My tears will never dry', says Amy's ex

AMY Winehouse's jailed ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil collapsed in his cell after prison officials informed him of his ex-wife's passing.

The 29-year-old former junkie who is serving time for burglary and a firearm offence pledged his eternal love for the star.

"I'm beyond inconsolable ... " Fielder-Civil told The Sun.

"My tears won't dry."

"I will never ever again feel the love I felt for her".

‘Let My Little Girls Die,’ Pleads Father of 15-year-old Conjoined Twins

An Indian father whose 15-year-old conjoined twin daughters are living in increasing agony has pleaded for help – or for them to be allowed to die.

Saba and Farah Shakeel are joined at the skull and have been suffering terrible headaches, joint pain and slurred speech as they grow older.

The girls have received specialist help in the past, thanks to the intervention of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, but their father, Mohammed, who works in a tea stall in Patna, cannot afford any more treatment. His wage of just £65 a month is used up supporting his family of eight.

Mr. Shakeel describes his daughters’ condition as so miserable that the Indian government should allow doctors to carry out a mercy killing.

Five years ago Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed paid for the girls to visit some of the foremost conjoined twin specialists, including American Benjamin Carson, to investigate ways of separating them.

At that time, the girls were in much better spirits and health. They could only move in a crab-like fashion, but enjoyed playing board games and watching Bollywood films.

Mr. Carson’s team discovered that the girls share a crucial blood vessel in the brain and have only two kidneys, both in Farah’s body.

Mr. Shakeel was told that the girls would require up to six operations to separate them, each carrying a one in five chance that one of them would not survive.

He decided not to take the risk, despite the Crown Prince’s offer to pay.

Five years later, the girls’ condition is so much worse that Mr. Shakeel has come to the heart-breaking conclusion that their suffering should come to an end, unless someone can fund treatment.

The dependency on Farah’s kidneys is causing them to suffer weight loss and high blood pressure.

He told The Daily Telegraph: ‘The girls want to live and enjoy life as others do but when they are in pain, they cry and ask for help.

‘All we want is either the government should come and help us treat them or allow them to die, because they are in a miserable condition.’

The twins’ elder brother, Tamana Ahmad Malik, said the pair were in excruciating pain all the time they are awake, which is at least 15 hours a day.

‘In the last few months, they’ve suffered continuous headache and body pain. They have difficulty in speaking and their limbs have become twisted,’ he said.

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'I got my dreams crushed again'

Teen who fell to her death blogged about 'lousy' A-level results.

LIKE many other 18-year-olds, she went to school on March 4 this year feeling panicky and light-headed.

After two years of memorising facts and formula it was the day when her A-level results would be released.

Krystal Aki Mizoguchi, a half-Japanese, half-Chinese Singaporean student at Yishun Junior College, had one fervent wish - to make it to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore or the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Nanyang Technological University.


But when the anxious girl received her A-level results from her teacher, her world came crashing down.

Read also:
» Many teens depressed about grades

With her grades, she could apply only to private universities but the option "had never crossed (her) mind", she wrote in her blog.


Two months later, on May 14 at around 7.40pm, she fell to her death from her ninth-storey flat at Ang Mo Kio Street 53.


Could the tragedy have been prevented?


Teachers here are trained to spot students at risk, said the Ministry of Education.


A teacher from a secondary school in central Singapore said: "Regular sessions are held with students and this is when teachers can identify any problems.


"We would raise the matter with someone at a higher level and refer the student to a trained counsellor if needed."

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'So real'

In her last blog entry on March 5, Krystal wrote: "I got my dreams crushed again after seeing my grades yesterday. "I already predicted my grades but it felt so real when I saw the statement of results."


Psychologist Daniel Koh from Insights Mind Centre said teens have it worse now. They face more stress which can come from studies, peers and even social norms.


He said: "Previously, a teen is happy with just a pass. But now, just passing is not good enough. They need to be the best.


"When they cannot manage, the stress level goes up. And it becomes a vicious circle.


"They feel hopeless and helpless to do anything and this spirals into a bigger problem."


Socially too, teens have to cope with a lot of expectations such as having to be seen as fashionable and sociable.


An introverted teen would find it hard to fit in, he added.


In other blog entries, Krystal revealed that she was afraid of disappointing those around her.


She wrote on Nov 7 last year: "Everyone's been expecting me to perform well. I'd feel so bad letting so many people down if I got lousy grades.


"The possibility of failure makes it all the more foreboding.


"It would take a miracle for me to get decent enough grades for the big universities in Singapore. Why are my fellow peers such over-achievers?"



Krystal's parents divorced when she was very young, leaving her and her younger brother in their mother's care. The teenager's father, who is Japanese, works in Singapore. Her parents declined to be interviewed.


In her blog posts, Krystal seemed envious of her boyfriend's family.

"They are some of the nicest, sweetest, most wonderful, fantastic, awesome people I know," she wrote in a blog entry on Dec 8 last year.


Her boyfriend had also studied at Yishun Junior College. When his family took her to a hair salon last December, Krystal was "bursting with bliss".


"Because (his entire family) gets their hair cut at the same salon, they booked me an appointment at the very same salon.


"I felt so happy and pampered.


"I was rambling on to my boyfriend about how happy I was and that nothing could ruin my day," she wrote.

MOE: Schools have system in place

SCHOOLS here have a tiered-referral system to help identify students in need of early support, said the Ministry of Education (MOE).

A spokesman said that schools will work with the families of these students to extend help to them.


The tiered-referral system works by having teachers as its first tier.


The teachers are "trained to identify students who show signs that they are troubled and provide the necessary basic support".


The basic support includes "referring students to the second tier of support formed by the school counsellors". Every school has at least one trained full-time school counsellor, the spokesman said.

Complex cases

She said: "Complex cases are referred to the third tier of support, which can involve guidance specialists from MOE, mental health professionals at the Child Guidance Clinic (CGC) or the relevant social service agencies."


In cases of suicidal students, the causes are usually many and may include psychological issues, relationship problems with family and peers and study-related problems, she added.


To build resilience and promote mental well-being, MOE has been working closely with the Health Promotion Board and the CGC to implement this comprehensive approach:

• Build protective factors in students
• Identify at-risk students for early support
• Refer students with more complex issues for appropriate medical and/or psychiatric intervention

The spokesman said that schools help students build protective factors by helping them "acquire a set of social and emotional competencies".


With this, they would be able to "understand themselves better, interact effectively with others and cope with life's challenges", she said.

The learning of social and emotional competencies are infused in curricular and non-curricular programmes such as language lessons, outdoor education and co-curricular activities, she added.


In schools abroad, such as in Australia or the US, teachers and students are educated on the signs and symptoms of at-risk students.


In more extreme cases, some schools in the US carry out regular suicide screenings.


Questionnaires are given out and students are categorised into varying levels of risk according to their responses.


Those with elevated or significant risk are referred to school psychologists or counsellors.

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