13 year old NOT the father!

An update to a posting from Saturday February 14th 2009 @ 5:06pm

Court documents show that a 13-year-old boy who was reported to be the father of a baby girl born earlier this year in Britain is not her dad.

Newspaper photos of the baby-faced teenager, Alfie, along with the 15-year-old mother and the infant shocked the country.

They also sparked debate about sex education in Britain, which has one of Europe’s highest teen pregnancy rates.

Details of DNA testing were revealed Tuesday when a court-ordered reporting ban was lifted.

The court documents show that another boy, aged 15, is the baby’s real father.

The mother lives in Eastbourne, on the southeast coast of England.

Birth of 13-year-old dad's child sparks outrage

The birth of a child fathered by a 13-year-old boy has sparked an uproar in Britain.

Alfie Patten, who was only 12 when the baby was conceived with his girlfriend, Chantelle Steadman, 15, was first pictured on the front of Friday's tabloid Sun newspaper with his daughter, Maisie Roxanne, after her birth Monday.

He told the newspaper that he thought "it would be good to have a baby."

"I didn't think about how we would afford it. I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10. When my mum found out, I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried about how people would react. I didn't know what it would be like to be a dad. I will be good, though, and care for it."

Chantelle, meanwhile, said, "I'm tired after the birth. I was nervous after going into labor, but otherwise I was quite excited."

She later told the Sun that they wanted to "prove to everyone" that they could give Maisie a "great future" and said both of them planned to stay in school.

The Sun reported that police had investigated but said they were not going to prosecute, as it was "not in anyone's interests."

Conservative party leader David Cameron told the British Press Association that parenthood should not be something the teenagers should even have been contemplating.

Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who runs the Centre for Social Justice think tank, told PA that the birth highlighted another case of "broken Britain" where "anything goes."

"It's not being accusative; it's about pointing out the complete collapse in some parts of society of any sense of what's right and wrong."

"There is no opprobrium any more about behavior, and quite often, children witness behavior that's aggressive, violent, rude and sexual. It's as if no one is saying this is wrong."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "all of us would want to avoid teenage pregnancies," PA reported.

Tony Kerridge, of the sexual health specialist Marie Stopes International, told PA that children needed better education.

"We have got the social aspect of young girls in the UK seeing having a baby as a route to getting their own place," he said.

London's The Times newspaper reported Saturday that in the past decade, more than 40 other boys younger than 14 had fathered children.

The UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Western Europe: 385 girls under the age of 14 became pregnant between 1998 and 2007.

Whatever happened to kids being kids, hanging out, playing sports, watching all the great new movies we can, playing video games..being kids...enjoying there youth? 13 year olds should not be having children, they themselves are still children, they are still developing both mentally and physically... The pressures that go with raising another human being in this world, making sure they are healthy, well nourished, cared for, clothed, have a roof over there heads... Are these things any 13 year old should have to be thinking about?? Should he/she be thinking about there excess homework load, projects due soon, getting a better post secondary education... or should they be thinking about there own child, if they're well fed, is there enough food for both them and the child, are they running out of diapers, formula, are they running out of clothes that fit.... when this kid (yes KID) is 19, when others his age are out partying, spending nights out with friends, studying hard for college/university and so on...He'll have to be thinking about his child and making sure they're in a good school, and doing well.... Is he really ready for all that??

His girlfriend, not to let her off here either, she's only 15... Is she really ready for this? They say they decided and made the decision that they wanted to be parents... What sort of real decision making can children that age really make? how well thought out can it really have been?

I fear for the future of these children (both, the parents, and the young one they brought into the world)... What happens when the kids have a change of heart (as all kids do, they'll be really interested in something one moment, lose interest in it the next) and decide they no longer want to be parents? What then? Leave the child to THERE parents and have the child raised by the grandparents?

As the saying goes "Anyone can be a dad...But, it takes a real MAN to be a father" at 13... being called a man would be a real stretch....

Thoughts???

With unusual candour, China reports shoe throwing at premier

It hesitated for hours over the sensitive footage of a protester in Britain shouting "dictator" and throwing a shoe at Premier Wen Jiabao. But finally, China's carefully controlled state broadcaster ran the footage Tuesday.

The move was a remarkable display of openness - but the footage already was leaking into China via satellite television and the Internet. Critics said it showed the increasing power of such media to erode strict information controls.

"It is impossible for a country to shut out a piece of news," said Shao Peiren, head of Zhejiang University's communications research institute in eastern China.

The broadcast might also help the government by appealing to Chinese patriotism. Wen is the leadership's most popular figure, and he emerged as the hero after last year's devastating earthquake, calling himself "Grandpa Wen." The nickname was embraced by some enthusiastic Chinese.

Still, incidents that could be seen as unflattering or insulting to the Chinese leadership have long been treated with the greatest sensitivity. The first Chinese reports on the protest during Wen's visit to Britain's Cambridge University left out key details, including that a shoe had been thrown.

But the China Central Television broadcast had it all. The evening news showed the footage among the first stories of its half-hour broadcast, leading into it with a report on Wen's speech itself and his return to Beijing.

Then the shoe-throwing footage was shown, with no commentary from the anchors, just a simple news setup.

The camera was fixed on Wen, but later cut to the whistle-blowing protester being removed from the hall, while the audience shouted "Get out."

"How can this university prostitute itself with this dictator here? How can you listen ... to him unchallenged?" the man - who has yet to be identified - could be heard shouting.

The sound of the shoe hitting the stage, away from Wen, could be heard as well.

Wen paused for about one minute and then continued his speech.

"Teachers and students, this kind of dirty trick cannot stop the friendship between the Chinese and the British people," Wen said, followed by applause.

The incident echoed the news conference in December in which an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at former President George W. Bush - covered widely not only in China but around the world.

Bush joked off his shoe attack, saying "it was a size 10," but China's response was far sterner.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu called the disruption "despicable" but said it would not "stem the tide of friendly relations between China and Britain."

Internet chat rooms were filled with patriotic messages denouncing the protester, who did not appear to be ethnic Han Chinese.

"The uncompromising Iraqi people threw a shoe at Bush which is a brave act by a suppressed nation," said one comment on the Tiexue.net bulletin board. "But the ugly Englishman threw a shoe at Wen, which was only a barbaric trick."

In an apparent move to show national dignity had been maintained, reports by CCTV and the official Xinhua News Agency included prominent references to Britain apologizing.

The BBC reported the 27-year-old protester would appear before magistrates on Feb. 10 in Cambridge on charges of committing a public order offence.

China's online activity - with 298 million Web users - makes it increasingly tough for censors to keep sensitive news, like the shoe throwing, offline. Media watchers say that may be prompting official media to report on other news it would have suppressed before, such as riots and protests.

But the expanded coverage may also reflect a recognition by propaganda authorities that showing such events can work to the government's advantage.

Two incidents last year were given wide state media coverage: Attacks on the Olympic torch overseas before its journey to Beijing, and the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province.

The torch attacks sparked an outpouring of nationalism among Chinese at home and abroad. The second brought a wave of compassion and assistance for the quake victims.

Uproar over children's 'Big Brother' show

British broadcaster Channel 4 has been criticized for creating a new television show which looks at how children as young as eight would cope without their parents for two weeks.

Boys And Girls Alone -- which will be aired in the UK on Tuesday evening -- has been compared to adult reality show Big Brother.

The show allows 10 boys and 10 girls between the age of eight and 11 to create their own mini-societies, organizing everything from what they eat to how they should entertain themselves.

Ultimately the children are shown on camera squabbling over sleeping and cooking arrangements and, as they split into factions, some of them feel "picked on," the show's publicity says.

This has led to a stream of criticism from British lawmakers and children's charities, who have labeled Channel 4's "experiment" a disgrace that "served no purpose other than to cynically boost ratings," according to Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, of the charity Kids Company, was quoted by The Daily Mirror as saying: "Any situation that leaves a group of young people without the mediating presence of a responsible adult is cruel and abusive."

Labour MP Denis MacShane told the newspaper that "children should be protected and not exploited for commercial gain."

However, Channel 4 defended the show and said it features "the kind of tussling you'd get in any playground -- but no physical violence."

It added that one boy pointed a knife and fork during the series but emphasized that no one was in any danger, Britain's Press Association reported.

"This is not a project for commercial gain. It is done with the parents' full consent," a Channel 4 spokesperson was quoted by PA as saying.

"They were watching and there were mentors and a clinical psychologist who made sure there were no problems."

What are your thoughts on this? is this going too far now?

Protester throws shoe at Chinese Premier during British visit

A protester threw a shoe at the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, as he gave a lecture at the University of Cambridge at the end of his three-day visit to the UK tonight.

Sitting about 20 rows away from the premier, the man stood and shouted: "How can you listen to this unchallenged?" The shoe landed on the stage but missed Wen.

Wen was unhurt and police arrested the man.

"One man has been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence after a shoe was thrown in the direction of the premier, and he is being taken to a Cambridgeshire police station for questioning," said police spokeswoman

Police said last night that a man had been arrested on suspicion of committing a public order offence.

Outside the hall, demonstrators objecting to Chinese policy in Tibet were penned in a corner about 50 yards from the entrance, with pro-China supporters closer in.

Earlier today, in talks in London, Wen and Gordon Brown presented their planned expansion of bilateral trade as an example to the rest of the world, demonstrating that the slump could be combated by free trade rather than protectionism.

Brown said that the Chinese government's huge economic stimulus package would help lead the world out of recession, and set a target of doubling British exports to China in the next 18 months, from £5bn to £10bn.

A Chinese ministerial delegation is expected to come to Britain in the next few weeks with a shopping list of what Beijng wants to buy with its 4tn yuan (£400bn) fiscal stimulus package. The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, and the environment secretary, Ed Miliband, will then fly to China in April, to help match British companies to China's plans and to discuss how to ensure that the eventual upturn is a "high growth but low carbon recovery".

Brown said that the sectors of British industry most likely to benefit would include aerospace, hi-tech manufacturing, education, and pharmaceuticals. The two leaders also signed agreements to harmonise the two countries patent systems and to open up China's provincial cities to British investment.

"By taking this action now, we believe we can expand trade between our two countries immediately and the benefit will flow to British workers in terms of jobs and British companies in contracts," Brown said. He described the export boost offered by the Chinese stimulus package as "absolutely crucial to helping the world's economy recovery", because it sent "a signal the world can only move forward out of this recession by trading with each other".

"Premier Wen and I agreed that the biggest danger the world faces is the retreat into protectionism, which is the road to ruin. The best attack on protectionism is to demonstrate today the benefits of trade for jobs, for businesses and for eventual prosperity," Brown said.

The need to head off protectionism, in the EU but particularly in the US, has been at the top of Wen's agenda during his three-day visit to the UK.

He made clear that he sees Brown, who will be hosting the G20 summit of major and emerging economies in April, as an important ally in support of free trade moderated by greater regulation of international finance.

"Some financial institutions pursued profit in a blind way without effective regulation. They have been using excessive leverage to gain huge profit, but when the bubble bursts the world is exposed to disasters," Wen said, in an implicit criticism of US and British free market policies leading up to the crash.

However, he said his visit to Britain and to other EU members last week had been "successful". The Chinese premier said: "I feel that the economies of the European Union and China enjoy huge potential. Both sides have strong capacity to address the current crisis. For China the fundamentals of the economy are sound and the long-term trend remains unchanged. So Chinese and European leaders need to be brave in shouldering our responsibilities so that we can give hope and confidence to our people and our business communities."

Brown has been warned not to sacrifice human rights concerns to the prospect of boosting exports. Wen's visit has been marked by raucous street protests. Five pro-Tibet demonstrators were arrested in London on Sunday. Brown insisted that human rights concerns had not been forgotten in the bilateral relationship.

"The UK will continue through our regular dialogue to seek rapid progress towards all international human rights standards and I urge further dialogue on the Chinese government to resolve the underlying issues in Tibet," the prime minister said. He tempered this implied criticism, however, by crediting Wen's social and economic policies with "lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty".

In a similar incident, an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at former U.S. president George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in December.