James Murdoch gets vital elevation

report made on 7 Dec 2007

Rupert Murdoch's global media empire now has its crown prince.

34-year-old James Murdoch, younger son of the media tycoon, has been named chairman and chief executive of News Corporation in Europe and Asia.

This move appears to mark him out as the obvious heir apparent of his mogul father.

Murdoch junior will step down from his current role as BSkyB chief executive, and replace his father as the UK satellite broadcaster's non-executive chairman.

Rupert Murdoch described his son as a "talented and proven executive". He said his son has a rare blend of international perspective and deep, hands-on experience in improving operational results.

In his new post, James Murdoch will also run News Corp's Wall Street Journal Europe, the British newspapers The Times and The Sun, as well as pay-TV firms Sky Italia and Star TV.

Rupert Murdoch, arguabaly the world's most powerful businessman, has recently instigated a series of moves to shake up his family-controlled media groups.

However, James Murdoch's elevation to the chairmanship has caused controversy in the UK. It's understood that British investment institutions dislike chief executives becoming chairman of their respective companies.

Cameron holds talk with Bush

report made on 30 Nov 2007

A long-lasting feud between the Conservative Party and the US government seems to have come to an end. David Cameron held a private meeting with George Bush today in the White House.

It is the first time in five years that a leader of the Conservative Party has met the US President, or even set foot in Washington.

A feud erupted between the Tories and the White House three years ago when Michael Howard irritated President Bush after he called for Tony Blair to resign over Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Bush and Mr Cameron discussed areas including Iran, Afghanistan, free trade and climate change, which were described as "issues that Britain and America really need to work together on" by the Tory leader.

The length of the meeting turned out to be somewhat mysterious. Despite the Tories repeatedly insisted that the discussion had been "just under 30 minutes", a senior American source declared that it had been "more like 15 to 20 minutes".

David Cameron took advantage of his current trip to boost his credentials as an international statesman.

In a speech afterwards, Mr Cameron called for a stronger military presence in the Balkans to prevent future trouble.

He also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being "less than helpful" by backing Serbia, who is firmly opposed to independence of Kosovo.

Emails on benefit record loss revealed

report made on 22 Nov 2007

New evidence suggests that HM Revenue & Customs officials might be concerned more about saving money rather than protecting data, as emails between National Audit Office and HM Revenue & Customs about data transmission have been released.

In one of the emails, an NAO officer asked HMRC to deliver only desensitized data records "as safely as possible". But the reply from HMRC appears to suggest that stripping sensitive data from the files costs too much.

In House of Commons, Chancellor Alistar Darling said the loss of 25 million records of personal data had been caused by an HMRC junior officer who breached the data transmitting procedure.

But the Conservatives claimed that government had failed to protect the public. And the crisis is down to, what they call, high level "systemic failures" in HMRC.

Now, people are seriously concerned about potential data fraud. The government declares that the information was password protected, and there was no evidence that it had been illegally used.

But the real issue is that how government should protect personal information. Significant improvement of the security system in data transmission is certainly needed.

McLaren wait for FIA decision

report made on 15 Nov 2007

McLaren urges Formula One governing body, the FIA, to stand by their appeal against the Brazilian Grand Prix result, as the tangle of champion title goes on.

McLaren objected to Williams and BMW not being penalized for using fuel that was too cool in the season finale.

If the FIA upholds the appeal, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton could mathematically take the title away from Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

But it is widely expected that the FIA will not change the race classification even if it decides to punish Williams and BMW.

And Lewis Hamilton has already said that he does not want to win the championship in such dramatic fashion.

Lib Dems holds leadership husting in Harrow

Liberal Democrats leadership candidates Nick Clegg and Chris Hunhe took part in a webcast hustings in Harrow Campus, University of Westminster.

During the 50 minute hustings, each candidate had a 2 minute individual speech before answering questions selected from those emailed in by party members.

The debate contained four sections, respectively about Foreign, Green and Home Affairs, Pubic Services, Personal Values, and Party Management.

As a member of the crew from the University's School of Media, Arts and Design, I'm quite excited to have such a great opportunity to put my skills into practice, while getting involved with local political affairs.

From my point of view, Mr Huhne took most out of the hustings, expressed himself well and seemed to have maturer policies than Mr Clegg. But one thing is in common. They both said that they want to break the current two-party system.

Ballot papers for the leadership election have already been sent to the party's 70,000 members, and the result is due to be announced on December 17.

No matter who wins the election, he will surely face a difficult job to guide the Liberal Democrats to their promised land.

Chinese film festival

The first "Filming East" Chinese independent film festival opens in Oxford.

Speaking of Chinese films, westerners will surely come across names like "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", "Curse of Golden Flower", and newly premiered "Lust, Caution", as well as the celebrity directors such as Ang Li and Zhang Yimou.

But in the "Filming East" festival, UK audience have a chance to find out the real life in China by watching films made by some unknown Chinese film makers.

The attendance of Mr John Tanner, the Lord Mayor of Oxford, gives the seven-day showcase a high-profile opening ceremony in a local cinema.(WATCH THE VIDEO)

The festival will be followed by screening tours across China and UK early next year in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games.

England crashed out of Euro 2008

England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 after a sorrowful 3-2 defeat to Croatia at Wembley.

Stunned. Devastated. Humilated. As an England supporter, you can probably use all the negative words you know to describe your feeling of England's astonishing defeat to Croatia at Wembley.

Outplayed, outclassed and even outfought. Though England once came back from two goals down, courtesy of a soft penalty, they deserved nothing from the game. The absence of all four regular defenders and both main strikers might be a big loss, but never an excuse.

Disastrous performance

Steve McClaren seriously underestimated the ability and determination of this Croatian team. It's definitely not a good idea to giving a young keeper his competitive debut in such an important game.

It was Scott Carson's horrible mistake that put England in trouble, but the performance of his teammates weren't much better either. Usually there may be one or two players having a bad game, but unfortunately for England, only Peter Crouch was on normal service.

England should've never dragged themselves into this make-or-break situation. A month ago, I was at Wembley Park before England v. Estonia match(WATCH THE VIDEO). After two convincing victories, England supporters were in completely different mood. They certainly didn't expect that England would end the qualifiers with two successive defeats.

Time for a change

Last week, former England and Manchester United full-back Paul Parker declared that it would be better if England do not qualify for Euro 2008. He'd rather see a failure as the wake-up call to English football, so that young local players can get more opportunities to come through the rank.

England's next major tournament, World Cup 2010 qualifying draw set to take place on Friday. Now, it's time for a change.