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Money worries and the distractions of social media mean people are having sex less frequently, researchers say. A once-a-decade pollof 15,000 Britons found those aged 16-44 were having sex fewer than five times a month. The figure compared with more than six times a month on the last two occasions when the official National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles was carried out, in 1990-91 and 1999-2001. The study's authors say modern life may be having an impact on libidos.

It is understood DNA tests have proved that a seven-year-old girl taken from a Roma family in Dublin on Monday is their daughter. Police removed the seven-year-old, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl from her home in the Tallaght area. The parents told police the child was their daughter, but officers were not satisfied with the explanation, nor with the documents that were produced. The child was taken into temporary care. The police action took place against the background of international interest in the case of a blonde-haired child being taken from a Roma family in Greece last week. Greek police are investigating whether the girl had been abducted. Meanwhile, a two-year-old boy from a Roma family who was briefly taken into care in County Westmeath has been reunited with his parents. The boy was taken from his family on Tuesday in Athlone and returned a day later. latestarticlesbyiykemandela.blogspot.com Drop your COMMENT Below...

More than 8,000 calls have made to a Greek charity after an appeal to discover the identity of a young blonde girl found living on a Roma settlement. DNA tests revealed the child, known as Maria and aged about four, was not related to the couple she lived with. A woman aged 40 and 39-year-old man are to appear before judges on Monday on charges of abducting a minor and of holding false papers. The Roma community where the girl was found has rallied around them. The head of the Roma association in Farsala in central Greece says the couple treated her better than their biological children and that she loved them. The brother of the man claiming to be Maria's father repeated the defence that she had been given to them lawfully after her birth, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens. But the couple are suspected by social workers of kidnapping the girl and sending her out to beg, or involving her in a sex ring. An appeal has been launched throughout Europe Police initially raid...

The US has agreed a deal with Romania to use an air base there as a transit point for American forces leaving Afghanistan, officials have said. The agreement was reached at bilateral talks at the Pentagon. The move will allow the US to switch its flight operations to Romania from Kyrgyzstan's Manas air base, when the US lease there expires in July 2014. Washington plans to withdraw most of its 52,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The US wants to keep a smaller force in the country after the deadline, but is still negotiating key details with the government in Kabul. US praise The deal about the use of Romania's Mihail Kogalniceanu air base was agreed during the talks between US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel and Romanian Defence Minister Mircea Dusa. In a statement, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Mr Hagel "praised this agreement, which is particularly important as the US prepares to wind down transit centre operations at Manas". "Se...

French President Francois Hollande has said a Roma girl who was removed from her school bus and deported can return to finish her studies, but that her family cannot. Leonarda Dibrani, 15, was expelled along with her parents and five siblings earlier this month after they lost their battle for asylum in France. The case has sparked protests by student groups across the country. A government investigation ruled that the deportation had been legal. But the report, released on Saturday, said any future such action against school children should be taken outside school hours. The Dibrani family left Kosovo for France five years ago and were living in Levier, in the Doubs region of eastern France. They cited discrimination in Kosovo as grounds for asylum. An order for their expulsion was issued after they lost their battle for asylum. After two postponements, it was rescheduled for October and the father, who was detained in a different town, was expelled on 8 October. Leonarda had s...

The US has agreed a deal with Romania to use an air base there as a transit point for American forces leaving Afghanistan, officials have said. The agreement was reached at bilateral talks at the Pentagon. The move will allow the US to switch its flight operations to Romania from Kyrgyzstan's Manas air base, when the US lease there expires in July 2014. Washington plans to withdraw most of its 52,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The US wants to keep a smaller force in the country after the deadline, but is still negotiating key details with the government in Kabul. US praise The deal about the use of Romania's Mihail Kogalniceanu air base was agreed during the talks between US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel and Romanian Defence Minister Mircea Dusa. In a statement, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Mr Hagel "praised this agreement, which is particularly important as the US prepares to wind down transit centre operations at Manas". "Se...