Aubry, who had lung cancer, died near Paris, her family said.

After being signed up by 20th Century Fox aged 20, Aubry went on to star in films like Manon (1949) and The Black Rose (1950), alongside Orson Welles.

She later married a Moroccan prince, and started writing. Their son, Mehdi, played the lead role in Belle and Sebastian.

It was broadcast on French TV in the 1960s, before being picked up by BBC One and turned into a Japanese animated version in 1981 titled Meiken Jolie.

Set in the French Alps, the holiday classic recounts the adventures of an orphaned boy of six and a huge white dog that roams the mountains.

Belle and Sebastian also gave its name to the Scottish indie pop band.
Via BBC

Philip Hollobone, a member of parliament (MP) from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party, wants to see a French-style ban on women covering their faces in public, although his bill stands little chance of becoming law.

However, in his own constituency of Kettering in central England, he is demanding that women who wear veils and want to meet with him at his constituency surgeries remove them.

“If she said: ‘No’, I would take the view that she could see my face, I could not see hers, I am not able to satisfy myself she is who she says she is,” he told the Independent newspaper.

“I would invite her to communicate with me in a different way, probably in the form of a letter.”

He added: “God gave us faces to be expressive. It is not just the words we utter but whether we are smiling, sad, angry or frustrated. You don’t get any of that if your face is covered.”

There are around 400 Muslims living in Kettering, according to the local Muslim association, out of a total population in the town of over 50,000.

Hollobone has also tabled a bill in parliament to regulate certain face coverings, although it will not be debated until December and is highly unlikely to become law due to lack of government support.

This week, French lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public in a bill which will now go to the Senate for approval.

A poll out Friday found that two-thirds of Britons would support a similar ban.

In 2006, former foreign secretary Jack Straw sparked fierce debate by saying he asked Muslim women to lift their veils during meetings with him in his constituency.

Via Google

A template letter that has been pasted into numerous Facebook pages accuses founder ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ and other senior members of Facebook of ‘ignoring the feelings of more than 2.5million Muslims’.

The Muslim community is angry that four extremely popular Islamic pages were removed from the site and the letter warns that unless its demands are met Facebook’s Muslim users will move to an Islamic alternative.

The letter demands not only that the pages are reinstated but that new rules are introduced which make it a violation of Facebook’s terms to post anti-Islamic comments.

And Facebook is given notice that unless the changes are introduced then 2.5 million Muslim users will leave to join madina.com, a social networking site for Muslims.

The letter reads: ‘Although you have attended the world’s best communication skills courses you have been most successful in growing great hatred and hostility between you and Muslims around the world, but seriously this time you have caused an almost unrepairable [sic] damage.’

It also accuses Facebook of ‘irresponsible behavior’ for allowing to host ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ pages which sparked controversy for encouraging users to draw portraits of the Prophet.

There is no specific ban on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed in the Koran but there is one line which is commonly taken to mean that it is impossible for human hands to recreate his likeness. To attempt to do so would is an insult to Allah, it is believed.

The letter demands that the four deleted pages are reinstated, disrespecting Islamic religious symbols is banned and any Facebook page which does so is disabled.

Madina.com was a social networking site set up specifically for the Muslim community.

It pledges to abide by the ‘highest Islamic principals’ and encourages Muslim unity. Female users are asked not to use pictures of themselves as profile pictures.

According to Facebook the Islamic pages, which included ‘I love Mohammed’ and ‘Quran Lovers’, were taken down because they were being used to ‘spam’ users, which is against the company’s policy.

A spokeswoman said: ‘The pages in question were taken down because they violated our policies about spamming users. These pages were not removed because of content violations.’
Via Daily Mail

At first, i thought the movement would be from Facebook to MillatFacebook. Didnt know there’s a site called Madina.

Maybe Tommiekiddy.com should create an Islamic Social site. what do you think? maybe not? OK

Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents are training monkeys to use weapons to attack American troops, according to a recent report by a British-based media agency.

Reporters from the media agency spotted and took photos of a few “monkey soldiers” holding AK-47 rifles and Bren light machine guns in the Waziristan tribal region near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The report and photos have been widely spread by media agencies and Web sites across the world.

According to the report, American military experts call them “monkey terrorists.”

Analysts believe that apart from using “monkey killers” to attack the American troops, the Taliban also sought to arouse Western animal protectionists to pressure their governments to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

An American official responded that the Taliban forces have started training “monkey soldiers” after suffering heavy losses, implying that they have exhausted their tricks. Nevertheless, the Taliban believe that the emergence of “monkey soldiers” indicates that they have found smarter and more effective ways to cope with American troops.

Aimee L. Sword, 36, of Waterford Township apologized at her sentencing Monday in Oakland County Circuit Court. She had pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in a deal with prosecutors.

Police say Sword used Facebook in 2008 to find her son, who’s now 16. She gave him up for adoption when he was only a few days old, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“When she saw this boy, something just touched off in her — and it wasn’t a mother-son relationship, it was a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship,” the newspaper quoted attorney Mitchell Ribitwer as saying. “Aimee’s searching for a reason why this happened. She can’t understand it. She’s going to get some counseling.”

The boy testified they had sex in Waterford Township and Grand Rapids when he was aged 14.

Waterford Township is 30 miles northwest of Detroit.

Police and the coroner were called to his North Lexington house Thursday afternoon on a personal injury call. They found Turpin dead.

Coroner Gary Ginn says that Turpin had committed suicide, but would not say how. He also would not say whether Turpin left behind a suicide note.

Margaret Burrus, his sister, tearfully told reporters outside her home that her brother was diabetic and trying to keep it under control.

“I didn’t know he was depressed or anything,” she said. “I would have never said that he would have done this.”

Turpin was the youngest sibling among six, Burrus said. Just two are still living.

“We had a big family and it’s now whittling away,” she said.

Burrus said Turpin’s wife had a heart condition and authorities said she was not at home at the time of the death.

Neighbour Amanda McFadden said Turpin always seemed happy.

“He never looked upset. He kept a smile on his face, just a good person,” she said.

The six-foot-11 Turpin, dubbed “The Big Dipper,” was an All-Southeastern Conference player for the Wildcats from 1980-84. He led Kentucky to the SEC championship in 1984.

The center helped lead the Wildcats to three consecutive regular-season SEC titles. He averaged a career-high 15.2 points per game in 1983-84 and shot 74.5 percent from the field.

Turpin was the sixth player selected in the 1984 NBA draft that included Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley, but never had the NBA success of those future stars.

Turpin was picked by the Washington Bullets, then traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. His best season was 1985-86 when he averaged 13.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, but he was out of the league four years later.

Iraqi security officials say a suicide bomber killed at least 30 people and wounded more than 60 Wednesday after detonating an explosives-filled belt near a crowd of Shi’ite pilgrims.

Officials say the attack took place in Adhamiyah, a Sunni district of Baghdad.  Investigators say at least five other people were killed in separate bombings in the city, including two other pilgrims.

The attacks took place in spite of heavy security in the Iraqi capital, where tens of thousands of worshipers had gathered for ceremonies marking the death of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered Imams in Shi’ite Islam.

Police say a series of attacks killed at least six Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad Tuesday.

Wednesday’s suicide bombing took place near a bridge where about 1,000 Shi’ite pilgrims died in a stampede five years ago, after they had gathered for the same ceremony.

Via Voanews

The evidence was loud and clear today — Lindsay violated probation by failing to attend her alcohol ed classes based on the schedule set by the judge.  There were lots of excuses, but ultimately they didn’t fly.

The judge said there was a pattern of violations since Lindsay was placed on probation in 2007 following her plea bargain in her DUI case.

Lindsay broke down as she addressed the court, telling the judge, “I did the best I could.”

Lindsay dissolved into tears when the judge imposed the sentence.

Lohan must surrender on July 20 in Judge Revel’s court.

Sheriff’s spokesperson Steve Whitmore just explained … generally, a female inmate in  Lindsay’s situation only serves 25% of their sentence … which means LiLo will most likely spend around 23 days behind bars.

Source: TMZ

(CNN) — A veteran Iranian human rights activist has warned that Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a mother of two, could be stoned to death at any moment under the terms of a death sentence handed down by Iranian authorities.

Only an international campaign designed to pressure the regime in Tehran can save her life, according to Mina Ahadi, head of the International Committee Against Stoning and the Death Penalty.

“Legally it’s all over,” Ahadi said Sunday. “It’s a done deal. Sakineh can be stoned at any minute.”

“That is why we have decided to start a very broad, international public movement. Only that can help.”

Ashtiani, 42, will be buried up to her chest, according to an Amnesty International report citing the Iranian penal code. The stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately.

Ashtiani, who is from the northern city of Tabriz, was convicted of adultery in 2006.

She was forced to confess after being subjected to 99 lashes, human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei said Thursday in a telephone interview from Tehran.

She later retracted that confession and has denied wrongdoing. Her conviction was based not on evidence but on the determination of three out of five judges, Mostafaei said. She has asked forgiveness from the court but the judges refused to grant clemency.

Iran’s supreme court upheld the conviction in 2007.

Continue Reading

Neither Bronislaw Komorowski nor Jaroslaw Kaczynski won more than 50% in the first round on 20 June.

Observers say the final result could be close.

Mr Komorowski has been acting president since his predecessor, Mr Kaczynski’s twin brother Lech, was killed in a plane crash as he travelled to Russia.

Poland’s first couple and 94 other people died when their plane came down in Smolensk on 10 April as they flew to attend a memorial ceremony for the World War II Katyn massacre.

Polling stations open at 0600 (0400GMT).

Clinton’s support

Polling stations were being set up across the country on Saturday for the contest between the business-oriented Bronislaw Komorowski, from the ruling centrist Civic Platform and the conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski of the main opposition Law and Justice party.

Full Article

So i decided to look it further, apparently 8 other sites got seized as well.

According to allheadlinenews.com:

U.S. authorities have shut down several websites for allegedly hosting pirated copies of Hollywood movies and TV shows. News of the seizures came just a week after the Obama administration announced an enforcement plan for dealing with theft of intellectual property.

A Manhattan federal court issued warrants on behalf of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York that demanded the closure of seven NINE sites: TVshack.net, Ninjavideo.net, Movies-Links.tv, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and ZML.com.

The websites are listed to computers located domestically in Colorado, Florida, Illinois and internationally in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement, “Criminal copyright infringement occurs on a massive scale over the Internet, and reportedly results in billions of dollars in losses to the U.S. economy. That translates into lost jobs and real hardships for ordinary working people. That’s why we took today’s action. If your business model is movie piracy, your story will not have a happy ending.”

Visitors landing on the aforementioned web pages will now be redirected to a page that notifies them the sites have been seized by the government. However, after the seizures were announced four of the sites appeared to still be working properly.

Bharara believes seizing the websites will have a deterrent effect among people who would watch movies illegally.

Special presidential adviser Ima Niboro told reporters the decision by Goodluck Jonathan will “enable Nigeria to reorganise its football”.

The Nigerian Football Federation is to be dissolved and an interim board appointed, the BBC understands.

Nigeria were knocked out in the group stages without winning a game.

Niboro said: “President Goodluck Jonathan has directed that Nigeria withdraws from international competition for two years to enable the country to put its house in order.

“This directive became necessary following Nigeria’s poor performance in the ongoing World Cup.”

The president also plans an audit of the country’s World Cup organising committee.

“If any financial misappropriation is discovered, all officials responsible will be held accountable,” Niboro added.

The NFF released a statement apologising to “all football-loving Nigerians” for the country’s early exit from South Africa.

“No previous board has qualified Nigeria for all major tournaments internationally,” the statement read, adding that officials wanted Swedish coach Lars Lagerbeck to remain at the helm.

Rotimi Amaechi, head of a special presidential task force on the World Cup campaign, said Nigeria would write to football’s world governing body Fifa to explain its decision.

“We went to the World Cup and found all sorts of problems and we felt we should sit back and look inward,” Amaechi told reporters.

Under Fifa rules, government interference with national teams is strictly forbidden.

“At the time of writing, we have no official information on this matter,” a Fifa statement read.

Read Full Article

Today, June 25th, marks the one year anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death. And with all eyes on the World Cup and Wimbledon, I thought I’d post a tribute on tommiekiddy.com, to remember one of my all time favorite artists.

Today also marks the 3rd year anniversary of one of the greatest Persian artists, Mahasti, who was known as “Eftekhar Dadehbala” and “Banooye delha” (Lady of hearts). She created a new image for women in the entertainment industry and became one of the most supreme role models and artists of Iran.

Here are two of my favorite songs by these artists. Hope you Enjoy!

Manute Bol — best known for being one of the tallest players to ever play in the NBA — died today, according to various reports.

Bol was hospitalized in Virgina back in May after suffering acute kidney failure.

Bol played in the NBA from 1985-1994 and was one of the best shot blockers in the league. Bol was extremely involved in charities in his native Sudan — donating an estimated $3.5 million aid Sudanese refugees.

The 7-foot-7 Sudanese giant who was a shot-blocking sensation with the Washington Bullets, Golden State Warriors and other teams in the National Basketball Association, has died at 47.

He died at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville of complications from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a rare skin condition contracted after a reaction to a medication he had taken in Africa. He had kidney failure, internal bleeding and other medical problems.

Mr. Bol, who, it can be safely said, was the only NBA player to have killed a lion with a spear, came to the United States in the early 1980s and joined the Washington Bullets after playing one year of college basketball. He was freakishly tall and thin, yet he had an amazing ability to block opponents’ shots and twice led the NBA in that category

Sources: TMZ & W.Post

According to the Newspaper:

The Kenyan bowed his head as his captors opened the prison cell door to deliver another brutal whipping – a punishment meted out after he was accused of taking part in the independence movement against the British colonial authorities.

The man had been working as a cook for a British Army officer. And his name? Hussein Onyango Obama – President Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather.

He had been arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison. There, according to his family, he was subjected to horrific violence. They say British soldiers used torture in an effort to get him to reveal rebel secrets.

‘The African warders were instructed by the white soldiers to whip him every morning and evening till he repented,’ says Sarah Onyango, Hussein Onyango’s third wife, and the woman President Obama calls ‘Granny Sarah’.

Mrs Onyango, now 89, says ‘white soldiers’ visited the prison every two or three days to carry out ‘disciplinary action’ on the inmates in, what she terms, ‘the British torture chambers’.

She details awful abuse. ‘They would squeeze his private parts (testicles) with parallel metallic rods. They also pierced his nails and buttocks with a sharp pin, with his hands and legs tied together with his head facing down,’ she says.

‘There were beatings and torture. That was the time we realised that the British were actually not friends but, instead, enemies. My husband had worked so diligently for them, only to be arrested and detained. He called the British “beasts and traitors in human skin”.’

This week, she told the Mail in an exclusive interview that she believes that learning of the torture meted out to his grandfather turned her grandson, the U.S. President, against Britain. Sitting under a mango tree in the garden of her modest home in Kogelo village, Kenya, surrounded by the family’s chickens, cows and goat, she recalls telling Barack Obama his family history on his first visit to Kenya in 1988.

‘I narrated the whole story to Barack one evening to help him understand our family’s past. He wasn’t amused at all. He expressed quite a lot of concern about why the British had to punish his grandfather “on his own soil”.

‘He said the whole act sounded barbaric. He wondered why the British never respected African culture. The arrest, he said, was outrageous.’ Shockingly, she adds: ‘Generally, my grandson has never believed the British do anything for a common good, rather than their selfish interests.’

Did British soldiers really torture President Obama’s grandfather? As we will see, some elements of this highly emotive story have been twisted through the passage of time.

But whatever the truth, these bitter tales form part of the Obama family folklore, and seem to have left the U.S. President with a vehemently anti-British outlook.

So has Obama’s memory of his grandfather’s treatment influenced his aggressive reaction to BP over its handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill?

The Government has become increasingly concerned by Obama’s anti-British rhetoric. For example, he has often referred to the global company as ‘British Petroleum’, although it changed its name to BP more than a decade ago, and even compared the disaster to 9/11.

Full Article on DailyMail

Former England international Andy Ripley has died from prostate cancer at the age of 62.

Back row forward Ripley won 24 caps for England in the 1970s and was part of the successful British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa in 1974.

An all-round athlete, and a qualified yachtsman, he won the BBC’s Superstars television series in 1980.

Ripley recently received an OBE for services to sport in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

The award was announced on 12 June, but Ripley collected it last month because his illness was so advanced.

Remarkably Ripley did not start playing rugby until he was 19 years-old, spending his entire career at Rosslyn Park, before retiring at 41.

Read Full Article

WATCH:

I’m already sick of the fact that i get told to like things on other websites that aren’t facebook or related. Imagine being asked to like the image of a man abusing young kids; there’s a facebook “like” icon and a text telling you “Be the first of your friends to like this.” Am i being asked to like the image of kids being abused?

Things are going to get worse now that facebook’s introduced the like button on comments… I tested it actually and below is a screen shot:

The good thing about the new facebook like button is… You get to know when someone is actually stalking you. Unlike before when you can only guess whether somebody likes a status just because you made a comment on it or because they actually do like it.

Dear Facebookers, Now you know who the stalker is, the one that likes your comment whenever you commented on somebody else’s profile. The liked your comment but not the status. Stalkers don’t have to be someone you don’t know, could be your cousin, your step-mum, your ex, neighbor, nosey friend,  or someone who’s just seeking for attention.

P.S. Dont forget to LIKE our “Facebook Page” now that the “Like” button is cheap and is everywhere + Follow us on Twitter

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Federal regulators are considering a snack attack on the nation’s airlines that would restrict or even completely ban serving peanuts on commercial flights.

Advocates say the move would ease fears and potential harm to an estimated 1.8 million Americans who suffer from peanut allergies. Peanut farmers and food packagers, however, see it as overreaching and unfair to their legume.

“The peanut is such a great snack and such an American snack,” says Martin Kanan, CEO of the King Nut Companies, an Ohio company that packages the peanuts served by most U.S. airlines. “What’s next? Is it banning peanuts in ballparks?”

Twelve years after Congress ordered it to back off peanuts, the U.S. Transportation Department gave notice last week that it’s gathering feedback from allergy sufferers, medical experts, the food industry and the public on whether to ban or restrict in-flight peanuts.

The peanut proposals were listed in an 84-page document including several other proposed consumer protections for air travelers. Three options were given: banning serving of peanuts on all planes; prohibiting peanuts only when an allergic passenger requests it in advance; or requiring an undefined “peanut-free zone” flight when a passenger asks for one.

While those options only pertain to peanuts served by flight crews, the document also states “we are particularly interested in hearing views on how peanuts and peanut products brought on board aircraft by passengers should be handled.”

Source: HuffingtonPost

Still, USA showed that they’re not just a sparring partner. Robbie Green made a huge mistake and got the ball into his goal. This got the USA on level terms, making it an amazing first half result for them. The goal scorer is Dempsey, but Green played quite a part.

So…. England 1 – USA 1…
WATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

C’mon England…

Two 19-year-old female British students were killed in a bus crash in Nelspruit, South Africa, today.

Up to 20 other people were injured in the crash, which happened in a mountainous part of northeast South Africa.

The girls were due to return to Britain tomorrow and are not thought to have been in the country for the World Cup celebrations.

Speaking at the scene near Nelspruit, police spokesman Captain Leonard Hlathi said the bus was carrying a group of students.

He said: ‘There was a bus crash and two of the passengers, both female, passed away at the scene.

‘Twenty of them were taken to the hospital and one of them was described as critical and was airlifted to Nelspruit Medi Clinic.

‘It happened about an hour ago. The driver apparently lost control and overturned.

‘The two bodies are being removed from the wreckage.’
He said the 20 injured included 18 Britons, the tour guide and driver.

The passengers were believed to be college students who had arrived in the country on June 1.

The accident happened a few miles from Barberton on the Bulembu road.

A British High Commission spokesman said: ‘We are aware of reports of a bus crash in Nelspruit.

‘We are working very closely with the South Africa authorities to try to ascertain more details.’

South Africa’s roads are notoriously dangerous.

The oldest example of a leather shoe has been discovered by archaeologists in a cave in Armenia.

At 5,500 years old, the well preserved cow-hide shoe pre-dates Stonehenge by 400 years and the Pyramids of Giza by 1,000 years.

It was made of a single piece of leather and was shaped to fit the wearer’s foot, the researchers say.

The shoe contained grass, although the archaeologists are uncertain as to whether this was to keep the foot warm or to maintain the shape of the footwear.

The authors are unsure whether it was worn by a man or a woman. The shoe is relatively small, corresponding to a UK women’s size 5 (European size 38; US size 7 women), but it could have been worn by a man of that period.

It was discovered at the Areni-1 cave in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia, which borders on Turkey and Iran.

The archaeologists put the shoe’s remarkable preservation down to the stable, cool and dry conditions in the cave and the fact that the floor of the cave was covered by a thick layer of sheep dung.

This layer of excrement acted as a solid seal, preserving it over the millennia.

“We thought initially that the shoe and other objects were about 600-700 years old because they were in such good condition,” said co-author Dr Ron Pinhasi from University College Cork in Ireland.

“It was only when the material was dated by the two radiocarbon laboratories in Oxford and in California that we realised that the shoe was older by a few hundred years than the shoes worn by Oetzi the Iceman.”

Other well preserved objects were also found in the cave, including large containers, many of which held wheat and barley, apricots and other edible plants.

Via BBC News

‘This is one of the most beautiful designs you’ve ever seen,’ said Jobs. ‘This is beyond a doubt one of the most precise and beautiful things we’ve ever made.’

It also has a powerful 5 mega-pixel camera with built-in LED flash and is able to record high definition video.

And it has a front-facing video camera whixh enables users to video-conference for the first time on an iPhone. This feature will be know as FaceTime, said Jobs.

Jobs also announced that the new iPhone’s resolution is far superior to any other smartphone screen currently available.

Unveiling the gadget’s so-called ‘retinal display’ of 326 pixels per inch (ppi) Jobs said this was better than the magic number of of 300 ppi.

iPhone 4 also has a much longer battery life, overcoming complaints that earlier versions burn through the power supply too quickly.

Other extras include a gyroscope which, when coupled with the existing accelerometer and compass, gives it six axis motion sensing.

And in a warning to Google, Jobs also announced that Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo will both now come as search options on the iPhone as well.

iPhone users will also be able to play hugely popular social media game Farmville, which is played by 35million people worldwide via Facebook.

Gizmodo said the new design is sleeker, flatter and squarer than the iPhone 3GS that it will replace.

The arrival of the new iPhone is expected to lead to Apple discontinuing supply of the original 3G version, while the price of the 3GS is expected to come down.

Currently, the UK’s biggest mobile network, Orange, offers a 16GB iPhone 3GS for £189 for those who take out a £25 a month contract for two years. That is a total cost comes to £789.

The same phone can be bought for £450 for those who want a pay as you go deal.

Read Full article

The body of Shaun Rossington, 21, who had mild learning difficulties, was discovered on a grass verge close to a city centre Waitrose store.

It is unclear if the keen football fan was targeted by a gang because of his disability. But it is understood that he knew all of those who have been arrested.

The victim had been at home with his parents, Sharon and Kevin, hours before he died. The couple left him watching television when they want to bed on Wednesday night.

It is not known why Mr Rossington left home but his body was discovered in Lincoln city centre early the next morning. A post mortem examination revealed he had died from head injuries.

Two men, aged 25 and 20, three 16-yearold boys, and two girls, aged 13 and 16, were arrested ‘in and around’ the historic city and were being questioned in connection with the killing last night.

His parents described him as a ‘gentle giant’. The couple, from Lincoln, said: ‘He only had friends  -  no enemies. His passions were football, cars and the gym.

‘He loved watching Lincoln City play and would never miss a home match. He was so looking forward to watching all the World Cup games on the television.’

Mr Rossington was not a big drinker and had not been targeted because of his learning difficulties in the past, police said.

His parents said it was ‘totally out of character’ for him to leave home so late at night, adding: ‘He was his usual happy self watching television when we went to bed.

‘It is all just so difficult to understand what has happened.’ A friend of Mr Rossington’s, Carl Walster, said: ‘His dad used to run a football team, and Shaun was there every Sunday.

‘He was always full of life, playing around, and never seemed miserable at all. He was very bubbly.

‘I’m absolutely gobsmacked at the moment though. Shaun was a great lad and will be missed by all.’

Mr Rossington played for the Lincoln City Sharks, a club founded nine years ago for youths with disabilities, and followed Manchester United as well as his local side.

Several Facebook groups have been set up in memory of Mr Rossington, who also leaves a brother, Chris, 24.

Dozens of bouquets and football shirts and scarves have been left at the scene of the attack.

Detective Superintendent Mark Hosty, of Lincolnshire Police, appealed for anybody with information on the killing to call officers ‘in confidence’.