In the news: 8th February 2007

Child cruelty Conviction

A couple who subjected their four-year-old disabled daughter to a systematic campaign of cruelty have been jailed for a total of 22 years. Read

Brain disorder reversible

The symptoms of a severe brain disorder similar to autism, which affects around 10,000 UK children, could be reversed, scientists believe.

A team at Edinburgh University made symptoms of Rett syndrome disappear in mice by activating a single gene, the magazine Science reports.

The condition, which mainly affects girls, was previously thought to be irrevocable. Read

Greater police powers against sex offenders

Police are to get new powers to search the homes of known sex offenders.

Officers will be able to seek a warrant to carry out “risk assessments” on properties under measures due to come into force over the next two months.

Mr Blair said: “The abuse of a child is something that should never remain hidden.” Read

Childhood accident prevention

The government’s record on reducing the number of preventable accidents in children has been criticised in a report by the Audit Commission and the Healthcare Commission.

Since 2001, staff at the Action on Children’s Accidents Project (ACAP) in East Lancashire have shown it is possible to cut the number of accidents among children.

A simple kit costing just a few pounds provided to parents taking part in SureStart programmes has reduced the number of children going to hospital by 660 last year compared to 2001 when the scheme was introduced, a fall of 21%. Read

Indian children make photoblog

Children at a rural school in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh are running a photoblog about daily life in their village, Kalleda. The school gives children from poor families a free education.

The photo project of the RDF (Rural Development Foundation) school has helped school children learn English, connect them with the world and provided the world with a window into rural India. Read

Plight of abandoned and abused Russian hospital babies

Mobile phone video of babies in a Russian hospital with sticking plaster apparently covering their mouths made headlines around the world but the plight of the otkazniki - the infants abandoned by their mothers in hospital - goes much deeper.

For Maxim Gareyev, editor of Yekaterinburg’s parenting newspaper Yeka-mama, the story which broke at Hospital No 15 was no great surprise.

“We get confidential letters and private messages from officials and others about babies being maltreated in hospitals but nobody wants to speak out because they don’t want to lose their jobs or they fear for their reputations,” he told the BBC News website. Read

Sisters take maternal role to terminally-ill friend’s children

Two sisters have become mothers to their best friend’s sons after she died from motor neurone disease.

Caroline Wagstaff, 44, asked Sarah Cowley and Rachel McCarthy to care for James, 11, and Aneurin, eight, when she discovered her condition.

The sisters immediately pledged to bring the boys up just as Mrs Wagstaff, from Sully, Vale of Glamorgan, wanted. Read