The father of a British teenager who travelled to Syria to join jihadists believes his son was radicalised by an imam at a UK mosque. Rahim Kalantar told the BBC his son Ali, 18, travelled to Syria with two friends from Coventry in March, and he believed he was now fighting with ISIS. He said he believed Ali - who was planning to study computer science at university - had been radicalised during classes at a mosque after evening prayer. ‘He [the imam] encouraged them and sent them down this road,’ he said. The iman has denied these allegations.  Up to 500 Britons are thought to have travelled to the Middle East to fight in the onflict, officials say.

Thousands of mothers over the past seven years have had successive children removed by family courts in England, the BBC has learned. Court records for that period show 7,143 mothers were involved in repeat care cases - affecting 22,790 children. The research was carried out by the Universities of Brunel and Manchester and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. This is the first time such data has been produced. It backs up what judges have observed in their own courts for many years - that many mothers are stuck in a destructive cycle of pregnancies and care proceedings. The courts remove a young child or baby from a mother, owing to abuse or neglect, only to see the same mother return to court a year or two later, with a new baby, and unable to care for that one either. Most misuse drink or drugs - or both.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor warns that UK law does not protect the rights of Christians, branding it ‘intolerant’. The former Catholic Archbishop has called for greater religious freedom in Britain, insisting that the law has done ‘too little’ to protect and promote the rights of Christians. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has written an open letter to The Telegraph in response to its leader article which declared: ‘It is obvious that there is a growing conflict between religious freedom and legislation on equality, and that a new balance has to be struck’. The Telegraph itself was responding to a recent speech given by Baroness Hale, the UK's most senior female judge, who suggested that the law may be discriminatory against Christians. Speaking before the Law Society of Ireland in Dublin, Hale highlighted the case of Christian hoteliers Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who were found guilty of discrimination against a gay couple after instituting a policy that only married couples were allowed to stay in their double bedrooms.

Dr John Sentamu has condemned businesses that pay less than the living wage, calling on the government to put an end to the harsh reality for millions of UK workers: ‘Low wages equals living in poverty.’ The Archbishop is the chairman of the Living Wage Commission, an independent inquiry into the rise of low pay and working poverty across Britain. Its first report, published in February, found that 6.7 million of the 13 million people in poverty in the UK are in working households – the first time that the figure has reached over 50 per cent. The report also revealed that 21 per cent of the workforce, 5.24 million Brits, are paid below a Living Wage, while housing costs have tripled in 15 years and bills have increased by a staggering 88 per cent since 2009.

Fresh travel chaos emerged today as ministers admitted emergency passport extensions are not accepted in dozens of holiday hotspots. Nearly three quarters of countries will not accept passports given 12-month extensions under plans to alleviate the crisis. Popular travel destinations including Australia, China, India and Brazil are excluded from the list. The USA, Cyprus and Turkey – which were last year on the list of the seven most popular overseas holiday destinations for Britons – are also not allowing the passports. It’s another hugely embarrassing blow for Home Secretary Theresa May who last week announced that expat Britons who need to renew their passports would be given one-year extensions. The emergency move was supposed to ease the pressure of the recent surge in demand for the documents that has seen up to 55,000 people at risk of missing their holidays. But now the government has admitted only 50 countries have confirmed they will accept the extended passports.

New figures from the helpline of the housing and homelessness charity Shelter show a massive rise in calls from renters at risk of losing their homes. Shelter have called for better protection for renters as the research shows that these calls have more than doubled in the past two years. Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said that the figures were ‘yet more evidence of the shocking reality that renters across the country are facing every day’. With recent research showing that more than 213,000 people have faced eviction in the past year after asking their private landlord for repairs, he says it is time to act. 'Calls to our helpline from renters are soaring and revenge evictions are becoming all too common.  Private renting is close to crisis point: this can’t go on. The government has to protect England’s nine million renters from unfair evictions’, he said.

A major research project will reveal the scope of families work in the majority of UK Churches. Exploring the Family Ministry Landscape is thought to be the first project of its kind in the UK and will look at what churches are doing to support families, as well as the range of training and resources that are already available. ‘Families come in all shapes and sizes, and society's understanding of what 'family' means has changed over the years,’ said Gail Adcock, Families Ministries Development Officer. ‘Family matters,’ added the Rt Revd Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, ‘whether it's a single parent family, blended families, immigrant families or everything in between. The Church has a duty to support people in their relationships and in the challenges they face. We haven't got it all figured out just yet - and I hope this project will help us learn and grow as a community of faith for whom family matters.’

The number of abortions has risen to more than 8 million in Great Britain since the practice was legalised, according to the latest Department of Health statistics for 2013. MPs have criticised the way abortion is increasingly used as a form of ‘contraception’, as the new figures also show more than a third, 37 per cent, of abortions for resident women were repeat abortions. In total, there were 190,800 abortions in England and Wales last year. In 2012, 33 women were found to have had at least their ninth abortion, compared to 49 last year. Responding to the statistics, Labour MP Jim Dobbin said: ‘Why, in a country which apparently abhors abortion being used as a method of contraception, do the figures for repeat abortions keep rising? The UK is a rogue state when it comes to abortion. Our abortion time limit is double that of nearly every other member of the EU.’

A scientific panel has said that controversial techniques to create three- and four-parent babies are not ‘unsafe’, but further tests need to be completed. Professor Andy Greenfield, who chaired the panel, said safety was ‘not a straightforward issue’. If Westminster approves the techniques, the UK will become the only country in the world to legalise the creation of three- or four-parent embryos. Fiona Bruce MP said: “The international community is wholly against these techniques. The UK would be setting a very dangerous precedent in adopting them and isolating itself from the rest of the world. Lord Alton of Liverpool said: ‘Given the safety concerns which have been raised, the unresolved ethical questions, and a practice which runs contrary to international consensus, it would be prudent for the UK to wait at least until these issues have been resolved before being stampeded into a decision which has such far-reaching consequences.’

Cancer patients' chances of survival could be put at risk by growing delays in the NHS carrying out tests that can diagnose the disease, experts have warned. The number of patients in England waiting longer than the recommended six weeks for investigations such as MRI and CT scans has doubled in a year. In April, the figure reached 16,981 - or 2.2% of all the patients waiting for such tests. Macmillan Cancer Support called the delays ‘worrying’ and said each hospital has a responsibility to meet the targets. But, it added, ‘this Government and the next one also need to take responsibility’. The charity's chief executive Ciaran Devane said: ‘It is extremely worrying that the proportion of people who face delays in receiving vital tests which can diagnose cancer has doubled since this time last year. Only two weeks ago we heard that more people are waiting longer to start treatment and now more people are waiting longer just to get diagnosed.’