Who's in the news? Ashley Madison

Fallout from the Ashley Madison hack continued with some not so happy cheats taking their grievances to court.

The Hack

It all began when hackers calling themselves the Impact Team gained access to the sites data and demanded payment and that the site be shut down along with others owned by the parent company or they would release the data. After refusing to give into the demands the data was released with the company confirming the authenticity of the data. A second data dump released days later with more details and emails about Ashley Madison itself.

The Data

With the data freely available many have searched it with interesting discoveries being made revealing users in government along with reality TV celebrity profiles. While looking at the data, statistics show men vastly outnumbered women on the site, it's believed many of the female accounts were faked or never used. Others have gone further cracking passwords showing the most commonly used but it was the data from the company itself that was most shocking showing CEO Noel Biderman hacked another dating site before being hacked.

The Response

Since the release of the data Ashley Madison has responded with a bounty for the hackers to the value of $377,000. However, this amount pales in comparison to the $578 million lawsuit filed against Ashley Madison parent company Avoid Life Media along with others for court cases for emotional distress. Outside of the financial consequences it was reported that there have apparently been two suicides associated with the breach.

Falling From Grace

This week saw high profile individuals make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Subway's Jared Fogle

This week we saw former Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle admit to having sex with underage children along with possession of child pornography and could face 5 - 12 years in prison and have to pay $1.4 million to his victims. The downfall began when Jared began discussing what he had done with co-workers who informed the FBI and worked with them to record his admission.

Oscar Pistorious

Oscar made headlines this week after serving 10 months or 1/6th of his sentence making him eligible for parole release, However, during the week the release was postponed when the Justice Minister called for a board review.

Business Across the Globe

This weeks business blog looks to the East where we saw a decision made in China impacting the rest of the world and other big moves impacting global finances.

The East

China decided this week to devalue their currency, the Yuan, by nearly 2% against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday hammering international markets. China's move came after an 8.3% fall in export in July in an attempt to boost exports and compete with regional rivals with lower currencies like South Korea and Japan.

The West

This week we also learned that tech giant Google had a new parent company called Alphabet to house their various companies. We also saw a crack down on an insider trading scam where hackers accessed company press releases ahead of time giving them an unfair advantage and proving that knowledge is power. (www.15minutenews.com) Lastly this week Uber's Hong Kong offices were raided creating another speed bump for the fast growing company.

Celebrities Overexposed

This week in the world of celebrities we got an eyeful, felt awful and said good bye.

Stage Spectaculars

We hit the stage this week where Taylor Swift had the fright of her life after a grabby fan lunged at her while she was on stage during a performance only to Shake It Off and carry on like a Pro. One thing that no one could forget was Lenny Kravitz who had an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction when his leather pants split on stage revealing lil' Lenny to his fans.

Love and the Lack Thereof

When it comes to love life's this week we heard that Jennifer Aniston had married long time boyfriend Justin Theroux and new girl Zooey Deschanel gave birth to her very own new girl. However, it wasn't all penis exposing and marriages this week when news broke that Gwen Stefani was getting a divorce from husband of 13 years Gavin Rossdale along with Reba McEntire divorcing her husband of 26 years, Narvel Blackstock.

Legally Speaking

While performances and private lives garnered there own fair share of attention it was the legal disputes that put a real dampener on things with Taylor Swift ordered to give a deposition on a trademark infringement lawsuit and Bill Cosby forced to give a deposition for allegedly drugging and molesting an underage girl at the Playboy Mansion.

Saying Good Bye

Finally we end the week with a sad farewell to Jon Stewart who left the Daily Show after 16 hilarious years at the helm.

Need to Know - #CecilTheLion

News broke this week that a favourite lion in Zimbabwe had been killed by an American hunter under questionable circumstances.

Death of a King

Cecil, a 13 year old male lion, was a favourite at the Hwange National Park and famous for his black-fringed mane but also part of a study at Oxford University where he wore a GPS tracking device to monitor his activities since 2008.

The hunt reportedly began when Cecil was lured out of the Hwange National Park onto another farmers property by a carcass strapped to a truck. Once on the new property the hunt began with dentist Walter Palmer, who paid $50 000 to the organizer of the hunt, shooting Cecil with a bow and arrow wounded him. After fleeing Cecil was discovered 40 hours later where he was killed with a rifle and was skinned and beheaded on the spot leaving the remains behind including an attempt to destroy the tracking device once it was discovered.

World Wide Response

The response from the world has been massive with widespread condemnation for dentist Walter Palmer resulting in his dental practice shutting it's doors as people lay tributes outside for Cecil and some attacking Walter Palmer's dental practice by leaving negative reviews on Yelp. Many celebrities have also voiced their disgust on social media along with organizations calling for everything from deportation to criminal charges.

Since the death of Cecil and International condemnation two men who organized and took part in the hunt were arrested and face charges for not having the right permits along with calls from Zimbabwe for the US to extradite dentist Walter Palmer. After going into hiding and possibly even on the run, it has been revealed that Walter Palmer is being investigated in the States by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Walter Palmer has responded claiming ignorance saying he thought all the rules had been followed and that he regretted the killing of the lion and has since been suspended from an international hunting club.