Thunder II, ISF occupied three buildings to serve...

BAGHDAD, May 2, 2008 – Several years ago, the diagnosis of baby Noor’s rare congenital condition would have been equal to a death sentence. Today, she is on her way to leading a happy and healthy life, thanks to the soldiers of Multinational Division Center. Salvadoran Col. Walter Arevalo, commander of the Cuscatlan Battalion 10th rotation, holds Hussein Kase, 12, during a wheelchair distribution at Rhama Disabled Association in Kut, Iraq, April 18, 2008. Kase is unable to talk and suffers from a skin condition in addition to being paralyzed. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Stacy Niles...

This video of a children’s Bible song has a beautiful scenic background of a rainbow at the end of a road and is introduced by a frog sitting on a roadside rock, speaking in my 4-year-old grandson’s voice.

DNA Tests Confirm IDs of Russian Tsar's ChildrenMike Eckel in Moscow, Russia Associated PressApril 30, 2008 DNA tests carried out by a U.S. laboratory prove that remains exhumed last year belong to two children of Tsar Nicholas II, putting to rest questions about what happened to Russia's last royal family, a regional governor said Wednesday. The bone fragments dug up are those of Crown Prince Alexei and his sister, Maria, whose remains had been missing since the family was murdered in 1918 as Russia descended into civil war, said Eduard Rossel, governor of the Sverdlovsk region (see map of Russia)....

Local leaders cut the ribbon signifying the opening of the Salman Pak Girls Secondary School, April 24, in Salman Pak, Iraq. DoD photo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — The only secondary school for girls in the Salman Pak area opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting ceremony April 24.Leaders of the Salman Pak Council, the Iraqi Army, the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment and 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, gathered in Salman Pak for the ceremony, which marked the completion of a $200,000 project initiated Feb. 28.Members of the Salman Pak Council brought the decrepit school to the attention of 1-15th...

A friend of mine took his two-year old to the doctor for a check up, but before the checkup there would be some questions. The worst being, "are there any guns in the home". My friends's wife wisely lied to them and said no. My friend has a sizeable collection. Does anyone know what this is all about, has it become common practice? Why is a doctor asking this question? Why does it matter to them? Has some law been slipped through?

Baby McBaby took his first steps this week — the first of many. This is, of course, a happy occasion. Yet you know me — I never let a happy occasion pass without pausing to add a bit of neuochemical Angst. Yes, I'm thrilled to see our little Soybean making his initial "one small step for mankind". I'd be worried if he didn't! Yet even as I watch those little feet move, my heart swells with joy — but also with a sharp, stinging melancholy, for I know that they are moving along a path that will eventually carry him...

Swearing, after-hours drinking part of staff culture Sunday, April 27, 2008 3:34 AM By James Nash and Alan Johnson THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann cultivates a casual work atmosphere, employees say.Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann cultivates a casual work atmosphere, employees say. John Estheimer remembers it as the strangest job interview of his 30-year career. Trying out for the position of Attorney General Marc Dann's personal assistant in February, Estheimer said the Dann aides who interviewed him kept coming back to the question of whether he could tolerate an atmosphere of frequent vulgarity and sharp elbows. During...

(CNN) -- Austrian police believe a 73-year-old man held his daughter captive in his cellar for the past two decades and had seven children with her, according to police and state-run news reports Sunday. The woman, identified as 42-year-old Elisabeth F., has been missing since 1984 when she was 18 years old, police said at a news conference. The situation came to light earlier this month after her daughter -- a 19-year-old woman, identified as Kristen F. -- was hospitalized after falling unconscious, according to police. She was admitted to a hospital in Amstetten, outside Vienna, by her grandparents with...

Dramatic rescue from creek saves four children By Jeff Raasch and Erika Binegar and Erika Binegar jeff.raasch@gazettecommunications.com erika.binegar@gazettecommunications.com ANAMOSA — Along the shore of Buffalo Creek, Phillip Horak heard the screams of 2-year-old Tatum McGloghlin inside his car, upside down and almost fully under water. Just 4 miles from home on a winding gravel road, Horak had spotted a raccoon or a dog, jerked the wheel and was soon filled with regret. The two-door Honda, carrying his girlfriend, Holly Winders, and four toddlers spun off Buffalo Road and down an embankment. It flipped end-over-end, landing on its top in 5-foot-deep...

Students pack a classroom at the Saedi School April 20. Renovations will create a more comfortable learning environment. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Christopher McKenna, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH — The Saedi School in the Mahmudiyah Qada officially received the funding to add a new wing with six classrooms and a pump to produce fresh water on the school grounds during a small ceremony April 20. “Education is once again becoming a top priority in Iraq and sectarian violence in Mahmudiyah is on a rapid decline,� said Sheikh Sammi Obead Alwan, director of education...

There has been a great push in this country by child rearing experts and the medical profession that children must be "socialized". It has been a pivotal buzzword for educators and parents alike. It is a main reason for the negative swell toward homeschooling. Yet, it is my contention that what we need to foster, from birth, is natural instinct. Natural instinct is what we understand as the survival instinct. It is an innate instinct of distrust. It is the instinct that alerts us as we start down a dark alleyway on our way home from work. It is the...

Pope's cat writes purrfect book BY STEPHANIE GASKELL DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, April 20th 2008, 4:00 AM There's one very unusual biography of Pope Benedict - a children's book, supposedly written by his cat."Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told by a Cat" is a 36-page illustrated book that chronicles the life of Benedict through the words of his cat, Chico. "I'm meeting you in the pages of this book to tell you a story about my very best friend, a wonderful man with whom I've shared so many happy times," Chico says. "I...

First Lt. Jason Potter, a civil military operations officer with Battery A, 3-320th FA, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT), goes over plans for the Omah al-Mukhtar Girls’ School in the Qadasiyah Apartments with the project contractor April 17. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Christopher McKenna, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH — In conjunction with Operation Marne Piledriver, two Mahmudiyah schools are being refurbished with the help of U.S. Soldiers. The Red Knight Rakkasans of 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), coordinated the funding needed to improve...

"This isn't conjecture. Its happening now" A doctor at the renowned Children's Hospital Boston has launched a new program to drug children to delay puberty so they can decide whether they want a male or a female body, according to a report today in the Boston Globe.

4/18/2008 - CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AFPN) -- Five-year-old Benjamin Laury talked about elephants, storm troopers and how cool pilots are -- all in a single, convoluted sentence -- as he looked around a C-17 Globemaster III April 17 here. As part of a home-schooling group invited to check out the enormous airplane that just flew into their corner of the world, Benjamin and his friends are trying to make sense of what they're being told. Reserve and active-duty Airmen from the 446th and 62nd Airlift Wings hosted the children as they created analogies about their jobs and got a fair...

For U.S. Army Major Todd Schmidt, it all comes back to a quote attributed to Joan of Arc: “All battles are first won or lost in the mind.” Preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in 2004, then-Captain Schmidt knew he would encounter poverty and illiteracy on a scale unknown to most Americans, and he figured he would want to do something to help for humanitarian reasons. When he got there, he found that helping made strategic sense as well. Schmidt is the founder of Operation Dreamseed, a nonprofit organization that started as an effort to distribute school supplies to kids in...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, April 16, 2008 – U.S. and Iraqi soldiers made April 13 a happy day for Iraqi children at two schools near Taji, northwest of Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers from 1st Battalion, 34th Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, hand out toys at the Asim bin Omar school in Sab Al Bour, northwest of Baghdad, April 13, 2008. During Operation Bounty Hunter Pencil, the Iraqi soldiers worked with Company A, 225th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Warrior,” 25th Infantry Division, Multinational Division Baghdad, to hand out toys and school supplies to children. Photo by Army Sgt. Waldemar...

Those who peer at children in public could find themselves on the wrong side of the law in Maine soon...

A model of 14 was banned from the catwalk in Australia yesterday amid continuing controversy over the sexualisation of young girls in the fashion industry. A photo-shoot of Monika Jagaciak by Australian Vogue was also called off after the editor said she had not realised the Polish teenager's age. Organisers of Australian Fashion week in Sydney banned all under-16s from the catwalk after furious public debate over the use of youngsters in an industry already under fire over anorexia and drug use. It follows a similar decision ahead of London Fashion Week last September and brings the Australian event into...

With the ball, Spc. Cortez Cox, a water purification specialist, and Staff Sgt. Howard Benjamin, a section leader, both with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), teach Radwaniyah children how to defend and take the ball away during day two of a three-day basketball camp at Patrol Base Lion’s Den. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Tony M. Lindback, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). BR>PATROL BASE LION’S DEN — Radwaniyah area children were treated to something a little out of the ordinary when U.S. Soldiers at Patrol Base Lion’s...

HILLSBORO, Ore. – The state of Oregon may try to take a 2-year-old girl from her grandparents in Hillsboro and send her to Mexico to live with relatives of her half-siblings – people she doesn't know. State officials say they aim to keep the three children together, a move that the grandparents, Luz and Maurice Cephus, are fighting. The girl at the center of the conflict is 23-month-old Faith Cephus. Her grandparents, (pictured below) who became the girl's certified foster parents, want to adopt her but are living in fear of losing her. "Her being our blood granddaughter, we thought...

YouTube Video Captures Israel Children In Terrorism War Exercise By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----- April 10....... For many years the children of Israel living on the northern and southern borders have died, been injured and have suffered emotionally from Katusha terror rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Qassam missiles from Hamas in Gaza. But now that Iran and Syria have provided thousands of missiles to terror organizations on Israel borders, every child in Israel has become a target. On April 8, 2008, under the threat of war and terrorism by Iran and Syria, Israel prepared her children...

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan, April 9, 2008 – An Air Force noncommissioned officer who had long hair all of her life decided during her deployment here to let her hair brighten some lives. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jenet Akerson, 451st Expeditionary Communications Flight Network Control Center technician at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, looks at her new hair style March 31, 2008. Akerson donated 13 inches of her hair to “Locks of Love,” a nonprofit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children with long-term medical hair loss. She is deployed from the 435th Communications Squadron, Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Photo...

BAGHDAD, April 9, 2008 – Soldiers at Forward Operating Base War Eagle here invited a group of Iraqi children to showcase their artistic skills and creativity March 29 by painting the concrete walls used to protect citizens in their neighborhood. Young Iraqi artists pose in front of their artwork after a day spent painting a T-wall at Forward Operating Base War Eagle in northern Baghdad, March 29, 2008. The children of the village next to the base painted the T-walls that line their route to school. Photo by Army Spc. Joseph Rivera Rebolledo, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry...

WASHINGTON, April 7, 2008 – Deployments are tough on military families, especially on the children. Children of deployed National Guardsmen and reservists often must deal not only with a parent’s absence, but also with the financial burden their family must bear when the deployed parents’ military pay is less than they earn in civilian life. “Our Military Children” helps fund after-school activities for children of the National Guard and reserves when a parent is deployed, one of the organization’s founders said in an interview on the “ASY Live” program on BlogTalkRadio.com. “ASY” stands for America Supports You, a Defense...

My husband and I are getting ready to do what many couples in these brink-of-recessionary times would consider unthinkable. No, we're not buying a Martha's Vineyard retreat or planning a month in St. Bart's or eco-decorating our house. We're planning to have a third child. What shocks people, when we tell them, isn't the thought of hauling three kids onto a place for a vacation, or even the idea of coming home every night to a houseful of runny noses and homework assignments. What gets them is the sheer financial audacity. Raising kids today costs a fortune. Last month, the...

First Lt. Greg Highstrom (left), from Cedarburg, Wisc., a platoon leader, and Spc. Nick Waterman, from Princeton, Idaho, an artilleryman, both with Battery B, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, speak with students of the Manahel primary school in Kutimiyah, March 30. The school is temporarily using a nearby home to hold classes because al-Qaida insurgents destroyed the school building. Photo by Sgt. Luis Delgadillo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Many schools in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division's area of operation have been rebuilt through the efforts of coalition forces.There were...

TIKRIT — The Abna al-Iraq, or Sons of Iraq, prevented the kidnapping of two women and four children in Diyala, March 30. The SOI in the village of Abu Harab fought off four vehicles full of al Qaeda in Iraq members after the victims had been apprehended. They recovered all the kidnapped victims. “The quick reaction of these local heroes, the village’s Sons of Iraq, is yet another example of the strength and determination of Iraqis to fight for the peace they deserve,” said Maj. Dan Meyers Multi-National Division North’s spokesman. No one was killed or injured in the incident....

Calif., native 1st Lt. Casey Zimmerman of Company C, 3rdBattalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, hands out footballs at a school in Mullah Fayad March 27. All the items were donated by the family and community of Sgt. Nathan Barnes, who served in the area and was killed in Rushdi Mullah July 17. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Tony M. Lindback, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. PATROL BASE YUSIFIYAH — Whoever said violence begets more violence never met the family of Sgt. Nathan Barnes.American Fork, Utah, native Sgt. Nathan Barnes, a Soldier with 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat...

WAYCROSS, Ga. -- As many as nine third-grade students got together and plotted to harm their teacher, even going so far as to bring handcuffs and a knife to school, Waycross police said. School officials at Center Elementary School, which is located on Dorothy Street in Waycross, said they never imagined that some of the 8- and 9-year-olds boys and girls at the school would think of bringing physical harm to a teacher. "A plan had been developed amongst several of our third-grade students to allegedly do harm to their teacher," said Theresa Martin, of Ware County Schools. Martin said...

A young Iraqi girl holds her new Beanie Baby, donated by children of North Hills Christian School in Salisbury, N.C. Soldiers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, distributed the toys to children from the Oman and Nassir schools in al Buaytha, March 24. Photo by 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs. FOB KALSU — Iraqi school children in Al Buaytha received toys from children their age from halfway around the world, March 24. Soldiers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, March 28, 2008 – The first day of school at Jan Qadam elementary school in Afghanistan’s Parwan province March 24 was alive with throngs of excited children, dignitaries, government officials and Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan soldiers who dedicated a new school library and science lab. Children crowd into class during the first day of school at Jan Qadam elementary school, in Afghanistan’s Parwan province, March 24, 2008. Village elders, Ministry of Education officials and coalition soldiers gathered to celebrate the first day of school and to dedicate the new school library and...