Key Quotes for 2004

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Last update: Wednesday 25th March




Recent figures suggest more than one-fifth of all children are over-weight or obese - partly because of a sharp growth in the use of fast foods, and a steep drop in activity by teenagers.
Health	The Independent on Sunday – 10 October 2004



Just 2% of Kenyas original tree cover remains. Four-fifths of the continent's productive land threatens to turn to desert.
Environment	The Independent on Sunday – 10 October 2004



Millions of the poorest people in Britain are facing a benefit increase of just 50p a week, the smallest rise in their payments for at least 30 years. Millions of claimants of Job-seeker's Allowance (JSA), Housing Benefit and Income Support will see payments go up by just 1% next year; thanks to the operation of a government formula. The increase is the lowest since at least 1974, and less than a third of the 3.1% inflation rate. The decision has echoes of the row five years ago when a similar formula delivered a rise of just 75p a week in the state pensions, forcing the Government into a U-turn.
Money	The Independent – 25 October 2004



Tests of the first vaccine against tuberculosis in more than 80 years have shown that it is safe and probably effective against the killer disease, which is spreading again as it becomes resistant to conventional drugs. In England, the number of cases has risen by a quarter over the past decade, claiming about 350 lives a year.
Health	The Independent – 25 October 2004



Nearly two million Ugandans, out of a population of 24.7 million, now live in refuge camps for fear of being attacked and killed in their villages. Children have told how they had been forced by the rebels at gunpoint to abduct and murder other children and to drink their blood. A former commander of the rebel group explained that he had forced villagers to chop up, cook and eat their neighbours before he killed them, too.
Disasters/War	The Independent – 23 October 2004



Children as young as 6 are undergoing therapy in Staffordshire to stop them sexually abusing other youngsters. Experts are dealing with scores of cases in which boys and girls have harmed other minors. More than 80 children were seen by specialists in one year alone and they say demand for help from desperate parents and carers is remaining 'consistently high'. Some older youngsters have been convicted by the courts and most children using the service are boys, aged between 8 and 17. But girls are also being referred for help by families and professionals, including social workers, and some clients are as young as 6. The Sexually Harmful Behaviour Service, based in Stafford, had an average of between 55 and 70 cases open at any one time from Newcastle, the Staffordshire Moorlands and other county areas.
Crime	The Sentinel – 23 October 2004



A European medicines regulator will today order a safety review of 4 powerful painkilling drugs taken by more than 750,000 people in Britain amid fears that they could increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) will announce a review of the Cox-2 inhibitors class of drugs, used to treat pain caused by arthritis and other conditions. Some 666,000 prescriptions were written for Vioxx in the year to June 2004 in the UK, bringing to 1.4 million the total number of people who received prescriptions for Cox-2 painkillers in the last year. Vioxx was withdrawn after evidence came to light that it almost doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people who had been taking it for 18 months. A report form the US Food And Drug Administration suggested that Vioxx may have caused more than 27,000 heart attacks in the four years it had been on the market, of which 7,000 may have been fatal.
Health	The Independent – 22 October 2004



Older fathers are more likely to have children who develop schizophrenia, one of the largest studies to examine the link has found. The British Medical Journal reports the risk of schizophrenia rises 50% with each 10-year increase in the father's age. The findings add weight to the theory that mutations in the sperm contribute to disorders.
Health	The Independent – 22 October 2004



Gun crime has risen to a record level, while violent offences recorded by the police have increased by 11%, according to new figures revealed yesterday. Firearms offences rose by 3% to 10,590 in the year to June 2004, compared with the same period in the previous year. Although the number of people shot dead had dropped from 82 to 70 in the past year, there were a further 430 incidents involving serious injuries, as well as a big jump in minor injuries and in the use of imitation guns. However, general crime is continuing to fall, with a 5% drop in the number of recorded offences to 1,477,700 in the second quarter of this year compared with the same 3 months in 2003. Among those figures there was a remarkable 23% decline in domestic burglaries and a 15% fall in robbery. Yet acts of violence against the person rose by 14%, to a total of 265,800. Although around half of all recorded violent crime does not result in an injury, and includes things like pushing and shoving, more serious offences such as homicide and serious wounding were up by 16% to 12,000.
Crime	The Independent – 22 October 2004



The Government has missed its main targets for GCSE results this summer, according to figures from the Department for Education and Skills. The figures, published yesterday, show that the proportion of students getting at least 5 A* to C grades in GCSE exams, or their vocational equivalent, rose by 0.5% to 53.4% this year. The target demands that the pass rate rises by 2% each year. Another target required 92% of 16 year olds to pass at least five GCSEs this year in subjects including English and Maths. But the proportion fell from 86.6% last year to 86.4% this year. Another target, to have 38% of all pupils achieve at least five A* to C grades at GCSE level was also missed, although there was slight improvement on last year. The figures also show that 35,000 teenagers, or 5.4%, left school with no GCSE or GNVQ passes this year, up from 32,350 the previous year.
Education	The Independent – 22 October 2004



Girls are 9 times more likely to play the flute than boys with gender stereotyping going unchallenged in music lessons, the education watchdog Ofsted said yesterday. Female students are three times as likely to learn the violin or clarinet than male classmates, a study of music lessons provided by local education authorities concluded. Meanwhile twice as many boys as girls learned to play the trumpet, percussion or guitar.
Education	The Independent – 22 October 2004



Oral contraceptives appear to prevent heart disease and some cancers in women, according to the largest study into the long term health impact of the Pill. The findings contradict previous claims that the Pill increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and other serious health problems. Hundreds of thousands of women stopped taking their oral contraceptives in 1995 after studies suggested that use of the Pill was directly related to higher rates of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots. The abortion rate rose because of unwanted pregnancies caused by the scare. More than 3 million women in Britain use oral contraceptives and they are still the most popular way of preventing pregnancy.
Sex	The Independent – 22 October 2004



Dietitians have accused high-street shops of selling unhealthy sandwiches after a survey found that some of their products contained as much fat as four Mars Bars. Cheese sandwiches, which are often made with mayonnaise dressings, contained the most fat in a study of 50 sandwiches. A Marks & Spencer Red Leicester and Cheddar sandwich, with mayonnaise and salad cream, topped the list. The sandwich, priced at £1.40, contained 41.9g of fat a pack. The Food Standards Agency suggests that no more than 35% of the daily intake for an average adult should come from fat. This works out at about 86g of fat for the average man and 61g for the average woman. It is estimated that Britons on average eat 40 commercially made sandwiches a year.
Food and Drink	The Independent – 4 October 2004



The rock musician Midge Ure has re-visited the plains of Korem, the former site of the aid camp where 170,000 famine refugees had gathered in 1984. Now he found a thriving farming community and township. But the musician said it was unacceptable that, two decades on, 5 million people in Ethiopia every year were still short of food. Ure said, "I remember seeing people stuck in what looked like a concentration camp, and it had been a good day because only three children had died."
What famous people say	The Independent – 4 October 2004



The Germans may soon have ways of keeping the likes of Robbie Williams off the air waves; the Berlin government is considering mandatory radio and television quotas for Teutonic pop singers in an attempt to curb the dominance of English-language music on air. A special parliamentary cultural committee began discussing the idea of French-style obligatory quotas lat week after complaints by broadcasters, politicians and pop artists that the amount of German pop music aired nationally had slumped to a mere 10%. Peter Maffay, one of Germany's veteran artists, said ".The controversy was sparked after more than 500 German pop artists signed a petition demanding a quota be introduced for German songs on radio."
Entertainment	The Independent – 4 October 2004

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