Pregnant women in England will be entitled to a £200 lump sum to spend on healthy food, in government plans to be announced on Wednesday.

From April 2009, expectant mums could have the benefit paid in the 29th week of their pregnancy.

The grant is intended to reduce infant mortality and close the health inequality gap between richer and poorer families.

Women must have a health and welfare session with a professional to claim the money - but they don't have to prove the money is actually spent on nutritious food.

bbc

related article on the issue will be published on the 12th Sept. 07 (wed) in Gadgit

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related article : Do Cohabiting Couples need more Legal Rights?

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related article : Thank God for the Royal Family - the great social experiment

Will court ruling mean the end of Guantanamo?

The tribunals of two men held at have collapsed. What will this mean for US efforts to try foreign terror suspects?

Charges were dropped against Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan because authorities failed to classify them as 'unlawful enemy combatants.'

Many of Guantanamo's other detainees may also be ineligible for tribunal.

The camp has been criticised for holding suspects without charge and alleged cruel treatment, but the says it is a vital tool in the "war on terror".

What is your reaction to the collapse of the tribunals? How should governments deal with terror suspects? Should the camp be shut down or does it help prevent terrorism?

From BBC’s ‘Have Your Say’

BBC article: Pair’s Charges Dropped

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“Should Harry be sent to Iraq?

(please post your opinions on this in either the comments section here or at your own site.)

"Should Prince Harry be allowed to serve in Iraq?

Chief of the General Staff, Sir Richard Dannatt said he has discovered a number of threats relating directly to Harry and those around him.

Prince Harry is said to be "very disappointed" but will not quit the army, according to a statement from Clarence
House."

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“Should Politics Mix with Sport?  Are Australia right to pull out of Zimbabwe Cricket?

(please post your opinions on this in either the comments section here or at your own site.)

How should the international community treat ?

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has ordered the country's cricket team to pull out of a planned tour of Zimbabwe later this year.

He said the tour would be an "enormous propaganda boost" to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

The Australian team was due to play three one-day internationals in Zimbabwe in September.

This news follows an announcement last week that Zimbabwe has been elected to head the UN's commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) despite strong objections from Western diplomats.

Should politics be mixed with sport? What will Australia pulling out of the Zimbabwe cricket tour achieve? Do you agree with this decision?
 

from BBC's 'Have Your Say'

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"To Go Beyond the Self is to Go Closer Toward the Self"

We are all interconnected in more ways that our conscious minds appreciate.  In empathising with 'others', we will be afforded knowledge and insight into phenomena that has frequently been ignored or given little credence simply because ‘it is not our problem’.  However, the consideration of these events or ‘others interests’ will lead to the enrichment of our arsenal of perspectives which, we will discover, may be applied to solve our own individual/local/national problems. Thus is The Value of Empathy. 

Whilst Qotds focus us on our own individual concerns, and whilst they hold much value in causing us to reflect on our own individual lives and consider it from the perspective of other’s answering the same Qotds, going one step further and paying attention to others' experiences or global events afford us perspectives that we may apply in our own ‘local’ lives whilst sending a clear signal to those who ‘divide and rule’ that they will have to contend with the opinion of a global mass as opposed to a national one. 

Considering the QOTW and reading others' thoughts on it is one of the many small but significant steps we might take towards realising the reality of our global citizenship - which may not be so in Law, but which is most surely the case in Fact.  Our practice of nation and self-transcending Empathy via, amongst others, the consideration of the QOTW, is that which makes our empathy insightful and, as a consequence, effective.  It is our deficiency in Knowledge, Perspective and Empathy that founds the basis for much of the evils we are currently assailed by. To abdicate the responsibility to strengthen these is to relinquish the future.  We are all interconnected, and our individual nations are little more than nodes on a World Wide Web of Humanity.  

Thus, the start of QOTWs - Question of the Week.  

p.s. Please submit your QOTW via the email 'submit' link on the right (under 'signpost')

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