Jan Klimkowski Wrote:Black Queen to Rook 8 Check - Edmondson is found dressed in latex, hanging from from a beam with a noose round his neck, a tangerine in his mouth - a smiling death rictus through smeared purple lipgloss. The rozzers declare it accidental suicide, but they'd quite like to speak to an albino couple with an interest in bondage if that isn't too much trouble.

David Guyatt Wrote:

Jan Klimkowski Wrote:Black Queen to Rook 8 Check - Edmondson is found dressed in latex, hanging from from a beam with a noose round his neck, a tangerine in his mouth - a smiling death rictus through smeared purple lipgloss. The rozzers declare it accidental suicide, but they'd quite like to speak to an albino couple with an interest in bondage if that isn't too much trouble.

The Sicilian defence?

Quote:Phone-hacking scandal hits Murdoch business as investors grow restless
Storm surrounding News of the World threatens to engulf global empire, with investors worrying row is threat to BSkyB deal

Jamie Doward and Paul Harris in New York
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 29 January 2011 20.31 GMT


Rupert Murdoch has extended his stay in London to deal with the phone-hacking crisis. Photograph: Richard Clement/Reuters

Many people in the UK will not have heard of Prince al-Waleed bin Talal. But perhaps they should have done. The prince has a lot of money invested in the UK and wields considerable, albeit discreet, influence.

The 55-year-old nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is a multibillionaire who, through his investment company, Kingdom Holdings, has taken large chunks of companies as diverse as the Savoy Hotel Group and London's Canary Wharf.

Bin Talal's power stems from his unique position. He is one of the few people who can tap the giant Saudi sovereign funds for money, so his every word is analysed forensically by the markets.

Last week, though, it is likely that the prince, described by Time magazine as "the Arabian Warren Buffett", was devoting more than a passing interest to his almost 7% share in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, quietly accumulated over several years.

The prince cannot have liked what he saw. What had started out as a very British row over phone hacking by reporters working on Murdoch's News of the World had become infectious and was in danger of going global.

As scores of new victims emerged to allege they had been hacked by the newspaper, MPs voiced fresh concerns at the police handling of the affair and the role played by senior executives at News International, News Corp's UK subsidiary and the ultimate parent company of the News of the World, the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.

Meanwhile, back across the Atlantic, it emerged that News Corp was facing another problem. Last week 400 rabbis from all the main branches of Judaism in the US bought a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, calling on Murdoch to take sanctions against News Corp's Fox News subsidiary. The rabbis were incensed at the way that Fox commentators regularly referred to those with whom they disagreed as "Nazis".

"You diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organisation you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks," the ad read.

The placement of the ad was even more poignant and shocking as it was published on Holocaust Remembrance Day. It came partly in response to comments by Murdoch's brash Fox News leader, Roger Ailes, who had compared executives at National Public Radio to Nazis after they sacked a commentator who made ill-advised remarks about being scared of flying with Muslims.

But it also focused on the most controversial figure in the pantheon of Fox News personalities: Glenn Beck. Fox's biggest star repeatedly uses Nazi and Hitler references to describe figures he does not like.

Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, has been especially vocal in attacking Beck's tactics. "I haven't heard anything like this on television or radio and I've been following this kind of stuff. I've been in the sewers of antisemitism and Holocaust denial more often than I've wanted," she said.

Those familiar with bin Talal, who has given tens of millions of dollars to charities seeking to bridge gaps between western and Islamic communities, say he will have been dismayed by any whiff of controversy threatening his business interests.

"He is an incredibly intelligent man and deeply honourable; you can only speculate about what he must be thinking now," said an acquaintance.

Coming at a time when News Corp wants regulatory approval to take over British satellite broadcaster BSkyB, both the phone-hacking scandal and the row with the rabbis are damaging not only to the company's reputation but its bottom line.

Liberal commentators have used both to question whether Murdoch should be allowed to own more of the British media landscape.

Murdoch must have hoped the BSkyB deal would have been waved through by now, but the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has postponed making a decision to see if remedies can be found to avoid a long Competition Commission inquiry.

Hunt is in an invidious position, having previously expressed a view that the deal would not make a substantial difference to the plurality of the British media. An approval is likely to see Labour scream blue murder but, even before a decision has been reached, it is having political consequences.

Andy Coulson, the News of the World's former editor, resigned this month as the prime minister's director of communications, saying that persistent allegations of mobile-phone hacking occurring on his watch made it impossible for him to do his job.

His resignation was interpreted in some quarters as an attempt to take the heat off Murdoch at a crucial time in News Corp's bid for BSkyB.

Further revelations that Cameron and James Murdoch, the Europe and Asia chief of News Corp, had been dinner guests at the Cotswolds home of News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks over Christmas provided ammunition to those who claim No 10 is too close to the media empire.

That relationship looked set to become more apparent last week when Murdoch flew into the UK to hold urgent meetings with senior executives at News International.

There were rumours that Cameron and Murdoch were due to hold a brief, informal meeting later in the week in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, home to the World Economic Forum, but that this was called off when the News Corp boss decided to stay in London to deal with the phone-hacking scandal.

"He will be thinking all of this should have been sorted out long ago," said someone familiar with the thinking of the News Corp board. "He'll want to know why Rebekah has not closed this down."

Why News Corp is so eager to bag BSkyB was plain to see last week, when the broadcaster reported pre-tax profits of £467m, up a stunning 26% on the previous year.

But for Murdoch, BSkyB's profits came with a sting attached. As analysts at City brokers Charles Stanley Research note: "Our best guess is that clearance [for the News Corp takeover of BSkyB] will be granted, although perhaps only after a lengthy further investigation by the Competition Commission and/or the implementation of certain 'remedies'.

"We would expect a formal offer to subsequently be forthcoming from News Corp, although the continued strong financial performance of the business means the board of BSkyB may feel obliged to demand a price well in excess of its previously stated minimum acceptable level of 800p."

This demand is inevitable unless Crispin Odey, the powerful hedge fund manager who owns 3% of BSkyB and is often referred to as the "David Beckham of the City" because of his winning investments strategies, has dramatically changed his mind. Odey, whose views will be listened to closely by members of the BSkyB board, told analysts last June that "even at 800p [the price BSkyB has been demanding] this company is undervalued. We should hold out against this bid. This is a company I want to own."

He added: "I've loved the Sky story for five years and now, just as the cash-flow and growth is coming through, we shouldn't sell it. If shareholders sell at this level, in two years' time we are going to look back and say 'Rupert got this for a steal'."

Just to add piquancy to Odey's comments, it should be remembered that he was once married to Murdoch's daughter, Prudence.

As Murdoch waits in regulatory purgatory and hedge fund managers push BSkyB's share price north a move that could see News Corp having to stump up as much as £1bn more than it expected the media giant's investors are said to be growing restless.

A full News Corporation board meeting is believed to have been scheduled for Wednesday. The phone-hacking scandal and the BSkyB deal are expected to be high on the agenda. Bin Talal, who simply "does not lose money" according to someone who knows him well, is likely to pay very close attention to what is discussed.

Worryingly for Murdoch, who is used to his investors taking a back seat, the prince is a far from passive backer. As a sizable investor in bombed-out banking giant Citigroup, bin Talal has been vocal in calling for its management to improve the firm's fortunes, warning its chief executive last year that the "honeymoon was over".

Murdoch may soon find himself receiving similar encouragement if the BSkyB bid falters. It is an unpalatable prospect for an autocrat.

Quote:News International finds 'lost' emails that could provide evidence in phone-hacking case

By Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter, and Martin Hickman
Monday, 31 January 2011

A "lost" hoard of emails sent by senior executives in Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire at the height of the phone-hacking scandal has been found, The Independent has learnt.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police are now expected to examine the database of emails in their renewed search for News of the World journalists who may have hacked into mobile phone messages or hired private detectives to do so in breach of privacy laws.

A senior editor at News International, the UK newspaper arm of Mr Murdoch's News Corporation media empire, claimed in a high-profile criminal trial last year that "lots of emails" from editors and other staff had gone missing in a botched data transfer to India.

However, The Independent has established that not only is the database intact but it apparently contains a full record of email traffic between the company's senior staff.

The archive, covering 2005 and 2006 when the News of the World was illegally listening to the messages of aides to Prince William and other public figures, will open a window onto the Sunday paper's newsgathering operations and those of Mr Murdoch's other titles.

Scotland Yard last week promised it would leave "no stone unturned" in its new inquiry into allegations that phone hacking at the News of the World spread far beyond its Royal Editor, Clive Goodman, whose snooping on Prince William led to him being jailed for four months in 2007. A raid on the offices of the private eye Glen Mulcaire, also jailed, uncovered several thousand phone numbers of potential hacking victims and 91 PIN codes, but detectives limited their inquiries to Goodman and Mulcaire.

Confirmation that the UK database of all emails does, in fact, exist will give the new police team no excuses for ignoring a data trail that may yield fresh clues to the investigation.

Saying it was determined to root out wrongdoing, News International last week passed detectives significant new evidence about the NOTW's sacked head of news Ian Edmondson, prompting the Met to launch a new inquiry. It is being run by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers.

The claim that emails had been lost was made by the News of the World's Scotland editor Bob Bird during the perjury trial of the former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan in November. Giving evidence on oath, he said that many emails sought by the defence had gone missing while being transferred to India.

The claim prompted the Information Commissioner's Office to launch an inquiry into whether the apparent loss of the emails broke the law governing the handling of sensitive data and its transfer abroad. If News International had broken the Data Protection Act it would have faced a fresh civil case, alongside civil actions brought by individuals who suspect their phones were hacked, and a £500,000 fine.

However, in a letter to the Information Commissioner's Office, lawyers at News International's Wapping headquarters told the ICO's investigation team that it had archived emails and that none had been transferred to India.

As well as confirming the presence of a potentially vast data store, the disclosure confirmed by the newspaper group to The Independent has other potentially serious consequences.

Mr Sheridan's team is expected to use the disclosure as part of an appeal against Mr Sheridan's conviction for lying on oath in his earlier defamation case against the NOTW which led to him being jailed for three years.

Secondly, if, as expected the ICO confirms News International is telling the truth, it could forward the transcript of Mr Bird's testimony and its inquiry to its lawyers who will decide whether "in the public interest" to contact other prosecuting authorities.

A source at News International said Mr Bird had unintentionally given the court inaccurate evidence, but insisted the defence team had received all the relevant documents. In a brief official statement, the news group said: "Like many companies, we have an email archiving system in place." Mr Bird, who joined News International in 2000, did not respond to a request for comment.

Aamer Anwar, Sheridan's solicitor, said: "This is unacceptable. We were told repeatedly by Mr Bird in these proceedings that this material was lost in Mumbai. Now we are told it is in the UK. My client would not accept an explanation that there was a misunderstanding. We will look closely at any response from News International and are considering a complaint to the police and the Crown Office. If there is evidence information was intentionally not supplied we would expect criminal proceedings."

Labour MP Tom Watson, who has campaigned for a new police force to look into hacking, said: "If the jury in the Sheridan trial was misled then there should be an urgent review of the case. This week the Prime Minister told the Commons that the inquiry should 'follow the evidence wherever it leads'. We now know it leads to a data warehouse in London containing all News International emails from 2005 onwards."

Information overload

* The digital age has brought with it an unforeseen dilemma for commercial companies, from banks to media giants: just what do they do with the unimaginably vast quantities of data that they produce and receive each year? According to one estimate, 35 zettabytes of information equivalent to the storage capacity of 2,625 billion iPads will be generated worldwide in 2011.

Commercial lawyers say this avalanche of data presents the commercial sector with particular problems because of the thicket of legislation from the Data Protection Act to rules governing the financial sector that means nearly all of it must be kept and archived in an accessible manner.

The dangers of failing to properly store information such as internal emails was highlighted in 2009 when Barclays Bank was heavily criticised for allowing key documents in a dispute with a customer, including emails, to be destroyed. Although the banking giant ultimately won the case, the judge ordered the amount of costs it could claim to be halved.

Companies have traditionally relied on "taping" technology or hard discs, often housed in basement computer rooms, to back up their data. But increasingly companies are moving to online storage, which allows information to be transmitted in vast quantities via the internet to remote servers around the world.

Tracey Stretton, legal consultant for Kroll Ontrack, a data management and recovery company, said: "It is increasingly vital that companies not only store the information they generate, but that they do so in a manner that allows that data to be searched effectively should the need arise.

"If, for example, legal proceedings arise a number of years after an event, then there will be a reasonable expectation that any relevant information should be readily accessible.

"The quantity of information that technology allows to be stored is extraordinary a single USB data stick can hold the equivalent of 20 tonnes of printed paper."

According to one estimate, the electronically stored information (ESI) industry is now worth £150bn a year.

       Cahal Milmo and Martin Hickman

Mystery of missing emails

* What Bob Bird, editor of the Scottish News of the World, told a pre-trial hearing on 30 June 2010

"I did have a look at the email system but it is, frankly, a mess, our system. Our archived emails have been shipped to Mumbai and it's difficult to get anything that is more than six months old. I searched out emails regarding the police, which I'm still trying to discover where they actually are and how you open the things. I've had IT at it for a few weeks now..."

"... As I say, unfortunately, our emails get automatically deleted and archived after about six months now and our archive is in Mumbai, so I couldn't have searched [those] emails..."

"...I've been having a look trying to find anything that might be relevant. As I say, we've had a problem..."

During the trial in November, he told the High Court that "many emails had been lost when they were being moved to an archive in India".


* What News International subsequently told the Information Commissioner's data inquiry

As a result of Mr Bird's comments, the Information Commissioner's Office launched an investigation into whether News International's apparent archiving of emails abroad and their supposed loss breached the Data Protection Act. The ICO contacted News International and asked it to explain its position. Lawyers for News International then wrote to the headquarters of the Information Commissioner's Office in Wilmslow, Cheshire, stating that it archived emails in the UK and had not sent any to India.

News International has confirmed to The Independent that this is the case.

Quote:Rupert Murdoch silent on phone hacking as News Corp profits rise
News Corp chief refuses to talk about issue at press launch for the Daily, and misses quarterly reports Q&A

Dominic Rushe
The Guardian, Thursday 3 February 2011


Rupert Murdoch arrives at a press conference in New York to unveil News Corp's iPad news service the Daily. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Rupert Murdoch dodged questions about the widening phone-hacking scandal yesterday. The chairman and chief executive of News Corp, owner of the News of the World, refused to talk about the issue at the press launch of the Daily, his iPad news service, and later missed the Q&A session for News Corp's quarterly reports. Executives said he was still briefing media about the launch of the Daily.

Investigations into allegations of widespread phone hacking at the News of the World are complicating the company's attempts to gain full control of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB, in which it already has a 39.1% stake. It has offered £7.8bn for the remainder, but the hacking scandal has added to tight regulatory scrutiny.

Murdoch usually attends the quarterly briefing for analysts in New York, but this time he left the questions to Chase Carey, News Corp's chief operating officer.

Carey said: "We believe we made a full and fair offer … Our focus is on the regulatory process and we are trying to move forward with that."

News Corp's assets include the Times newspapers, Fox News, movie studios and Myspace. Its fiscal second-quarter profit more than doubled as advertising at its cable TV networks and TV stations bounced back. The company earned $642m (£396m) for the quarter, against $254m in the same period a year earlier.

Carey confirmed Myspace was now up for sale. It lost $156m for the quarter, $31m more than last year. "Now is the right time for News Corp to consider strategic options for the business," he said.

Quote:Andy Coulson knew about phone hacking, ex-colleague told MPs
Former News of the World executive said ex-editor probably told others to use illegal technique

James Robinson and Nicholas Watt
guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 February 2011 20.30 GMT


Andy Coulson quit as the Tories' director of communications because of continuing phone hacking allegations about his former job. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Andy Coulson was aware that phone hacking was taking place at Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire and "told others to do it", a former executive at the News of the World told MPs.

In written evidence given to the home affairs select committee and published for the first time today, Paul McMullan, a former features executive and investigative journalist at the title, said former editor Coulson "knew a lot of people" used the technique when Coulson worked at sister paper the Sun. He joined the News of the World in 2003, where he worked alongside McMullan for 18 months.

McMullan said: "As he sat a few feet from me in the [News of the World] newsroom he probably heard me doing it, laughing about it … and told others to do it".

Coulson, who last month quit as David Cameron's director of communications, worked at the Sun for more than a decade before joining the News of the World.

"Andy Coulson knew a lot of people did it at the Sun on his Bizarre [showbiz] column and after that at the NOTW," McMullan claimed.

McMullan, who is now a pub landlord, also described a flourishing trade in private information at the News of the World, which he said was regularly supplied with details of celebrities' medical records and mobile phone pin numbers.

"People who worked for Vodaphone [sic] etc would sometimes ring up the newsdesk offering to sell numbers and codes of stars' phones," he said, "as indeed people at the tax office, people in doctors' receptions."

In separate evidence also published today, Vodafone told the committee: "A small minority of customers were targeted by unscrupulous individuals."

The company said it had passed all evidence to the police during their 2006 investigation into phone hacking carried out by former News of the World journalist Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

McMullan told the Guardian last year that Coulson must have been well aware the practice was "pretty widespread".

Coulson has continued to deny this.

The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, also confirmed in written evidence to MPs he has instructed the Crown Prosecution Service to adopt a far broader definition of what constitutes illegal phone hacking. This decision makes fresh prosecutions more likely. The CPS announced a new investigation into phone hacking last month. News International says McMullan's evidence is unreliable and will demand evidence is withdrawn or corrected.

The home affairs committee will publish its report into unauthorised phone hacking in the spring.

David Cameron was, meanwhile, accused tonight of "breathtaking arrogance" for refusing to answer questions about his links to Murdoch's media empire, which owns the Sun and News of the World.

Quote:Andy Coulson, the News of the World's former editor, resigned this month as the prime minister's director of communications, saying that persistent allegations of mobile-phone hacking occurring on his watch made it impossible for him to do his job.

His resignation was interpreted in some quarters as an attempt to take the heat off Murdoch at a crucial time in News Corp's bid for BSkyB.

Further revelations that Cameron and James Murdoch, the Europe and Asia chief of News Corp, had been dinner guests at the Cotswolds home of News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks over Christmas provided ammunition to those who claim No 10 is too close to the media empire.

That relationship looked set to become more apparent last week when Murdoch flew into the UK to hold urgent meetings with senior executives at News International.

There were rumours that Cameron and Murdoch were due to hold a brief, informal meeting later in the week in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, home to the World Economic Forum, but that this was called off when the News Corp boss decided to stay in London to deal with the phone-hacking scandal.

"He will be thinking all of this should have been sorted out long ago," said someone familiar with the thinking of the News Corp board. "He'll want to know why Rebekah has not closed this down."

Quote:Leaked Labour email: lay off Murdoch

Posted by Dan Hodges - 02 February 2011 11:07

Opposition leader attempts to turn down the heat on the phone-hacking scandal.

An email, forwarded on behalf of Ed Miliband's director of strategy, Tom Baldwin, to all shadow cabinet teams warns Labour spokespeople to avoid linking hacking with the BSkyB bid, to accept ministerial assurances that meetings with Rupert Murdoch are not influencing that process, and to ensure that complaints about tapping are made in a personal, not shadow ministerial, capacity.

The circular, sent by a Labour press officer on 27 January, states: "Tom Baldwin has requested that any front-bench spokespeople use the following line when questioned on phone-hacking. BSkyB bid and phone-tapping . . . these issues should not be linked. One is a competition issue, the other an allegation of criminal activity."

It goes on: "Downing Street says that Cameron's dinners with Murdoch will not affect Hunt's judgement. We have to take them at their word."

Referring separately to the phone-hacking allegations, the memo states: "We believe the police should thoroughly investigate all allegations. But this is not just an issue about News International. Almost every media organisation in the country may end up becoming embroiled in these allegations."

It adds: "Front-bench spokespeople who want to talk about their personal experiences of being tapped should make it clear they are doing just that speaking from personal experience."

The guidance concludes with the warning, "We must guard against anything which appears to be attacking a particular newspaper group out of spite."

The memo follows a number of recent high-profile interventions from Ed Miliband in the phone-hacking issue. In the wake of the resignation of Andy Coulson, the Labour leader criticised David Cameron, stating that the affair raised "questions about David Cameron's judgment about hanging on to him as long as he did".

Miliband also raised Coulson's impending departure at last Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions.

Here's the full text of the email:

Quote:From: xxxx | Sent: 27 January 2011 To: xxxx
Subject: Important: Phone hacking

Dear all,

Tom Baldwin has requested that any front bench spokespeople use the following line when questioned on phone hacking.

BSkyB bid and phone tapping
These issues should not be linked. One is a competition issue, the other an allegation of criminal activity.

On BSkyB, we have been consistent in calling for fair play. We believe ministers should conduct themselves properly in what is a quasi-judicial process. We said Vince Cable showed he was incapable of behaving fairly towards News Corp. We have since raised questions about whether Jeremy Hunt can be fully impartial given his record of past statements. We do believe the bid should be referred to the Competition Commission and think Hunt should get on with it. Downing Street says that Cameron's dinners with Murdoch will not affect Hunt's judgement. We have to take them at their word.

On phone hacking, we believe the police should thoroughly investigate all allegations. But this is not just an issue about News International. Almost every media organisation in the country may end up becoming embroiled in these allegations. This goes to the root of a wider problem in public life. MPs are taking a hard look at themselves in the mirror over expenses. It is time the media did so too over the way it conducts itself.

Frontbench spokespeople who want to talk about their personal experiences of being tapped should make it clear they are doing just that speaking from personal experience.

We must guard against anything which appears to be attacking a particular newspaper group out of spite.

Thanks,

xxxx

Labour Party Press Office

Quote:One is a competition issue, the other an allegation of criminal activity."