News of the World scandal: It shouldn't have happened, Murdoch admits

• RICHARD CLUNE AND WIRES 
• From:The Sunday Telegraph  
• July 17, 2011

Sally Dowler (L), mother of murdered school girl Milly Dowler, walks with her daughter Gemma Dowler from the One Aldwych Hotel after meeting with News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch in London. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Source: The Sunday Telegraph

CRADLING his head in his hands, a humbled Rupert Murdoch made a heartfelt apology to the family of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler."Sorry," said Mr Murdoch, adding: "Sorry, this should not have happened."

Delivered with a deep sense of sincerity, his apology came after the billionaire businessman - owner of News Limited, publisher of this website  - convened a meeting with the Dowlers at a London hotel on Friday afternoon.

It followed a fortnight of devastating details regarding the News Of The World scandal, specifically that the Murdoch-owned tabloid had paid a private investigator to hack into the phone of the then missing 13-year-old.

Several of Milly's voicemail messages were subsequently deleted, feeding the Dowlers' false hope that their daughter - abducted days earlier - remained alive.

Six months later, in September 2002, her body was discovered in woods near the town of Yateley, Hampshire.

Mr Murdoch met with the Dowlers - mum Sally, dad Bob, sister Gemma - and their solicitor, Mark Lewis.

"It was a private meeting called for by Rupert Murdoch. He was humbled to give a full and sincere apology to the Dowler family," Mr Lewis said outside One Aldwych Hotel.

"He was very humbled and very shaken and very sincere. I think this was something that had hit him on a very personal level and was something that shouldn't have happened. He apologised many times. I don't think somebody could have held their head in their hands so many times and said that they were sorry ... He said the words, 'Sorry, this should not have happened'."

Mr Murdoch told the Dowlers the News Of The World's actions were "not the standard set by his father, a respected journalist, not the standard set by his mother".

The Dowlers "told him his papers should lead the way to set the standards of honesty and decency in the field, and not what had gone on before ... actions are going to speak louder than words".

While the Dowlers are suing News Of The World, compensation was not discussed.

Mr Murdoch said: "As founder of the company I was appalled to find out what had happened and I apologised." The personal apology came as full-page ads were taken out in all national British weekend papers in which Mr Murdoch reiterated his remorse.

Under the headline, "We Are Sorry", Mr Murdoch said: "The News Of The World was in the business of holding others to account. It failed when it came to itself. We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected. In the coming days, as we take further concrete steps to resolve these issues and make amends for the damage they have caused, you will hear more from us."

Mr Murdoch has been called before a parliamentary committee next week to answer questions over the scandal.

Humbled: News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch looks down as he leaves the One Aldwych Hotel to speak with reporters after meeting with the family of murdered school girl Milly Dowler in London, England. Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Murdoch lieutenant Les Hinton quits over scandal

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/15/us-newscorp-hinton-idUSTRE76E5ZQ20110715


Fri Jul 15, 2011

(Reuters) - Les Hinton, the top executive of Rupert Murdoch's Dow Jones & Co, resigned on Friday after becoming a target of criticism for the phone-hacking scandal that occurred when he oversaw News Corp's British newspapers.

"I have watched with sorrow from New York as the News of the World story has unfolded," Hinton, who also served as publisher of the Wall Street Journal, wrote in his resignation letter.

"That I was ignorant of what apparently happened is irrelevant and in the circumstances I feel it is proper for me to resign from News Corp, and apologize to those hurt by the actions of the News of the World," he added.

News Corp, parent of Dow Jones, has been at the center of a storm over a voicemail hacking scandal at its tabloid News of the World.

Another top Murdoch confidante, Rebekah Brooks, who worked under Hinton when she was News of the World's editor, also resigned earlier on Friday.

Hinton, 67, has worked alongside Murdoch for more than five decades, rising through the ranks until he was tapped to run News International in 1995, and later Dow Jones after News Corp bought the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

A person close to the company described Hinton as "the ultimate company man" who in recent days had come to the conclusion that someone had to take full responsibility for the hacking that occurred under his watch.

The decision was made over the past few days, following back-and-forth discussions with Murdoch, the person said, adding that the final say boiled down to Hinton.

"Les saw the hurt that was happening with the company and wanted to ameliorate the situation," the person said.

Hinton's departure is the latest dramatic development at News Corp, which is attempting to quiet the storm surrounding revelations of telephone hacking at News of the World. The resignations of two top Murdoch lieutenants follows News Corp's decision to abandon a $12 billion plan to buy full control of pay TV operator BSkyB.

At the Wall Street Journal, news of Hinton's resignation was greeted by gasps and a stunned silence, despite speculation in both London and New York that Hinton could be toppled by transgressions that occurred on his watch.

On two occasions, Hinton addressed British parliamentary committees about the News of the World phone hacking, testifying both times that a full internal investigation had been carried out.

That testimony has resurfaced in press reports over recent days as new questions have been made about the depth of phone hacking at the tabloid -- including allegations that victims of notorious crimes, bombings and war may have been targeted.

Following Hinton's departure, Dow Jones President Todd Larsen will report to News Corp Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, the company said. The company is not seeking a replacement for Hinton at present.

Reuters is a competitor of Dow Jones Newswires, the financial news agency that News Corp acquired along with the Wall Street Journal in 2007.

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch and Yinka Adegoke; editing Carol Bishopric)

Special Report:

Inside Rebekah Brooks' News of the World

By Georgina Prodhan and Kate Holton

LONDON | Sat Jul 16, 2011

(Reuters) - "It was the kind of place you get out of and you never want to go back again." That's how one former reporter describes the News of the World newsroom under editor Rebekah Brooks, the ferociously ambitious titian-haired executive who ran Britain's top-selling Sunday tabloid from 2000 to 2003.

Journalists who worked there in that period describe an industrialized operation of dubious information-gathering, reporters under intense pressure attempting to land exclusive stories by whatever means necessary, and a culture of fear, cynicism, gallows humor and fierce internal competition.

"We used to talk to career criminals all the time. They were our sources," says another former reporter from the paper who also worked for Murdoch's daily tabloid, the Sun. "It was a macho thing: 'My contact is scummier than your contact.' It was a case of: 'Mine's a murderer!' On the plus side, we always had a resident pet nutter around in case anything went wrong."

The 168-year-old paper published for the last time last Sunday after exposure of its widespread use of phone-hacking triggered a scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper group News International, its New York-based parent company News Corp, and Britain's political classes and police.

Brooks, one of two top Murdoch executives who resigned on Friday, has maintained she neither sanctioned nor knew about the phone hacking. The Guardian newspaper reported the paper's targets went beyond celebrities to include murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and the bereaved relatives of dead soldiers. Murdoch has apologized personally to the Dowler family.

Four former employees of Britain's best-selling Sunday tabloid have told Reuters that Brooks' denials are simply not credible. They say people on the paper's newsdesk, the hub that directs news coverage, were regularly grilled about the top stories by Brooks and later by her successor Andy Coulson, who resigned over the phone-hacking scandal in 2007 and went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman.

"They went in and they were cross-examined for two hours every day. And it was all about the genesis of all the stories," the first ex-reporter, who worked at the paper for seven years, told Reuters.

The News of the World's reporting methods were first questioned when it published a story about an injury to Prince William's knee in 2005, prompting fears his aides' voicemail messages were being intercepted. The royal family complained to police. More than a year later the paper's royal editor Clive Goodman and private detective Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for six months for conspiracy to access phone messages.

Coulson, by then the newspaper's editor, resigned immediately, although like Brooks he has repeatedly denied any knowledge of phone-hacking. Until recently, the paper continued to maintain that the hacking was isolated to Goodman.

Former employees say that's hard to believe, not only because of the story approval process, but also because budgets were so tightly controlled that payments for such services would not have gone unnoticed.

"It's simply not conceivable that somebody who was editor wouldn't have known," says the journalist who spent seven years at the paper, covering general news.

Neither Brooks nor Coulson could be reached for comment, and News International declined comment for this story beyond saying: "There are numerous views from former employees and we are not going to counter each one."

Reuters is a competitor of Dow Jones Newswires, the financial news agency that News Corp acquired along with the Wall Street Journal in 2007.

SURVIVALISTS

When Brooks became editor, at age 31, she had a brief to broaden the paper's appeal by intensifying the focus on celebrity and showbusiness news and publishing fewer of the harder stories the paper had been known for -- politicians caught taking illegal drugs or footballers caught with their pants down. More and more front pages were taken over by stories about C-list celebrities, such as contestants in the TV reality show "Big Brother," to the irritation of the old guard.

At the same time, the pressure to get exclusive stories was so intense that dubious practices were barely questioned. "They were 'dodgy business HQ'. I'm not sure if people even realized it was illegal. It was a don't-get-caught culture," said the reporter of seven years' standing. New staff would be given the cold shoulder until they'd proved themselves to be "thoroughly disreputable" so their colleagues could trust them.

"It was no place for anyone to pipe up and say: 'This doesn't seem ethical to me.' That would have made you a laughing stock."

Journalists didn't explicitly ask for private investigators to get involved in their work, but help would be provided if a reporter got stuck on a promising story. "How it arrived on your desk was a bit of a mystery. You didn't know and you didn't ask," said the reporter. "Every week, somebody's mobile phone records, somebody's landline records, sometimes even somebody's medical records. It was common enough not to be notable."

A fifth former News International employee who worked with News Of the World journalists at this time said its reporters were under "unbelievable, phenomenal pressure," treated harshly by bosses who would shout abuse in their faces and keep a running total of their bylines. Journalists were driven by a terror of failing. If they didn't regularly get stories, they feared, they would be fired. That meant they competed ruthlessly with each other.

Because the News of the World was a Sunday paper, where a hot story on Tuesday could be useless five days later, pressure was much more intense than at the Sun, said the ex-journalist who worked at both titles.

"The News of the World was much more secretive than the Sun. At the Sun, you knew what was going on, what people were working on. In the News of the World you never knew what anyone was working on. They'd send you out to a job and wouldn't tell you what it was for. It'd be: 'You're going to meet a man. Don't ask his name and whatever you do don't get him excited. Just take his statement and leave,'" he said.

"You became a complete survivalist."

Reporters say they lived in constant fear of byline counts which weeded out those who had filed the fewest stories. "They were always seeking to get rid of people because it was a burn-out job. Their ideal situation was you work your nuts off for six months and they let you work there another six months," said the general news reporter.

"Every minute you spent there you felt that your employer hated you."

DESTROYING LIVES

Charles Begley, an ex-News of the World reporter, has spoken out about the bullying culture. He said he felt close to breaking-point when, three hours after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York's twin towers, he was ordered to appear at the paper's daily conference dressed in a Harry Potter outfit he had been given to help the tabloid capitalize on the craze for the books about the boy wizard.

"At that time, we were working on the assumption that up to 50,000 people had been killed," he said then, according to tapes published in 2002 by the Daily Telegraph of a conversation between him and assistant news editor Greg Miskiw. "I was required to parade myself around morning conference dressed as Harry Potter."

It was during this conversation that Miskiw made a comment that was to become notorious in Britain: "That is what we do -- we go out and destroy other people's lives."

Contacted for this story, Begley said he did not wish to comment further on his experiences but stood by statements he made at the time.

The reporter who worked on both the Sun and the News of the World recalls that at one stage, every journalist in the News of the World newsroom was ordered to apply to become a contestant on "Big Brother," in the hope the paper could do an undercover report on it.

"Someone came round the office with all these application forms and we were all given a three-line whip to try to get on that bloody show. They were desperate to get someone on there and 'expose' it all. Everyone was moaning about it," he said.

The same journalist also described how four reporters were sent off as a punishment to spend a stint on a crack-ridden estate in Bristol and write a feature about it. They never went, he said.

Matt Driscoll, a sports reporter sacked in April 2007 while on long-term sick leave for stress-related depression, was later awarded 800,000 pounds ($1.3 million) for unfair dismissal. The employment tribunal found that he had suffered from a culture of bullying led by then-editor Coulson.

"Nobody ever felt secure there and that's the way they liked it. On the edge, scared, insecure," said the general news reporter.

SAVING MONEY

Contrary to a popular perception that the tabloid threw large sums of money around to get stories, the news budget was extremely tightly controlled, the journalists said. One described how entire expense reports might be struck through with a red line without any reason given.

Readers who supplied a front-page story would typically be paid about 10,000 pounds, while story pitches negotiated by a publicist would command at least twice that. Smaller user-submitted stories would fetch a couple of hundred pounds. On Saturday afternoon, when it was too late for a reader to sell a story to another paper, their fee would often be reduced.

This is another reason it was hard to believe senior editors were not aware of phone hacking and other expensive illegal services provided by outsiders, the ex-reporters told Reuters. Mulcaire, the private investigator later jailed for phone hacking, was paid more than 100,000 pounds a year by the News of the World.

"No newspaper editor would not know what a 102,000 pound budget was used for. They knew about every 50 quid," said the long-term freelancer.

Eavesdropping on voicemail or obtaining call logs was initially a money-saving measure, according to the former employees. Rather than committing a reporter to stake out a venue for as long as it took to catch out a couple having an affair, for example, voicemails could first be scrutinized to establish the time and place of a rendez-vous, saving the reporter time and the paper money.

As its uses became apparent, it was employed more and more. The general news reporter said he was first shown how to listen in to people's cellphone voicemail by a colleague in the 1990s.

"It became the course of first resort rather than last," the long-term freelancer told Reuters.

CYNICAL

But the focus on celebrities and reality television stars was causing problems inside the paper.

"It was a ridiculously cynical approach to news," says Peter Burden, author of the 2008 book "News of the World? Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings." "They just thought: here are these endless people that Joe Public are interested in because of 'Big Brother', and they thought they could do what the hell they liked with them and they raided them rotten, them and their families."

Editors would then often use damaging stories as bargaining chips, trading them for future access to public figures or to build relationships with stars. Often, the paper would drop the story they had altogether and publish something more sympathetic.

"It would be things like: 'We know you were sleeping with your secretary but we'll keep it out of the paper if you give us the story about how you were given away as a child," said the long-term freelancer.

"They used to call stories 'levers'," said the general news reporter. "They weren't necessarily interested any more in using the story you'd proved or got past the lawyers. They were interested in using the story as leverage in order to get a different story. Sometimes the kind of story that you would bargain as an alternative wasn't actually the truth. It annoyed a lot of reporters.

"It was relationship-building for them. Basically, she (Brooks) was trading in your hard work to be friends with influential PRs. They used the stories to bank credit with influential people. It then made the whole raison d'etre of the place something different."

MACHO CULTURE

Brooks did little to change the paper's culture. Former employees say she could equal her male counterparts in swearing, and would join the men for a drink in the pub. She could also be fearsome, intimidating even the aggressive Miskiw.

"Part of that macho culture was that you would laugh at the risk and the dodgy illegality you might find yourself involved in," said the general news reporter.

It became practically a matter of honor not to use respectable journalistic methods, the reporters said.

"The whole idea of having friendly relations with someone and getting them on the record -- that was just weird. You had to get stuff on someone and then confront them," he said.

In Brooks's resignation statement on Friday, she said: "I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt ... I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist."

(Additional reporting by Olesya Dmitracova and Stephen Mangan in London and James Mackenzie in Rome; Editing by Simon Robinson and Sara Ledwith)

2. Obama, GOP trade debt plan demands |
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3. Special Report-Inside Rebekah Brooks' News of the World
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5. Special Report: Inside Rebekah Brooks' News of the World

What was the real reason why Rupert and James Murdoch decided to so suddenly shut done the weekly publiching of News of the World .....

without even trying to find a buyer for this profitable newspaper and refusing all offers for the sale of the official News of the World newspaper business that is estatimated ot have been makinge over 100 million pounds a year in real net profit for News Corp and its subsidiary News International Limited?
...the response on the 12th July 2011 to an offer to purchase the business known as News of the World for 100 million pounds from News Corp was...'News of the World is not for sale at any price...even after News Corpand news Interenational  were told that if it is not sold this week, it will have no value next week because MrWijat and his INL News Group are launching
' News Of The World' under their Internet Websites
www.NewsOfTheWorld.bz and www.NOTW.bz
and once these are launched the orginal News of the World business previously run by News Corp and New International will have no value at all..thus closing down the publishing of the newpsaper 'News of the World' and offering to sell the business known as News of the World today is a fraud on the shareholders of News Corp by deliberately destroying assets and/or not protecting assets belonging to the shareholders of News Corp which is a publicly listed company..the sharehoders may want to take action in this regard..


F1 - News of the World shutting down 7th July 2011

Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks agrees to give evidence to MPs but James and Rupert Murdoch delay

Rupert Murdoch and son James are being issued with a parliament summons after saying they were not available to appear before a committee.

News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks has agreed to give evidence to MPs over the phone hacking scandal next week.

But Rupert and James Murdoch said they could not make the date with the Commons Culture Select Committee.

The younger Murdoch had offered to appear on August 10 instead.

It is not clear whether the committee will be able to compel the men to face questioning as they are US citizens.

In his letter to committee chairman John Whittingdale, Mr Murdoch senior said that although he was not available on Tuesday, he was "fully prepared" to give evidence to the judge-led inquiry announced by David Cameron yesterday.

"I will be taking steps to notify those conducting the inquiry of my willingness to do so," the letter said.

"Having done this, I would be happy to discuss with you how best to give evidence to your committee."

The development came after Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg insisted Mr Murdoch should submit to a grilling by the committee if he has a "shred of responsibility".

James Murdoch wrote that he could attend on August 10 or 11, adding: "Naturally if neither of these proves suitable, I would be willing to consider any alternative dates you suggest."

But, in a statement, the MPs said: "The committee has made clear its view that all three should appear to account for the behaviour of News International and for previous statements made to the committee in Parliament, now acknowledged to be false.

"Accordingly, the committee has this morning decided to summon Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch to appear before the Select Committee in Parliament at 2.30pm on Tuesday July 19 2011."

Ms Brooks's response to the committee said she "welcomed the opportunity" to give evidence. But the former News of the World and Sun editor warned that she may refuse to answer detailed questions about allegations of phone hacking by the newspapers.

"Given that we are in the midst of an investigation, and we do not want to prejudice it, I hope you will understand why we feel it would not be appropriate to respond to such questions at present in order to be consistent with the police's approach, and that as a result this may prevent me from discussing these matters in detail," she wrote.

Mr Whittingdale said the Deputy Serjeant at Arms of the House of Commons would now deliver the summons to the Murdochs in person.

He insisted select committees had taken such steps against individuals in the past, and they had complied.

"I hope very much that the Murdochs will respond similarly," Mr Whittingdale said.

The Tory MP said he was particularly "anxious" that James Murdoch answer questions.

"He has stated that Parliament has been misled by people in his employment," he said.

"We felt that to wait until August was unjustifiable."

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/07/14/phone-hacking-rebekah-brooks-agrees-to-give-evidence-to-mps-but-james-and-rupert-murdoch-delay-115875-23270805/#ixzz1SB3GlZAV 
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Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/07/14/phone-hacking-rebekah-brooks-agrees-to-give-evidence-to-mps-but-james-and-rupert-murdoch-delay-115875-23270805/#ixzz1SB3Bcg9w 
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News of the World phone hacking: The Murdoch squad

by Tom Pettifor, Daily Mirror 15/07/2011

Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at theNews of the World, worked for the Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson until September last year.

IT’S a special relationship Rupert Murdoch has nurtured for the past 25 years.

But the media mogul’s close links to the police came back to haunt him yesterday as more explosive details in the phone-hacking scandal emerged.

In another nightmare day for the News International chief, it emerged the latest of his former executives to be arrested was a paid adviser to Britain’s top police officer.

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Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the News of the World, worked for the Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson until September last year.

He was employed shortly after Scotland Yard claimed there was no need to reopen the phone-hacking investigation two years ago.

It also emerged Sir Paul, assistant commissioners John Yates and Andy Hayman have had numerous lunches with News International representatives in the past few years.

In another bombshell development yesterday, Ulrika Jonsson claimed a News of the World executive once warned her not to leave voicemails on her phone as they would be intercepted.

The TV star revealed police had warned her earlier this year the Sunday tabloid had her mobile pin and numbers for her automatic front gate and it was likely she was “being watched”.

Ms Jonsson said: “My head started pounding. I felt sick. I felt really scared.”

News International’s links with the police go back to Mr Murdoch’s union-breaking Wapping dispute in 1986. Scotland Yard officers were deployed to protect The Sun and News of the World staff crossing picket lines for over a year.

It has been claimed some policemen who ringed the East London plant were later given positions as security guards.

Mr Wallis, nicknamed the Wolfman for his beard and aggressive style, was arrested in a dawn raid on his home. He was quizzed over industrial-style hacking at the News of the World when he was deputy to ex-Downing Street spin doctor Andy Coulson.

After 10 hours he was released on bail from Hammersmith police station, West London. Mr Wallis’s arrest is the fourth in less than a week and ninth in total over hacking and police bribery allegations.

Mr Wallis, a former editor of The People and deputy of The Sun, joined the News of the World in 2003 – shortly after Mr Coulson took over – and worked there for six years before leaving to run a public relations agency.

Speculation that Mr Wallis would be arrested has been rife for days and intensified this week when it was alleged he had been copied into emails in 2007 that News International chiefs apparently hid from police.

They are claimed to have contained evidence of unlawful payments made to police officers, including at least one in the Met’s royal and diplomatic protection squad. One email is said to have authorised payment for a stolen telephone directory containing royal numbers.

Home Secretary Theresa May last night wrote to Sir Paul to demand “the full picture” regarding his links with Mr Wallis.

Mr Wallis is believed to have set up the Police Bravery Awards alongside the Police Federation during his time working for Mr Murdoch’s Sun.

And he may also have been instrumental in hiring former Met chief Lord Stephens on a retainer for News of the World as guest columnist The Chief.

Yesterday it emerged his PR firm was paid £24,000 to advise commissioner Sir Paul and assistant commissioner John Yates on a part-time basis from October 2009 to September 2010.

Chamy Media provided “strategic communication advice and support” while the force’s deputy director of public affairs was on sick leave.

A Scotland Yard statement said: “Three relevant companies were invited to provide costings for this service on the basis of two days per month.

“Chamy Media were appointed as they were significantly cheaper than the others.”

As part of the contract, Mr Wallis advised the commissioner’s office, the directorate of public affairs and specialist operations. Sir Paul has made the chair of the police authority aware of the contract, which ended before Operation Weeting, the hacking investigation, started in January.

In September 2006, Sir Paul, then deputy commissioner, accompanied by the Yard’s head PR man, Dick Fedorcio, dined with Mr Wallis. It was a month after officers had arrested News of the World’s royal correspondent Clive Goodman and at a time when detectives were still attempting to investigate whether other journalists or executives were potential suspects.

Sir Paul yesterday said his integrity was “completely intact” as he defended his decision to dine with Mr Wallis. He told the Metropolitan Police Authority: “I do not believe that on any occasion I have acted inappropriately.”

Assistant Commissioner Yates has admitted meeting Mr Wallis on a number of occasions, including after Operation Weeting was launched. It was Mr Yates’ decision in 2009 not to reopen the hacking investigation, despite claims the original investigation had been inadequate.

MPs have already raised concerns about the fact that the man who headed the original inquiry in 2006, Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, subsequently went to work for the News of the World’s parent company, News International, writing a regular column in the Times.

Sir Paul declared 24 meetings – 18 of which were lunches or meals – with representatives from the News International. Mr Hayman declared seven and Mr Yates five.

It also emerged yesterday the family of Jean Charles de Menezes – shot dead by police who mistook him for a terrorist in 2005 – were among new claims of phone hacking.

London nightclub owner Guy Pelly – a close friend of Prince William – glamour model Abi Titmuss and Ms Jonsson have all lodged writs against News International.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson last night had a meeting with Sir Paul over claims his phone had been hacked.

David Cameron has apparently lashed out at deputy Nick Clegg after learning from a TV report that the Lib Dem leader was meeting Milly Dowler’s family, it was claimed.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/07/15/rebekah-brooks-read-her-resignation-message-to-news-international-staff-115

Rebekah Brooks' resignation message to News International staff

By Mirror.co.uk 15/07/2011

Here is the full internal message from Rebekah Brooks to News International staff:

"At News International we pride ourselves on setting the news agenda for the right reasons. Today we are leading the news for the wrong ones.

"The reputation of the company we love so much, as well as the press freedoms we value so highly, are all at risk.

"As Chief Executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place.

"I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate.

"This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past.

"Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation.

"While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted.

"Rupert's wisdom, kindness and incisive advice has guided me throughout my career and James is an inspirational leader who has shown me great loyalty and friendship.

"I would like to thank them both for their support.

"I have worked here for 22 years and I know it to be part of the finest media company in the world.

"News International is full of talented, professional and honourable people. I am proud to have been part of the team and lucky to know so many brilliant journalists and media executives.

"I leave with the happiest of memories and an abundance of friends.

"As you can imagine recent times have been tough. I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist, an editor and executive.

"My resignation makes it possible for me to have the freedom and the time to give my full cooperation to all the current and future inquiries, the police investigations and the CMS appearance.

"I am so grateful for all the messages of support. I have nothing but overwhelming respect for you and our millions of readers.

"I wish every one of you all the best."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/07/14/phone-hacking-new-arrest-in-news-of-the-world-investigation-1158

Phone hacking: New arrest in News of the World investigation

14/07/2011

Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis was arrested today over phone hacking at the newspaper, sources said.

Wallis, 60, was held at his home in west London by detectives from Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard investigation into mobile interceptions by the Sunday tabloid.

He became deputy editor of the News of the World in 2003 and served under Andy Coulson's editorship before becoming the paper's executive editor in 2007.

It is the ninth arrest Scotland Yard has made since the fresh investigation into phone hacking was launched.

A Scotland Yard statement confirmed the arrest was carried out at 6.30am.

"The man is currently in custody at a west London police station," it said.

"It would be inappropriate to discuss any further details at this time."

Former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson, 43, was arrested on Friday by the team of detectives investigating alleged phone hacking and illegal payments to police by the News of the World, where he was editor until 2007.

On the same day police also held former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, 53, and an unnamed 63-year-old man in connection with allegations of corruption.

All three men were released on bail until October.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/07/14/phone-hacking-rebekah-brooks-agrees-to-give-evidence-to-mps-but-james-and-rupert-murdo

Rupert Murdoch sees £8billion BSkyB takeover bid collapse 14/07/2011 00:00

Phone-hacking inquiry judge put serial killer Rose West behind bars 14/07/2011 00:00

Rupert Murdoch's Sky blow 14/07/2011 00:00

Alastair Campbell holding forth about amoral journalism is breathtaking hypocrisy 14/07/2011 00:00

Milly Dowler's family meet David Cameron over phone hacking 13/07/2011 00:00

Rebekah Brooks resigns: Your tweets 15/07/2011 00:00

Rebekah Brooks resigns as chief executive of News International over phone hacking scandal 15/07/2011 00:00

Rupert Murdoch agrees to face MPs on hacking 15/07/2011 00:00

News of the World phone hacking: The Murdoch squad 15/07/2011 00:00

Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks agrees to give evidence to MPs but James and Rupert Murdoch delay 14/07/2011 00:00

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/07/15/rebekah-brooks-read-her-resignation-message-to-news-international-staff-115875-23272862/#ixzz1SB2TQD9J 
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Rebekah Brooks resigns: Your tweets 15/07/2011 00:00

Rebekah Brooks' resignation message to News International staff 15/07/2011 00:00

Rebekah Brooks resigns as chief executive of News International over phone hacking scandal 15/07/2011 00:00

FBI 'probing News of the World 9/11 hacking claims' 14/07/2011 00:00

Phone-hacking scandal: Jean Charles de Menezes' cousin may have been a victim 14/07/2011 00:00

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/07/15/the-murdoch-squad-115875-23271897/#ixzz1SB0l9xPA 
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Rebekah Brooks resigns: Your tweets

By Mirror.co.uk 15/07/2011

Rebekah Brooks resigned this morning as chief executive of News International.

Seconds after the announcement was made people all over the world took to Twitter to have their say on the news. Here's a selection of some of the tweets...

simon_price01 Simon Price 
Rebekah Brooks has resigned. I'd love to know what's made her position untenable TODAY, as opposed to every other day of the last seven.

emilybell emily bell 
Rebekah Brooks has resigned, which must be a huge blow to James Murdoch who said 'no-one ' better placed to run News International

AngryBritain AngryBritain.com 
Rebekah Brooks has resigned. I already knew that as I was hacking her phone.

Krizanovich Karen Krizanovich 
RT @stevegreer: That Rebekah Brooks resignation email really needed a copy-editor Maybe she knows a few people who have just gone freelance?

jamesmb jamesmb 
BREAKING NEWS: Rupert Murdoch's mobile voicemail hacked - message from Rebekah Brooks saying she's resigned found.

lucymanning lucy manning 
Guess Rebekah Brooks resignation saves the select committee from having to ask 'When are you going to resign'

RedHeadFashion Jo 
'An abundance of friends'? Didn't you just fire quite a few of them? *Rebekah Brooks finally resigns, for maximum effect*

brokentv Mark X 
Coincidence? Rebekah Brooks resigns on the day many of the BBC News staff are on strike

jamesecook James Cook 
Rebekah Brooks leaves News International to concentrate on making a coat out of dalmatians.

jonboy79 Jon Holmes 
I am paying my own personal tribute to Rebekah Brooks' career by listening to Toxic by Britney Spears on my iPod

davedawes Dave Dawes 
And the sun is shining ... even God's happy with this! RT @guardiantech Rebekah Brooks has resigned from News International

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/07/15/rebekah-brooks-resigns-the-world-takes-to-twitter-to-have-their-say-115875-23272866/#ixzz1SB1HkDZ2 
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News Corp. DropsBid for BSkyB
14th July 2011

New York: By Dana Cimilluca

London: NewsCorp. cropped its bid to take full control of british Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. as a potilical firestrom ignited by reporting tactics reroutedthe company' strategic ambitions and delivered a blow to influence in Britain.
The retreat illustrates how politically isolated News Corp and uts chairman and chief executive Rpert Murdoch have suddenly become in the U.K.
Mr Murdoch entered the British Market 40 years ago as an outsider who battles his way to become an establishment kingpin through tenacity and a semmingly endless ability to disregard his critics.
That hard-won political capital appeared to vaporize amid a scandal built on allegations that his then News of the World tabloid obtained information by bribing police officers and illegally accessing the mobile phone voice mails of politicians, celebrities and crime victims.
Just over a week ago, News Corp., which has lpng exercised influence over politicians in the country, was on the brink of gaining government approval for its attempt to acquire the 60.9% of BSkB that it donesn't already own. The deal could have valued the saptelite broadcaster at $25 billion or more.
The chance for approval collapased, however, as the company's support crumbles with the flare-up of the long running tabloid scandal. Once steadfast allies who long courted Mr. Murdoch's support - such as U.K. Prime Minsinster David Cameron - instead distanced themselves from the company amid the latest allegations.
News Corp. pulled the plug on the deal justr hours before a vote in which Mr. Cameron's Conservastive Psrty lined up to support a motion by the opposition Labour  Party urging the company to abandon the bid. Accoring to people familiar with the sequence of events, it was news of the prime minister's decision Wednewsday to join his political rivals in opposing the BSkyB deal that sealed the company's move.
The deal's demise is a setback for Mr. Murdoch's son, James, who had played a central role in the proposed purchase, and who had acnowledged shortcomings in his and other executives' prior responses to the scandal that ultimately underminded it.
James Murdoch, deputy operating officer of News Corp. and charmand of BSkyB,is widely seen as the leading candidate to seceed his father at the helm of the media giant.
James, togther with his father and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, made the decision to pull the BSkyB bid in a meeting Wednesday morning at News Corp.'s Wapping offices on the north bank of the thames River in London, according to people familiar with the meeting.
The collapse of what would hav ebeen News Corp.'s biggest taleover deal to date raises questions about the strategic directipn of the sprawling media conglomerate, which owns a disparate array of businesses from cable channels to the Twentieth Centrury Fox movie studio and newspaper including The Wall Street Journal and the New Your Post. News Corp. has=d $11,8 billion in cash at the end of March and the company is likely to come under pressure to return at least some of that to shareholders now that it won't spend it on BSkyB.
The BSkyB deal was designed to boost New Corp.'s exposure to the lucrative and steady pay-TV business, as the company's newspaper holding come under pressure from declining readership and advertising revenue.

The article is compliments of the The Wall Street Journal

Rupert Murdoch's' News Limited and News International's Phone Hacking scandal: July  2011 as it happened summary from the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/

Phone Hacking
The latest news on the phone hacking scandal, which has seen News of
the World close down and Rupert Murdoch withdraw his bid to take over
BSkyB.


Gordon Brown gets his revenge on Murdoch
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8636254/Phone-hacking-Gordon-Brown-gets-his-revenge-on-News-International.html

Furious former PM attack accuses News International of criminality and
collusion with “the underworld”.
Pressure on Murdoch and Brooks to face MPs

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8636720/Phone-hacking-pressure-on-News-International-three-to-face-MPs-questions.html

Phone hacking: pressure on 'News International three' to face MPs' questions
MPs will meet today to decide whether to summon News International
chief executive Rebekah Brooks to answer questions over the phone
hacking scandal.

By James Orr 14 Jul 2011

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee also wants to question
Rupert Murdoch and his son James, but cannot force them to appear as
they are not UK citizens.

Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has claimed Rupert Murdoch must
appear before MPs if he is to demonstrate “any shred of
responsibility” over the crisis.

The Liberal Democrat leader insisted “big questions” needed to be
answered about the News Corporation chairman’s fitness to own media
outlets in Britain.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Clegg stated that “of
course” media proprietors should agree to appear at such hearings.

He said: “If they have any shred of sense of responsibility or
accountability for their position of power, then they should come and
explain themselves before a select committee.
Related Articles

   Clegg questions whether Murdoch is fit to own British media
   14 Jul 2011

   Cabinet Office to release hacking advice given to Brown
   14 Jul 2011

   Two years in the plotting, Brown gets his revenge
   14 Jul 2011

   Rebekah Brooks suffers a blow from Kelvin MacKenzie
   14 Jul 2011

   Yard warns News International not to play 'legal games'
   14 Jul 2011

   Clegg: 'I do not recall Brown's Coulson warning'
   14 Jul 2011

"This whole episode has cast a spotlight on the murky world of the
British establishment of the police, the press, and politicians. We
must now take this opportunity to clean things up and make sure the
public once again trusts those institutions.

"It clearly goes beyond News International. It is clearly something
much more systemic. I don't think we should allow ourselves to believe
that it is just because of the Murdochs, or Rebekah Brooks, or it's
all about one commercial transaction, however significant.

"I think what has come to light in the last week or two is a symptom
of a much wider problem. That problem is that different bits of the
national system - the press, the police, the politicians - just became
too close to each other, became too cosy with each other."

Last week Mr Murdoch, 80, took the decision to shut down the News of
the World newspaper over the scandal and later dropped his bid to
control BSkyB.

US politicians are also demanding a probe into phone hacking allegations.

On Tuesday, the CMS committee invited Mrs Brooks and the Murdochs to
give evidence about the phone-hacking scandal at the House of Commons.

In a statement, the MPs said that serious questions had arisen about
the evidence Mrs Brooks and Andy Coulson, both of them former News of
the World editors, gave at a previous hearing in 2003.

Conservative MP Louise Mensch, who is a member of the committee, said
the Murdochs should take the opportunity to appear before it on
Tuesday next week.

She said: “We have powers over British citizens, in other words over Mrs Brooks.

“Rupert and James Murdoch are American citizens, we don't have any
power over them, but I think it would surprise everybody if they were
to have the guts to show up.

“It would show a little bit of leadership, it would be the first step
in lancing this giant boil.”

Yesterday, News International declined to comment on who might attend
the committee hearing. But the company did release a statement saying
they were “aware of the request from the CMS Committee to interview
senior executives and will cooperate. We await the formal invitation.”

Labour politician Tom Watson, a member of the select committee, said
MPs were anxious to question Mrs Brooks about her knowledge of alleged
payments to police,

The committee also wanted to quiz James Murdoch on his involvement “in
authorising payments to silence” the Professional Footballers'
Association boss Gordon Taylor after his phone was hacked, he said.

In other developments, the phone-hacking scandal has begun to make
waves across the Atlantic - as members of Congress also demand action.

Politicians in the US have called for the FBI to investigate whether
journalists broke wiretap laws by targeting the phones of Americans.

It follows a report that the News of the World approached a New York
police officer and attempted to buy the phone records of people who
died on 9/11.

One congressman from New York said British reporters appeared to have
engaged in "parasitic" behaviour.

The other call is for the Department of Justice and stock-market
regulators to investigate reported payments to British police
officers.

Potentially, that could expose News International's parent company,
News Corporation, to charges under US anti-corruption laws.




Nick Clegg says Rupert Murdoch must appear before MPs if he is to
demonstrate “any responsibility”.


Senator calls for FBI to investigate Rupert Murdoch over possibility
relatives of 9/11 victims had phones hacked.
Latest from News International phone-hacking scandal: live
Damian Thompson: did parliament force this or the US senate?
Politicians are playing an unedifying game

Pressure on Murdoch and Brooks to face MPs

Nick Clegg says Rupert Murdoch must appear before MPs if he is to
demonstrate “any responsibility”.

Clegg: 'I do not recall Brown's Coulson warning'


Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says he does not remember being
warned about Andy Coulson before forming the coalition with David
Cameron.

14 Jul 2011
Phone hacking: Julia Gillard considers review of media conduct in Australia
Phone hacking: Julia Gillard considers review of media conduct in Australia

Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, is to consider holding a
parliamentary review of media conduct in Australia in the wake of the
"disgusting" phone hacking scandal in Britain.

14 Jul 2011
Cabinet Office to release hacking advice given to Brown
For more than a year, Gordon Brown has been virtually invisible in the
House of Commons.

The Cabinet Office is expected to release the full advice it gave
Gordon Brown over holding an inquiry into phone hacking, following the
former Prime Minister's claim that Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell
stopped him from doing so.

14 Jul 2011
Gotcha! Rebekah Brooks suffers a blow from former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie


Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie is said to believe that Rebekah
Brooks used the newspaper industry to 'ingratiate herself with
powerful people'.

14 Jul 2011
Phone Hacking: Lord Chief Justice attacks media and politicians

The Lord Chief Justice has launched a thinly veiled attacked on the
media and politicians as he defended the actions of judges.

14 Jul 2011
Top BSkyB investor calls for chairman James Murdoch to resign

Shareholder group Pirc has demanded that James Murdoch stand down as
chairman of satellite broadcaster BSkyB in a bid to clear up the
'questionable governance practices' at the company.

14 Jul 2011
Two years in the plotting, Brown gets his revenge

Almost two years ago, Gordon Brown’s final Labour Party conference was
ruined by Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper.

14 Jul 2011
Yard warns News International not to play 'legal games'

One of Britain’s most senior police officers has urged News
International not to play “legal games” and to hand to Scotland Yard
any evidence it has about telephone hacking or corruption at the News
of the World.

14 Jul 2011
Rupert Murdoch's dream has cost him dear

Rupert Murdoch’s dream of News Corporation taking total control of
BSkyB lies in tatters after the media mogul was forced to cave in to
political pressure and withdraw his proposed bid for the satellite
broadcaster.

14 Jul 2011
Phone hacking: Investor group Pirc raises concerns over BSkyB

In the wake of the collapse of the bid, David Cameron said: “News
Corporation must now get its house in order”. In the City, the same is
being demanded of BSkyB.

14 Jul 2011
Phone hacking: Largest News Corp shareholders and biggest losers

Following the withdrawal of a proposed bid for the satellite
broadcaster BSkyB, News Corp must now pay BSkyB a £38.5m break fee for
pulling out of the deal. But who else stands to lose out?

14 Jul 2011
News of the World: Legal Manager leaves company

Tom Crone, News International’s legal manager, became the latest high
profile casualty of the phone hacking scandal yesterday, as it was
announced he was leaving company.

14 Jul 2011
Phone hacking scandal: An unthinkable question must be asked - is
Murdoch still the right man?

How did this happen? That’s the question shareholders and the
non-executives of News Corporation should be asking. How did its
planned acquisition of BSkyB, the biggest deal in the company’s
history, fail and what lessons should the company learn?

13 Jul 2011
Miliband: Murdoch has had to bend to Parliament's will

Ed Miliband last night saluted the withdrawal of News Corporation’s
bid for full control of BSkyB, claiming that Rupert Murdoch had been
forced to “bend to the will” of Parliament.

13 Jul 2011
News of the World phone hacking scandal: July 13 as it happened

How the News International scandal unfolded on July 13 as House of
Commons prepared to debate phone hacking and press for Rupert Murdoch
to drop BSkyB takeover bid.

13 Jul 2011
Spare us Gordon Brown. You sacrificed your morals to Rupert Murdoch long ago

For Gordon Brown to complain about the invasion of 'private grief' is
like Faustus moaning that someone had forged his signature with the
Devil, says Allison Pearson.

13 Jul 2011
Rupert Murdoch faces inquiry into US companies

Jay Rockefeller among powerful senators questioning whether News
Corporation had broken US laws.

13 Jul 2011
Politicians are playing an unedifying game

Telegraph View: Gordon Brown's partisan performance in the Commons and
David Cameron's PR stunts have turned the phone-hacking scandal into a
political football.

13 Jul 2011
James Murdoch should step down, says fund adviser

James Murdoch should stand down as chairman of BSkyB following the
phone hacking scandal, a leading pension fund adviser said yesterday.

13 Jul 2011
David Cameron promises to bring every player to account

David Cameron, former prime ministers and a host of media proprietors
including Rupert Murdoch are among those who will be called to give
evidence under oath to a public inquiry into media ethics.

13 Jul 2011
BSkyB: facts and figures

A powerful shareholder group has demanded that James Murdoch stand
down as chairman of BSkyB in a bid to clear up the "questionable
governance practices" at the company. Here, we take a closer look at
the company that News Corp tried, and failed, to buy.

13 Jul 2011
News Corp targets BSkyB: a timeline

A powerful shareholder group has demanded that James Murdoch stand
down as chairman of BSkyB in a bid to clear up the "questionable
governance practices" at the company. Here is a history of News Corp's
failed bid for the broadcasting giant.

13 Jul 2011
Gordon Brown: News International 'used criminal underworld'

Former prime minister Gordon Brown launches a blistering attack on the
conduct of News International.

13 Jul 2011
Hacking scandal: Piers Morgan should face questions, say MPs

Piers Morgan, the former tabloid newspaper editor, was yesterday
pulled into the phone hacking scandal after an influential website
linked him to the phone hacking scandal.

13 Jul 2011


News of the World phone hacking scandal: July 13 as it happened
Latest on the phone-hacking scandal which has engulfed Rupert
Murdoch's News International newspapers - and now seen News Corp
dramatically withdraw its bid to take over BSkyB.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8636652/News-of-the-World-phone-hacking-July-13-as-it-happened.html

By Raf Sanchez, Murray Wardrop and Tom Chivers 13 Jul 2011

Comment

• US Senators call for probe into Newscorp
• Gordon Brown: News Int 'bought silence' of hacking victims
• Former PM says NI papers in league with 'criminal underworld'
• News Corporation withdraws takeover bid for BSkyB
• Cameron announces two-part inquiry into phone hacking
• News of the World phone hacking scandal: live

Latest

22:02 That's it for the live blog tonight. Join us tomorrow.

22: 01 Sky News reporting that Rebekah Brooks will attend next
Tuesday's meeting of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee.
They're saying Rupert Murdoch will not and James Murdoch is a maybe.

News International will not comment

21.35 The Spectator's Justin Forsyth is on Sky and has joined a
growing chorus warning that Murdoch could cut off his British
newspapers altogether if they continue to cause problems for his
global empire

Quote If any of these stories start getting traction across the
Atlantic...then I think he will say: 'Right these British newspapers
are just not worth the trouble'"

21.15 We've got the full text of the letter Sen. Menendez has written
to the US Justice Department asking it to investigate whether victims
of 9/11 may have been hacked by News International papers.

Opinion As you know, News International is accused of hacking the
phones of the victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings. The Daily
Mirror newspaper has reported that journalists also sought to secure
phone data concerning victims of the September 11, 2011 attacks in the
United States through a private investigator.

It is horrifying to consider the possibility that the victims of the
9/11 tragedy would be victimized again by an international newspaper
seeking information about their personal suffering.

The U.S. government must ensure that victims in the United States have
not been subjected to illegal and unconscionable actions by these
newspapers seeking to exploit information about their personal
tragedies for profit.

20.53 The American family which sold Rupert Murdoch the Wall St
Journal have said they would not made the sale if they knew what was
happening at the media mogul's British papers.

Christopher Bancroft, whose family controlled the Journal's publisher,
Dow Jones & Company, told The Guardian: "If I had known what I know
now, I would have pushed harder against [the sale]"

20.29 David Elstein, a former programme director for BSkyB, has been
on Sky talking about his old company's share price:

Quote The share price was around £8.50. Now that the bid has gone away
- either for good for the best part of two years - it's gone back down
to where it should be at about £7."

20.24 A bit more from Brown's man of the mountains speech earlier

20.19 The Wall Street Journal, another member of the Murdoch stable,
has filed a detailed update on the three US Senators now calling for a
probe into the phone hacking scandal.

OpinionOn Wednesday, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D, N.J.), Senate Commerce
Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D, W.Va.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer
(D., Calif.) asked the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission to investigate whether anyone at the company
violated antibribery laws amid allegations that the company paid
law-enforcement officials for information. A day earlier, Rockefeller
asked U.S. authorities to investigate whether American phones were
hacked, saying he was concerned that hacking may have extended to
victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or other Americans.

"This is going to be a huge issue," Rockefeller told reporters on
Wednesday as he left a vote on the Senate floor. He said that he may
hold hearings in his committee, although jurisdiction would extend to
the Senate Judiciary Committee in the event that a probe focused on
criminal activity. "My bet" is "we'll find some criminal stuff," he
told reporters, specifying he meant related to hacking in the U.S. He
declined to elaborate.

For those who haven't seen Mr Smith Goes to Washington, US
congressional hearings are the real deal - very tough, very aggressive
and very embarrassing for any senior executives dragged in front of
them.

20.08 David Elstein, a former programme director for BSkyB, is on Sky
News saying that his old company's share price is back to where it was
before the takeover talks were launched a year ago.

19.10 Shares in BSkyB close up two per cent at 705.5 pence after an
initial fall on the News Corp announcement, but still down 20 per cent
in July

18.50 BBC commentator Nick Robinson has blogged on where today's
twists in the News International scandal leave David Cameron.

He says the PM has "had a major scare", and while he has reacted well,
he still has to "questions about his appointment of Andy Coulson and
his relationships with the Murdochs and their lieutenants"

18. 48 Another snippet from Gordon Brown's powerful speech (see 17.44):

Quote News International marched in step with members of the criminal
underworld.

18.42 The BBC's Robert Peston asks whether this is the most serious
setback Murdoch has ever faced:

Quote But no one - including Mr Murdoch - can be certain what will
emerge from either the police investigation or the judge-led public
enquiry into alleged wrongdoing at the News of the World.

With the police as yet having contacted only the tiniest fraction of
the thousands of people whose phones may have been hacked by a private
detective in the employ of the News of the World, it is probable that
there will be week after week of new shocking disclosures about the
privacy of individuals being invade improperly.

And overnight there have been signs of contagion to other countries
where News Corp has important assets: Senator Jay Rockefeller, the
chairman of the Senate's commerce committee, urged US government
agencies to probe whether the News of the World instigated attempts to
hack the phones 9/11 victims and other American citizens."

18.10 The cosy cross-party consensus atmosphere of an hour ago has
been blown apart by Gordon Brown's speech, it seems. Jeering and
heckling has returned to the Commons. Ben Bradshaw (Lab) is asking
whether Sky Sports's monopoly on Test cricket on television will be
looked at.

18.01 A couple of the major points I didn't get down from Gordon
Brown's speech there. One, he called for newspapers to be forced to
provide front-page apologies; two, he accuses News International of
buying the silence of phone-hacking victims with out-of-court
pay-offs.

17.58 John Whittingdale: "It is not often that I expect I shall sign a
motion in the name of the leader of the opposition. I commend the
leader of the opposition for his conviction that we should act in a
cross-party manner. I am saddened that his predecessor as leader of
his party has not done so."

17.57 "News International descended from the gutter to the sewers. But
they let the rats out of the sewers."

17.51 The Tories are getting seriously restive now. Brown gives way to
let Jacob Rees-Mogg speak, who thanks him in a voice dripping with
sarcasm before asking if "I wonder if the honourable member, while he
is berating us in his high moral tone, might say anything about Mr
McBride and Mr Whelan". Brown says that the Conservatives should
listen to the evidence he is giving to the House.

17.44 This is a powerful performance from Brown: "If we do not act
now, forcibly, with clarity, friends around the world will ask what
kind of country we have become."

He says he has learned, through the involvement of his family of late,
that there was far more to the scandal than has come out, saying that
a junior editor at News International who was heavily involved in
computer hacking was then promoted.

The inquiry be widened to include the use of surveillance techniques
and technologies, he said.

He says that police officers informed Rebekah Brooks of wrongdoing in
2002 and that NI did not act upon it, and that John Yates spent less
time investigating News International than dining with News
International.

"I can say for the record that as I left office, I warned the leader
of the opposition that he could expect a Coulson problem. And I did so
directly, not through an intermediary who might not tell him."

17.41 Brown repeatedly stating that accusations of a close
relationship between him and News International titles are unfair and
ridiculous. A Tory demands a point of order, asking if there is a time
limit - the Speaker says it is a "totally bogus" point of order, and
apologises to Brown. A renewed bout of heckling forces the Speaker to
shout "order" and apologise again.

17.37 Gordon Brown is really laying into Murdoch here. Labour party
researcher James Mills reports on Twitter that "MPs not in the Chamber
are running through corridors to get to the Chamber to watch Brown
speech." Tory MPs are heckling loudly, crying "Sit down", but Brown is
soldiering on.

17.33 David Cameron had a bit more to say on the BSkyB deal:

Quote I think this is the right decision. I've been saying that this
company clearly needs to sort out the problems there are at News
International, at the News of the World. That must be the priority,
not takeovers.

So, the right decision, but also the right decision for the country
too. We have now got to get on with the work of the police
investigation and the public inquiry that I have set out today."

17.32 Returning to his theme of yesterday, Gordon Brown reiterates his
point that the newspapers engaged in "lawbreaking on an industrial
scale" and had links to "the criminal underworld". "Private tears were
bought and sold by News International", he says. He adds: "We should
reform, but never undermine our twin commitments to freedom of the
individual and a free press."

17.26 Gordon Brown gets a laugh - not a sentence that could have been
typed very often during his premiership - addressing the Commons. "The
Sun's headline today read 'Brown wrong' - yet another example of my
close relationship with News International", he says.

17.17 Moving away from the debate: the Right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes
has been making a series of new allegations - suggesting that Piers
Morgan, the CNN broadcaster but formerly editor of the News of the
World and the Daily Mirror, was aware of phone hacking during his time
in charge of the Mirror. He quotes Mr Morgan's own autobiography, The
Insider:

Quote Apparently if you don't change the standard security code that
every phone comes with, then anyone can call your number and, if you
don't answer, tap in the standard four digit code to hear all your
messages. I'll change mine just in case, but it makes me wonder how
many public figures and celebrities are aware of this little trick.

17.16 It is a "cruel irony", says Miliband, that Rebekah Brooks has
not lost her job while hundreds of staff at the NOTW have.

17.13 Pete Wishart (SNP) asks whether Mr Miliband feels he "got the
tone wrong" during PMQs, and whether the public did not want to see
the "argy-bargy". Mr Miliband says "I take on board the honourable
member's comments, but I'm not sure I agree with them". He goes on to
say that we want an "independent press".

17.10 A Conservative MP wonders why "it's fair to attack Cameron on
Coulson, but not fair to attack Miliband on enjoying Mr Murdoch's
canapés a few weeks ago". With withering disdain, Miliband responds
"Allow me to explain to the honourable member, who is new to this
House, that this is an opportunity for the House to speak with one
voice."

17.08 Miliband says that it is "unusual for a motion in this House to
succeed before the debate on it begins" and that "there is worse to
come" regarding the News International revelations.

17.06 Ed Miliband is speaking now at the Commons at the debate on the
BSkyB deal, which - it must be said - has now clearly lost much of its
relevance, given that Rupert Murdoch has pulled out of the takeover
bid. Here's video from earlier on of him responding to the news that
the takeover has been dropped:

16.49 Vince Cable speaking on the BBC:

Quote It's absolutely the right decision. We can now get on with the
task of clearing up the corruption with the politicians and the
police. We can look at the rules of media power, as the present rules
are not satisfactory.

It's very difficult to imagine after what's happened that [the deal]
will come back in future. Parliament was absolutely united on that.
Now we need to concentrate on getting things right in future, and
concentrate on media plurality.

A situation arose where it simply wasn't possible to separate the
issues of NOTW and BSkyB. But of course in terms of the future we have
to separate out the issues of the abuses, which are subject to an
inquiry, and how we sort out the relationships between the press and
the police, and the problem of press control.

I don't want to personalise this - my views are well known, they've
been out there for a long time now. But I'm pleased I was able tor
refer this a while ago, without which the deal would be a fait
accompli. And I'm very pleased for the people who were victims of
this, who have now been vindicated.

16.40 The Guardian has released a lengthy - very lengthy - statement
responding to David Cameron's claim that the paper's editor, Alan
Rusbridger, did not bring up information regarding Andy Coulson hiring
a known criminal, when Rusbridger had two meetings with the Prime
Minister last year. I won't quote it all here, but the key section is
the following quote from Rusbridger himself:

Quote The prime minister's account of why he failed to act on the
information we passed his office in February 2010 is highly
misleading. Any ordinary person hearing of the unpublishable facts
about a convicted News of the World private investigator facing
conspiracy to murder charges would have recognised the need to
investigate the claims.

The Guardian seem unable to prove definitively that Mr Cameron was
directly informed of their concerns over Mr Coulson's connections. But
they continue to stress that the Prime Minister's chief of staff Ed
Llewellyn and senior adviser Steve Hilton were both told by Mr
Rusbridger or his deputy Ian Katz about Mr Coulson and his alleged
links to investigator Jonathan Rees, who had a criminal record and was
on remand for conspiracy in an axe murder.

Read the statement in full here.

16.36 Here's some video of David Cameron declaring that Murdoch should
"clean his stables" earlier on:

16.34 Nick Clegg has responded to the news:

Quote This is the decent and sensible thing to do. Now that the bid
has been called off and a proper inquiry set up, we have a once in a
generation chance to clean up the murky underworld of the corrupted
relationship between the police, politics and the press.

16.20 Sky's Mark Kleinman writes that the withdrawal of the BSkyB bid
was, with hindsight, "an inevitability":

Opinion There are some important points that I'm told reflect the
thinking of those close to the top of News Corp:

1. It believes the deteriorating nature of the phone-hacking scandal
means it needs to focus its efforts on the 'clean-up operation' there.

2. There is no reason, in News Corp's view, why it should not be free,
once the various phone-hacking inquiries and investigations are
complete, to revive its offer for the pay-TV broadcaster.

3. The events of the last few weeks may herald a more fundamental
review of the company's corporate strategy. Conceivably, that could
include whether it wants to retain a presence in the UK newspaper
market.

16.10 Labour's Tom Watson:

Quote Rebekah Brooks has to answer about the payments question to the
police. James Murdoch has to answer about the authorised payments to
buy the silence of hacking victims. Rupert Murdoch is invited to the
select committee next Tuesday. I hope he will use the opportunity to
apologise to all the people that the criminals in his organisation
targeted.

News Corp was dragged "kicking and screaming" into dropping the BSkyB
bid, he says.

15.52 More from Simon Hughes's statement a few moments ago:

Quote My colleagues and I have been warning for 17 years of the
dangers of the growing influence of the Murdochs in Britain.

Three days ago the most popular Murdoch title disappeared - ruined by
the excesses of some of its staff. Today the News International bid
for BSkyB has been withdrawn. At last the sun is setting on Rupert
Murdoch's British empire.

Journalism in the UK used to have the reputation as the best in the
world. It is in the interests of all the public that this reputation
is now restored

15.46 Tom Crone, the now-former legal manager of News International,
has told a friend that he was "hung out to dry", according to a tweet
from The Times's news desk. Their story is behind a paywall but here's
a taste:

Opinion Tom Crone was responsible for advising the News of the World
and The Sun on editorial matters before and after publication... The
lawyer told a friend that he feared he was going to be “hung out to
dry” but insisted he was not personally implicated in the hacking
scandal.

Mr Crone told MPs in 2009 that there was no evidence that the phone
hacking at the newspaper went further than Clive Goodman, the royal
correspondent jailed for his role in intercepting messages left for
members of the Royal Household.

Mr Crone presented MPs with a letter from Harbottle & Lewis, a London
law firm, which had been asked by News International to investigate
the hacking claims. The letter said there was no evidence of
widespread hacking.

15.42 Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, says that "The sun is
setting on Rupert Murdoch's British empire".

15.36 More from Lord Justice Leveson, the judge appointed to head the
phone-hacking inquiry - and, in a previous incarnation, was the lawyer
who prosecuted the serial killer Rosemary West. He said in a
statement:

Quote Work will begin immediately on the practical arrangements to
ensure that we can commence Part 1 of the Inquiry as soon as possible.
The Inquiry must balance the desire for a robustly free press with the
rights of the individual while, at the same time, ensuring that
critical relationships between the press, Parliament, the Government
and the police are maintained...

The press provides an essential check on all aspects of public life.
That is why any failure within the media affects all of us. At the
heart of this Inquiry, therefore, may be one simple question: who
guards the guardians?

He adds that Part 2 of the inquiry must be deferred, as it "cannot cut
across or prejudice the ongoing criminal investigations or any
subsequent prosecutions."

15.33 Mark Lewis says that the Dowler family are "delighted" that the
Prime Minister has announced a full judge-led inquiry into the
scandal.

15.26 Lord Justice Leveson has issued a statement saying that work
will begin "immediately". Meanwhile, the Hacked Off campaign, fronted
by former Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris, is speaking outside No10 Downing
Street, alongside the Dowler family and their lawyer Mark Lewis. They
say there has been no distinction between the three party leaders in
their response to the hacking scandal.

15.18 Richard Blackden, our Wall Street correspondent, emails with
some rapidfire analysis of the BSkyB bid collapse's effect on the Dow:

News Corp shares have opened higher in New York. They've haven't
recovered the losses so far this week but there's likely to be a
measure of relief among investors that News Corp has thrown in the
towel on BSkyB. Most backed the pursuit of Sky - one of Murdoch's
great commercial successes of the last decade - but the continued
chase was helping to keep the company in the headlines.

The possible losers in all this are the hedge funds that bought into
BSkyB in the hope News Corp would be forced to pay more than £8 a
share for the company. The share price is currently below £7.

Murdoch's long-term investors, though, will want to see some of the
cash that was going to be spent on Sky heading back to them. It
wouldn't be a surprise if there are more share buybacks to come.

15.05 Ian Cowie names the big funds that hold BSkyB and asks: is your
pension hit?

Hundreds of thousands of savers with pension plans and some of the
best-known unit trusts in Britain have been hit by the fall in BSkyB’s
share price this week. They may think the political row about phone
hacking by News International newspapers has nothing to do with them
but, unless the share price picks up soon, their next annual
statements will tell a different story.

15.02 Laura Kuenssberg says that the debate on the BSkyB deal will go
ahead, but that there is unlikely to be a vote on it. Milly Dowler's
family is currently speaking to David Cameron at No10 Downing Street.

14.58 In this age of the internet, a joke can get around the world
before a news story has its boots on, as this rapidly acquired domain
name www.foxnewsuk.com shows. Thanks to our tech editor Shane Richmond
for bringing that to my attention.

14.57 James Hall says of Jeremy Darroch's obvious discomfort: "I want
to run on stage and give Darroch a note. He's looking very impassive.
But fidgeting slightly." More at our M&S AGM live blog here.

14.52 Ed Miliband responds to the withdrawal of the bid:

Quote This is a victory for people up and down this country who have
been appalled by the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the
failure of News International to take responsibility. People thought
it was beyond belief that Mr Murdoch could continue with his takeover
after these revelations.

It is these people who won this victory. They told Mr Murdoch: 'This
far and no further'. Nobody should exercise power in this country
without responsibility.

And here's a slightly longer version of the Downing Street response:
"We welcome the news. As the Prime Minister has said, the business
should focus on clearing up the mess and getting its own house in
order."

14.48 Our retail correspondent James Hall tweets from the Marks &
Spencer annual general meeting:

News Corp drops Sky bid as Sky's CEO Jeremy Darroch sits on stage at
M&S AGM. He's non-exec here. Been on stage 30 mins. Does he know?less
than a minute ago via Echofon Favorite Retweet ReplyJames Hall
JamesFHall

Rupert Neate, formerly of this parish and now at The Guardian, is also
at the AGM and also mentions Darroch. He says:

Twitter rupertneate Jeremy Darroch subtly checking his phone at M&S
AGM. Reckon he's only just finding out about News Corp pulling Sky
bid.

14.44 The Guardian's Polly Curtis has tweeted this picture of the
BSkyB share prices plummeting after the announcement:

14.37 George Monbiot, the Guardian columnist, is not even trying to
contain his glee:

Twitter GeorgeMonbiot People right to be suspicious, but I don't think
Murdoch can come back from this. Time for street parties. Anyone not
dancing a jig round their desk right now hasn't grasped the scale of
what's just happened.

This is our Berlin Wall moment.

14.35 Downing Street has "welcomed" the decision, and says (again)
that the company should now focus on clearing up their problems,
according to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

14.33 The BBC's business editor Robert Peston says of the decision:

Quote It's a huge humiliation. This was [News Corp's] biggest
investment plan of the moment. It was one of the biggest investments
they've ever wanted to make. It is an extraordinary reversal of
corporate fortune... And questions will now be asked whether this is
the full extent of the damage to the empire.

14.31 Ivan Lewis MP is on Sky, saying that this is a victory for the
"leadership" Ed Miliband has shown over the last week.

14.29 Here's the statement from News Corporation chairman Chase Carey:

Quote We believed that the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News
Corporation would benefit both companies, but it has become clear that
it is too difficult to progress in this climate. News Corporation
remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of
the success it has achieved and out contribution to it.

14.25 Damian Thompson has responded very rapidly on our blogs:

This may look like Rupert Murdoch caving in to the might of the
British Parliament; but far more significant, surely, is the news that
the US Senate is encouraging an investigation into News Corp... with
News Corp’s entire future in jeopardy, even BSkyB’s billions of
revenue look like small change.

14.20 Speculation now over what this will mean for BSkyB's shares. And
News Corp's, as well.

14.19 Roy Greenslade, the media commentator, says on Sky that "We are
running out of ways to say 'shock'".

14.18 Sky also say that withdrawing the bid will have cost News Corp
£40 million in advance fees, plus advisory fees which "may run into
millions if not tens of millions of pounds".

14.15 They are making the move in order to prevent the loss of their
existing 39 per cent, according to Sky. Adam Boulton, their political
editor, is asked if this represents Rupert Murdoch outmanoeuvring the
Prime Minister. Boulton says "In this instance, comprehensively no."

14.13 Sky is reporting that News Corp has withdrawn its bid for BSkyB,
and they would know. More when we get it.

13.55 Tom Watson MP earlier asked the PM to clarify if intelligence
services will be subject to the inquiry, which Cameron did. Watson
said that rogue members of the services had links to News
International.

13.51 Lord Justice Brian Leveson, the judge appointed to oversee the
inquiry, has had a previous run-in with The Sun, according to Paul
Waugh, who says: "Only in March, the paper memorably went for him and
other judges for being 'soft' on crime, complete with a 'Off Their
Heads' logo".

Here's Lord Justice Leveson's Wikipedia page, if you want to learn a
bit more about him.

13.39 Our former colleague Rupert Neate and others have posted this on
Twitter - it's purportedly an email from The Times's foreign desk to
its foreign correspondents, urging them to show why The Times is still
a great paper:

13.37 Cameron asked whether the ability to summon people to the
inquiry will apply to foreign nationals, as it does not for House
committees. Cameron says rather weakly "I don't know why it wouldn't".

13.36 Video of Cameron and Miliband at a heated PMQs earlier:

13.31 Former NOTW journalist and current Sky reporter Sophy Ridge
tweets of the resignation of Tom Crone, the News International legal
manager:

Twitter sophyridge Source close to Tom Crone, NotW legal manager who
resigned, says he has a "clear conscience." He's on same 90 days
gardening leave as other staff

13.24 While Cameron is facing the Commons, his press team at No10 seem
to have reversed his ferret for him - Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC has
more:

No 10 now saying if there is a vote, Cameron will take part in itless
than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet
ReplyLaura Kuenssberg
BBCLauraK

She also mentions that the Dowler family have been seen in Parliament,
and that "No 10 briefing says PM didn't read Guardian article that had
info re Coulsons contax", in the wake of Alan Rusbridger's claim that
their meeting came after Coulson had resigned.

13.21 Janet Daley argues that, by giving in to everything that Labour
has demanded, David Cameron has "shot Labour's fox":

Ed Miliband is gloating about the extent to which David Cameron
apparently now agrees with him: fair enough. The change in Cameron’s
tone from last week is pretty startling on Rebekah Brooks, the BSkyB
bid and, most notably, his support for Andy Coulson. But is this
triumphal tone really justified? What Mr Cameron has really done is
effectively shot Mr Miliband’s fox. By promising to do everything that
Labour has called for, Mr Cameron has left them pretty bereft of
complaint.

13.14 Our chief leader writer David Hughes writes that David Cameron
has come out fighting - at last:

It was only when Ed Miliband tackled David Cameron once again on his
hiring of Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, that the
gloves came off. The Prime Minister said categorically that his chief
of staff, Ed Llewellyn, had not passed on “warnings” from the
Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger about Coulson’s allegedly dodgy
background. He pointed out that the gist of these “private” warnings
had actually been published in The Guardian. He also pointed out that
he had met Rusbridger a month later and he had made no mention of
Coulson, nor had he when he met him a year later. Interesting.

13.11 Dennis Skinner labels Murdoch a "cancer on the body politic".

13.06 The aforementioned Michael Wolff, who hinted earlier at rumours
that James Murdoch's role at News International may soon be changing,
tweets again:

Twitter MichaelWolffNYC One scenario: Murdoch stays chairman but give
up CEO position to Chase Carey, effectively taking James out of
succession line.

13.04 Conrad Quilty-Harper, our data investigations reporter, has put
together an archive of all the stories in the News of the World that
mention private phone calls, voicemails, and emails from the last 10
years. "Some of the subjects of articles include Milly Dowler, Prince
William and Ulrika Johnson", he says. "Here's what we found."

13.01 Chris Bryant is up now. He reminds the House that John Yates,
the head of counter-terrorism at the Met, said he was "99pc sure" that
he had had his phone hacked. He points out that you can buy a piece of
kit for £1,500 which can listen to mobile phone conversations, and
asks whether the inquiry will look into the actions of private
investigators who use these items - illegally - all the time. Cameron
confirms that it will.

12.58 David Cameron has thrown Andy Coulson to the wolves, writes our
political correspondent James Kirkup:

To be fair, Mr Cameron put up a decent performance, presenting himself
as leader of the nation, trying to rise above party politics and
address public concerns. But he undermined his own offer with some
partisan shots at Ed Miliband and Labour’s record in office; at times
like this, you can either be a streetfighter or a statesman, but not
both.

And no amount of bluster could hide either Mr Cameron’s discomfort or
his latest shift in position, effectively offering to throw Mr Coulson
to the wolves, to keep the pack’s teeth out of his own flesh

12.53 Tim Shipman, the Mail's deputy political editor, tweets that
"Cameron just killed the lobby" - the Parliamentary press gallery. He
adds "PMQs verdict: substance Wallace 4, Flashman 2. Style Flashman 5,
Wallace 1, Bercow 0."

That's Wallace as in Gromit, referring to Ed Miliband, and Flashman as
in Tom Brown's Schooldays, referring to Cameron, if you were
wondering.

12.50 Cameron: "I think I would like to shoot for 'independent'
regulation rather than self-regulation. Self-regulation has got rather
a bad name of late. Statutory regulation - I have worked in an
industry that is statutorily regulated, television, and it works, but
I don't think it's right for the press." He says he wants "not just a
free press, but a free and vigorous press, that can make our lives a
misery for much of the time".

12.49 Michael Wolff, author of the Murdoch biography The Man Who Owns
The News, tweets:

A good source reports internal discussion about "recasting" James
Murdoch's role in the company. "No credibility left."less than a
minute ago via TweetDeck Favorite Retweet ReplyMichael Wolff
MichaelWolffNYC

12.44 Miliband is responding, asking whether the staff of the inquiry
will be in place before the parliamentary recess. He asks whether it
will be an offence to destroy evidence, and what steps Downing Street
will take to ensure that papers there are not destroyed. He thanks
Cameron for setting up the inquiry.

12.36 Cameron is giving his statement about the inquiries:

Quote We have decided that the best way to proceed will be with one
inquiry but in two parts. It will be under one of the most senior
judges, Lord Justice Leveson. It will be carried out under the 2005
Enquiries Act and will have the power to summon journalists,
politicians, and proprietors.

He will return with recommendations for the regulation of the press,
of ways to ensure a free press which is nonetheless held to the
highest ethical standards. It will also look at the relationship
between the press and the police. Lord Leveson has agreed to the terms
of this inquiry.

Now, on the subject of the BSkyB deal. We are learning new and
shocking things every day. Serious questions must be asked about the
News Corp takeover of BSkyB. My honourable friend the Secretary of
State has therefore referred the matter to the Competition Commission,
who will look at all the aspects, and then my honourable friend will
take a decision in his quasi-judicial role.

But as I have said repeatedly, my own feeling is that the company
should not be focusing on takeovers, but on cleaning out their
stables. And if anyone in the company, whether high or low, is found
to be guilty, they should not be involved in the running of a major
media corporation.

On the subject of payments to police officers, the Met immediately
turned it over to the IPCC. The commission has made it clear publicly
that there will be a full public inquiry. We have been assured that
there are full resources to do so and the inquiry will go wherever the
evidence leads. Sir Paul Stephenson has asked for a senior public
figure to advise him on the ethics of interactions between the press
and the police. And if we are asking for greater transparency from the
police, it is only right at we in government should provide it too,
because we have spent too long courting support. So I am taking steps
that ministers must record all details of meetings with the press. I
hope that we will be able to make this a cross-party movement.

After this statement I will be meeting with the Dowler family. We must
make sure that a scandal like this never happens again.

12.46 Daniel Knowles again:

Earlier, David Cameron claimed to have met the editor of the Guardian
Alan Rusbridger and he didn't raise the issue [of the information
about Andy Coulson]. This might be why: Rusbridger just tweeted that
the "second meeting was *after* Coulson had gone". He also added that
the first Guardian meeting added more details. That's pretty awkward
for the PM.

12.32 The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg points out that, if real evidence
emerges that 9/11 victims were hacked, that is a "real nightmare
scenario" for News Corp - the US Senate would come down on them like a
"ton of bricks".

12.28 Tom Crone, the News International legal manager, has left the
company, the BBC reports - no information yet about why he has made
that decision.

12.26 A slow and rambling question about Bombardier rail company
almost brings the House into open revolt. Of Tom Watson's 9/11
question, Jonathan Wynne-Jones, media correspondent for The Sunday
Telegraph, tweets:

Tom Watson raises the allegation that 9/11 victims had their phones
hacked. If this is proved, it could sink News Corp #PMQsless than a
minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyJonathan Wynne-Jones
JonWynneJones

12.25 Will Heaven notes:

An extraordinary change in tone from David Cameron when speaking about
his former Communications Director. Last week he was in Downing Street
insisting that he was still friends with Andy Coulson. Today, he says
that if Coulson's assurances (that he didn't oversee the NotW's phone
hacking) were false 'he should face the full force of the law'.

12.24 Damian Thompson, our blogs editor, also feels Ed Miliband is losing here:

Forget for a moment the details of the exchanges between David Cameron
and Ed Miliband at PMQs. It is painfully – painfully – evident that
the Prime Minister has an intellectual edge over the Leader of the
Opposition. He can think on his feet; he is, unlike Miliband, in
control of his facial expressions. The moment when Ed reverted to his
“he just doesn’t get it” mantra was embarrassing: it was like
listening to a fading end-of-the-pier comedian trotting out his
catchphrase in a desperate attempt for a laugh.

12.22 Will the PM ensure that all illegal press activity is examined,
including the previous government's alleged collusion? Cameron says
that it will.

12.21 Gary McKinnon - "another case of hacking" - is brought up. The
House falls quiet again.

12.19 Did the Prime Minister have any conversations with Andy Coulson
about phone hacking at the time of his resignation, and will he place
any records in the library?

Cameron repeats his point about the assurances given to him and to the
police. Again, he says "If these assurances were untrue, he should
face the force of law".

12.18 Tom Watson: "Can I ask the PM to make urgent enquiries about
whether the victims of 9/11 were hacked, and if they were, will he
inform his counterparts in the US?"

"Of course", says Cameron, who also praises Sue Akers in a "mixed"
appearance by police officers before the select committee yesterday.
"We have to get to the bottom of this", he says, a refrain of his.

12.17 A question about stolen scrap metal, and the atmosphere again
dies down - with a few disbelieving growls, as though the House is
angry that they are being held back from their quarry.

12.15 Mary Glinden asks the Prime Minister about suggestions that Lord
Ashdown warned Mr Cameron about employing Andy Coulson. "The decision
I made was to accept the assurances he gave me", says Cameron, again.
"If I was lied to, if others were lied to, that would be a matter of
deep regret - but we must be sure to judge people innocent until
proven guilty".

12.15 A question about the eurozone brings a few moments of calm.
Daniel Knowles emails:

Usually these days, it's Nick Clegg who looks terrible at PMQs, but
today, George Osborne appears almost ill. Ed Miliband has just bought
up the Andy Coulson question - Cameron took on Coulson on Osborne's
advice. No wonder he's so uncomfortable.

12.14 Cameron says the inquiry will be judge-led, and will be able to
call people under oath, and he will appear before it if he is asked.

12.13 An exchange of "he just doesn't get its" from the party leaders,
as Miliband demands an apology. Then uproar. The Speaker is reduced to
shouting "order" for fully 45 seconds, his voice getting hoarse as he
does so, before publicly upbraiding two members for "behaving like
children". "It's only funny in your mind", he snarls at one of them.

12.12 More from Will Heaven, who thinks Mr Miliband is taking too soft a line:

Ed Miliband should have the PM running scared by now, but he's losing.
We know Cameron won't debate the Opposition Day motion with the Labour
leader later, so that should have been highlighted. Instead we had 'I
do hope he comes to the debate' and 'I look forward to debating these
issues with the Leader of the House...'. This gentle sarcasm isn't
working.

12.09 Miliband says that it is a "very serious admission" that Mr
Cameron has just given that his chief of staff did not pass the
information on. Cameron responds aggressively, saying that he could
ask Miliband questions about Tom Baldwin and Damien McBride.

Interestingly our own Will Heaven tweeted earlier:

Cameron must do better than Jeremy Hunt's "but you hired Tom Baldwin".
The public doesn't know who the hell Baldwin is.less than a minute ago
via web Favorite Retweet ReplyWill Heaven
WillHeaven

12.06 Miliband: "It has now been confirmed that his chief of staff was
given specific information regarding Andy Coulson hiring Jonathan
Rees, a man jailed for seven years for criminal conspiracy. Can the PM
explain what happened to that information?"

Cameron: "All these questions relate to the fact that I hired a
tabloid editor. He gave me assurances that he knew nothing, and he
gave those assurances to the police and to the House of Commons. If it
turns out he lied, then he should not only not be in employment, he
should be prosecuted. But I believe we have to assume innocence until
proven guilty.

"But I can say that I did not receive that information. And can I say
that, if this information is so significant, why was I not asked about
it in the press or in this House once?"

Miliband's face is an absolute picture when Cameron denied receiving
the information. Open-mouthed disbelief.

12.05 "I look forward to debating with the leader of the house later
on", says Miliband pointedly, referring to Cameron's decision not to
appear at the debate this afternoon. "We're having a debate now", says
Cameron, a little defensively.

12.03 The BSkyB deal comes up: should it be stopped? "It's good that
the House will speak with one voice on this", says Cameron, but "The
government must obey the law". "This company should stop the business
of mergers and get on with the business of cleaning its stables", he
goes on.

12.02 "Does the Prime Minister acknowledge that it is an insult to the
Dowler family that Rebekah Brooks should still be in place?" asks
Miliband. "I have made it very clear that her resignation should have
been accepted. That organisation needs a root and branch change",
Cameron responds.

12.01 "There is a firestorm engulfing our media, our police and even
our political classes, and we must think of the victims and prosecute
those who are guilty", says Cameron.

12.00 PMQs is under way.

11.57 The Sunday Telegraph's political editor Patrick Hennessy tweets:

Cameron's toughest #PMQs since entering No 10 coming upless than a
minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyPatrick Hennessy
PatJHennessy

While Paul Waugh of PoliticsHome says "After one of its darkest
periods, Parliament looks like it's got its mojo back."

11.54 And Daniel Knowles expects that Labour will make capital out of
Cameron's failure to attend the Commons debate later:

Labour are claiming that David Cameron promised to face Ed Miliband
when the party leaders met behind the speaker's chair last night. Now,
it transpires Dave is definitely not going to do that - he may not
even turn up to vote. In opposition, he repeatedly attacked Gordon
Brown as a "bottler", so expect Labour MPs to get their revenge.

11.51 Not long now until PMQs, so I'll push out some more comment and
analysis while we've got time. First, Lord Tebbit writes that "David
Cameron is being forced to join the BSkyB lynch mob. This is a bitter
lesson for him":

The Murdoch affair threatens to engulf everything in its path as it
rolls on to some tragic end. For the moment Ed Miliband and his ally
Nick Clegg seem to riding on the crest of its wave of political and
commercial destruction with the unfortunate Prime Minister running as
fast as he can to stay ahead of the breakers coming from Fleet Street
into Westminster.

How he must rue the day that he employed Andy Coulson. But for that,
he could have been in control of events rather than their victim.

11.46 Tom Watson, who alongside Chris Bryant is the parliamentarian
who has done the most to expose the phone-hacking scandal, has harsh
words for the BBC in general and their political editor Nick Robinson
in particular:

Quote Frankly, I think the BBC should probably take a look at itself.
I don't think their political journalists took this story seriously
when the investigation was taking place in parliament. I think Nick
Robinson, the most powerful political editor in the land, missed the
story of his life and this will come out in the reviews over months
and years to come.

11.39 Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London and Daily Telegraph
columnist, has defended his decision not to push for a prosecution
against the News of the World after he learned from detectives that
his phone had been hacked. He has also said he will not be calling for
the sacking of John Yates, the Metropolitan Police Assistant
Commissioner, over the failures of the first inquiry into the scandal:

Quote Quite frankly, why on earth should I go through some court case
in which it would have inevitably involved going over all the pathetic
so-called revelations that the News of the World had dug up... Why
should I, when the police had made it clear to me when they had
abundant evidence?

I think John Yates has been the first to put his hand up and said that
there were failings in his handling of it and it's regrettable that it
was not pursued more vigorously then... I believe John Yates is doing
a very important and effective job in leading the struggle against
terror in the city and, in my view, it is vital that he is allowed to
continue to do that.

11.28 It's been the toughest week of David Cameron's premiership so
far, writes Will Heaven - but does Ed Miliband have the necessary
ruthlessness to take advantage?

Miliband’s task is simple. He must kick Cameron while he’s down. Many
pundits (eg Iain Dale) reckon Ed is having the best week of his
career. But in truth it’s been easy pickings: he has outpaced the
Government because they have responded to the scandal so sluggishly.
Today his Opposition Day motion on the BSkyB takeover (which urges
urging Rupert Murdoch to withdraw his bid) should win Miliband more
plaudits... But crucially PMQs comes first: if Ed Miliband cannot
properly stick the knife into David Cameron – and previous form
suggests he’ll fluff it – the Prime Minister may escape alive.

11.20 Sir George Young, the Leader of the House of Commons, will
represent the government during the Commons debate later, the BBC's
Laura Kuenssberg reports:

Confirmed George Young will respond in hacking debate for govt - PM
'may vote' on the motion laterless than a minute ago via Twitter for
BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyLaura Kuenssberg
BBCLauraK

The Prime Minister may deign to vote on the motion "if diary allows", she says.

11.12 More from our bloggers. Toby Young thinks that even if it
unanimously condemns the BSkyB deal, the Commons vote today will not
be the final nail in the takeover's coffin:

The motion being voted on will not, if passed, legally prohibit News
Corp from pressing ahead with its bid to purchase the 61 per cent of
shares in BSkyB it doesn’t already own. Parliament will simply be
expressing its disapproval of the bid. If News Corp isn’t being
compelled to withdraw, why would it?

11.08 Rupert Murdoch has just arrived at News International in a
silver Ranger Rover:

10.57 Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police
Officers (Acpo) has described it as "an unwise decision" by Andy
Hayman to have dinner with senior News International executives while
the phone-hacking investigation was ongoing. He does, however, say it
would be a "very strange world" if the press and police did not have a
working relationship:

Quote Let's be clear – we rely on the press to ensure public
information is given out and the press rely on us. And I would meet as
chief constable of Northern Ireland routinely with senior people –
with editors, with reporters – and we would give background briefings.

What the press report is a matter for them, but we have a professional
obligation to make sure they understand the complexity of our world.

10.45 The always trenchant James Delingpole has weighed into the BSkyB
debate, saying that despite appearances it is David Cameron's worst
nightmare that the deal go through:

If the BSkyB deal ever goes through, Cameron... will have a new
[British Fox News-style] TV news channel explaining to viewers every
day of the week what a limp-wristed, tofu-eating, faux-Tory
abomination their supposedly Conservative prime minister really is.

10.41 The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg tweets:

Twitter BBCLauraK No 10 says PM just doesn't have time to do hacking
debate after his hacking statement as well and statement could be
quite chunky. Expect Cameron to announce name of judge in charge,
scope of inquiry and consultation on new rules on contacts btw press
and poilticians

10.24 The Times's leader article once again focuses on the hacking
scandal. They again acknowledge the News International response has
not been up to scratch:

Opinion The slow and inadequate reaction of News International to the
developing problem has made it difficult to gain a hearing for any
defence.

It says, however, that the time has come to widen the focus from
journalism - and, of course, NI - and start to examine more closely
the alleged corruption in the Metropolitan Police:

Opinion ...the proceedings before the select committee show that the
issues of accountability, transparency and trust that confront
journalism in this country also apply to the police. If even a small
fraction of the allegations of financial transactions between
journalists and the police turn out to be true, then the police have a
serious problem with corruption. For the moment the attention has been
focused on the journalists making the payments, but every transaction
has two sides and this scandal threatens to become a major crisis of
legitimacy for the police.

It wonders why the first police inquiry was "so perfunctory", and "did
not pursue their inquiries with any vehemence". "The credibility and
integrity of the police is... on the line", it concludes.

10.22 The Daily Star has started to focus on the hacking scandal, in
its own inimitable style:

10.18 Sir Hugh Orde, the Acpo president, has been speaking again,
repeating his calls for transparency from News International and
saying that their lack of cooperation so far is worrying:

Quote This was not Billy the Burgler saying nothing. This was a global
company that had some responsibility. What we have here are the police
service of this country, probably one of the most accountable services
in the world, standing up and being counted. What we don't see yet is
equal transparency or explanation from a very large multi-national
company who should frankly be explaining why they held information
from such an important investigation.

10.03 The head of Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper arm, News
Limited, has written an open letter to his staff, in which he
announces a review of all spending activity in the editorial division
for the last three years, to confirm that there has been no illicit
activity. John Hartigan says in the letter that the review is a
precaution, as he does not believe his journalists are guilty of
wrongdoing:

Quote As disturbing events continue to unfold in London I believe it
is important to keep you up to date with our position in Australia.

Some media outlets, certain commentators and some politicians have
attempted to connect the behaviour in the UK with News Limited's
conduct in Australia. This is offensive and wrong ...

We will be conducting a thorough review of all editorial expenditure
over the past 3 years to confirm that payments to contributors and
other third parties were for legitimate services.

Policies, codes and guidelines are important. But what matters is conduct.

I have absolutely no reason to suspect any wrongdoing at News Limited.
However, I believe it is essential that we can all have absolute
confidence that ethical work practices are a fundamental requirement
of employment at News Limited.

09.54 Andy Hayman, the former Metropolitan Police assistant
commissioner who received bruising treatment at the hands of the
Commons Home Affairs Select Committee yesterday, has hit back -
describing the atmosphere in the room as a "lynch-mob mentality" on
LBC radio:

Quote I've been through the mill several times in court, in
journalistic interviews. I've never been treated like yesterday. There
was cat-calling, there was loud laughter from the wings of Chris
Bryant. It was an appalling display from them. The irony really is
that they don't like being treated in this way disproportionately and
yet they're prepared to put us through that.

I think all four of us were up for tough questioning, but not on that
sort of basis. And to be accused, as I was, of being a dodgy geezer,
which is probably on the basis on my accent, I think that's a really
poor show.

Despite trying to actually be helpful to them, all they want to do is
score points and most of that is political and with this sort of lynch
mob mentality.

Bring on the formal inquiry with a respectable judge, when we can
actually get some sense out of this. But what we've actually got here
is a very, very senior, I guess you could call it a court. It's
non-negotiable to be able to go there and when you go along there,
you're treated like a bit of dirt.

I'm not asking for special treatment, I just ask for a little bit of
respect and not to be basically [treated] as a product because of the
way in which you speak.

09.45 Hugh Grant, the actor who Jon Stewart's The Daily Show teasingly
called "the moral compass of the nation" for his role in bringing the
phone-hacking scandal to light, has weighed in once again - The
Guardian reports that that he has called for an expansion of the
phone-hacking inquiry to cover the "grotesque" power of the press:

Opinion The actor Hugh Grant has called on David Cameron to "be a
statesman" and expand the judge-led inquiry into the hacking scandal
to include an examination of the "grotesque" power that newspaper
proprietors hold over politicians.

His comments echo those made by the lawyer speaking on behalf of the
family of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who said that it
wouldn't be right for politicians to "let themselves off the hook"
when they set the remit of the inquiries. Grant and the Dowlers both
said that according to what the government has revealed so far about
the scope of the inquiries, they are "not good enough".

Hugh Grant signs a petition outside the Houses of Parliament calling
for a full public inquiry into phone hacking. (Photo: PA)

09.39 Second, an NYT editorial warns that, despite the natural
revulsion, Britain must not sleepwalk into regulating the press into
toothlessness:

Opinion Hard lessons must be drawn. Investigations into criminal
behavior must be taken to their conclusions, wherever they lead.
Honest journalists — and they abound in England, as elsewhere — should
not fear those inquiries.

But there is one course of action the authorities most emphatically
must not pursue: the new system of press regulation that Prime
Minister David Cameron darkly hinted at last week. Mr. Cameron, whose
own judgment has been called into question by the scandal, may pine
for a tamer press. But now especially, British public life needs the
disinfecting sunlight of a free press, not the chilling shadow of
official oversight.

And Mr. Cameron should keep this in mind: the scandal is not about
journalism and whether it should be allowed to flourish, it is about
intentional lawbreaking — including by public officials.

09.31 Looking away from our own writers for a moment, The New York
Times has two major pieces on the scandal. First, they discuss the
implications for David Cameron of his ties to Rupert Murdoch:

Opinion Prime Minister David Cameron is usually the nimblest of
politicians, radiating self-assurance and blessed with an almost
Reaganesque ability to deflect criticism. But as the phone hacking
scandal spreads, Mr. Cameron has been placed in the unaccustomed
position of appearing vulnerable and behind the curve...

But the prime minister’s problems go deeper than failing to read the
political signs as quickly as other parties. More seriously, his
critics say, the affair raises questions about Mr. Cameron’s character
and judgment in cultivating multiple ties to News International, Mr.
Murdoch’s British subsidiary, which helped put him in office but which
is currently about as politically popular as a basket of snakes at a
summer picnic.

09.26 The Daily Telegraph's deputy editor Benedict Brogan writes in
his morning briefing that today is make-or-break for David Cameron:

It's crunch time for Dave. At 12pm, he has PMQs - the last before
recess - followed by a Prime Ministerial statement. And the PM is so
far on the back foot he's moonwalking. As well as facing questions on
his awkward relationship with Andy Coulson, he now faces the
humiliation of being forced into backing Labour in the opposition
debate.

Labour's motion is shrewdly worded - rather than trying to legally
block Murdoch, it simply states that News International should
withdraw its bid. That forced the Government onto the defensive, and
after talks between the party leaders last night, Dave evidently
decided it was better to concede a victory to Miliband than to send
Tory MPs alone through the lobbies on behalf of Rupert Murdoch.

09.19 Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police
Officers, has called upon News International to hand over any evidence
it may have on corruption in the police. He told the BBC Radio 4 Today
programme:

Quote My invitation to News International would be that they step up
and produce any information they still have which they think is
relevant.

Let's not play around with legal games here - if they have names,
dates, times, places, payments to officers, we would like to see them
so that we can lock these officers up and throw away the key, frankly,
because any corrupt officer does huge damage to the 140,000 officers
that go out every day to keep people safe.

My sense of it is that it is not something that is endemic or
cultural. I think the vast majority of officers would be absolutely
outraged that someone in a position of authority with access to
privileged information thinks it's right in any way, shape or form to
give that information up.

09.04 As well as his news story (see 08.52), Toby Harnden has blogged
on what the cross-Atlantic contagion of the phone-hacking scandal
means for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp:

Well, it’s big. It hints that other agencies – the most obvious one is
the Securities and Exchange Commission – will indeed investigate. And
it all but says that News Corp. will be history if it turns out any
American citizen had their phone hacked. Remember, the White House
thinks Fox News is the epitome of evil and Democrats control the
Senate. This could be very, very bad indeed for Murdoch.

09.00 Paul Waugh, the editor of PoliticsHome.com, writes that David
Cameron is preparing to fight back on the hacking story, after days of
being on the back foot:

Opinion Given Ed Miliband's taunts about him 'running scared' of the
beast that is the phone hacking scandal, it looks like the PM is now
ready to stand his ground...

Cameron knows that he cannot afford to flap around on the issue as he
did during Monday's Downing Street presser. If it gets rough, expect
more of the Tory line that they've done more in seven days than Labour
did in 13 years to grasp the nettle of a blagging and other media
abuses.

08.52 The big news overnight comes via The Daily Telegraph's US
editor, Toby Harnden, who reports that the chairman of a powerful
United States Senate commitee has said that the phone-hacking scandal
raises "serious questions" about whether Rupert Murdoch's News Corp
"has broken United States law":

The statement by Senator Jay Rockefeller, a White House ally and
Democratic chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Committee, dramatically raises the stakes for Mr Murdoch by signaling
potential legal repercussions in America.

"The reported hacking by News Corporation newspapers against a range
of individuals - including children - is offensive and a serious
breach of journalistic ethics," he said in a statement issued
following inquiries by The Daily Telegraph.

08.50 Here are the morning's front pages - note particularly The Sun's
robust response to the allegations that they "blagged" Gordon Brown's
son's medical records:

08.36 The day's big events: at noon, David Cameron will face the
Commons for Prime Minister's Questions. At 12.30, he will make a
statement about the phone hacking.

At around 4pm the Commons will debate Labour's motion calling on
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to withdraw the bid for full control of
BSkyB, and between 6pm 7pm the Commons will vote - with both the Lib
Dems and the Conservatives expected to vote with Labour.

08.25 Senior executives at News International could be investigated by
police after the company was accused by detectives of deliberately
attempting to thwart the first phone hacking investigation, writes our
Crime Correspondent Mark Hughes on our front page today.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, the officer leading Scotland
Yard’s new inquiry, yesterday suggested to MPs that the scope of the
investigation could be widened beyond journalists at the News of the
World to include the “criminal liability of directors”. Broadening the
inquiry could implicate more senior managers at the defunct tabloid’s
owners, including James Murdoch, the chairman of News International,
and Rebekah Brooks, its chief executive.

The Metropolitan Police yesterday accused News International of
“lying” during the original investigation into phone hacking at the
News of the World. Senior officers told MPs that Mr Murdoch’s company
had deliberately undermined a criminal inquiry, a move that could
leave senior executives facing prosecution.

08.18 The man who apparently contacted The Sun with information that
Gordon Brown's son had cystic fibrosis, told the News International
tabloid that he had wanted to raise awareness about the disease. The
father, who is not named in The Sun's front page story today, is
quoted as saying:

Quote I felt vindicated in contacting The Sun. I just felt at the time
that we could have made something positive out of the tragedy and I
believe the truth would have come out eventually anyway. It is tragic
for the Browns like many other people throughout the years who have
children diagnosed. But the fact that they are so high profile could
have made a difference.

The father, who is said to have links with the Brown family, learned
about Fraser's condition just weeks after he was born, the paper said.
However, he did not immediately pass on the news because he expected
it to be widely reported.

Quote I was very surprised it didn't come out before it did. I did it
with the best of intentions and I totally stand by that decision. I
have no regrets. I just wanted to highlight this. It's happened to
many people and it's just sad that it's happening to another family. A
very high profile family.

08.15 The Sun has defended itself against allegations that it accessed
former prime minister Gordon Brown's family medical records without
his knowledge. The News International tabloid insists that the
information that Mr Brown's son Fraser had cystic fibrosis was handed
to it by a member of the public - a father whose child also suffered
from the disease. The tone of the story is defiant, under the
headline: BROWN WRONG - what really happened between The Sun and
ex-PM. The paper's political editorm Ton Newton-Dunn writes:

Quote The Sun today exposes the allegation that we hacked into Gordon
Brown's family records as FALSE and a smear. We can reveal the source
of our information was a shattered dad whose own son also has the
crippling disease and who wanted to highlight the plight of sufferers.
And when we approached former Labour leader Mr Brown and his wife
Sarah with the story, she gave us their consent to run it.

08.03 There have been a few major development in the last 24 hours.

• Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, has been
invited to make an unprecedented appearance before MPs to answer
questions on the hacking scandal, along with his son, James, and
Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International and former
editor of the NOTW.

• The Metropolitican Police accused News International of lying during
the original investigation into phone hacking at the NOTW but admitted
that the scandal has seriously dented Scotland Yard's reputation.

• Police revealed that only 170 of 3,870 suspected victims of phone
hacking have been contacted by detectives so far.

• Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the senior Met policeman who
twice took the decision not to reopen the inquiry into phone hacking,
told MPs he had no plans to resign.

• Andy Hayman, a former Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, was
pilloried by MPs as "more Clouseau than Columbo" as he faced questions
about his handling of the 2005 phone hacking investigation.

• Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister, accused News International
of pursuing an agenda through its newspapers to change Government
policy.

• The US congress was under increasing pressure to investigate the
American activities of News Corp in the wake of the phone hacking
scandal.

• It emerged that journalists at the NOTW paid police officers to
locate people using their mobile phones.

Rupert Murdoch

08.00 Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the phone
hacking scandal. We will bring you the latest news on the crisis
gripping News Corporation as it unfolds.

• News of the World phone hacking scandal: July 12
• News of the World phone hacking scandal: July 11
• News of the World closed down: July 10
• News of the World closed down: July 9
• News of the World closed down: July 8
• News of the World phone hacking: July 7
• News of the World phone hacking: July 6
• Milly Dowler News of the World phone hacking: July 5

For more great stories and exiciting news frim The Mail and the
Telegraph click here
www.telegraph.co.uk


News of the World phone hacking scandal: July 13 as it happened
Telegraph.co.uk - 1 hour ago
I've been saying that this company clearly needs to sort out the
problems there are at News International, at the News of the World.
...

Phone hacking: Gordon Brown gets his revenge on News International
For more than a year, Gordon Brown has been virtually invisible in the
House of Commons.
By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent 13 Jul 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8636254/Phone-hacking-Gordon-Brown-gets-his-revenge-on-News-International.html

But on Wednesday, in a rare appearance, he broke his silence with a
righteous fury, launching a sustained attack upon Rupert Murdoch’s
newspapers and their actions.

In the House of Commons, the former prime minister spoke out against
the News Corp founder and his besieged clan, accusing them of
systematic criminality, collusion with “the underworld” and the abuse
of the vulnerable. In only his second Commons speech since leaving
Downing Street, Mr Brown also sought to portray David Cameron and the
Conservatives as willing helpers of Mr Murdoch, and perhaps even
complicit in his retainers’ wrongdoing.

On the day that Mr Murdoch had to abandon his bid for full control of
BSkyB, Mr Brown set out to compound the agonies of the media magnate
and end his influence in public life forever.

Speaking for more than half an hour to a packed Commons, Mr Brown’s
condemnation of the media verged on the apoplectic, displaying a
passion and anger he rarely exposed while in office.

“In their behaviour towards those without a voice of their own, News
International descended from the gutter to the sewer,” he declared.
“The tragedy is that they let the rats out of the sewer.”
Related Articles

   Clegg questions whether Murdoch is fit to own British media
   14 Jul 2011

   Cabinet Office to release hacking advice given to Brown
   14 Jul 2011

   Two years in the plotting, Brown gets his revenge
   14 Jul 2011

   David Cameron promises to bring every player to account
   13 Jul 2011

   Yard warns News International not to play 'legal games'
   14 Jul 2011

   Gotcha! Rebekah Brooks suffers a blow from former Sun editor
Kelvin MacKenzie
   14 Jul 2011

Mr Brown is the son of the manse, his father a Church of Scotland
minister, the man who gave him the much-mocked moral compass that
guided his ill-fated premiership.

Yesterday, he made no mention of his faith or his background, but
there was no need.

The sense of righteous fury Mr Brown projected, and his denunciation
of New International’s sins, made clear where on the moral and
spiritual scale he located himself and his newly-declared enemies.

Journalists and others working for Mr Murdoch hacked phones, “blagged”
financial records, infiltrated email accounts, invaded privacy,
violated trust and exploited grief, he said.

“Many, many wholly innocent men, women and children who at their
darkest hour, at the most vulnerable moment of their lives, with no
one and nowhere to turn, found their properly private lives, their
private losses, their private sorrows, treated as the public property
of News International,” he said. “Their private and innermost feelings
and their private tears were bought and sold by News International for
commercial gain.”

He and his family were among the victims, he said, referring to claims
– strongly disputed – that The Sun illegally accessed the medical
records of his infant son. Because of that experience, he said, he had
amassed “a great deal of evidence” about News International and its
misdemeanours.

Because of the company, the last decade of British politics was
scarred by a “lethal combination of illegality, of collusion and of
cover-up,” he said, laying much of the blame at his successor’s feet.
Earlier in the Commons, Mr Cameron completed his own break with News
International.

The Prime Minister first abandoned his former communications chief,
Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor. If Mr Coulson is
found to have been involved in wrongdoing, he must “face the full
force of the law,” he said.

He also said that Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief
executive should quit, a departure now widely expected next week
following her questioning by a Commons committee. She might take over
one of Mr Murdoch’s interests in Australia.

For Mr Brown, Mr Cameron’s words were too little and too late.

In office, Labour opposed Mr Murdoch and “stood up for what we
believed was the public interest”, Mr Brown said. But as leader of the
Opposition, Mr Cameron had “invariably reclassified the public
interest as the News International interest.”

Yet Mr Cameron was not alone in trying to prevent Mr Murdoch from
being held to account, he argued.

As prime minister, he wanted a “full, judge-led inquiry” into phone
hacking and the rest, as long ago as 2009, he said. Yet he was
prevented from ordering such an inquiry, he claimed.

To prove it, he broke convention and read out advice from civil servants.

Mr Brown implied that he had been powerless to bring Mr Murdoch’s
company to account.

“It was opposed by the police. It was opposed by the Home Office. It
was opposed by the Civil Service. It was not supported by the select
committee,” he said.

That account drew accusations that Mr Brown was trying to rewrite
history. Sammy Wilson, a Democratic Unionist, suggested that Mr Brown
had simply “bottled it”. Mr Brown claimed that, far from seeking Mr
Murdoch’s favour, as a minister he had consistently sought to thwart
him.

Mr Brown’s version of his relationship with News International and the
wider media invited questions about his consistency. Conservative
backbenchers asked them, or tried to.

Jacob Rees-Mogg asked Mr Brown how his righteous fury against the
media could be reconciled with his employment of spin doctors such as
Charlie Whelan and Damian McBride, men who did deals with journalists
on his behalf. Nadhim Zahawi asked if Mr Brown was so hostile to News
International, why did his wife once host a “slumber party” at
Chequers for Mrs Brooks? In neither case did Mr Brown answer.

The Cabinet Office last night issued a statement in response to Mr
Brown’s claim that the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O’Donnell, stopped
him from launching an inquiry into alleged phone hacking. A Cabinet
Office spokesman said: “The Cabinet Secretary will consult urgently
with the former prime minister on whether this advice should be
released.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8636258/TV-producer-faces-jail-for-stalking-his-former-classmate.html

TV producer faces jail for stalking his former classmate
A television producer who searched the internet for a former classmate
40,000 times, paid for background searches on the woman's husband and
posed as a parent at her daughter's nursery is facing jail. 13 Jul
2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8635107/Spare-us-Gordon-Brown.-You-sacrificed-your-morals-to-Rupert-Murdoch-long-ago.html

Spare us Gordon Brown. You sacrificed your morals to Rupert Murdoch long ago
For Gordon Brown to complain about the invasion of 'private grief' is
like Faustus moaning that someone had forged his signature with the
Devil.
Thursday 14 July 2011

So much for damage limitation. Rupert Murdoch’s ruthless closure of
the News of the World, with the loss of an estimated 200 jobs,
although not the one held by Rebekah Brooks, has backfired
spectacularly. As one Twitter wit observed, this was the first radical
surgery in which they decided to remove the healthy tissue and left
the cancer in place.

“Mr Murdoch doesn’t explain himself. He meets power with power,” said
his biographer, Michael Wolff. Not this time. The old bloke with his
blonde personal trainer in Hyde Park suddenly looked less like a media
mogul than a bewildered escapee from a Southern Cross home. Used to
dictating events, he was suddenly down on his spindly knees before
them.

As the phone-hacking scandal spread like a forest fire, News
Corporation couldn’t hope to contain the blaze, so late yesterday
Murdoch dramatically felled its BSkyB bid in a last-ditch attempt to
stop the flames engulfing his whole empire. The firestorm had exposed
previously hidden parts of our national landscape so, at times, you
found it hard to believe it was the country you knew. Was this Britain
we’d been living in, or Italy?

The Murdochs talk about senior executives being Family, in the same
way as the Corleones in The Godfather. Politicians cowered or cavorted
before them. Police officers were corrupt, blundering fools or Andy
Hayman. Every hour has brought some new jaw-dropping revelation or
moral conundrum.

Here’s one you might like to try at home. If a person betrays a
distressing secret concerning your child, possibly obtained via
illegal means, and reduces you and your spouse to tears, how would you
behave towards that person in the future? Would you:
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a) Sever all connections with them and contact your lawyers or the police?

b) Pay a visit to them taking an electric hedge-strimmer?

c) Invite them to a sleepover party and attend their wedding?

Incredibly, Gordon and Sarah Brown went for option c. The former prime
minister told a BBC interviewer that he cried in 2006 when Rebekah
Brooks, then editor of the Sun, rang the Browns to say that her paper
knew their son Fraser had cystic fibrosis and was planning to run a
front-page exclusive. You can imagine the way Brooks’s call combined
that wheedling, insidious tabloid blend of sympathy and threat. It was
heartless behaviour at a time when the Browns were still coming to
terms with the fact that their new baby faced grave health problems.

Truly shocking, but then I think back to the jolt I felt when I heard
that, four years earlier, the Browns had invited several tabloid
editors to the funeral of their daughter, who tragically died at 10
days old.

What on earth can they have been thinking? One of the invited
journalists told me how incredulous he was that Gordon Brown felt it
was appropriate to ask high-profile movers and shakers to such an
agonisingly personal event.

For Brown to complain about the invasion of “private grief” was like
Faust moaning that someone had forged his signature on the pact with
the Devil. Brown told the BBC, “There was nothing you could do, you’re
in public life.”

Actually, there were plenty of things that Brown, as a senior member
of the New Labour government, could and should have done. He could
have told Brooks that it was a private medical matter under Press
Complaints Commission rules and she would not have been able to print
a word. Or he could have gone completely crazy and put moral principle
before political advantage – a quality he extols in his book Courage.
But the fact is Gordon wanted to help Rebekah Brooks out. However
upset he and Sarah were, the thought of upsetting the Murdoch empire
was worse.

Brown’s attack in the Commons yesterday on News International’s
“lawbreaking on an industrial scale” would have been magnificent had
he made it when it might have personally cost him something.

Spare us the righteous indignation of politicians who suck up to hacks
when it suits them and then play the avenging angel as soon as the
moral weather changes. Let me put it another way. Sarah and Gordon
Brown were so devastated by Brooks’s exposure of their baby’s illness
that they invited her to a girly sleepover at Chequers. The other
guests included Wendy Deng, the present Mrs Murdoch, and Rupert’s
daughter, Elizabeth. These people weren’t just getting into bed
together; they were throwing a pyjama party, for heaven’s sake.

I’m sorry to say that David Cameron hasn’t looked much better, despite
a belated attempt to scramble onto the moral high ground, which by
then was more crowded than Rupert Murdoch’s summer party. Our Prime
Minister has a high colour and even a biscuity tan could not hide his
blushes whenever the topic of Andy Coulson or Brooks came up. He
refused to call for his Oxfordshire neighbour’s resignation and, until
yesterday afternoon, was still trying to please his old Murdoch mates
by tarring the entire Press with the News of the World’s toilet brush.

When a senior journalist joined News International, one insider tells
me that the Prime Minister joked: “Now he is Rebekah’s bitch.” What
did the leader of our democracy think he was doing being on such
excruciatingly familiar terms with a media corporation, some of whose
staff acted as though the law of this land was only for the little
people?

Yesterday afternoon, in one of the most extraordinary moments I have
ever seen in Parliament, the former prime minister accused the present
one of being a liar. Mr Brown messianically declared: “I can say for
the record that as I left office, I warned the Leader of the
Opposition that he could expect a (Andy) Coulson problem. And I did so
directly, not through an intermediary who might not tell him.”

Mr Cameron has promised us a robust inquiry into the conduct of the
press and the ethics of the police. I hope we can look forward to the
same scrutiny being applied to the man who assured us he had received
no personal warning about his head of press. It’s going to be Gordon’s
word against Dave’s. Hang onto your hats.

Sally Dowler, the grieving mother of Milly, showed a surer public
touch than the Prime Minister when she called for Brooks to “do the
honourable thing and resign”.

It is public disgust at the hacking into the private lives of the most
vulnerable which has brought about this seismic change, not our
politicians’ retrospective fits of conscience. The big man should
watch out: the little people are fighting back.

Men should pack in their complaining

As Himself and I have got older, it’s fair to say that our vacation
needs have diverged. Our travel agent Philip identifies this as a
classic case of late-onset Holiday Incompatibility Syndrome. I like to
lie down, he likes to stand up. I like to bake my Vitamin-D deprived
bones, he hates the heat. I like to take a large suitcase full of
outfits for every possible temperature plus surprise cocktails with
the ambassador; increasingly, he packs like Dick Whittington, with two
T-shirts and a pair of 12-year-old trunks in a hankie on a stick. My
idea of a relaxing morning is a smiley man with a tray – think Rafa
Nadal’s cousin – bringing me something cool in a tall glass, which
makes a lovely chink-chink sound. His idea of a relaxing morning is
finding a fossil or a church with a glass case containing the leprous
finger of a saint who died a prolonged death that has a firework named
after it.

Our HIS was once grimly summed up by Himself: “Allison wanted to go to
the Caribbean and I wanted to go to Poland. So we compromised and went
to the Caribbean.”

Not any more. On a holiday in Barbados, the HIS turned ugly when he
sat in the shade for three days. I wouldn’t have minded, but he was
reading Crime and Punishment. A single pale Englishman sat reading
Dostoevsky among all those Danielle Steeles and John Grishams was
unmistakably an act of passive aggression. I begged him to hide Crime
and Punishment inside a copy of Hello! We have never been back.

“I don’t mind where we go,” he says every year. So I tell him where
we’re going and he says: “Are you mad? Turkey in August. It will be
very hot.”

“It won’t be hot because we’re going to be on a traditional boat. With
a sea breeze.”

“Are you mad? You hate the sea. You’ll spend seven days with your head
in a bucket.”

“You’ll love it. There are these incredible classical ruins to visit.”

“Are you mad? We’ll be kidnapped by Somali pirates.”

“That’s it! Next year, you can book the bloody holiday yourself.”

No, really, don’t worry, it’s all going to be wonderful. We’re going
to Turkey with my friend and her family. Out of interest, I asked my
friend’s husband if he actually knew where he was going on holiday and
he said cautiously: “I believe I know which hemisphere it’s in.”

See. And now some researchers – male, you can bet your last cocktail
umbrella – have published a study actually complaining that women pack
double what they need for a holiday. Of course a woman packs double.
She is packing all the things her menfolk are too disorganised or
mutinous to remember. This is to see off the inevitable “You”
accusations that are more irritating than mosquitoes on a family
holiday. “Where did YOU put the suncream?’ “What have YOU done with
the goggles?” “Where’s that white shirt I asked YOU to pack?”

So YOu – that’s ME and every mother in Britain – can pack what she
jolly well likes, thank you very much. You see, chaps, you simply
never know. That cerise chiffon kaftan and the black straw sombrero
will be perfect when I’m being photographed in a cage with my Somali
pirate captors. Happy holidays!






Elliot Fogel, 36, was convicted yesterday of breaching a restraining
order for the third time in an eight-year campaign of harassment
against Claire Waxman.

Fogel, a freelance producer, of Edgware, north-west London, developed
an unhealthy obsession with Mrs Waxman when they were at college in St
Albans, Herts, in the early 1990s.

After rebuffing his advances, she heard nothing for 10 years. Then,
out of the blue, Fogel sent her a dinner invitation, which she
declined.

A few months later, he was spotted jogging on the spot outside Mrs
Waxman's home and loitering around her workplace. He also made
hundreds of telephone calls to her home, paid for background searches
on her husband, Marc, and posed as a prospective parent at the nursery
her daughter attended. After his arrest, police found copies of Mrs
Waxman's wedding photographs on his computer.

In 2006, Fogel was made subject of a restraining order banning him
from going to Mrs Waxman's home or within a mile of her work, but he
breached it the following year. In January last year, he was jailed
for 16 weeks for a further breach, but went on to breach it for a
third time.

On Feb 1 this year, Fogel drove up alongside Mrs Waxman, a therapist,
outside her office after a court had dismissed a civil case he brought
against his victim, whom he claimed had waged a "hate campaign"
against him on Facebook.

Giving evidence from behind a screen at Wood Green Crown Court
yesterday, Mrs Waxman, 36, said she had suffered a miscarriage,
developed an eating disorder and had to move home five times as a
result of Fogel's campaign.

Julie Whitby, prosecuting, said: "This is a case of the stalker who
will not stop stalking. If you have an obsession with someone,
bringing them to court is one way of seeing them, of coming into
contact with them." Fogel, found guilty of breaching a restraining
order, will be sentenced next month.

     Outside High Court of        
        JusticeLondon 
      Julian Assange Extradition Appeal 
                     12th July 2011










                                                             CIA Agent Marko watching all the proectors all day

  Marko, a self confessed CIA agent
   admitted to News of the World  
   reporter that the CIA were  funding the  extradition hearings of
              Julian Assange
    for the Swedish Government
                                                                     Marko said 'I do not personally
         like what the CIA are doing...'      
              but says, 

          "...I am just doing my job...."