Young people with cancer are likely to have to wait longer than younger children for their condition to be diagnosed, according to medical experts. Teenagers may face significant delays before being referred to a specialist and getting the treatment they need, says Professor Tim Eden, professor of cancer at Manchester University.

One recent research study found the average time between spotting the first symptoms and a diagnosis was over three months. In extreme cases, diagnosis did not happen until more than three years after symptoms were reported. In another study, teenagers were found to have visited their GP four or more times with symptoms before being properly referred.

Discussion ideas

> Delays are not because teenagers do not report symptoms, but because they are not recognised as potentially serious. Discuss why this might be. Do people in authority treat teenagers differently? Why might younger children's cancer be picked up earlier? GPs point out that cancers in teenagers are extremely rare – so they see very few in their surgeries. Talk about the problems in being alert to unlikely as well as likely explanations for symptoms.

> Delayed diagnosis is not thought to affect survival rates, but it may mean the treatments have to be more severe. Discuss what it might feel like to be told that you have nothing serious, then much later that you have cancer.

> People sometimes say they are much stronger from the experience of a serious illness. Discuss what this means. How might a diagnosis of cancer affect someone's approach to life? Would it mean they were less bothered by trivial things? Talk about the changes for a family and friends of someone diagnosed with cancer.

More resources

>> See the website designed for teenagers diagnosed with cancer.

Inmates at a US detention centre at Bagram in Afghanistan are receiving visits from their families by video-telephone link-ups. Conference-call facilities have been set up at the centre at Bagram airbase, which is 35 miles from the capital Kabul. Similar video-conference equipment is available at an office in Kabul run by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Families of those detained who can travel to Kabul use the video-phone booths to speak to their relatives for up to 20 minutes. The system is the first of its kind, according to the Red Cross. Almost 70 per cent of the 600 detainees are thought to have used the facility.

Discussion ideas

> The video link experience is often very emotional, as people make contact who have not seen each other for years. They may have previously lost hope of their relative being alive. Discuss how important that discovery and reassurance is to family and detainees. What difference do students think it would make to people's lives? The Red Cross says that, although useful, the video link programme is no substitute for actual visits. These are not permitted at Bagram. Why does a humanitarian organisation like the International Committee of the Red Cross press the authorities to allow visits?

> Talk about different technologies for keeping in touch when personal contact isn't possible. Do students use instant messaging or send photographs? Would they use a video phone – or prefer not to? If students went abroad for a while, how would they keep in touch with people back home? Is seeing someone on screen better than just texting? Talk about the limitations of technologies. What type of contact is it good for, and what not so good?

Disagreement over whether women should be permitted to wear headscarves in universities has become a major political and legal dispute in Turkey. Turkey's ruling AK party introduced a law which would have made it legal to wear the headscarf in schools and universities. Judges in the constitutional court have now decided that the law infringed the principles of the secular state.

For many years wearing such a symbol of political Islam was seen as a breach of the non-religious or secular basis on which modern Turkey was founded. Demonstrations have been held both in support and against the wearing of headscarves.

Discussion ideas

> Some people argue that choosing to wear a headscarf is a right. Do students see it this way – as a matter of personal expression? Others foresee it will become a requirement, leading to discrimination against those who do not comply. How do students think such matters should be settled? Talk about the reasons for the powerful feelings that are present on each side.

> Although disputes about what clothing students wear can seem minor, the stakes are very high. Some people believe that the army might act to protect Turkey's secular state. The governing party may itself be ruled illegal and its leaders forbidden from political activity. Discuss the importance of seeing the root causes of any dispute. Do students remember the case of Shabina Begum, the Luton school student who took legal action for the right to wear jilbab in schools, finally losing her case in the highest UK court, the House of Lords? Invite students to identify similarities and differences between her case and the Turkish situation.

Three British divers were rescued after drifting without a boat in tropical Indonesian seas. The three, along with two other divers, were separated from their support boat by powerful underwater currents. They were stranded for two days on a remote island around 20 miles from the dive site after clinging to a floating log for more than 12 hours.

Last month two divers were rescued in similar circumstances after losing touch with their boat while diving off the coast of Queensland, Australia on the Great Barrier Reef. The rescue operation