Wordless Wednesday

Oldest Facebook user is 103-year-old great-gran

LONDON: A woman from Tenby is thought to be the oldest member of social networking site, Facebook.

A BBC News report highlighted Lillian Lowe, who is 103-years-old, and now thought to be the eldest member of the site after Ivy Bean from Bradford, 104 (who was also a big tweeter) passed away this summer.

Lillian used to run a hotel, but unsurprisingly has retired now, so has plenty of pottering time. Unlike most pensioners, however, her pottering is done on an iPad (which she finds easier to cope with than a laptop due to the touch interface).

The technologically aware great-grandmother has just a small collection of friends, and uses Facebook mainly to keep in touch with family. Although since she's been handed the crown of Facebook's oldest user, she has been inundated with congratulations, and something in the order of a thousand friend requests.

She told the Beeb: "We've had messages from all over the world. I'd like to say thank you very much."

Local paper the Tenby Observer dubbed Lillian "Superhighway Gran."

Britain acts to keep Queen's head on stamps

LONDON: The government insisted it is closing a loophole that could see Queen Elizabeth II's head removed from stamps if the Royal Mail national postal service is sold to a foreign firm.

The monarch's head, facing left, has appeared on adhesive postage stamps since their invention with the 1840 "Penny Black", featuring queen Victoria.

The current standard stamps, drawn up in 1967 by Alan Machin, are considered a design classic and a defining icon of Britain.

Her Majesty's Government is in talks with Buckingham Palace after realising that the legislation paving the way for the Royal Mail to be sold off failed explicitly to guarantee the Queen's head would remain on the stamps.

The bill gives Queen Elizabeth a veto over any use of her image but does not insist that her head is shown, as per tradition.

Postal services minister Ed Davey found the loophole but said he was sure a solution could be found before the law passes through parliament.