From today's UK papers

Independent

Up to 10,000 young people are "missing" from their schools and have left no trace of their whereabouts, according to Ofsted, the government's education standards watchdog.

The commercial arm of the government's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency is to be privatised next year through a public floatation, that is expected to value the business at £500 million to £750 million.

Times

Giving birth naturally after a previous Caesarean section is more risky than a second surgical delivery, researchers from the University of Washington said yesterday.

Top independent schools are to join forces to form companies to take over failing state schools.

Mild winters in Britain over the past two decades have been caused by natural variations in a climate system known as the Arctic Oscillation, rather than by global warming, according to a scientific study from Colorado State University.

Financial Times

A survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation shows that demand for new staff shrank in June for the first time in more than two years.

Parents in the UK expect too little from their children and place too much responsibility on teachers, says an international study of parental attitudes towards education in the  Cambridge Journal of Education .

The Wellcome Trust launched an £18m initiative yesterday to strengthen clinical research in the National Health Service.

Daily Telegraph

Chemicals in cannabis are more effective than conventional drugs at alleviating sickness in patients undergoing cancer treatments, according to research by Hopitaux Universitaires.

Guardian

The controversial new science of animal cloning receives a setback today with a warning by researchers that even apparently healthy clones, such as Dolly the sheep, could have hidden genetic defects. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hawaii University)

Miscellany

Scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have found potentially definitive evidence that cloning is far too unsafe to be used in human reproduction, should it ever be viewed as ethically acceptable in the future. ( Independent, Financial Times, Guardian )

Cannabis should not be legalised for most pain relief because it is no more effective than codeine painkillers and could lead to severe side effects, doctors from Queen's Medical Centre said yesterday. ( Independent, Guardian )

Gordon Brown warned union leaders yesterday that the government would not be swayed from overhauling public services despite growing controversy. ( Times, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph )

Men pay lip service to equal rights in the home while letting women do three-quarters of the household chores, new research from Oxford University suggests. ( Guardian, Independent )

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