A Thai criminal court has sentenced a Thai-born American to two and a half years in prison for insulting the monarchy.

The charge of writing and posting articles insulting the monarchy can yield a sentence as high as 20 years in prison in the Buddhist country, where the king is highly revered.

But Joe W. Gordon, whose Thai name is Lerpong Wichaicommart, cooperated during the investigation and pleaded guilty, resulting in the lenient sentence, his lawyer said.

The lawyer, Anon Rumpa, said he plans to file for a royal pardon.

King Bhumibol Adulydej has pardoned foreigners in similar cases in the past.

Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Gordon said he was "an American, not a Thai citizen."

An "American has rights and freedom to comment. In Thailand, there is limitation in expressing opinion," he said.

Gordon, 54, returned to Thailand last year after 30 years in the United States. He was arrested in May for posting a link on his blog to an unauthorized biography of the king, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission.

He had been detained without bail since then.

Thailand's lese majeste laws are among the toughest in the world, stipulating punishment for anyone defaming, insulting or threatening the royal family.

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

The Tories have a new policy on homelessness: make it illegal. That is the extraordinary intention of a Conservative flagship council. Worse, they want to ban Salvation Army soup kitchens.

Westminster city council, the richest and most powerful council in the UK, is proposing a new bye-law to ban rough sleeping and “soup runs” in the Victoria area of London. The proposed new bye-law will make it an offence punishable by a fine to “sleep or lie down”, “deposit materials used as bedding” and to “give out, or permit another to give out, food for free”.

If these proposals are passed, they will also prohibit companies with a proud record of corporate social responsibility from doing good things. Companies like Pret a Manger, who have, very quietly, for many years, given away their unsold food to London’s homeless. If the Tories get their way, companies like Pret will be forced to throw the food in the bin.

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VATICAN CITY, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI affirms in a newly released book homosexuality is something that can never be "morally just."

In "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times," the pontiff tells German writer Peter Seewald homosexuality is a great trial with which a person may be faced, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

However, the pope said being gay "remains something that is against the nature that God originally willed."

After the news on the condoms we thought for a second that the pope entered the 19th century, but alas, he is still stuck in the 14th !

According to UPI: 'A Massachusetts school district superintendent said a memo banning sixth graders from carrying pencils was written without district approval. North Brookfield School District interim Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy said Wendy Scott, one of two sixth-grade teachers at North Brookfield Elementary School, did not get approval from administrators before sending the memo to all sixth-grade parents, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported Thursday. The memo said students would no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. It said pencils would be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 would face disciplinary action for having materials 'to build weapons.'

The veggies on the plate on the right look suspicious... where are the burger and the fries !

The Department of Health is putting the fast food companies McDonald's and KFC and processed food and drink manufacturers such as PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo at the heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease, the Guardian has learned.

In an overhaul of public health, said by campaign groups to be the equivalent of handing smoking policy over to the tobacco industry, health secretary Andrew Lansley has set up five "responsibility deal" networks with business, co-chaired by ministers, to come up with policies. Some of these are expected to be used in the public health white paper due in the next month.