National / International News

A former DUP council candidate is sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement in a sectarian pipe bomb attack in Antrim.

Also: Suspect in ricin letters described as conspiracist and Elvis impersonator; North Korea "sets conditions" for return to talks; and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords expresses her anger after gun bills fail in Senate.

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State schools must have a more ambitious mindset in order to get more pupils into top universities, MP and former Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy urges.

Six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy decided to retire from cycling after using "every last ounce of energy and effort" at London 2012

A former deputy editor at the Sun, Fergus Shanahan, is charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in public office, the Crown Prosecution Service announces.

Social network Twitter has launched #Music which recommends tracks based on who users follow.

The leaders of Tanzania and Zanzibar are among hundreds of people to pay their respects as Taarab singer Fatma binti Baraka, widely known as Bi Kidude, is buried.

Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy retires after conceding he might not be able to win a Commonwealth Games medal in 2014.

Many people cry at funerals. So why all the fuss?

The Last Night Of The Proms is to be led by a female conductor at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time in the history of the event.

A former Texas justice of the peace has been implicated by his wife in the killings of two law officials and a spouse, authorities say.

The museums offering exhibition access through your phone

A paralysed man is taking up the legal challenge previously mounted by the late Tony Nicklinson for the right to die with the help of a doctor.

Authorities in Boston have flagged video and other images of a possible suspect in the marathon bombings. The Associated Press says there's no identification yet. The U.S. Attorneys' Office and the FBI have been releasing official reports about their investigation, but there's also been amateur sleuthing taking place online at sites like Reddit and 4Chan.

"I think that Reddit is where it pops up the most because [it's] a really popular community that is kind of networked in a way that gives it a lot of visibility," says Adrian Chen, senior writer at the news site Gawker. "But you've [also] got conservative bloggers, you've got people on Twitter, other message boards -- basically wherever anybody is talking on the Internet."

Online postings include time-lapse animations of people seemingly fleeing the bombing scene, and people with backpacks staring unsmiling along the marathon route. Though these efforts may be in good-faith, most, if not all of the people deemed suspicious were most likely not involved.

"This is not an inherently terrible idea to try to sift through some of these pictures to help the authorities, that's if everything goes right," says Will Oremus, a tech writer at Slate. "If everything goes wrong, you've got a lot of people out there who have been identified by their face as possible terrorists and they are totally innocent."

Though Oremus says the idea that “Redditors” could solve a crime isn't too far-fetched.

"A year or two ago, there was a hit and run incident, a photo was posted to Reddit, some gear-head noticed that the headlight belonged to a 1990 Cadillac, he knew the make and model, and they ended up solving the crime," says Oremus. 

To hear more about the implications of a public, crowdsourced manhunt, click on the audio player above.

Correction: The original version of this article misspelled the name of Gawker writer Adrian Chen. The text has been corrected.

Authorities in Boston have flagged video and other images of a possible suspect in the marathon bombings. The Associated Press says there's no identification yet. The U.S. Attorneys' Office and the FBI have been releasing official reports about their investigation, but there's also been amateur sleuthing taking place online at sites like Reddit and 4Chan.

"I think that Reddit is where it pops up the most because [it's] a really popular community that is kind of networked in a way that gives it a lot of visibility," says Adrien Chen, senior writer at the news site Gawker. "But you've [also] got conservative bloggers, you've got people on Twitter, other message boards -- basically wherever anybody is talking on the Internet."

Online postings include time-lapse animations of people seemingly fleeing the bombing scene, and people with backpacks staring unsmiling along the marathon route. Though these efforts may be in good-faith, most, if not all of the people deemed suspicious were most likely not involved.

"This is not an inherently terrible idea to try to sift through some of these pictures to help the authorities, that's if everything goes right," says Will Oremus, a tech writer at Slate. "If everything goes wrong, you've got a lot of people out there who have been identified by their face as possible terrorists and they are totally innocent."

Though Oremus says the idea that “Redditors” could solve a crime isn't too far-fetched.

"A year or two ago, there was a hit and run incident, a photo was posted to Reddit, some gear-head noticed that the headlight belonged to a 1990 Cadillac, he knew the make and model, and they ended up solving the crime," says Oremus. 

To hear more about the implications of a public, crowdsourced manhunt, click on the audio player above.

There were 352,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance, up by 4,000 from the week before. The early analysis: It's a sign that the labor market's recovery, while slow, is continuing.

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Paul Kevin Curtis, the 45-year-old Mississippi man arrested Wednesday in connection with the possibly ricin-tainted envelopes sent to President Obama and at least one senator, has taken to Facebook in recent years to claim he knows of an organ-harvesting scheme. He's also an entertainer.

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A woman told to move an old armchair from the garden has protested - by creating a living room scene in her front yard.

Plans for a peace centre on the site of Northern Ireland's former Maze prison, which housed paramilitary prisoners, are approved.

The home secretary says she wants to know if the case of a police officer suing a garage owner is "symptomatic" of a claims culture.