AGONY

Although he denies it, I’m pretty sure my dad’s an alcoholic.

My mum’s a nurse and works nights so she doesn’t get to see how much he’s drinking. She’s also a Methodist and she doesn’t like drink. They argue a lot. I love them both but I get on better with my dad than with her, so I don’t want to snitch on him, but I’m worried he might get a liver disease or something. It’s my gap year and I was planning to go travelling, but I’m worried about what might happen to them when I’m away.

It’s that time of year when people start to sniff and sneeze, as colds and winter chills make the rounds in families, workplaces and schools.

The average adult is likely to catch two to five colds a year, with children and young babies being even more susceptible.  Professor Ron Eccles, Director of the Common Cold Research Centre at Cardiff University, gives some helpful thoughts and information on how to reduce our chances of being laid low.

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What do you get when you cross Victor Hugo with the US presidential election?  Time for change?  Or maybe a revolution...

As Mark Twain might have said, reports of Earth's death have been greatly exaggerated.

Full story here.

Two years in the making, the 2008 US presidential election is on our doorstep. By the time the campaign ends, the candidates will have spent more than a billion dollars trying to get the job. All those bucks for a position that earns less than half million dollars a year and lasts only four years!

But weighing the post by its salary is like saying that Olympic athletes sweat for years just to pocket a few hundred dollars' worth of gold. The post of President of the United States carries immense power to make decisions that affect, for better or worse, people the world over.  And the vice-president - who must be ready to take the reigns at a moment's notice - is almost as powerful.That's why John McCain has chosen a woman the calibre of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

See her awesome Flow Chart.

In 1997 due to overwhelming public pressure, the UK Government banned the testing of cosmetics on animals, writes Julia Stephenson.

This was a great victory at the time, but did you know that each time a new household product (as if we don’t have enough already!) comes out it must still be tested on animals?