Facebook criticised for new privacy changes

Facebook has caused controversy by introducing new privacy settings which critics say could increase the amount of information people expose online.

The social-networking site launched the changes yesterday, sparking a wave of criticism from civil liberties campaigners, digital rights groups and bloggers.

Users logging onto Facebook since yesterday would have immediately seen a pop-up asking whether they would like to update their privacy settings. The site said it hopes the changes would help users to manage their Facebook account, and what others could see, rather than revealing too much private information.

The Electric Frontier Foundation's Kevin Bankston said: 'The new changes are intended to simplify Facebook's notoriously complex privacy settings and, in the words of today's privacy announcement to all Facebook users, 'give you more control of your information.'

'These new 'privacy' changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.

'Not to say that many of the changes aren't good for privacy. But other changes are bad, while a few are just plain ugly.'

Facebook began testing the settings a few months ago. The changes let people decide who should see updates, whether all 350 million Facebook members should see them, and if they should be viewable across the web.

Barry Schnitt, a Facebook spokesman, said: 'Any suggestion that we're trying to trick them (users) into something would work against any goal that we have.'

But blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick said: 'This is not what Facebook users signed up for. It's not about privacy at all, it's about increasing traffic and the visibility of activity on the site.

'Information like your email address is recommended to remain limited to friends, but make no mistake about it - Facebook wants you to make the status messages you post visible to the entire internet.'

Wayne Rooney becomes father to baby boy

England footballer Wayne Rooney has become a father after his wife Colleen gave birth to a baby boy.

According to the couple's spokesman, Kai Wayne Rooney was born at 14:20 GMT at Liverpool Women's Hospital on Monday.

'Mother and baby are both absolutely fine,' the spokesman was quoted by the Press Association news agency as saying.

'Wayne and Coleen are thrilled with the wonderful addition to their family life.'

After his wife was admitted to hospital, Rooney, 23, missed Manchester United training on Monday ahead of the Old Trafford side's Champions League clash with CSKA Moscow and is a near certainty to miss the game itself.

Herta Müller wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Herta Müller has won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature, it has been announced.

The German author, born in 1953 in Nitzkydorf in Romania, was announced as the recipient of the prestigious accolade on Thursday and is only the 12th woman to win the Nobel.

The Swedish Academy, which has picked Nobel winners since 1901, said that Müller 'with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed'.

She will receive a prize of ten million Swedish kronor (£891,971) on December 10th in Stockholm.

Müller is renowned for her depictions of the harsh conditions of life under Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

'The most overwhelming experience for me was living under the dictatorial regime in Romania. And simply living in Germany, hundreds of kilometres away, does not erase my past experience,' she has said.

'I packed up my past when I left, and remember that dictatorships are still a current tropic in Germany.'

Married to novelist Richard Wagner, she is also a winner of the Berlin Literature Prize and German's most prestigious literary award, the Kleist prize..

Last year's Nobel Prize for Literature was won by French author Jean-Marie Gustave le Clezio, while previous recipients include Doris Lessing, Harold Pinter, Seamus Heaney and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Mantel: Being favourite didn't guarantee win

Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel has stressed her status as the bookmakers' favourite did not mean she felt confident of claiming the prize.

Her novel Wolf Hall was picked as the award winner from a shortlist of six, including Summertime by two-time winner JM Coetzee, The Little Stranger by twice-nominated Sarah Waters and The Children's Book by former judge AS Byatt.

Mantel became the first outright favourite to win the prize since Yann Martel claimed the award in 2002 for Life of Pi.

But after receiving a £50,000 cheque at a Tuesday ceremony at London's Guildhall, Mantel remained unassuming about proving the bookmakers' odds right.

'Having been a Booker judge [in 1990], I know that absolutely anything can happen in that final meeting. I don't think anyone can appreciate how tense it can be for the judges,' she said in a press conference after her triumph.

'I just know to take nothing for granted. I never for a moment thought being favourite would weigh with the judges - in fact, I thought it might work in the opposite way and they might get fed up with being told what to do!'

During her acceptance speech, Mantel confirmed she had warned her publishers Fourth Estate about the length of the time the book would take to write and she later explained she had conceived of the novel around 30 years ago.

'It is true that I first thought of the book in the 1970s. You might have an idea for a book, it doesn't mean you're ready to write it,' she said.

'It has to grow, you have to grow up - I couldn't back then have written a book about a seasoned, hardened political campaigner in his 50s.

'Now I'm a seasoned, hardened literary campaigner in my 50s, I can do it!'

As well as a cheque for £50,000 and the receipt of a year's membership for the Groucho Club in London, the 57-year-old can expect a sales boom and an increased recognition across the globe.

She joked she would spend the prize money on 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' but added: 'It buys time, which is what an author wants.'

Mantel's win represents the first time publishers Fourth Estate have had a Man Booker Prize winner, having previously released three shortlisted novels in the shape of Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries (1993) and Unless (2002) and Nicola Barker's Darkmans (2007).

Mantel confirmed she is in the process of writing The Mirror and the Light, the sequel to Wolf Hall, which begins on the evening of Thomas More's execution and will follow the continued rise of Thomas Cromwell until his 'abrupt fall from grace and execution'.

Hilary Mantel wins 2009 Man Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel has been announced as the winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her book Wolf Hall.

She was awarded the prize at a dinner at London's Guildhall and as well as receiving a cheque for £50,000 and designer bound edition of her own book, can also anticipate greatly increased sales and prestige.

Mantel had been the bookmakers' favourite to win the prize, with William Hill reporting prior to the Tuesday evening event that some 90 per cent of wagers placed on the 2009 ceremony had been in her favour.

Set in the 1520s, Mantel's novel is published by Fourth Estate (Harper Collins) and tells of the rise of Thomas Cromwell to power within the Tudor Court.

It took 57-year-old Mantel five years to write the novel and after receiving the prize, she joked she had warned her agent and publisher the book would take a long time to be finished.

After thanking her family and the judges, she added: 'Peter Carey once said winning the Booker Prize was like being in a train crash.

'If that is so, I am happily flying through the air!'

The ceremony's judging panel was chaired by the Today Programme's James Naughtie, with author Lucasta Miller, English professor John Mullan, comedienne Sue Perkins and literary journalist Michael Prodger also serving on the panel for the 2009 event.

Naughtie said the judges' decision to award the prize had come after a 'long and passionate argument'.

The winning book was praised for its 'ambition, boldness and... beautiful prose'.

Chair of judges Naughtie added: 'Hilary Mantel has given us a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century. Wolf Hall has a vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerising detail.'

He went on: 'It probes the mysteries of power by examining and describing the meticulous detailings in Henry VIII's court, revealing in thrilling prose how politics and history is made by men and women.

'In the words of Mantel's Cromwell, whose story this is, 'the fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes.''

Shortlisted author JM Coetzee had previously won the award in 1983 (for Life & Times of Michael K) and in 1999 for Disgrace, while Adam Foulds was the youngest nominee on the list at 34, and Sarah Waters had been shortlisted twice previously.

Simon Mawer was also shortlisted, for his eighth novel The Glass Room, while nominees AS Byatt and Mantel have both served as judges of the Man Booker Prize.

Kerry Katona cautioned for drug possession

Kerry Katona has been cautioned for possession of a controlled substance, believed to be cocaine.

The reality TV star was filmed by a Sunday newspaper snorting what looked to be cocaine, and police have since interviewed her over the offence, reports say.

A Cheshire police spokeswoman confirmed a woman, 28, had been cautioned today.

Katona, who lives with her husband Mark Croft and her four children in Wilmslow, told the Sunday Mirror she was 'ashamed' of her actions. She added: 'I have let my children down.'

The 28-year-old first shot to fame in the UK as a member of girl-band Atomic Kitten, then marrying Brian McFadden, with whom she has two daughters. When she won the third series of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, she received a small fame revival.

Grotesque film banned by censors

A Japanese film called Grotesque will not be shown in the UK, a board of censors has ruled.

The Grotesque DVD, according to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), was ruled 'unacceptable for the public'.

It is very rare for a film not to be given classification by the BBFC, which usually gives an 18 certificate to films of such violence. However, Grotesque disturbed the board so much, it made it illegal for it to be sold or supplied in the UK.

The BBFC said the film has running themes of sexual assault, humiliation and extreme torture. It added there were moments of extreme gore, including eye gouging, amputation and castration.

David Cooke, director of the BBFC said: 'Unlike other recent 'torture' themed horror works, such as the Saw and Hostel series, Grotesque features minimal narrative or character development and presents the audience with little more than an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism.

'The chief pleasure on offer seems to be in the spectacle of sadism (including sexual sadism) for its own sake.

'It is the board's carefully considered view that to issue a certificate to Grotesque, even if statutorily confined to adults, would involve risk of harm within the terms of the Video Recordings Act, would be inconsistent with the board's guidelines, and would be unacceptable to the public. The BBFC has a strict policy on sexual violence. With portrayals of sexual violence which might eroticise or endorse sexual assault the board may require cuts at any classification level.'

However, under the terms of the Video Recordings Act distributors can appeal the decision.

Mr Cooke added: 'Rejecting a work outright is a serious matter and the board considered whether the issue could be dealt with through cuts. However, given the unacceptable content featured throughout cutting the work is not a viable option in this case and the work is therefore refused a classification.'

A spokesperson for 4Digital Asia responded to the decision, saying: 'We knew that the BBFC was debating the content of the film quite intensely but we had expected to receive from the BBFC a list of recommended cuts enabling the film to be passed with an 18 certificate. We are now considering whether or not to appeal against the board’s decision.'

Twitter study reveals 'pointless babble'

A study of the micro-blogging site Twitter has found 40 per cent of the messages sent are 'pointless babble'.

Pear Analytics, who undertook the research, found 40 per cent of people used Twitter for 'pointless babble', nearly 38 per cent used it for 'conversational' tweets, and only 8.7 per cent of tweets were for 'Pass-Along Value'.

The study, which looked into why people used the site, found people were more likely to re-Tweet at 11:30am, particularly on Mondays. Self-promotion and spam made up 5.85 per cent and 3.75 per cent of Tweets.

The study concluded that: 'With the new face of Twitter, it will be interesting to see if they take a heavier role in news, or continue to be a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else. We will be conducting this same study every quarter to identify other trends in usage.'

Ryan Kelly, founder of Pear Analytics, said on his blog: 'Some felt it was their source of news and articles, others felt it was just a bunch of self-promotion with very few folks actually paying attention. But mostly, many people still perceive Twitter as just mindless babble of people telling you what they are doing minute-by-minute; as if you care they are eating a sandwich at the moment.'

The study, conducted in America, also discovered conversational tweets were high between 14:00 and 16:00 in the afternoon, and heaviest on Tuesdays.

Researchers concluded: 'Most people are busy on Monday catching up with work, so perhaps it takes until Tuesday to get into the swing of Twittering again'.