Ban packed lunches, schools urged
By Anonymous on Jul 12, 2013 02:40 am 12 July 2013 Last updated at 00:00 ET By Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter 
The review found most schools provide good quality meals
Head teachers in England are being urged to ban packed lunches to increase the take-up of school dinners and promote healthy eating.
A government-commissioned school food review by two founders of the Leon restaurant chain says take-up is low at 43% despite huge quality improvements.
The authors of the School Food Plan say packed lunches are nearly always less nutritious than a cooked meal.
And heads are being urged to lower the price of lunches to boost take-up.
This might include providing subsidised meals for reception classes in primary schools and Year 7 classes in secondary schools, the report says.
The Department for Education ordered the review by restaurant founders Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent into the state of school meals in 2012 following strong criticism from Jamie Oliver.
'Good quality' Seven years earlier, the chef had led a successful campaign to ban junk and processed food from school canteens. This resulted in tight nutritional guidelines and healthy eating policies for those bringing packed lunches.
But in 2011 he claimed that standards were being eroded because academies and free schools were exempt from national nutritional guidelines.
This new review concludes that most schools do provide good quality food but that the proportion of children eating them is not high enough.
It suggests heads ensure that packed lunches are not more exciting than school lunches, and that items such as sugary drinks, crisps and confectionery be forbidden from lunch boxes. In reality many schools already have healthy packed lunch policies banning such items.
And they are being warned to watch what is being served at mid-morning break, when some children are said to fill up on pizzas, panini or cake.
Obesity rates Packed lunches are understood to be banned in a just a very small number of schools, but the DfE insists it is possible.
General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers Russell Hobby said he felt it probably was not feasible for schools to ban packed lunches.
He thought it was right, instead, to focus on making school meals more attractive in terms of cost and access as well as nutritional content, taste and presentation.
He added: "It is hard for students to concentrate on learning when they haven't eaten enough or when they've eaten the wrong things. The benefits from investing in decent cooked meals are huge: better learning and better habits later in life; a calm and sociable lunch hall also sets a tone for the rest of the day.
"In addition, increasing numbers of schools are growing part of their own food, and this can have a big impact on the children."
The Association of School and College Leaders said it was important the plan related to academy schools as well as regular state schools.
Other recommendations include: after-school cooking lessons for parents and children, more schools to have stay-on-site rules for break and lunch time, and for teachers to be encouraged to sit in the dining hall with children.
The report comes as the obesity rate among children at the end of primary school has risen to almost one in five.
It claims only 1% of packed lunches meet the nutritional standards that currently apply to school food.
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Snowden 'asks to meet activists'
By Anonymous on Jul 12, 2013 03:48 am 12 July 2013 Last updated at 03:17 ET 
Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has requested a meeting with human rights groups in Moscow, Russian officials say.
Mr Snowden wants to meet them later on Friday at Sheremetyevo airport, where he is thought to be staying.
The former CIA contractor is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets about US surveillance schemes.
He has sent requests for political asylum to at least 21 countries, most of which have turned down his request.
Read in browser » Ireland backs 'life-saving' abortion
By Anonymous on Jul 12, 2013 03:56 am 11 July 2013 Last updated at 19:21 ET 
Supporters of access to termination outside the Irish parliament
A marathon debate on a bill allowing limited abortion in the Republic of Ireland has continued for second late-night session in the lower house of the Irish parliament.
An Irish government minister resigned her post after voting against the government on an amendment to the bill.
Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton was automatically expelled from her party, Fine Gael.
Members of the Dáil agreed to continue the debate until 01:00 BST on Friday.
The bill allows for a termination when three doctors unanimously agree that a woman is at risk of taking her life.
Anti-abortion activists say the measure could lead to more widespread abortion.
Others argue the bill is too limited as it does not allow for terminations in cases of rape or incest, or when there is a foetal abnormality.
Nor does it allow for termination when the foetus cannot survive outside the womb.
Anti-abortion campaigners say that the bill will allow the intentional killing of the unborn for the first time in the Republic of Ireland.
Anti-abortion activists want the law to remain unchanged
For them, in a largely Catholic country, it is not just a religious but a human rights issue as they believe that in any pregnancy the mother and foetus have equal rights to life.
Uncertainty Members of parliament (TDs) who support access to abortion say the bill ignores the fact that, on average, 11 women leave the country every day for an abortion in Britain.
Since a Supreme Court ruling in 1992, known as the X case, abortion has been constitutionally available when a woman's life, as distinct from her health, is at risk from the continued pregnancy.
X was a suicidal 14-year-old schoolgirl who had been raped by a neighbour and was initially prevented from leaving the country for an abortion in Britain.
Since then, the credible threat of suicide is, constitutionally, regarded as grounds for a termination.
But in the intervening years, until now, no government has introduced legislation to give doctors legal certainty on when an abortion can be carried out.
And that uncertainty provided part of the context for the Savita Halappanavar case.
She was a 31-year-old Indian dentist who was admitted to hospital in Galway in October 2012 while miscarrying.
Failures 
The death of Savita Halappanavar drew attention to the lack of clarity about the legal position on termination
She died a week later from septicaemia.
Her request for an abortion was turned down.
Her inquest heard that she could not get a termination at the time because her life was not in danger but, by the time her life was at risk, an abortion would have been too late to save her.
Her inquest also heard there were systems failures in her health care.
The Fine Gael-Labour coalition government says its proposed legislation will bring the law and constitution into line.
Read in browser » Cigarette packaging plans on hold
By Anonymous on Jul 12, 2013 02:34 am 11 July 2013 Last updated at 21:41 ET 
A consultation on the move was carried out by the government last year
The government is to postpone its plans to introduce standardised plain packaging for cigarettes in the UK.
Ministers are expected to tell MPs that a decision on the policy has been formally delayed so that more time can be spent examining how similar plans have worked in Australia.
The aim of such packaging is to discourage young people from smoking by making the packets less attractive.
Campaigners said they were bitterly disappointed with the decision.
The packets would all be the same colour, with the same font and carry a prominent graphic warning.
Ministers were keen to go ahead with the proposal after the Department of Health held a consultation last year.
But Downing Street was said to be worried about the impact on jobs.
'Important decision' The BBC has been told that the government will postpone any decision so it can study what has happened in Australia.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "This is an important decision and we make no apology for taking time to get it right."
Cancer Research UK chief executive Dr Harpal Kumar said the decision would cost lives, and urged the government to rethink its policy.
The UK-wide consultation came to an end in August.
It was extended by a month to allow more people to respond after strong public interest in the issue.
Plain packaging is seen by campaigners as the next step in discouraging young people from taking up smoking.
Launching the consultation, the then Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said he wanted tobacco companies to have "no business" in the UK.
Read in browser » Killed soldier's military funeral
By Anonymous on Jul 11, 2013 09:14 pm 11 July 2013 Last updated at 21:14 ET 
The service will start at about 11:00 BST and will be relayed outside via a PA system
The full military funeral of Fusilier Lee Rigby will take place later at Bury Parish Church in Greater Manchester.
His body was guarded overnight during a vigil at the church by members of his regiment, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
The 25-year-old soldier, from Middleton, was killed in Woolwich, south-east London, in May.
His family has thanked people "across the world" for their "overwhelming support".
Fusilier Rigby's wife Rebecca said: "There are so many kind and generous people out there.
"It's just horrible that it takes something such as this to make you see how many good people there are."
'Happy memories' Asked about how Fusilier Rigby would like to be remembered, Mrs Rigby said: "Lee always wanted his service to be a time that people would remember him and shed the tears, but then he always said a remembrance of his life.
"He wanted people to enjoy that and sit and talk about happy days and happy memories they have got of Lee and the things he used to do and say because he was always so full of life.
"He just wanted to put a smile on everyone's face."
Fusilier Rigby's stepfather Ian Rigby said: "I think today should be a celebration of Lee's life, what he has meant to us.
"Lee was a fun-loving lad and that is how he should be remembered."
The service will start at about 11:00 BST and will be relayed outside via a PA system.
Police and councils have designated "suitable roads" for members of the public to line once his body leaves the church ahead of a private burial at Middleton Cemetery.
Michael Adebolajo, 28, from Romford, east London, and Michael Adebowale, 22, from Greenwich, south-east London, are accused of Fusilier Rigby's murder.
Mr Adebolajo is also accused of the attempted murder of two police officers and possession of a firearm with intent to cause others to believe that violence would be used.
Read in browser » Key Syria rebel 'killed by rival'
By Anonymous on Jul 12, 2013 03:24 am 12 July 2013 Last updated at 03:24 ET 
There are increasing fears of lethal splits within the Syrian rebel camps
A senior member of the Free Syrian Army is reported to have been killed by a rival rebel group linked to al-Qaeda.
Kamal Hamami, of the group's Supreme Military Council, was meeting members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant "to discuss battle plans".
A Free Syrian Army spokesman said he received a call from the Islamic State saying they had killed Kamal Hamami.
It is part of an escalating struggle within the armed uprising between moderates and Islamists.
Such infighting has led to concerns over plans by Western and Arab nations to arm the rebels in their bid to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
Factional fighting Mr Hamami, also known as Abu Bassel al-Ladkani, had been meeting members of the Islamic State in the port city of Latakia "to discuss battle plans", Free Syrian Army spokesman Qassem Saadeddine said.
"The Islamic State phoned me saying that they killed Abu Bassel and that they will kill all of the Supreme Military Council," he told Reuters news agency.
There have been many other such incidents in this factional fighting, the BBC's Paul Woods reports from neighbouring Lebanon.
It is partly a battle over spoils and partly ideological, pitting the secular Free Syrian Army against Islamists who want to establish a theocracy, he adds.
The Free Syrian Army was formed in 2011 by army deserters based in Turkey and is said to have some 40,000 members.
Although they have had some successes in the fight against President Assad's forces, they say they will be unable to win the war unless they acquire more sophisticated weaponry.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is one of the main groups in Syria linked to al-Qaeda, and has contributed to the spread of Sharia in rebel-held areas.
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