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Oxford University

Malala Yousafzai has been offered a place at Oxford University after she achieved outstanding results in her A-levels.

The 20-year-old took to Twitter to share a screenshot of her offer, adding she was “so excited to go to Oxford.”

She will study Philosophy, Politics and Economics, or PPE, the same course completed by former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, and former British Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Earlier this year, she revealed she had received offers from three UK universities (conditional of achieving three As at A-Level), but she did not say which institutions.

Following the announcement, Malala was inundated with messages of congratulations, including some from a few very familiar faces. 

In 2012, Malala made headlines worldwide after she was shot in the head on her way home from school for writing an anonymous diary about life under Taliban rule in north-west Pakistan.

Following the incident, Malala's family relocated to Birmingham, England, where she went on to study at Edgbaston High School.

Since then, the activist for female education became the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and was made UN Messenger of Peace.

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For anyone who likes to stay in bed as long as they can in the morning, then this is definitely for you. 

According to research from Oxford University, your body apparently doesn't function before 10am and it's biologically unnatural to wake up before then.

Speaking to The National Post, Dr Paul Kelley, who conducted the research, said that getting up earlier than 10am also creates illness, stress and exhaustion in employees.

"Before the age of 55, the circadian rhythms of adults are completely out of sync with normal nine-to-five working hours, posing a serious threat to performance, mood and mental health."

Dr Kelley also added that forcing staff to work before 10am is the equivalent to some forms of torture (we suppose, when our 7am alarm goes off it really does feel like torture). 

"Staff are usually sleep deprived. We've got a sleep deprived society. It is hugely damaging on the body's system because you are affecting physical, emotional and performance systems in the body."

"Your liver and your heart have different patterns and you’re asking them to shift two or three hours. Everybody is suffering and they don’t have to.”

Dr Kelley suggested if we look at the connections between the human body, Earth, and the light from the sun's natural rhythms, it isn't really possible to change it's 24-hour cycle. 

Later starting times should effect every part of society, especially hospitals and prisons. In these cases, people are usually woken up and given food they do not want because it's too early.

He also believes that work and school times need to change, which would mean having to finish later than usual. 

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Over the past ten years alone, the Pill has helped to prevent an incredible 200,000 cases of womb cancer.

And in the 50 years since oral contraceptives were first introduced, a total of 400,000 incidents of the same cancer have been avoided.

That's according to Oxford University researchers – who also found that for every five years that a woman takes the oral contraceptive, the risk of developing endometrial cancer decreases by 25 percent.

And in females who have taken the Pill for ten years, rates of womb cancer diagnosis in under-75s also fall from 2.3 per 100 to just 1.3.

Previous research has shown that the Pill furthermore protects against ovarian cancer.

Incredibly, the Oxford study concluded that the protective effects of the Pill, which includes a dose of oestrogen, last for decades after someone stops taking the contraceptive – with women in their 20s continuing to benefit when they are in their 50s.

Professor Valerie Beral explained: "People used to worry that the Pill might cause cancer, but in the long-term, the Pill reduces the risk of getting cancer."

However, women are still being advised to weigh up the risks – especially if they have a family history of breast cancer – as some research suggests it can slightly increase the risk of this particular disease.

The Pill was first introduced in the US in May 1960, although back than it was licensed only for menstrual disorders.

In 1966, contraception became legal in the States for married women, and by the 1970s it was in wide usage. At the same time in Ireland, imports and sales of contraceptives had been expressly banned since 1935.

In 1971, the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement published a booklet called Chains Or Change, which called for equal pay, an end to the marriage bar, equal rights in law, justice for widows, deserted wives and unmarried mothers, equal educational opportunities and contraception.

They famously travelled from Dublin to Belfast and back on the ‘contraceptive train’, returning gleefully waving various birth control devices, then legal in Northern Ireland, at custom officials.

By 1978, the Irish Family Planning Act allowed the provision of contraceptives under prescription, and finally in 1985, condoms and spermicides could be sold without a doctor's approval. 

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