Analysts and members of the industry say the revelations are highly damaging and will likely further harm newspaper sales, especially for the popular tabloid titles, and will inevitably lead to tighter regulation of an industry that polices itself.

“I think this has been the most damaging week to the British tabloid newspapers that I can remember,” Max Clifford, the country’s most high profile publicist, told Reuters.

“People are disgusted, offended and I think a lot of people will say that they just won’t buy tabloid newspapers.”

Prime Minister David Cameron ordered the inquiry into media practices in July amid a public outcry over widespread phone hacking at the now closed News of the World tabloid, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp media empire.

Appearances this week by actor Hugh Grant and Harry Potter author JK Rowling have been broadcast live on rolling news channels and exposed how newspapers scrapping for survival in a declining market ruthlessly target public figures.

“I think an awful lot of people who have bought the News of the World, who still buy the Mail and the Sun and the Mirror will be absolutely horrified by what they’ve seen — that this is the way they get the stories that they’ve been reading,” said Steven Barnett, professor of communications at Westminster University in London.

“The Germans love gossip, the Italians can’t get enough of it. The difference is they don’t condone a culture within some parts of the press which simply exploits other people’s lives for their own profit.”

Grant, star of “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” said a section of the press had become toxic over the last 20 or 30 years.

“Its main tactic being bullying, intimidation and blackmail. And I think that it’s time that this country found the courage to stand up to this bully now,” he said.

Having thrown down the gauntlet, Grant found himself effectively accused of lying by the mid-market Mail newspaper group when he said he believed its Sunday edition newspaper had hacked his phone.

INNOCENT VICTIMS

The inquiry, headed by senior judge Brian Leveson, extends well beyond phone hacking and has a remit of examining the culture, practices and ethics of the media.

While celebrities have commanded most of the attention, the most moving testimony has come from people unwittingly thrust into the public eye as victims of crime.

Sally Dowler, whose teenage daughter Milly was murdered in 2002, described how she was duped into believing the missing schoolgirl was still alive when a call went through to a previously full voicemail box.

In fact, her phone had been accessed and messages deleted. News Corp last month agreed to pay the Dowlers 2 million pounds ($3 million) over phone hacking claims.

“The public are becoming aware of ordinary members of the public being crucified and that’s what results in the loss of circulation,” said publicist Clifford, who last year won an out of court settlement from the News of the World over hacking.

“It was Milly Dowler that shut the News of the World.”

Data suggests many Britons have given up on Sunday newspapers after News Corp closed its scandal-hit title in July.

Daily Mail reader Bridget Sach said the press should focus on bigger issues like rising unemployment.

“We’ve all got lives to live. We all make mistakes,” Sach, 56, told Reuters in central London. “I’d rather hear news.”

Industry analysts said the newspapers would have to launch their own publicity campaigns to defend their reputations and remind readers of the good they can do, in exposing hypocrisy and corruption.

However, changing the mindset in the media — old and new – is likely to prove hard.

Rowling was driven away from the court on Thursday with photographers chasing her down the street looking for a final image. And on the Twitter micro-blogging website a new star was born, when a telegenic young woman lawyer featured prominently in TV shots at the Leveson inquiry.

“#womanontheleft” was how Carine Patry Hoskins was described on Twitter before the mainstream media followed up and extended her 15 minutes of fame.

(Additional reporting by Li-mei Hoang; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/25/us-newscorp-hacking-idUSTRE7AN1PD20111125

A single white bedsheet and pillowcase embroidered with the image of an eagle perched on a swastika inside a circle, flanked by the initials, will be sold by auctioneers Dreweatts in Bristol on Tuesday.

“It is extremely rare to find pieces of Hitler’s bed linen embroidered with his personal motif and monogram coming to the market,” said Dreweatts militaria specialist Malcolm Claridge.

The items were bought in Germany by a private collector several years ago.

“After Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide in 1945, his housekeeper Anni Winter removed a lot of personal items from his Prinzregentenstrasse apartment to save them from looters,” Claridge said.

“In recent years, a lot of Hitler’s personal possessions have begun to surface on the auction market — particularly in Germany,” he added.

“We have put an estimate of 2,000 to 3,000 pounds on Hitler’s bed linen and we’ve already received a lot of interest.”

(Created by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/25/uk-hitler-sheets-idUKTRE7AO0LT20111125

In celebration of all things whimsical and cute, I’ve pasted a picture of my lucky cat with an innocent hat (knitted by a granny in the UK for Age Concern), I’ve also put a link to this really cool video. I heart the little robot man with big dreams. Plus it was pretty cool the way they used google street view to make it. It’s pretty awesome.

http://devour.com/video/address-is-approximate/

“Some parents have been so deprived in their own lives of education and values, that they no longer know right from wrong,” said Helen Wright, headmistress of St Mary’s Calne, a private girls’ boarding school in England.

“They are as a result, unwittingly ‘indulging’ children in some parallel universe where it is acceptable to let young children wear make-up and provocative clothing.”

The 41-year-old — who is also president of the Girls’ Schools Association — said that if parents can’t see anything wrong in allowing their children to wear make-up, high heels and “mini-me” sexy clothing, then something is intensely wrong in our society.

Her comments, to an educational conference Monday, come as Britain prepares to clamp down on the use of sexualized imagery in music videos and advertising campaigns.

The mother of three young children criticized popular British television talent shows such as the X Factor where contestants are catapulted into a spotlight which can be far too much for them and said she was shocked by the sexual imagery used by advertisers in magazines for very young children.

“What hope have we got of safeguarding our children’s sacred childhood if they are knocked off their feet on the nursery slopes of life by an avalanche of images and malign influences?” she said. “And make no mistake, this is what is happening.”

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/us-britain-parents-traditional-idUSTRE7AK14Q20111121

Kate McCann told the Leveson inquiry into media practices and ethics how she had returned from church to discover that the newspaper had virtually printed her diary verbatim from what looked like a Portuguese translation without her knowledge.

“I felt totally violated. You know, I’d written these words and thoughts at the most desperate time in my life,” she said.

“Most people won’t have to experience that and it was my only way of communicating with Madeleine.”

She said it had made her feel “very vulnerable and small.”

Kate McCann and her husband Gerry also told the hearing at London’s High Court how after their young daughter went missing during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007 media coverage quickly became speculative and sinister.

“I desperately wanted to shout out, ‘it’s not true, it’s not true’ but it’s your voice against the powerful media, you know, it just doesn’t hold weight.”

The McCanns have brought successful actions against a series of newspapers, including Express Newspapers titles which had to pay out a substantial sum in libel damages relating to articles that falsely suggested the couple were involved in her death.

“TOO EASY TO HACK”

The Leveson inquiry, set up in July and expected to last a year, has given celebrities and others featured on newspaper front pages a chance to throw a light on how these stories were obtained and the impact they have had on their lives.

Earlier in the day, Mark Lewis, the lawyer who helped bring down the News of the World in July over the phone-hacking scandal, said he felt sorry for the paper’s readers because the problem was more widespread than one newspaper.

Lewis, who represented the parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, suggested the reason the News of the World, part of News Corp’s British newspaper arm, had been caught out was because its private detective had made notes about his hacking and had kept evidence.

“In a way I feel sorry for the News of the World, or certainly the News of the World readers, because it was a much more widespread practice than just one newspaper,” Lewis said.

“The fact that evidence doesn’t exist in written form doesn’t mean to say that the crime didn’t happen.”

The discovery that Dowler’s mobile phone had been hacked into while she was still missing shocked the nation and broadened a scandal that up until that point had largely involved celebrities and politicians.

James Murdoch resigned on Wednesday from the boards of the publishing units within News Corp’s British newspaper arm, regulatory filings showed.

Rival titles have benefited from its demise, including the mid-market Daily Mail and its sister Mail on Sunday.

Earlier this week, actor Hugh Grant, star of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” told the hearing he suspected the Mail on Sunday newspaper of having hacked into his phone messages, something it strongly denied.

The paper’s publishing group Daily Mail & General Trust said on Wednesday, as it announced underlying 2011 sales were up 3 percent to 1.99 billion pounds, that it had not engaged in illegal newsgathering, to the best of the editor-in-chief’s knowledge.

Giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry, presided over by senior judge Brian Leveson, Lewis said reporters had found it too easy to hack into mobile phones.

“I mean, journalists found it too easy to do,” he said.

“I don’t think they necessarily thought of it as any worse — certainly at the beginning — than driving at 35 mph in a 30 mph zone.”

Private investigator Mulcaire and former News of the World’s royal reporter Clive Goodman were jailed in 2007 for plotting to unlawfully intercept voicemail messages.

The inquiry also heard on Wednesday from Sheryl Gascoigne, former wife of England football star Paul Gascoigne, who was subject to intense press attention in the 1990s.

She described how she would crawl on her hands and knees, even though her arm was in a sling, to avoid photographers snapping her in her home.

The inquiry will make recommendations likely to have a lasting impact on the press, leading to a shake-up of the current system of self-regulation, or a tightening of the rules.

By Avril Ormsby

(Additional reporting by Li-mei Hoang)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/24/uk-newscorp-hacking-inquiry-idUKTRE7AK00920111124

The survey of 2,000 people found that expensive bills, unmonitored internet use and lack of parental control were some of the reasons adults felt uncomfortable about kids owning mobiles.

However, more than one in 10 would buy a child a mobile phone as a treat to encourage good behavior, or for doing well at school.

The vast majority of parents (90 percent) also liked the idea of a child having a phone in case of an emergency.

Mobile phone information and price comparison website Recombu.com, which carried out the survey, noted that 79 percent of 7 to 11-year-olds already own a mobile.

Hannah Bouckley, editor of Recombu, said: “It is reassuring for parents to be in constant contact with their children, but there are clearly concerns about just how careful a young child will be with their own mobile phone.

“It is important for parents to sit down with their kids to discuss the responsibilities that come with the phone and set clear limits for its usage from the outset.”

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/24/us-phone-children-mobile-idUSTRE7AN0Y420111124?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

Not sure what I’m going to be writing about, but there will be a point and it won’t be too random I hope, just enjoyable.

Happy reading.

The Sweat Shop Cafe, Paris. (Photograph: Munia Sbouri for the Guardian)

This sounds like a wonderful idea, a sewing cafe in Paris. Much like an internet cafe, but far classier and I imagine with French cakes and pastries, you can purchase the use of a sewing machine for six euros an hour and improve on your skills. Customers can come and attend classes or just have a cup of coffee. A friend and I were lamenting our lack of skills when it comes to textiles, and I would rejoice if ever a place like this opened in London.

I’ve always wanted to attend a sewing class, but lack of a decent sewing machine and instruction has always deterred me. Yes, yes, I know if I really wanted to, I could have found a way. But just like many other interests or hobbies, you pursue them for a short while and then you mostly give up because it’s too much effort for your seemingly lazy self.

So the chance to darn my own sweater whilst having a slice of tarte au poire? You bet! Learning how to follow a pattern and make my own tailor-made dress that actually fits, hell yeah! By paying six euros, I’d probably save on my alteration and mending costs anyway, and I get to learn a new skill. Plus the Sweat Shop Cafe in Paris is reported to be very popular with the older ladies, vintage shoppers as well as the fashion students. Who doesn’t like having a natter with an interesting granny?! Did I mention the possibility of cake? Win win, in all cases.

A woman waits to make her floral offering to the Virgin Mary.

I was recently lucky enough to be in Spain to celebrate Las Fallas, a wonderfully noisy and cathartic festival held in the Valencian region to celebrate the return of spring and Saint Joseph (the patron saint of carpenters). It is definitely a festival worth seeing and if you have a liking for arson, then look no further! Las Fallas is celebration that encourages even little toddlers to join in the firecracking fun. The whole festival goes on for days, and the Spanish really do get into the spirit of things.

Las Fallas, refers to the creation and burning of the giant pastel paper mâché sculptures that are spread over the city, portraying politicians and local celebrities in a satirical way. However, these Disney-esque monuments are just one part of the festival, as music, fireworks and flower offerings all play a role in the celebration too.

One of my favourite events was Las Mascletà, a series of firecrackers and fireworks that were set off on the last day of the celebrations. The whole marketplace seemed to be vibrating with the explosions, bangs and whizzes in the air. Exhilarating and just a little bit scary, especially when I realised that perhaps I was really rather close to the explosives.

L’Ofrena floral was also a beautiful thing to see. Hundreds and hundreds of people from the Valencian region come to the city to offer flowers to the Virgin Mary, who is then constructed from the offered flowers. The women were all dressed in beautiful patterned dresses with black or white veils covering their heads and the procession went on into the night. Whole families seemed to take part in this, even little babies were adorned in full costume whilst being pushed in prams. Fireworks were set off from the old riverbank night after night, the brass brands playing lively music at all hours of the day, and of course, La Cremà.

One of the Las Fallas sculptures in Valencia.

La Cremà is the final night when they burn las fallas, and huge crowds gather around each one whilst they set it alight. It’s scary how close you can get to these things, and you almost feel your eyebrows being singed as the fireworks (embedded in the sculptures) get set off and the paint fumes thicken the air. When burnt, the winning team who created the monument join hands and dance around the charred remains. And then the after parties start…