london

A laptop containing unnamed patient information has gone missing from a subsidiary of the National Health Service North Central London health authority,

The Sun reported on Wednesday that the laptop, which was lost along with 19 others three weeks ago, contained the unencrypted health details of over 8.63 million people and records of 18 million hospital visits, operations and procedures. It was taken from a storeroom of London Health Programmes, a medical research organization based within the NHS North Central London health authority.

Both the UK's privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), and the police are … Read more

London Mayor Boris Johnson unveiled new diesel-hybrid electric double-decker buses this week that are scheduled to hit London streets in 2012.

The new hybrid buses will get 10 miles per gallon which is almost 40 percent more efficient than a conventional diesel double-decker bus. London already has some diesel-hybrid buses in its fleet, but these newer models will be 15 percent more efficient than those.

"Over the next few months its mettle will be well and truly tested. But I hope that process will confirm we have built a real eco-warrior of a bus that can contribute to improving … Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded...and, no, there are no April Fools' jokes in today's show!

Google denies working on a mobile app that searches faces and uncovers personal info

AT&T offers a new Mobile Protection Pack to locate and insure mobile phones

Samsung and Visa will offer mobile phone payment systems using NFC tech at the 2012 Olympic Games

Amazon.com may be working on a mobile phone payments system as well

Activision announces the next Spider-Man game

After launching Friday in 25 countries outside the U.S., Apple's iPad 2 was already sold out by Saturday afternoon across major markets, according to several reports.

The long lines of iPad 2 buyers in the United Kingdom apparently scooped up all the available stock from Apple's stores and other retail outlets throughout the country.

Speaking with Apple stores in Regent Street and Covent Garden areas in London, the Web site Pocket-Lint found that supplies were depleted on Saturday with no more stock expected yesterday and no indication of new iPad 2s today. The situation was generally the … Read more

LONDON--Do you enjoy waiting in line at the grocery store, gas station, airport, or Department of Motor Vehicles? Probably not.

But such is the measure of Apple's clout with consumers that waiting hours in line for one of England's first iPad 2 tablets is not merely worth the hassle but actually pleasurable.

"This is my first time doing it, and I can say I'm going to do it for every single product," said Craig Fox, who withstood a 25-hour wait by arriving at 4 p.m. yesterday. Fox was near the head of a line … Read more

A two-day hearing has begun in London to determine whether WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden for questioning on sex-crime allegations.

On Monday, Assange appeared at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in Woolwich before district judge Howard Riddle. Lawyers for both sides presented their opening arguments in the extradition hearing, which has attracted conspiracy theories suggesting the US government is working through the Swedish authorities to bring Assange into its jurisdiction.

Defense barrister Geoffrey Robertson told the court that Assange would face a closed hearing in Sweden if extradited, as is customary in rape trials there.

"The Swedish … Read more

A newly published 80-gigapixel picture of London appears to have stolen the crown for the largest spherical panoramic photo in the world. Take that, measly 70-gigapixel image of Budapest, 45-gigapixel photo of Dubai, and 26-gigapixel pic of Paris.

Photographer Jeffrey Martin stitched together 7,886 individual images to create his London panorama, which he shot over three days this summer from the top of the Centre Point building at the crossroads of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. Zoom in and you can see landmarks like Big Ben and the National Museum--all without having to undergo a virtual strip search.

The gorgeous photo also reveals lots of amazingly detailed street-level shots of houses, office buildings, shops, and street and pedestrian traffic that offer a glimpse of daily life in London. The team that worked on London Gigapixel, as the photo is called, blurred out the faces of identifiable children--as well as one "naughty bit." … Read more

The dream of a London Underground network that's totally Internet-connected is getting a step closer to reality, as BT announced that Charing Cross would be the first Tube station to have Wi-Fi access.

The service is due to start today and will be trialed for six months, allowing people to log on to the Internet from Charing Cross ticket hall area, as well as the Northern and Bakerloo line platforms. There won't be access in the actual trains, apart from a few seconds when the doors are open--or if your train is stuck.

Read more of "Charing Cross is the first London Tube station to receive Wi-Fi&… Read more

GROTON, Conn.--If you've ever wondered what it's like aboard the most advanced submarine in the world, I'm here to tell you all about it.

To be specific, that submarine is the North Carolina, a Virginia class nuclear attack sub based at the Naval Submarine Base New London here, and it is truly a technological marvel.

To begin with, forget all about those romantic images of a dimly lighted sonar room where a captain squints into the eyepiece of the periscope in order to try to see what's going on outside. Those days are long gone. … Read more