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**I learned some history today I didna know. It's quite fascinating. Belfast Telegraph Wednesday, 19 August 2009 He should have been hailed a hero for his wartime codebreaking. Instead he was prosecuted for his homosexuality and took his own life. So why has Britain never said sorry? Jonathan Brown reports  He may have played a pivotal role in securing victory in the Second World War for his country six years earlier, but few outside the academic community would have recognised Alan Turing as he made his way down Manchester's Oxford Street shortly before Christmas in 1951. Someone who did notice the athletically-built scientist, however, was a young working class gay man called Arnold Murray.Alan Turing helped crack German Enigma codes during the Second World War Homosexuality was still illegal under the same repressive laws which had sent Oscar Wilde to jail half a century earlier. But regardless of the risk, the chance encounter was to develop into something more substantial and Murray spent a number of nights at the older man's modest home in suburban Wilmslow. A month later, after Turing, a veteran of the then still secret Bletchley Park code-cracking team, had been giving a talk to the BBC on his pioneering work on artificial intelligence, he returned home to find his house burgled. The culprit was an acquaintance of Murray's, who would prey on Murray's lovers, thinking they would be so afraid of being outed that they would not report the thefts to the police. But Turing defied this convention and went straight to the police, where he admitted his affair – a "crime" for which he was spared the normal two-year jail term in favour of a hormonal treatment designed to beef up his masculine urges and suppress his homosexuality. The resulting publicity was to prove too much to bear and in June 1954, the 41-year-old was found dead in bed by his housekeeper. He had eaten an apple he had laced with poison. ( >>Read on ) | ||||||||||
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By Jason Kessler CNN 18 August 09 **Gotta NOT love Google on this one... NEW YORK (CNN) -- A model who was slammed with derogatory terms by an anonymous blogger has the right to learn the identity of her online heckler, a judge ruled.  In August 2008, a user of Blogger.com, Google's blogging service, created "Skanks in NYC," a site that assailed Liskula Cohen, 37, a Canadian-born onetime cover girl who has appeared in Vogue and other fashion magazines. The blog featured photos of Cohen captioned with terms including "psychotic," "ho," and "skank."On Monday, New York Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ruled that Google must hand over to Cohen any identifying information it possesses about the blog's creator. Steven Wagner, Cohen's attorney, said Google complied with the ruling Tuesday evening, submitting to his legal team the creator's IP address and e-mail address. Only a valid e-mail address is required to register for a blog on Blogger.com. ( >>Continued ) | ||||||||||
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BBC 19 August 2009 The case of a Northern Ireland dog on death row for being a banned breed is to go to the Court of Appeal.  Bruce, a Staffordshire-bull terrier cross, was seized by North Down Borough Council dog control officers in 2007.It was ruled to be a banned pit-bull type and a magistrate has ordered its destruction, but owner Shannon Brown is appealing the ruling. "He has never harmed anyone or ever would, if he did I would have put my hand up to it," she said. Shannon Brown said the Bruce does not pose a threat to people An online petition calling for the dog, found as a puppy in Bangor, County Down, by Ms Brown, had received nearly 16,000 signatures. She is getting legal aid to fight the case, which has cost the local council about £17,000. The council said it was acting to meet its "statutory responsibilities" under the Dangerous Dogs (NI) Order 1991. ( >>Continued ) | ||||||||||
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