Before holidays, British schools told to watch out for forced marriages

September 10th, 2009 PATNA - Skipping classes could prove costly for teachers in Bihar. Concerned over the poor attendance in schools, the state government has decided to introduce technology to monitor the presence of teachers in government schools, official sources said here Thursday.

September 6th, 2009 GURUVAYOOR - As many as 187 marriages were solemnised at Kerala's famed Sree Krishna Temple here from 5 a.m. till about noon Sunday, setting a record of sorts.

August 31st, 2009 LONDON - Two British soldiers have been killed in a roadside blast in southern Afghanistan, the British defence ministry said here Monday. The soldiers, from The Black Watch regiment, were killed in an explosion north of Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province.

August 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Chinese Valentine's day saw parents of less than a year old kids gather in Shanghai to conduct mock marriages of their babies.he event, organized by a local website, was attended by numerous parents, reports the China Daily. The infants received fake marriage certificates and photographs of their temporary spouses.

August 22nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A survey conducted in Pakistan on the issue of forced marriages among male dual nationals, reveals that only 3.4 per cent children are consulted before marriage whereas 96.6 per cent marriages take place mainly to attain foreign nationality or helping hand abroad. The findings make part of the research report of baseline survey on the issue of forced marriages launched by SACH on Friday.

July 9th, 2009 AMRITSAR - The Sikh clergy has issued a decree to the community not to solemnize any gay marriage, terming it as unacceptable in the faith. The directions were issued after a meeting of five Akal Takht priests in Amritsar.

July 2nd, 2009 LONDON - As many as 8,000 cases of forced marriage were reported in England last year, according to a Government report. According to The Telegraph, the study published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families claims that the overwhelming majority of victims are teenage girls from Pakistan or Bangladesh.

June 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The sweltering heatwave has forced the Delhi government to extend summer vacation of schools by one more week in the national capital. The schools will now re-open July 7, the government announced Thursday.

June 23rd, 2009 Feds: Seattle restaurateur paid 4 workers to marrySEATTLE — The owner of a Seattle area chain of Thai restaurants has been charged with paying four workers to enter into sham marriages allowing three of her relatives and another Thai national to stay in the U.S. Varee Bradford, who operates five Thai Ginger restaurants was arrested Tuesday on one count of immigration fraud conspiracy and three counts of immigration document fraud.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan does not comply with even the minimum standards set by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the US State Department's Trafficking in person report 2009 has revealed. he report which was released by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, stated that "Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation." The report mentions that the Sindh and Punjab provinces were the two regions where the country's largest trafficking problem exists.

May 5th, 2009 DC Council votes to recognize gay marriagesWASHINGTON — After an emotional debate, the D.C. Council has given final approval to legislation that recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

April 23rd, 2009 LONDON - British actress Emma Watson, who vowed to put acting on hold to concentrate on her degree, will continue her movie career when she starts university. The 20-year-old, who will start her degree course later this year, will film Harry Potter scenes during term time holidays.

February 21st, 2009 LONDON - A leading female Muslim politician in Britain said Friday she wants the government to make it compulsory to register all religious marriages so Muslim men stop taking more than one wife. Baroness Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, who belongs to the opposition Conservative Party, said the Labour government had ignored tackling polygamy because of the 'cultural sensitivity' surrounding the issue.

January 25th, 2009 LONDON - Record numbers of teachers are quitting Britain to work abroad, raising fears of an exodus that will leave British schools understaffed, the Guardian reports. The number of qualified teachers who have left to take up posts in schools overseas where the national curriculum is the same as in England and Wales has risen by 26 percent in three years, new figures reveal.

January 4th, 2009 LONDON - Children as young as five are being excluded from British schools for sexually bullying fellow-pupils, according to a report Monday. In schools across Britain, children are being subjected by fellow-pupils to many forms of sexual bullying - from explicit graffiti, sexualised name-calling and spreading rumours about someone's sexual behaviour, to assault and even rape.