Independent Regulatory Commission reach verdict. An independent Regulatory Commission has today [Wednesday 23 May 2012] dealt with two charges of violent conduct against Joey Barton, arising from the game against Manchester City, resulting in an eight-match suspension and £75,000 fine for the Queens Park Rangers midfielder. This eight-match suspension is to run consecutively to the four-game suspension Barton was already given for his dismissal in the fixture, making a total of 12 matches. Barton was charged by The FA with two counts of violent conduct in relation to the Queens Park Rangers game against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday 13 May 2012. Following Barton’s dismissal in the 54th minute of the match, there followed two incidents involving Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero and ... Continue reading →

23 May 2012 Last updated at 03:30 ET Egyptians vote in landmark presidential election Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. The BBC's Jon Leyne reports from a polling station in Cairo: ''The mood here is very excited'' Egyptians are heading to the polls in their first free presidential election, 15 months after ousting Hosni Mubarak in the Arab Spring uprising. Fifty million people are eligible to vote, and queues are forming at some polling stations. The military council which assumed presidential power in February 2011 has promised a fair vote and civilian rule. The election pits Islamists against secularists, and revolutionaries against Mubarak-era ministers. The frontrunners are: Ahmed Shafiq, a former commander of the air force and briefly prime minister during February ... Continue reading →

You’ve probably been overwhelmed by enough Instagram shots of this weekend’s annular solar eclipse to think you’ve seen it from every angle and through every filter. But you haven’t seen anything like the video above. Photographer Cory Poole made the one-minute video by combining 700 still images through a Coronado Solar Max 60 Double Stack telescope, according to his YouTube post. The telescope “has a very narrow bandpass allowing you to see the chromosphere and not the much brighter photosphere below it,” Poole writes. Add in the dramatic, spacey soundtrack, and the video becomes even more of a winner. What are the coolest annular solar eclipse photos and videos you’ve seen? Let us know in the comments. BONUS GALLERY: 9 Inventive Solar Eclipse Photos From ... Continue reading →

Richard Nixon's great error during the 1960 presidential election was not so much to lose the country's inaugural televised debate as to agree to participate in the first place. He made his ill-fated decision after watching his opponent, John F Kennedy, deliver his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. Seeing JFK speak for the first time of his 'New Frontier' in the open-air setting of the Los Angeles Coliseum, the then Vice President made a snap judgment: that his rival was not an accomplished performer on television, and that he had little to fear from stepping in front of the klieg lights. The debate, and Nixon's flop sweat, completely transformed the race. He never recovered. The story, which offers one of presidential politics' most salutary ... Continue reading →

Beth Brewster Journalist, lecturer and head of Journalism and Publishing at Kingston University. Magazine devotee. Campaigner for curves and paid internships. Continue reading →

48 Things That Will Make You Feel Old Prepare to have your mind blown. posted about an hour ago Continue reading →

Ending a weeks-long diplomatic drama, blind Chinese dissident and lawyer Chen Guangcheng arrived in the U.S. on Saturday evening. During the flight, Chen expressed hope for a new life in America, but also concern for his family—including his aging mother, who is still in China. “I thank the American Embassy and American people,” Chen, 40, told a handful of reporters on the plane who had traveled with him from Beijing to Newark, N.J. “I’ll never forget what they’ve done.” Late last month, Chen, a noted activist for women and the poor, made a dramatic escape from house arrest in the province of Shandong, taking refuge in the American Embassy for six days. After being transferred to a Beijing hospital for medical treatment, he announced his ... Continue reading →