London Times Sues Lance Armstrong. Backpedals on Libel Settlement

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In 2012, Lance Armstrong was banned from competitive cycling for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after the U.S. Doping Agency deemed him the mastermind of a performance-enhancing drug program on the teams he fronted.

Now, according to accounts by wire services UPI and AP, the Rupert Murdoch-owned London Times is suing the disgraced athlete for 1 million pounds ($1.6 million), seeking attorneys' fees, costs, accrued interest and the undoing of a 300,000 pound ($485,000) libel settlement the daily paid Armstrong in 2006 after the Times reprinted accusations in a book that the cyclist was doping.

Hard to know for whom to root in a Murdoch v. Armstrong battle or whether any courtrooms in London are large enough to contain both their egos.

UPDATE: Elton John Loses London Times Libel Suit

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Mr. Justice (Michael) Tugendhat of London's High Court has ruled that a series of London Times articles last June about tax avoidance strategies did not defame singer Sir Elton John, The Guardian reports.

John sued over an article that ran June 21, 2012 entitled Secrets of the Tax Avoiders, that he alleged wrongly linked him to Ingenious Media CEO Patrick McKenna, suggesting McKenna was John's accountant and advised him about circumventing taxes (see "TUOL" post 8/8/12). The rock legend was dissatisfied with a four-line correction that the Times later ran ceding that McKenna was not John's accountant or a second correction that appeared in July saying that Ingenious Media was not implicated in tax avoidance conduct.

Mr. Justice Tugendhat ruled that the language of the Times article was not susceptible to a defamatory meaning. Or as Sir Elton himself once warbled: "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing."

Fox News: Facebook Means 'Business' Peeking at Smartphone Users' Text Messages

Image via WikipediaAs it readies its own personal messaging service, social media monolith Facebook's research apparently includes poring over smartphone users' text messages, according to a London Times' article cited by Fox News.

Smartphone users of the Facebook app have been providing helpful intelligence to the social networking platform. Facebook offered assurance that users will be prompted to grant permission for the company to access personal text messages once Facebook's message service goes beyond the trial phase and is up and running. The Fox News story, however, notes a London Times-commissioned survey by YouGov in which 70 percent of smartphone users polled admitted they never review terms and conditions of use when downloading an app.

From a privacy standpoint, Facebook's "it's just business" rationale is akin to a locksmith walking in on people showering in their homes as part of his research into developing a better bathroom door lock.