UK lawmakers impugn Murdoch paper over hacking

Michael Holden LONDON Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:36am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers accused bosses at Rupert Murdoch"s top-selling British tabloid on Wednesday of suffering "collective amnesia" over illegal hacking of phone messages meant for royalty and other celebrities.

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A parliamentary committee on media said in a report it was "inconceivable" that managers at the News of the World did not know about the practice, which the legislators said was more widespread than the Sunday newspaper had previously admitted.

News International, the British arm of Murdoch"s News Corp. which publishes the News of the World, rejected the claims and accused the committee of bias against it.

"The reaction of the committee to its failure to find any new evidence has been to make claims of "collective amnesia", deliberate obfuscation and concealment of the truth," it said.

In 2007, Clive Goodman, who reported on the British royal family for the paper, was jailed for four months after writing stories based on phone taps of royal aides carried out by a private detective.

News International has always maintained that Goodman acted without the knowledge of senior editors and his actions had been an isolated incident.

But the cross-party parliamentary committee said in its report: "The evidence, we find, makes it inconceivable that no-one else at the News of the World, bar Mr. Goodman, was aware of the activities."

Last July, the left-leaning Guardian newspaper said News of the World reporters, with the knowledge of senior staff, had illegally accessed messages from the mobile phones of thousands of celebrities and politicians.

British tabloids are in fierce competition for scoops on sex and show business scandals.

Actors Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, Australian model Elle Macpherson and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott were among those targeted, the Guardian said.

It also said News International had paid 1 million pounds ($1.5 million) to settle complaints by three victims.

NO PROOF

The Press Complaints Commission watchdog said in November it had found no proof to support the Guardian story that the practice of hacking was widespread at the News of the World, and the police said they would not reopen their investigation.

However, the parliamentary committee said the number of people affected was certainly more than the handful named by police and the paper.

"We were very concerned at evidence which has emerged suggesting that the phone hacking which took place at the News of the World around five years ago was not just limited to one rogue reporter," said committee chairman John Whittingdale, a member of the opposition Conservative party.

"We were also concerned at the reluctance of witnesses from News International to provide the detailed information that we sought and the collective amnesia that afflicted them," he said in a statement accompanying the report.

Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor now advising the right-leaning opposition Conservative Party, resigned in the wake of the Goodman affair in 2005, saying he had no knowledge of the phone tapping but took ultimate responsibility.

The committee said it had seen no evidence that Coulson himself knew what was happening but agreed he was right to quit.

(editing by Paul Taylor)

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MARTIN SAMUEL: Brand Tiger Woods is out of a hole right away let the money tills ring

And still we wait to hear from Tiger Woods. Maybe we never will.

The thoughts of Brand Tiger we know. He is sorry. We get that. He was selfish, he was irresponsible, he was foolish. Yes, we understand. He let down his wife, his children, his fans, his friends, his family, his business partners. Oh, those poor business partners. Won"t nobody think of the business partners?

At the end, he held his old mum tight and moved along the specially selected front row as if receiving condolences at a funeral.

Sorry spectacle: Woods prepares to address his hand-picked audience

For a moment, it was possible to forget that this was, in fact, a happy occasion. Maybe they should have made it clearer with a giant banner that could have fallen in front of the solemn blue drapes at the conclusion.

"COMING SOON: TIGER WOODS - a new TIGER WOODS will be opening here in 2010."

That was, after all, what this production was really about. Brand Tiger is gearing up to make money again. He might not be ready to hit a golf ball in public yet but he will be primed to get those cash registers ringing soon. The shuffling noise you hear is the sound of executives climbing back in from the window ledges at Nike headquarters.

We did not hear from the real Tiger because his script - questions forbidden - had no doubt been meticulously constructed with the advice of a squadron of PR advisers, consultants, lawyers and personal managers.

TIGER WOODS VIDEO: Watch the shamed golf star"s public address on his affairs, therapy and when he"ll return to action

They did a decent job. As a lesson in celebrity mea culpa it was almost flawless. The marketing men who the broadcast networks cut to instantly for reaction could barely conceal their joy.

Position perfect, pitch perfect, it was like one of his stunningly executed 300-yard drives. All that was missing was some buffoon behind the tee shouting "get in the hole" as it took flight.

In the circumstances, though, probably for the best. Stateside, it will go down a storm. They lap up that stuff over there. Remember Bill Clinton on the White House lawn with his loyal wife and dog. And this was the nearest to a Presidential address that America had seen without casting a vote.

The guy from Fox News held up what he called the "Obama trip note" that is released to the television networks, giving the precise timings and details of President Barack Obama"s movements that day, what could be reported and what was off limits.

Then he held up the instructions to broadcast media for the BrandTiger address. It appeared almost identical in size and density. Theywere told Tiger would appear precisely one minute and 30 seconds afterwhat was termed "the top of the hour". Only Presidents adhere to suchintricate time management.

There was to be no footage ofthe room in which Tiger would speak until the two-minute countdownbegan and, sure enough, pictures ended the moment he disappearedthrough the curtain.

The moment America has hungered for: Pedestrians stop to watch Woods address the public on a large video screen set up in downtown Chicago

He spoke of his public as if there was a special connection, yet they heard and saw only what Brand Tiger wished them to see or hear. Nothing spontaneous occurred, other than a camera failure.

Those who felt they learned something of the man were deluded. They learned only what Brand Tiger wished for them to learn: and Brand Tiger is many people, not just the one in the smartly casual open-necked shirt, standing in front of the microphone.

This was the moment America had hungered for, though. Every major television network interrupted its scheduled programming to go live and put its best anchor on the job.

It is impossible to underestimate Brand Tiger"s importance there. Heis much more than a sportsman. The stock market experiences a Mondaymorning bounce if he wins a tournament at the weekend.

Golfcoverage centres on his presence, wherever he stands in the field. Atthe 2001 US Open, after three rounds, he was tied 23rd with seven othercompetitors, nine shots off the lead. Sure enough, the preamble on thelast day focused on the potential for a Tiger comeback, even though itwas as good as impossible. The network could not admit the truth or theratings would bomb. He finished joint 12th.

In short,corporate America needs Brand Tiger and the last two days has been theheads-up that he will soon be back in their arms.

Shout-out to the suits: Woods practicing outside his home in Florida

He was photographed practising his putting at home on Thursday, decked out head to toe in Nike apparel. The company, which is the No 1 golf brand in the world thanks to him, is said to have taken a $30million hit since he disappeared from view. So, for all the talk of friends and family, this was in essence a big shout-out to the suits.

"For many of you, especially my friends, my behaviour has been a personal disappointment," he said. But has it? Frankly, if you are the type of guy who bangs cocktail waitresses two at a time, your friends - and I mean your real friends - will know.

The ones who would have been shocked are the guys who invested in the brand, but did not know the man. They were the ones in the room receiving the sincerest apology.

It was, all agreed, an uncomfortable but necessary and ultimately rewarding day for Brand Tiger.

The other big winner was Brand Buddha. Buddhism is going to get Tiger through this crisis, apparently, although it would be worth echoing the line from A Fish Called Wanda that the central message of the religion is not every man for himself.

More...14 minutes of remorse... But Tiger Woods still keeps us guessing over return date TIGER WOODS VIDEO: Watch the shamed golf star"s public address on his affairs, therapy and when he"ll return to actionColin Montgomery"s snipers excel behind enemy lines at Accenture Match Play ChampionshipJust what will Tiger say? Punters bet on him using the word "Ashamed"

Davy Crockett star Fess Parker dies

Times Online & , : {}

Fess Parker, the Hollywood actress who found celebrity in the Disney classics Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone died yesterday of healthy causes. He was 85.

Family mouthpiece Sao Anash pronounced Parker, who was after a vital California winemaker and skill developer, died at his home in Santa Ynez Valley. His genocide came on the 84th birthday of his mother of 50 years, Marcella.

Parker was awake and vocalization with family only mins prior to his death, pronounced Anash.

"Fess Parker has been a purpose indication and statue of cave given I initial saw him on the big shade he is a loyal Hollywood legend," pronounced Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California and former Hollywood star in a statement.

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"As a gifted actress and successful businessman, he was an inspirational Californian whose contributions to the state will be remembered forever."

Former initial woman Nancy Reagan pronounced Parker was "a longtime crony to Ronnie and me ... He will be severely missed."

The initial monthly payment of Davy Crockett with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett"s sidekick, debuted in Dec 1954 as piece of the Disneyland radio series.

The 6ft 6in (2m) Parker was fast embraced by youngsters as the man in a racoonskin top who stood for the suggestion of the American frontier.

Baby-boomers gripped by the Crockett disturb scooped up Davy lunch boxes, Old Betsy fondle rifles, buckskin shirts and heading hair caps.

The Ballad of Davy Crockett ("Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...") was a No 1 for Bill Hayes whilst Parker"s own version reached No 5.

The initial 3 radio episodes were incited in to a melodramatic film, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, in 1955.

True to history, Disney killed off the favourite in the third episode, Davy Crockett at the Alamo, the conflict where the real-life Crockett died in 1836 elderly 49.

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British Gas business fleeced for jot down profits

Robin Pagnamenta, Energy Editor & , : {}

British Gas was indicted last night of fleecing millions of bad and exposed commercial operation as the association voiced record-breaking increase of 595 million last year some-more than 1.6 million a day.

The proclamation from Britains greatest application company, that reserve 15.7 million homes, stirred calls for a foe exploration among accusations that it had unsuccessful to pass on falls in indiscriminate gas and physical phenomenon prices to consumers last year.

As British Gas fat cats applaud outrageous profits, the majority exposed people in multitude are being left out in the cold, pronounced Steve Bloomfield, inhabitant military officer for commercial operation and sourroundings at Unison, the traffic union.

Raw gas prices have depressed massively, so appetite companies are pier on the profits, whilst fleecing customers. Fuel misery is rising in the UK and those in majority need should be on reduce prices.

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As Scotland perceived serve complicated snowfalls yesterday in Britains coldest winter in decades, Centrica, the owners of British Gas, pronounced that increase generated by the multiplication increasing by 58 per cent last year to 595 million from 376 million in 2008.

But Sam Laidlaw, Centricas arch executive, deserted the allegations of profiteering. He pronounced that at 7.6 per cent, distinction margins at British Gas were reduce than at alternative obvious British companies, such as fifteen per cent at BT and eighteen per cent at Vodafone.

You pull your own conclusions, he said. We done 38 per normal patron last year after taxation . . . I think the marketplace is operative fine. Mr Laidlaw additionally pronounced that British Gas had cut the prices progressing this month by 7 per cent and was formulation to deposit fifteen billion in new appetite generating equipment, together with breeze turbines and arch appetite stations, over the subsequent ten years.

The proclamation is unlikely, however, to tame consumer annoy at Britains Big Six appetite companies. Earlier this week Ofgem, the industry regulator, pronounced that British Gas, EON, Npower, EDF, Scottish Power and Scottish Southern Energy were earning their top increase for five years since of a widening opening in between indiscriminate and consumer prices.

Since summer 2008 indiscriminate gas prices have depressed from a rise of some-more than 1 per therm to about 38p, whilst physical phenomenon has forsaken from 90 per megawatt hour to around 37.

In contrast, domicile appetite bills are as most as 35-40 per cent higher for gas and 10-15 per cent some-more for physical phenomenon than prior to the cost rises in 2008.

Centrica pronounced that such total were dubious since it paid for usually a small volume of gas at mark prices. Most of the gas and physical phenomenon is purchased on long-term contracts a little lasting twenty years at a range of opposite prices.

Philip Cullum, emissary arch senior manager of Consumer Focus, the patron group, pronounced that the formula offering new justification that Britains appetite markets should be investigated by foe authorities.

For consumers, a multiple of high prices and cold continue has exacted a complicated cost. Energy companies have taken value this winter, whilst some-more than 6 million UK households live in fuel misery and face a unfortunate onslaught to keep warm.

Although increase at British Gas were clever last year, they were modestly reduce opposite the Centrica organisation as the association suffered big falls in gain from the indiscriminate appetite businesses.

Profits opposite the group, that additionally includes a gas prolongation commercial operation in the North and Irish seas, indiscriminate physical phenomenon era and gas storage operations, were down 7 per cent last year at 1.86 billion, compared with some-more than 2 billion in 2008.

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Facebook torpedo condemned to hold up for teenager"s attempted murder UK headlines

Peter Chapman certified murdering Ashleigh Hall. Photograph: Durham police/PA

Sex delinquent Peter Chapman was currently condemned to hold up seizure after he certified kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenage tyro he had ensnared utilizing a feign Facebook profile. Chapman, 33, of no bound address, altered his defence as he was due to face hearing at Teesside climax justice for the murdering of Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old student.

He was told by Judge Peter Fox QC that he contingency offer a smallest of 35 years prior to he could be deliberate for release.

Ashleigh"s physique was found dumped in a margin nearby Sedgefield, County Durham, in October. The teenager, from Darlington, had been strangled.

Chapman additionally pleaded guilty to unwell to forewarn military of a shift of address, as compulsory by the sex offenders register.

Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, pronounced Chapman had used the feign temperament of a teenage child to tempt Ashleigh in to assembly him.

He combined the feign form on Facebook and used cinema of a child in his late teens, the justice heard.

"The sketch is not of him. It is of a bare-chested and attractive child who is assumingly in his late teens," Reeds said. "The suspect is a rather plainer seeking man who could pass for being rather comparison than his 33 years.

"The charge box is that the suspect used this large change ego to tempt 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall in to assembly him. When she met him, on twenty-five Oct last year, he kidnapped, raped and murdered her."

The prosecutor pronounced the teen suffered from low-esteem and boys were unfeeling in her.

"According to her friends, Ashleigh was meddlesome in boys but they, generally, were not meddlesome in her," he said, adding that her friends thought that, if a masculine did show her attention, "she would expected be flattered by it".

The night prior to her physique was found, she told her mom she was going to stay with a crony but had instead done the preference to encounter Chapman.

Chapman, who was brought up by his grandparents in Stockton-on-Tees, has a story of passionate offending, it has given emerged. He was the theme of multiform passionate attack investigations, commencement when he was 15. In 1996, afterwards 19, he was condemned to 7 years seizure for raping dual prostitutes at knifepoint. He was expelled in 2001.

The impoverished defendant, who used to live in Kirkby, Liverpool, and has links to Teesside, was arrested by trade military on guess of teenager motoring offences shortly after he had dumped Ashleigh"s fully-clothed body.

He was hold for doubt in Middlesbrough, where he asked to verbalise to detectives and what had been a slight exploration took a some-more sinister turn. He led military to the spot, nearby a lovers" lane, where Ashleigh"s physique was found roughly twenty-four hours after she had left the family home.

In the days after the killing, Ashleigh"s 39-year-old mother, Andrea, called for the lapse of the genocide chastisement for killers. Before Chapman"s conviction, she said: "Whoever did this is going to go jail and nap in a gentle bed, but one day they will be out. They will be vital and respirating as normal. But my daughter"s hold up had been finished at seventeen – and my hold up has finished since she is not here."

Ashleigh complicated childcare at college in Darlington and helped her mom move up the family"s alternative children.

"I could assimilate it if Ashleigh had died since of illness," the victim"s mom said. "But to essentially have someone take someone"s hold up is only unbearable. Ashleigh was my rock."

Her daughter desired chatting to friends online and outlayed most of her gangling money on her mobile phone so she could additionally content them. Her mom said: "Ashleigh wasn"t a bad kid. She wasn"t naughty. She done one inapplicable designation and has paid for it with her life."

Durham military led the inquiry, that concerned contacting 2,500 people who knew Chapman by internet sites.

Professor David Kerr to turn Conservative adviser

Sam Lister, Health Editor & , : {}

One of the architects of Labours NHS reforms is to turn a key confidant to the Conservatives since the Government has lost the tract on mending studious care.

Professor David Kerr, a eminent oncologist who led efforts to cut watchful and give hospitals larger independence, pronounced that the Tories right away charity the most appropriate possibility for the NHS, that had been driven in to a whisk of careless tick-box exercises.

Professor Kerr, a lifelong Labour believer who campaigned with Tony Blair in the 2001 ubiquitous election, told The Times that the key beliefs of giving patients a improved preference of health services and a improved bargain of how they were behaving had been driven in to the sand.

To contend that we have run out of steam, I would contend definitely, unequivocally yes, Professor Kerr said. We have got lost in the snowstorm of increasingly not pertinent targets. The on all sides right away is disenfranchising, lifeless and disconnected. That is the clinical reality.

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The doctor, a highbrow of cancer disinfectant at the University of Oxford, was a visit caller to Downing Street as Labour drew up the remodel bulletin in Mr Blairs initial and second terms. Before 1997 he conducted the initial inhabitant review of cancer services identifying delays that authorised patients cancers go from curable to incorrigible whilst they sat and waited.

Under New Labour he worked on ways to urge entrance as chair of the inhabitant Cancer Services Collaborative and became a initial government official of the Commission for Health Improvement, the initial regulator to consider NHS clinical performance.

He was additionally one of the main drivers of the substructure certitude scheme, charity the most appropriate hospitals the possibility to turn some-more independent, hold larger shortcoming for their budgets and have clinicians some-more intent in use improvement. A knife-edge Commons multiplication on substructure standing was won by seventeen votes after Professor Kerr wrote to all MPs underlining the advantages that it would bring.

In 2005 he was since the charge of building a 20-year plan for the destiny of the NHS in his local Scotland, well known as the Kerr Report.

Professor Kerr pronounced that he felt for the initial time in [his] hold up that the Tories charity the health use a improved future. He pronounced that the Conservative priority of removing NHS interpretation out to patients in an distinct form, permitting them to select the top customary of use most appropriate matched to them, was a mission that left with the depart of Mr Blair.

[The Tories] are some-more committed to the NHS that we love and assimilate as free at the point of entrance and charity concept care. Only that grade of faith would remonstrate me to go and work for them.

Professor Kerr would not be drawn on either he had been a part of of the Labour Party, but pronounced that right away he was not a part of of any domestic party.

He pronounced that he hoped to pull by the ideas of preference and the empowered patient, enlivening the NHS to have some-more high-quality report publicly available. People need to be means to assimilate how their sanatorium is improving, he said.

Another concentration will be to concede patients to ask clinicians key questions about caring standards but compromising the doctor/patient relationship.

I resolutely hold for the initial time in my hold up that we have a Conservative care that is committed to the destiny of the health service. If I didnt hold that I wouldnt be there.

On sensitive preference for patients, he pronounced that underneath the Government the total big thought finished up in the foothills of dodgy websites. No one was unequivocally enchanting with it.

He identified the loss of movement around when the passing from one to another happened, with things starting to lose the tract underneath Patricia Hewitt as Health Secretary, afterwards Alan Johnson, who is great on most fronts, but was some-more meddlesome in keeping the NHS out of the headlines.

Andrew Lansley, the Conservative health spokesman, pronounced of Professor Kerr: His imagination and believe will be consequential in assisting us to emanate a NHS that has patients at the centre. That a key designer of the Blairite health reforms is right away operative with the Conservatives shows that underneath David Camerons care we have indeed turn the celebration of the NHS.

US links China to Google cyber attacks – inform Technology

Shanghai Jiaotong University is one of dual schools that has denied any impasse with the cyber attacks on Google and alternative US companies. Photograph: Qilai Shen/EPA

Investigators are shutting in on the source of internet attacks that strike a fibre of US companies, majority particularly Google.

Over the weekend, dual Chinese schools related to the attacks – that strike dozens of companies in an try to take in isolation inform and traffic secrets – denied their involvement. Reports last week referred to that the source of the strikes had been traced to Shanghai Jiaotong University and the Lanxiang School, a large vocational precision centre in Jinan.

Today a inform in the Financial Times suggests that US officials have tracked the particular they hold authored the computer formula used, and have related his work to Chinese officials.

The Chinese state headlines group Xinhua reported that the dual schools had zero to do with the strikes, dubbed Operation Aurora by security experts. "We were repelled and irritable to listen to these groundless allegations that might mistreat the university"s reputation," Xinhua quoted a Jiaotong orator as saying.

The organization combined that the justification pronounced to couple the propagandize to the attacks centred on the hackers" internet custom (IP) address, that can simply be forged. "The inform of the New York Times was formed simply on an IP address. Given the rarely grown network record today, such a inform is conjunction design nor balanced," the orator said.

Communist celebration officials at Lanxiang, that trains up to 20,000 students in traffic skills, pronounced the inform was fake and suggestions that the attacks were achieved during a category taught by a Ukrainian highbrow were "unfounded".

"Investigation in the staff found no snippet the attacks originated from the school," pronounced Li Zixiang. "There is no Ukrainian clergyman in the propagandize and we have never in use any unfamiliar staff."

China has voiced concerns about the own online vulnerability, and there are reports currently that a comparison Chinese armed forces military officer has called for a new inhabitant physique to make internet controls, and for a rebate in the faith on unfamiliar technology.

Major General Huang Yongyin pronounced China indispensable to compare the defensive efforts of alternative vital nations, arguing: "For inhabitant security, the internet has already turn a new terrain but gunpowder."

Writing in the ultimate issue of Chinese Cadres Tribune, a repository published by the Communist party"s successful Central Party School, he said: "Lawless elements and antagonistic forces at home and abroad have increasingly incited to the internet to rivet in crime, disruption, infiltration, conservative promotion and alternative harm activities."

The internet attacks, initial referred to in Jan but that have been receiving place for a little time, led Google to bluster that it would stop censoring the Chinese poke engine, and have lifted concerns about tactful family in between the US and China.

US officials have been operative with member from the companies influenced – believed to embody Adobe Systems, Yahoo and Northrop Grumman – as well as experts from the National Security Agency, the US notice and codebreaking agency.

Early indications referred to the attacks might have been carried out underneath citation of authorities in Beijing. That probability led the US cabinet member of state, Hillary Clinton, to ask construction from the Chinese government, that denied any involvement.

Dan Blum, principal researcher for the IT consultancy Burton Group, pronounced the majority of justification forked to Chinese involvement. "Myself, and a lot of people, are well past 99% sure," he said. "Hillary Clinton, who spoke for the US in strictly disapproval the attacks, would not do so lightly, and would probably determine with me."