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Showing posts from July, 2011

Exactly what will happen when Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks face the culture, media and sport select committee is anyone's guess.

elderly American–Australian billionaire and his 38-year-old son will be transported to the Houses of Parliament, along with a 43-year-old woman from Warrington, long used to the company of the rich and powerful, but freshly departed from her high-powered job and just released from a central-London police station. There, they will face a committee of MPs, from a wide array of backgrounds – among them, a trade unionist's son from Kidderminster; a privately educated chick-lit novelist who has recently married the manager of Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers; and a woman who was once the finance director for the company that makes Mars bars. Exactly what will happen when Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks face the culture, media and sport select committee is anyone's guess. Tom Watson – the Kidderminster-raised Labour MP whose dogged pursuit of News International forms one of the key threads of how the hacking scandal has played out – warned the Guardian against

The Duchess of Cambridge has received warnings that she must not be too showbiz like Princess Diana, as that might incur the wrath of the older Royals

. Diana's former bodyguard Ken Wharfe cautioned the Duchess that her greatest danger would be to keep hogging the limelight and putting older royals in the shade. Earlier reports claimed that Prince Charles, 62, was enraged at Kate and William's celebrity-like attitude during their Canada tour. The Royal family were green with jealousy over Diana's phenomenal popularity, the Daily star quoted Wharfe as saying. She made them look out-dated and they pushed her out because she got all the attention. The greatest risk to Kate's future is that the royals will do the same to her. To put it bluntly, Kate's beautiful and young, they aren't. The Queen is 85, Camilla looks older than that and Prince Charles isn't popular. Instead of getting angry they should be embracing Kate as an ambassador. I hope the rest of the out-dated royals can swallow their pride and let her become this generation's People's Princess, he added.

Companies rush to avoid .xxx embarrassment

According to ICM registry, the firm selling the new addresses, it has received 900,000 expressions of interest. As a result the firm has extended the “sunrise period” to allow brands to buy .xxx addresses containing their trademarks before they go on general sale. As well as pornographers, ICM Registry says companies that do not want to be associated with what has been dubbed the “internet’s red light district” should also buy up addresses. They will be charged $200 to $300 during the sunrise period to avoid so-called “cybersquatters” hijacking their brand. Stuart Lawley, chief executive of ICM Registry, said the firm was trying to follow “best practice” by allowing business to head off potential embarrassment. “We are advising businesses to either opt-in or opt-out and want to give them the best opportunity to do so at the launch of our new [top-level domain],” he said.