Extras

    English children are among the unhappiest in the world, a wide-ranging study has revealed. Young people in England are ranked nearly bottom of an international happiness table, coming 13th of 16 countries. The study, which interviewed 17,000 eight-year-olds across four continents, reveals kids in England are less happy than their counterparts in Estonia, Poland and Turkey. Only South Korea, Nepal and Ethiopia ranked lower. Children’s Worlds, which conducted the research, found Romania topped the table in self-reported life satisfaction. The findings are in stark contrast to the reputation the country had for its burgeoning orphanages a few decades ago. The study, co-ordinated in England by the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at York, asked the schoolchildren to rate var...

    The average house in the UK could cost more than £1 million by 2032, Liberal Democrat researchers claim. By projecting house price trends culled from Office for National Statistics figures, they conclude that the value of the average home will hit £650,000 in ten years' time. Over the next 16 years, they say, it will more than triple from the present £290,000 to £1.017 million. Needless to say, incomes aren't forecast to rise at anything approaching the same rate. The party is backing a debate today calling for action from the government. "A child born on the day of the debate faces the prospect of paying at least a million for a home to call their own," party leader Tim Farron tells the Daily Telegraph. "Relying on the Bank of Mum and Dad isn't an option for everyone and ...

    Densely packed slums, rampant mosquitoes and a history of rapidly spreading infections make Asia particularly vulnerable to the devastating Zika virus, posing a massive challenge for the region, health experts warn. Thailand confirmed Tuesday that a man contracted the mosquito-borne infection, blamed for a surge in the number of brain-damaged babies in South America, while Indonesia has also reported a domestic case. The cases in Asia come as top US health authorities confirmed this week a patient in Texas contracted the Zika virus through sexual transmission, fuelling fears the disease may spread rapidly. Officials in India worry it could be next, noting that the Zika and dengue fever-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito thrives in the high-density communities of its teeming c...