The Best and the Worst of the British Press

L O N D O N, July 2, 2001 -- The mother of one of the two boys who tortured and killed 2-year-old James Bulger in 1993, has had to move nine times in eight years, The Times reports.

Ann Thompson, mother of Robert Thompson, is considering asking the courts to give her and her children the shield of anonymity, the paper reports.

Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were 10 when they brutally murdered the toddler. Now 19, they were granted parole last month after serving less than nine years of their sentence. Each young man is being given a new identity to protect him from the public.

Today's disclosure followed a worrying development in the case that continues to rattle the nation.

Denise Fergus, James' mother, sent her husband, Stuart Fergus, to Mrs. Thompson's residence last week prompting security concerns for the Thompson family, The Times reports.

Following the controversial June 22 ruling setting the two young men free, there have been fears of reprisals against Robert Thompson and Venables.

A Test for Him and Her

British scientists have developed the world's first "His and Hers" home fertility test to enable couples to conveniently discover in the privacy of their homes whether they will be able to conceive a child.

The kit, known as Fertell, will help thousands of couples who are hoping to become parents by giving an early warning of any fertility problems, reports The Times. The simple kit, which provides a result for both partners in half an hour, measures a key indicator of male or female fertility and displays the results as an easy-to-read pair of red lines.

The result? Saving some crucial time on the biological clock.

"Most people who are trying for a baby start to wonder after two to three months, but when they go to the doctor the advice is to go home, break open a bottle of champagne and relax," said Paul Bateman, chief executive of Genosis, the firm manufacturing Fertell. "For 80 percent of couples this is good advice but the other 20 percent normally have to wait 12 months for laboratory tests. They lose 12 months of fertility at a time when the biological clock is ticking."

The kit should be available over the counter in Britain early next year.