1087

May 23 - 29 2012 No. 1087

THE WEEKLY WORLD EDITION OF The Daily Telegraph AND The Sunday Telegraph telegraph.co.uk/expat

The Telegraph

KINGS OF EUROPE Chelsea win in penalty shoot-out drama

:: SPORT PAGE 48

CHRIS RADBURN/LOCOG/PA

Mladic trial ‘Butcher of Bosnia’ gives defiant cut-throat gesture in court :: WORLD NEWS P17

Bee Gee dies Robin Gibb loses his long battle against cancer :: NEWS P3

By Tim Ross Political Correspondent NEW parents will be given government advice on changing nappies, breastfeeding and “baby talk” under a multi-million pound initiative to support family life.

David Cameron said it was “ludicrous” that parents received more training in how to drive a car than in how to raise children.

A £3.4 million digital information service, which launched on Friday, will provide free email alerts and text messages with NHS advice “on everything from teething to tantrums”, Mr Cameron said.

Separate pilot schemes will offer couples with young children free parenting classes and subsidised relationship counselling to help cope with “tiredness”

and “mess”. As part of a series of “family friendly” initiatives unveiled last week, the Prime Minister also gave his strongest signal yet that tax breaks may be offered to families who hire nannies or childminders.

Speaking at a business event in Manchester, he said he was “hugely attracted to the idea of making child care tax allowable”.

Mr Cameron, who has been stung by criticism that his policies have alienated women voters, said that the plan for parenting classes was not a manifestation of the “nanny state”, and sought to pre-empt criticism that the Government should be focusing on the economy, by declaring that parents “shape” society. “These are the big, gritty issues,” he said.

An influential study found that 85 per cent of new

Continued on page 2

Burning bright Britain takes over the Olympic flame

THE Olympic flame finally arrived in Britain on Friday after being officially handed over at a ceremony in Athens.

The Princess Royal (above), who is president of the British Olympic Association (BOA) and who rode for Great Britain in the equestrian team at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, was formally handed the flame and carried it on to British soil in Cornwall on Friday evening.

In torrential rain and watched by a crowd of several thousand Athenians huddled under umbrellas, the Princess Royal led a British delegation, including

David Beckham, Lord Coe, the London 2012 chairman, and Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, in the Panathenaic Stadium.

The Olympic torch had been on a seven-day relay around Greece since being lit by the rays of the sun in Olympia the previous week.

The torrential rain in Athens continued as Karolos Papoulias, the Greek president, made a welcome speech. But any concerns that the weather was a portent of what awaited the torch on its 70-day journey around the UK eased moments later as the flame entered the stadium and the sun came out.

After the “high priestess” and vestal virgins who lit the flame in Olympia made a final turn, the torch was handed to the Princess Royal. The flame was transferred to a golden lantern, which the Princess carried to the British ambassador’s residence in Athens, where it was kept overnight.

The flame was then flown to Britain in four safety lanterns on board a golden British Airways jet, flight number BA 2012.

Torch lights home fires: page 3

Radio honours Meet the star DJs —Betty, 90, and Beryl, 86 :: NEWS P13

‘Do you want to pay the Greeks to stay in the euro,

or pay them to leave?’ Greece faces exit from the single currency Page 33 Obama leads G8 rescue Page 3