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Spoilt, lonely, selfish ... the only child is a figure much pitied and criticised. When parents are weighing up the decision to have a second child, the spectre of the demanding, self-absorbed and sad only child is hovering above the bed. For Sydneysiders, the decision to have a second child is more fraught than ever in these straitened real estate times. The problem for many couples is: Where do they put a second child? Like so much else about life in Sydney – homelessness, debt, ageing – it all comes back to exorbitant housing prices. In this city, a second child can change your life more profoundly than a first. A second child can mean exile. Goodbye inner city, goodbye urban lifestyle. Hello far suburbia.       Full Read

SHOCK figures have revealed more than 150 police officers have been hit with disciplinary action after posting inappropriate photos or comments - including racist language - on Facebook. At least two officers were sacked and seven quit in the last four years after falling foul of bosses over their use of the popular social networking site - which has 30million users in the UK. Officers used it to harass former partners and ex-colleagues, to comment on others' wives, and to suggest they had beaten up members of the public during protests. Some even revealed details of police operations, tried to befriend victims of crime, or were caught in inappropriate photographs, forces said.     More Read

China Mengniu Dairy Company said it has destroyed a batch of milk found to have elevated levels of a cancer-causing substance aflatoxin. The company said none of its products currently being sold were affected and that it will implement tougher safety checks going forward. It has blamed spoiled cow food for the contamination. Shares of Mengniu, China's biggest dairy company, fell 21% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.     Read Here

COPS are wasting time on "bonkers" investigations into werewolves, witches, ghosts, demons, UFOs and BIG FOOT , a police chief has revealed. Chief Constable Ian Arundale said his officers are legally required to spend up to 18 hours on each request for information on wacky subjects. His Dyfed-Powys force in Wales spent 240 hours this year on the queries due to the Freedom of Information Act. Questions included "Has there been a recorded trace of Big Foot in Wales?" and "How many sightings of zombies have you had?"    Read Here

Peering over the edge, this kitten looked too scared to clamber out of the loft. Gingerly Bella takes a step forward as she carefully tries to make her way down the steps with Kimba lurking behind her. As the six month old kitten climbs carefully over the edge, she glances up at the white cat who is watching her closely preparing to pounce.     More Read

As drug raid targets go, they were hardly the usual suspects. Chris and Anne Vincent, a respectable couple in their late fifties, answered the door of their village home to find police demanding access to their garden. Neighbours had reported how streams of local teenagers had been knocking on the couple’s door asking to buy marijuana.    Read Full

A teenage thug who terrorised his local community was given acupuncture sessions after an Asbo failed to stop his mini crime-wave, it emerged yesterday. Sonny Grainger, 14, was first given an Asbo two years ago after he repeatedly pelted passers-by with sticks, stones and bottles. But when that failed to curb his ‘unruly’ behaviour, local authorities chose to send him for the alternative therapy – at a cost to the taxpayer of £45 a session – in a bid to ‘calm him down’. He was also referred to a psychiatrist and given herbal remedies.      Full Read

The biggest sales rush in British history was marked by bloodshed yesterday as a teenager was murdered in a suspected row over a pair of trainers. Bargain hunters looked on in horror as the 18-year-old was stabbed in a branch of Foot Locker on Oxford Street in central London. Witnesses said the teenager was amongst a group of black youths, thought to be rival gangs, fighting over the trainers. He managed to stagger outside bleeding heavily before collapsing on the street.    More Read

Three of the rarest turtles in the world have washed up on British  beaches. They were dragged thousands of miles from their normal habitats in warmer waters by stormy weather.  The two young Kemp’s ridleys and one green turtle died because of the cold after being blasted off course by massive currents during storms in Scotland earlier this month.      Full Read

Most dogs see bathtime as something to be endured rather than enjoyed But Casper the golden retriever loves nothing better than a nice warm bath - with a massage from a loved one thrown in for good measure. And where other dogs would be inclined to leap from the water and leave a trail of bubbles over the carpet, Casper simply submerges himself in the soapy waters and lets his owner get on the task of making him shine. And just like his human counterparts relaxing after a tough day at the office, Casper even lies with his head underwater, letting his troubles wash away.      More Read

It's perhaps not the first thing you'd expect to find if you're a police officer searching the home of a suspected fraudster. But these 11 Nile crocodiles - five of them squeezed into a small shower - and an alligator were what officers stumbled across at a house in northern Belgium. They were searching the villa of a German man suspected of fraud in the village of Lapscheure when they came across the reptiles.      Read Here

The top ten U.S. search terms included four variations on Facebook - Facebook.com, Facebook, Facebook login and www.facebook.com - the second year the social networking giant has had four top ten slots. Overall, searches for Facebook accounted for 4.42 per cent of searches - a 24 per cent increase in a year, according to web-monitoring firm Experian Hitwise.  Other web giants such as YouTube made up the rest of the top ten. Most people prefer to search rather than type in an address, said Hitwise.  In the UK, 'Daily Mail' is 14th from the top in search terms - and the Daily Mail charts far higher than all other British newspapers.      Read Full

We already know about so-called ‘vanity sizing’ when it comes to clothes. But it seems they’re not the only things being quietly expanded – shoes are too.  Some retailers have discreetly increased the width of their footwear to serve an increasingly overweight population, while others are offering wider fittings. French Sole, an upmarket shoe shop favoured by the Duchess of Cambridge, admitted it ‘readjusted’ at least one of its styles every six months. Retailers can increase the length and width of their footwear relatively unchecked, because there are no internationally set guidelines.       Read More

A ‘depraved’ former police inspector who led a double life encouraging internet paedophiles to sexually assault children was jailed today for 30 months. Geraint Lloyd Evans, 48, was suspended and later sacked by South Wales Police after he admitted the charge against him. The former inspector, who lived at addresses in Barry and Coychurch, Bridgend, was a highly respected officer commended for bravery.    Full Read

Ricky Gervais has provoked the rage of fundamentalist Christians after getting into a row about God on Twitter. The spat began when a user called GodsWordIsLaw tweeted: ‘Thank God for Christopher Hitchens’ death.’  The writer and committed atheist had died a day earlier. Gervais replied with a sarcastic ‘Perfect’, adding: ‘This is in the world at the moment people. Can we change it a bit?’ – suggesting that intolerance was rife and  that people should adopt a less extreme stance.     Read Here

Her designer frocks have won plaudits on the Paris and Milan catwalks and found favour with the most glittering celebrities. But Victoria Beckham’s £1,500 haute couture dresses are made in far less auspicious conditions. The spring and summer collection is being stitched together in a shabby factory with a broken window on a bleak East London industrial estate for just £60 a dress, the Daily Mail can reveal. Neighbouring businesses include a bargain tyre warehouse and a spare parts garage where battered cars are fitted with new gearboxes.  A greasy spoon café and a kebab shop are among the local dining options.     More Read

There aren’t many humans of her age who would still be up for a game of football on a grey December day. But 59-year-old Anne the elephant is enjoying a magical new lease of life as she prepares to spend her first Christmas in her new home at Longleat safari park – courtesy of generous Daily Mail readers. Yesterday she splashed in her paddling pool and played with a huge red ball, a festive gift from a wellwisher who sends money every month.     More Read

An illegal immigrant who raped a nanny and decapitated his neighbour had his life sentence cut by six years today. Algerian Mohamed Boudjenane, 49, assaulted the Filipina woman and shaved off her hair before killing Lakhdar Ouyahia, 43, in the belief the two were having an affair. Boudjenane was captured on CCTV carrying the head of Mr Ouyahia in a plastic bag on a bus to Regents Canal in Maida Vale, West London.      Full Read

It's fires blazing for a second time in Albert Square this Christmas, as the B&B goes up in flames for a sizzling 2011 finale. Masood Ahmed, played by Nitin Ganatra, does all he can to save his ex-wife Zainab (Nina Wadia) from the influence of the evil Yusef Khan- played by Ace Bhatti- but sadly his efforts are met with a terrifying revenge from the evil doctor. It's still anyone's guess who bites the dust, but it certainly looks as though this will be the last Christmas at least one EastEnder sees.    Read Full

One day he’ll grow up to be a fearsome predator. But for now, Siku the polar bear is quite content to enjoy life as a cosseted cub. The tiny bear is being hand-reared at a wildlife park after his mother was unable to produce enough milk to feed him. Footage of the month-old cub sleeping, stretching and wriggling in delight as he gets a rub down from one of his carers has won him thousands of fans online.    More Read

A large metallic ball has fallen out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency. The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres was found near a village in the north of the country some 750km from the capital, Windhoek, according to police forensics director Paul Ludik. Locals had heard several small explosions a few days beforehand, he said. With a diameter of 35cm, the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of "two halves welded together". It was made of a "metal alloy known to man" and weighed six kilograms, said Ludik.     More Read   

As social networking services peak, Adam Turner asks if electronic mail has passed its prime. IT IS 40 years since American computer engineer Ray Tomlinson put the @ into email addresses, triggering a communications revolution that would forever change the way we correspond. Yet email now faces a mid-life crisis as young people turn to newer forms of communication, such as Facebook and Twitter. Internal messaging systems have existed since the 1960s but in 1971 Tomlinson was helping build ARPANET for the US Department of Defence and laying the foundations of the modern internet. Tomlinson needed an easy way to send electronic messages between the various computers hooked up to ARPANET. He chose @ - generally referred to as the ''at'' symbol - to designate that a message was intended for a specific user ''at'' a specific organisation. The email protocol continued to develop but, for the next 20 years, it was restricted to academic an...

A mother has been reunited with the letter she wrote to Santa as a seven-year-old girl - after the current owners of her childhood home found it hidden behind a fireplace. Amy Finlayson, now 33, wrote to Father Christmas in 1985 asking for a Sindy house because her collection of dolls had ‘nowhere to live’. She was elated when the letter paid off and she unwrapped a shiny new dolls’ house on 25 December.    Read Full

A Dutch football match ended in farce after one of the teams walked off the pitch in protest at having their goalkeeper sent off - for fighting with a fan. A drunk hooligan ran on to the field to attack AZ Alkmaar's No.1 during the first half of their Cup match with former European champions Ajax at the Amsterdam Arena last night. But Costa Rican Esteban Alvarado showed all his agility as he launched a kung fu kick at the teenage thug, sending him crashing to the floor. The Alkmaar keeper then landed a couple of kicks at the prostrate fan before security guards dragged the invader away.    More

Mark Rogalo had been hunting the same woods since he was ten years old, but even he couldn't believe his luck the other day. The 52-year-old builder from Boonton, New Jersey, had been walking up a trail for just five minutes when, looking up towards a ridgeline studded with mountain laurels, he saw something 300ft away. Shiny and coal black, it could only be one thing, and a glance through his binoculars confirmed it — a three-year-old bear sitting on a rock, licking her paws after a good meal.  It was to prove her last. Moving cautiously up the side of the hill, Mr Rogalo ducked behind the trees and rocks as he edged towards her. He was 120ft away when he chambered the first cartridge into his semi-automatic 12-bore Winchester shotgun.     More Read

MUMS are demanding a two-year-old girl — dubbed 'Chucky' after the evil toddler in the horror film Child's Play — be expelled after she battered 11 children at a NURSERY . One of her victim's Katie Ann Guttridge, three, suffered scratches, a damaged eye socket and three BITE marks on her face after the crazed youngster attacked her during play time. Cops were called in to investigate the assault but are powerless to act because the girl is below the age of criminal responsibility which is ten in the UK. Katie's horrified parents are now demanding their daughter's attacker, who we are not naming, is booted out of Ratby Pre-School Nursery in Leicester after the attack on December 13.    Read More

A bronze sculpture insured for half a million pounds has been stolen from a public park. The 'irreplaceable' piece by Dame Barbara Hepworth had stood in the same place for more than 40 years. But yesterday council staff arrived at work to be confronted by just two stumps on an empty plinth.    Read Here

Twelve members of a breakaway Amish group have been charged with hate crimes over attacks where fellow Amish had their beards cut off, prosecutors announced yesterday. The seven-count indictment against Samuel Mullet and 11 relatives or members of his group include charges of conspiracy, assault and evidence tampering in Steubenville, eastern Ohio farm country. Five attacks between September and November involved cutting off women's hair and men's beards and hair - considered deeply offensive in Amish culture.       Full Read

Poor people are quicker to show compassion to those suffering distress than the rich, researchers have found. Emotional differences between the rich and poor depicted in Charles Dickens classics 'A Christmas Carol' and 'A Tale of Two Cities' may have a scientific basis, according to the study. People in the lower socio-economic classes are more are more physiologically attuned to suffering, and quicker to express compassion than their more affluent counterparts, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said.    Read Here

A teen dubbed 'Spider-ned' after he scaled the outside of a 14 storey block of flats to evade police was today told his liberty is 'hanging by a thread' by a sheriff. Connor McLeod, 16, climbed out of a window and down the side of the block in Dallfield Court in Dundee, dashing away after he arrived safely on the ground. He then got involved in a stand-off with police when he was later found on the fourth-floor ledge of another building, Dundee Sheriff Court was told. The bizarre chase started when police arrived at McLeod’s flat to check he was sticking to a bail curfew. His mother, Lyn Finlay, 37, became angry at their questions. She later ended up in court after she shouted, swore and threatened to kill police officers, while on bail.     More Read

Masked raiders carried out a smash-and-grab in broad daylight in Europe's busiest shopping street making off with thousands of pounds worth of Rolex watches.  Horrified Christmas shoppers watched as four men on two scooters used sledgehammers to shatter the window of Leslie Davis jewellers on Oxford Street at around 10am before grabbing handfuls of designer watches.  But as they tried to steal more jewellery the store's 'smoke screen' went off filling the window with thick smoke forcing them to abandon the raid.      Read Here

Two new stencil and spray paint murals by celebrated graffiti artist Banksy have appeared in London. One piece, on an abandoned building in upmarket Mayfair, shows shows a woman and her shopping trolley plummeting from a great height.  The second, painted on an empty building a short distance from the financial district of Canary Wharf, shows the message 'Sorry! The lifestyle you ordered is currently out of stock'.       Read More

A catalogue of mistakes by workmen led to a young mother being killed after she was electrocuted while mopping up water at her home. Emma Shaw, 22, received a fatal electric shock while mopping up the water from the floor of her flat after the heating appliance sprang a leak . During a seven-day inquest, jurors were told of a series of blunders carried out by employees from Staffordshire firm Electrical and Building Services leading to Miss Shaw’s death on December 14, 2007. Her son Brayden, then aged 23 months, had been shut in the living room while his mother went to tend to the boiler in a hallway cupboard. Brayden is now being cared for by his dad, Miss Shaw’s then-partner, gas engineer Andy Cross, 29, who found his girlfriend's body on the floor of the flat in West Bromwich, Sandwell.        More

A murder victim’s family who want to know if the man who shot their son is in Britain legally have been refused the information – to protect the killer’s privacy. Wintworth and Lurline Deslandes are desperate to confirm suspicions that Saturday Hassan is a foreign national so they can ensure he is deported if he is released from jail. But they have been told the killer – who shot their public schoolboy son Darren in the head after being thrown out of the family’s pub – must agree to details of his immigration status being handed over to their MP.     Read More

A newlywed British soldier accidentally shot dead in a training exercise has been laid to rest after a funeral at the church where he was married just five months ago. Fusilier James Wilkinson, 21, was killed in Kenya last month, leaving behind his bride Sarah, also 21, who is pregnant with their daughter who will be named Annabel. He was laid to rest yesterday with a message written on behalf of the unborn child which said: 'you are and always will be so very special to me.' She is due to be born in February.     Read Full

A GCSE exam that pupils were due to sit next month has been postponed after examiners shared ‘inappropriate’ information about the paper, it has been revealed. Ofqual said an information and communications technology (ICT) paper set by the WJEC exam board had been compromised after the board was found to have given teachers unfair advice on the questions. The watchdog said the paper will be withdrawn to protect the ‘integrity and security’ of the qualification.       Full Read

Rory McIlroy proved he is still at the top of his game - with a series of breathtaking bunker shots from the top of Dubai's Burj Al Arab hotel. The 22-year-old U.S. Open champion, who has scaled to the summit of the golfing world in the past 12 months, took to the seven-star venue's helipad to show off his skills. The world No.3, who is dating Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, kept his cool as he blasted the ball from 700ft above Dubai's Jumeirah beach.     More Read

They are one of the most recognised symbols of the festive season, emulated in nativity plays all over the world and whose imagery adorns the front of millions of Christmas cards.  However the three wise men who presented the newborn baby Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh could have been larger in numbers if a new interpretation of an ancient document is correct. An eighth-century script has been translated into English for the first time and throws an incredible new light on the Christmas story.      More Read

A woman and four men who ran a global paedophile ring through a fake nudist website were jailed for a total of 27 years today. A court heard its members subjected children to 'systematic and continued sexual abuse of the worst sort.' Police described the case as one of the most horrific incidents of child abuse they have ever investigated, with the network of paedophiles extending as far as Australia.      Read Here

Part of a woman's house could have to be knocked down after she drove her car through a wall, landing in the dining room. Jill Copsey was meant to hit the brake but instead pressed the accelerator, sending the blue Chevrolet through a garden wall and into her home in Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. Fortunately, she walked away with nothing more than a bruised knee, but the utility and dining rooms fared less well.       Read More

It was an astonishing case. Eccentric hoarder Richard Wallace had accumulated so much rubbish in his back garden that it could be seen from space - much to the fury of his neighbours.  But when his local council served a notice on him to remove it, he took his case to the crown court – arguing that it was his 'human right' to hoard junk on his land - and won. Now, in an extraordinary twist, the case has taken a new turn – without the need for lawyers and judges.  Mr Wallace, 61, has already cleared the rubbish from his garden, which was so out of control it showed up on Google Earth – and he was helped by the very neighbours he had been in dispute with for years.      More

A Brazilian woman has given birth to a baby with two heads, it was reported today. The boy was born by caesarean at a hospital in Anajas, in Brazil's northern Para state, weighing 9.9lbs. Scans show that while the child has two perfectly-formed heads, he has one heart and all his vital organs function as normal.    Read Full

A juror who claimed he was ill during a court case so he could go watch a West End musical with his mother will spend Christmas behind bars.   Matthew Banks, 19, went to see a production of Chicago in London at 5pm on Friday when he should have been in a Manchester court for the fifth day of a trial.  But before the curtain went up on the show, court officials discovered his deception and sent police looking for him.  The Manchester University language student returned to court on Monday when he was sentenced to 14 days at Forest Bank Young Offenders' Institution after admitting contempt of court.      More

THE Gillard government is accusing tobacco giant Philip Morris of engaging in corporate restructuring as a ''trick'' to find new legal avenues to challenge its cigarette plain packaging laws. The government is arguing a challenge by the company under a bilateral trade treaty with Hong Kong should be thrown out because the company's Asian division did not acquire its shareholding in the Australian arm until almost a year after the plain-packaging policy was announced. Philip Morris Asia, based in Hong Kong, is claiming substantial compensation in its complaint that the laws have an adverse impact on its Australian investment, which was supposed to be protected under the 20-year-old treaty.     Full Read

Ian "Molly" Meldrum's fall and head injury has led to a great outpouring of sympathy for the Melbourne icon. Seemingly, everyone wants him to get well and "make a full recovery". I, too, wish for the best for Molly. Being a little more aware of the journey he is now likely embarking on, however, I am more mindful about its outcomes. Three and a half years ago my husband, Damien, and I were involved in a motor vehicle accident in which I sustained a serious head injury. The nature of the injury was probably not dissimilar to that of Molly's; a specific site injury and general swelling.     Read Here

When the facts change I change my mind. What do you do, Sir? John Maynard Keynes Last weekend perhaps 200 asylum seekers bound for Australia perished off the coast of Java. No one can now pretend that spontaneous asylum seeker boat arrivals do not carry grave risks. A national search for a new solution to the problem can no longer be postponed. One difficulty here is political stalemate. Both the government and opposition now support offshore processing as a means of deterring further boats. However, since the recent High Court judgment, the government's proposed ''Malaysian solution'' has become unlawful and the Coalition's ''Nauru solution'' legally uncertain. Both Labor and the Coalition stubbornly refuse to support the other side's proposed amendment to the Migration Act.     More Read

Millions of wailing North Koreans today poured on to the streets in a highly orchestrated display of public mourning after the death of the country's dictator Kim Jong Il. Prostrating themselves on the ground and sobbing uncontrollably, the Communist state's repressed population gathered in towns and villages to mark the passing of a tyrant who had impoverished his nation, caused millions to starve and shot many of his subjects. Some people were so overcome that they collapsed. Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack while on a train on Saturday and his death was announced on state television last night. He had ruled the country since succeeding his father Kim Il Sung in 1994. The news immediately prompted South Korea and Japan to put their militaries on high alert while the U.S. said it could p ostpone decisions on re-engaging North Korea in nuclear talks and providing it with food aid.        Read More

Standing together in the dock of the world’s most  famous criminal court stood two confused and sobbing parents, accused of the worst offence imaginable: beating and shaking their own baby to death. According to prosecutors, four-month-old Jayden Wray was gripped and twisted so brutally that bones throughout his body shattered, while vicious blows to his head damaged his brain. The injured baby was rushed to hospital where doctors said he could not survive. Three days later, paediatricians at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London switched off his life-support machine.     Read More

Some of the most graphic images ever to be shown on British television will be screened tomorrow night. Channel 4 is planning to broadcast shocking film of protesters – including children, teachers and a mayor – allegedly being beaten by members of Syria’s secret police. It claims the images provide ‘irrefutable prima facie’ evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime is torturing its citizens.      Read Full

After being viciously beaten by a 10-strong mob of Egyptian male soldiers, this woman lies helplessly on the ground as her shirt is ripped from her body and a man kicks her with full force in her exposed chest. Moments earlier she had been struck countless times in the head and body with metal batons, not content with the brutal beating delivered by his fellow soldier, one man stamped on her head repeatedly.  She feebly tried to shield her head from the relentless blows with her hands.      More Read

Emergency services were pushed to the limit on one of the busiest nights of the year. The Friday before Christmas or Mad Friday, as it is known, has become most popular for office Christmas parties but the festivities leave paramedics struggling to cope with drink related injuries. Ambulance services took 250 emergency calls every hour. On a typical Friday there would be around 200 reports every hour. Staff at accident and emergency services had to deal with hundreds of drink related injuries while some paramedics said it was the worst they had experienced in years.      More

A man smelling of gasoline walked into a police station overnight and implicated himself in the death of a woman set on fire in the elevator of her apartment building. The 47-year-old man, who hasn't been charged, said he had started a fire, according to a New York Police Department spokesman. The man's identity hasn't been released. Delores Gillespie, 64, was burned to death by a man who doused her with a flammable liquid and set her alight in an elevator. The unidentified attacker - reportedly the woman's ex-boyfriend - was waiting at the Brooklyn, New York apartment block for the woman to return home.      Read Here

At least two people died and 51 were missing in freezing water after an oil rig in Russia's Far Eastern Okhotsk Sea overturned in the country's second major water accident since July. The Kolskoye oil rig platform with 67 on board was 200 kilometres from the shore Sunday when the accident occurred at 1245 pm AEDT amid high winds and temperatures of minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 Fahrenheit). "We could rescue 14 people out of 67," regional ministry spokesman Taimuraz Kasayev said. "Two more bodies without signs of life were found, but we were unable to lift them out of the water yet."      Read Here