RIGHTS campaigners have reacted furiously after a US student based in Scotland unmasked himself as the author of the “Gay Girl in Damascus” blogs, which charted the security crackdown in Syria.

The hoaxer behind a fake blog that claimed to be written by a lesbian Syrian-American living in Damascus, and which caught worldwide attention, has defended the stunt.

A stricken Canadian sub was today continuing its slow progress towards a naval base on the west coast of Scotland, four days after a fire left it paralysed in the mid-Atlantic.