LONDON: Manchester United great Ryan Giggs became the latest celebrity to take legal action against the News of the World over allegedly hacking into his mobile phone, his lawyer announced on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old – who it was revealed last month by a British lawmaker was the married footballer who won a court injunction to keep details of an alleged affair secret – believes he is one of those whose phone was hacked into between 2005 and 2006.
The London Met Police are presently heading up an investigation into the claims.
In April, Giggs’s teammate Wayne Rooney said he had been contacted by detectives involved in the investigation.
In 2007, the first police investigation led to the convictions and imprisonment of then News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was employed by the paper.
Goodman received four months and Mulcaire six months.
Five alleged victims have reached out-of-court settlements with the newspaper, including celebrity publicist Max Clifford, who received a reported £1million.
Most recently, actress Sienna Miller formally settled for £100,000 damages and costs after accepting an apology from the company for hacking into several of her phones.
Twitter Gate: Congress will take action against Tharoor at the appropriate time: Tewari
New Delhi, Sep.18 (ANI): The Congress party on Friday said it would take appropriate action against Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor for his “cattle class” comments through the medium of Twitter at the appropriate time.
Addressing a party news conference in the capital, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said: “We will take appropriate action (against Mr. Tharoor) at the appropriate time.
Tewari further said that action against Tharoor was not ruled out.
He also justified Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s statement on Thursday seeking Tharoor’s resignation for what he called “irresponsible” comments on the social networking site Twitter.
“It was unfortunate and unbecoming on his part to make such comments. In my view he should tender his resignation as Minister,” Gehlot had said.
“To make such irreverent comments is all the more despicable when one is holding a responsible position as that of the Minister of State for External Affairs,” Gehlot told journalists at his official residence here after a “Roza Iftar” party on Thursday evening.
Gehlot had termed Tharoor’s references posted on the site such as “cattle class” and “holy cows” as unacceptable in Indian politics.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan also said Tharoor had no right to continue in the Union Cabinet.
“I believe that in a democracy, people are God. To refer to them as ‘cattle’ is an insult to them. And I believe that such a person has no right to be a Union minister,” he told reporters.
Tharoor, who is on an official visit to Liberia, had earlier apologized through the Twitter medium, saying he was “sorry” for hurting any sentiments and that his words had been misunderstood.
“To those hurt by the belief that my repeating the phrase showed contempt: sorry. It’s a silly expression, but means no disrespect to economy travellers, only to airlines for herding us in like cattle. Many have misunderstood,” Tharoor said.
The minister said that he had learned belatedly of the fuss “over my tweet and pointed out that the phrase “cattle class” was used in the query, which he just repeated. (ANI)