Independent voices from the TWT Communities
It turns out Northern Ireland won't have its own team for the World Cup.

A more appropriate title for this book might be "Empire Happens." No British king or minister made a conscious decision to create the greatest empire in history. The imperium was created as a patchwork over the centuries beginning with the subjugation of Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

Two of the Metropolitan Police Departments' key computer systems were down for several hours due to a network issue this week, police confirmed.

The Prince of Wales issued a scathing denouncement of corporations and of climate-change skeptics for failing to take environmental actions to save the "dying patient," planet Earth.
About the only thing Fred Couples and Colin Montgomerie had in common was a golf swing good enough to trust for a lifetime.
There was a time not long ago when Britain's golfers ruled Augusta National like no other country. Now, the latest group of talented Brits is determined to end the empire's 17-year drought at the Masters.

Before most of the iconic shots that Masters Tournament champions have made en route to the green jacket, there was Sandy Lyle’s fairway bunker shot on No. 18 that set up a birdie to win in 1988.
In terms of chronological age, Charlotte Church _ at just 27 _ is probably too young for a comeback tour and album. But launching a second act can be tough when you charmed the world at 12.
The woman Richard Burton left to marry Elizabeth Taylor has died. Theater producer and nightclub founder Sybil Christopher was 83.

She was one of the better-kept secrets of Sweden's royal household: a commoner and divorcee whose relationship with Prince Bertil was seen as a threat to the Bernadotte dynasty.
Welsh-born Princess Lilian of Sweden, whose decades-long love story with the king's uncle was one of the better kept secrets of the royal household, died Sunday. She was 97.
She was one of the better kept secrets of Sweden's royal household: a commoner and divorcee whose relationship with Prince Bertil was seen as a threat to the Bernadotte dynasty.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has been hospitalized with an apparent stomach infection that has ailed her for days, Buckingham Palace said Sunday. The monarch will have to cancel a visit to Rome and other engagements as she recovers.
British police say three men have been arrested by officers investigating the burgeoning horsemeat scandal in Europe.
Rain, snow, ice. There's a lot of grumbling about the stiletto-adverse weather as New York Fashion Week hit Day 5 on Monday. But there's a silver lining: cozy coats, especially styles with oversized fur hoods, never looked better.