A threat to kidnap and murder a serving West Midlands police officer led to a security alert being issued to staff, the BBC understands. The force has confirmed counter-terror officers are investigating an ‘anonymous but credible’ tip-off. Staff were first told on Monday night after the force received the call. Assistant Chief Constable Garry Forsyth said the force was taking the threat ‘extremely seriously’, but there was no increased risk to the public. Officers have been urged to take extra precautions, including not wearing uniform during journeys to and from work. West Midlands Police said it had ‘implemented additional security measures’ after obtaining the information but the force declined to confirm the exact nature of the threat. A spokeswoman said counter-terror officers were continuing to assess the anonymous information the force had received. Officers were held on duty while they were given the security reminder as they started their shifts.

A survey was carried out by the family lawyers’ association, Resolution. Its chair, Jo Edwards commented on the scale of the problem, saying: ‘Each year around 100,000 children under 16 see their parents divorce. Almost half of all break-ups (48%) occur when there is at least one child in the relationship, and with 230,000 people in England and Wales going through a divorce each year (and many more separating), this is an issue that affects hundreds of thousands of families in Britain every year.’ She went on to say that it was clear that ‘children are suffering as a result of parental separation and that in some cases it’s exacerbated when parents place additional stresses on their children during their break-up.’ According to the survey, 32% said that one parent ‘tried to turn them against the other’ whilst more than a quarter (27%) said their parents ‘tried to involve them in their dispute’.

The former Bishop of Oxford has suggested there should be ‘reasonable accommodation’ for religious belief in law, during a House of Lords debate. Lord Harries initiated the debate on the role of belief in public life, in which he referred to recent cases in Europe where human rights appear to have clashed with fundamental religious views. He said: ‘My own view is that human rights should prevail in areas of dispute but that the law should be formulated and enforced with what the Equality and Human Rights Commission once termed ‘reasonable accommodation’. ‘That seems to be in the spirit of the culture of the United Kingdom’. He maintained that there are certain ‘fundamentals’ on which there can be ‘no compromise’, but on some issues ‘there ought to be some scope for latitude’. Speaking earlier this year, Lady Hale said, ‘it is not difficult to see why the Christians feel that their religious beliefs are not being sufficiently respected’.

A new report, the first scientific estimate of the scale of modern slavery in the UK, has shown that the number is four times what was previously thought. Victim levels are estimated to be between 10,000 and 13,000 including women forced into prostitution, domestic staff and workers in fields, factories and fishing boats. Home Secretary Theresa May said the scale of abuse was ‘shocking’. She added: ‘The first step to eradicating the scourge of modern slavery is acknowledging and confronting its existence. The estimated scale of the problem in modern Britain is shocking and these new figures starkly reinforce the case for urgent action. That is why I have introduced a Modern Slavery Bill, the first of its kind in Europe. But I have always been clear that legislation is only part of the answer. Everyone must play their part if we are to consign slavery to history where it belongs.’

A three-year-old girl who died after a house fire had to be taken to hospital in a police car because there were no ambulances available. Neighbours spent more than 20 minutes attempting to revive Angel Smith while they waited for an ambulance. She was eventually taken to hospital in Carmarthen by police officers. The delays suffered by Angel in receiving treatment from qualified paramedics emerged following mounting concern over the use of police vehicles to transport sick patients to hospital when ambulances are unavailable. The family’s local MP, Simon Hart, described the tragedy as ‘totally unacceptable’. He said he had also discovered that three of the six ambulances in south-west Wales were off duty at the same time on the day of the fire. A Dyfed-Powys representative said, ‘as a police force we request an ambulance almost on a daily basis and often you hear 'there’s no ambulance’. The ambulance service has had far too many cuts and this I’m afraid is the result'.

Ouija boards are selling fast. Google reports that sales of the board are up 300 per cent, and it is threatening to become a Christmas ‘must buy’. The culprit is a new Hollywood horror film titled Ouija. Low-budget, lowbrow, the critics hammered it, but cinema-going teens, looking for something scary in the Halloween season, loved it. Cue big box office takings and huge demand for Ouija boards, many manufactured by the American toys giant Hasbro, who helped finance the making of the film. But to some people, including churchmen, it is a danger to be avoided, a trigger for psychological harm - or something worse. ‘It’s like opening a shutter in one’s soul and letting in the supernatural,’ says Peter Irwin-Clark, a Church of England vicar who has witnessed the dark side of Ouija. ‘There are spiritual realities out there and they can be very negative.’

The shifting patterns of family life in the UK are exposed in the latest findings from a study of the lives of 13,000 children born at the beginning of the new century. More than one in three children have already lived through domestic upheaval such as seeing their parents break up by the age of eleven and only half still have married parents by the time they finish primary school. But while the study provides further evidence of a powerful link between family break-up and issues such as behavioural problems or poverty, it also reveals how the children themselves are still 'strikingly happy'. It gives a vivid picture of modern British childhood with details on everything from what time children go to bed and whether their parents still use a ‘naughty’ chair to their intelligence test scores or their illicit use of social networking sites such as Facebook.

Celebrities are the cause of a sharp rise in the number of children sending sexually explicit text messages, a child protection expert has warned. Dr Zoe Hilton told MPs that schoolchildren are copying the ‘sexting’ trend which is endorsed by adult celebrities. Speaking to the Commons Education Committee, she warned that children may be unaware of the dangerous repercussions of sharing explicit pictures. Hilton, who is the Head of Safeguarding and Child Protection at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP), said, ‘children and particularly older children are looking at celebrities and are looking at what the adult population are doing. I think we’ve got to the point with older teenagers where sexting is actually a normative behaviour’, she added. Last year, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children warned that sexting is now common amongst teenagers.

Obesity costs Britain’s economy £47bn a year; more than war, terrorism or armed violence, a new study has found. The research, commissioned by consultants McKinsey and Company, recommended a series of 44 interventions to fight the epidemic. Measures include introducing a safe network of cycle lanes, portion control in fast-food packaged goods, and more PE lessons in schools. The report’s authors at the McKinsey Global Institute said the measures could bring 20% of overweight or obese people in UK back to a healthy weight within a decade. Success would save £16 billion a year, including an annual saving of about £766 million in the NHS, according to the study. The report found that only smoking does more damage to the UK economy than obesity.

HIV testing clinics have been opened in churches across London in the hope of combating high rates of infection as well as social stigma among the African population. Four African churches in Southwark, New Cross, Dagenham and Wood Green are involved in the project, which is coinciding with National HIV Testing Week from 22 to 30 November. Behind the campaign is Rev Fred Annin, the founder and CEO of Actionplus Foundation, which is working to support those with the virus. He wants the church to lead the movement. Actionplus was the first organisation to set up an HIV testing clinic in a Church in London and launched its Take Action Now campaign last year. ‘The Bible does not condemn people with HIV as cursed. It shouldn't be taboo to discuss it in churches. It's a medical condition and people need medical help.’ Annin said.