Troll in Ireland Uncovered Featured
A blog post about a man’s online ordeal has gone viral. Leo Traynor, from Ireland, tells off how his twitter and Facebook accounts were trolled and how he eventually came face to face with the troll himself – a friend of his’ 17 year old son. He’d been on Twitter for 2 years already when all of a sudden he noticed an anti-Semitic post directed at his account. He blocked the tweet as spam, but then slowly, tides of continuing aggro tweets started to grow into full-on waves, despite Traynor’s attempts to stem the flow by making his account private.
A decision is set to be made shortly over who should replace Dr Rowan Williams as the Archbishop of Canterbury when retires from the post in December. The process of choosing his relationship began in March but now the Crown Nominations Commission will today begin a three day meeting to select their nomination to the PM for the position, which will almost certainly be approved. Dr Williams, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, is due to become the Master of Magdalene College Cambridge once he his tenure is concluded.
The Liberal Democrats are holding their yearly conference in Brighton, with the strategy of promoting a sense of discipline in the midst of poor opinion poll ratings. The theme of the event is "fairer tax in tough times". Under the plans, individuals with assets more than £1m will face a stricter review from inspectors to guarantee they are paying enough tax.
The Liberal Democrat energy secretary Ed Davey warned that because of an anti-green movement that is spreading through the Tory party, Britain could lose tens of billions of pounds of investment in low-carbon, job-creating energy infrastructure projects.
John Terry, former England captain, has announced his retirement from international football. The Chelsea captain, 31, is facing a Football Association disciplinary hearing over allegations of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. The centre back, who has won 78 caps, was cleared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in July of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League Game.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the Singapore GP after Lewis Hamilton's McLaren retired.
The case of the missing teenager Megan Stammers is still ongoing with friends being interviewed by detectives over a potential destination that she may have been planning to go to. The 15 year old was reported missing after failing to arrive at Bishop Bell Church of England School on Friday in East Sussex. She left the country to Francewith her 30 year old maths teacher, Jeremy Forrest.
Chief Inspector Jason Tingley has been quoted as saying that her friends "may be aware of where they were likely to go to so I would also ask them to come forward, and don't be scared, and don't feel you're in trouble if you've not disclosed any of that information so far".
Queen speaks out about Abu Hamza Featured
The Queen has voiced her concerns about the failure of governments past to arrest Abu Hamza al-Masri. This news comes on the same week that the European Court of Human Rights confirmed a ruling that could allow for the Hamza to be extradited to the USA following eight years of legal tussling. The Queen very rarely speaks on such matters and campaign group Republic has accused the BBC of placing her opinions on the side of the general public.
On Monday the European court’s highest judges made the ruling and did not refer the particular cases of Abu Hamza and four other terrorism suspects to the European Court’s Grand Chambers. This was the last opportunity for appeal available to the men in their resistance to possible extradition. The men are seeking to avoid what they perceive to be the inhumane treatment that they would receive in the US. Britain supports US authorities in their attempts to arrange the transfer for the men to face terrorism charges. Hamza in particular is wanted over allegations that he tried to set up a terrorist training camp in the US and also allegations that he was involved in the kidnapping of Western hostages in Yemen. He could face life imprisonment if found guilty.
British actor Damian Lewis, in a drama for his performance in the Homeland series, won an Emmy award for the best actor category. He portrayed an American soldier suspected of becoming an al-Qaeda agent when he returned home from years of captivity in Iraq. Lewis who commented that “I don’t really believe in judging art, but I thought I’d show up just in case”.
Dame Maggie Smith in her portrayal of Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in the drama series Downton Abbey, won the best supporting actress award. Last week, Downton took home two other awards at the Emmy crafts awards. This series created by Julian Fellowes had been nominated for 16 times, the most a British drama has received at Emmys.
Homeland, Game Change, US comedy Modern Family and HBO’s story of Sarah Palin’s entry in the US vice presidential race picked up four awards each, including Game Change’s Julienne Moore as outstanding lead actress, her first Emmy award, and Jay Roach as best director for mini-series or movies.
Universal Music, a unit of French media giant Vivendi’s impending take-over of UK music firm EMI, with a history dating back 1897 and home to artists including The Beatles and Pink Floyd, was approved by the US Federal Trade Commission without imposition of any conditions on the deal.
The $1.9bn take-over of EMI was announced on November 2011. However, the European Commission imposed the following conditions, viz: