LONDON - With a political firestorm cascading over the British government’s ties to his media empire, Rupert Murdoch presented himself to a judicial inquiry Wednesday as a blunt-talking businessman with a wide variety of interests and acquaintances who nevertheless did not seek to use his considerable power to manipulate British governments over the last few decades.
While acknowledging meetings, dinners, and shared quips with a series of prime ministers and other members of the British political elite over the years, Murdoch asserted, “I don’t know many politicians.’’
He spent several hours testifying before the so-called Leveson inquiry on media ethics, which was established after a scandal involving phone hacking at Murdoch’s tabloid News of the World deepened with allegations of payments to public officials, destruction of evidence, and other wrongdoing. Looming over the arrests of reporters, editors, and Murdoch executives that followed were broader concerns that Murdoch and his family had become almost shadow royalty....
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"Top British official snared in media scandal; Minister accused of covert help to Murdoch’s firm" by Alan Cowell and John F. Burns | New York Times, April 25, 2012
LONDON — The long-running tabloid newspaper scandal that has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire delivered a new jolt Tuesday as its powerful and lucrative television operations moved to the center of a British judicial inquiry with disclosures that a senior Cabinet minister, or at least an aide claiming to speak for him, worked covertly to help win approval for a $12 billion takeover of the BSkyB network.
A trove of newly released e-mails pointed to collaboration between a lobbyist for Murdoch’s News Corp. and Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, the official designated to pass judgment on the BSkyB bid. That deal, which would have crowned Murdoch’s 60-year media career, was scuttled last year as the scandal over illicit phone hacking exploded, and now appears out of his reach for years, if not permanently.
Murdoch’s son James testified at the inquiry for five hours Tuesday,
and Rupert Murdoch himself was to take the stand Wednesday for what was
forecast, given the new uproar, to be an intense grilling. Murdoch has
been in London since Thursday, conferring with a coterie of advisers,
lawyers, and communications consultants behind closed doors.
Prime Minister David Cameron seemed certain to face renewed scrutiny of his relationship to the Murdochs and their business interests on Wednesday, when he was to appear before Parliament for the weekly session of prime minister’s questions.
Over the last year, the ever-growing scandal has exposed unsavory and sometimes illegal interlocking ties among figures in the government, political leadership, law enforcement, and News International, the British arm of Murdoch’s News Corp., along with Britain’s other free-wheeling media outlets. The disclosures Tuesday cemented concerns that the phone-hacking scandal had seeped even more deeply into News Corp. operations....
Meaning it was standard operating procedure.
Some analysts nevertheless saw the day’s events as a result of a successful Murdoch strategy to shift some of the critical focus to the government....
The manipulation never stops.
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"Scotland Yard says toddler taken in ’07 could be alive" by Sandy Macaskill | New York Times, April 26, 2012
LONDON - Investigators with Britain’s largest police force believe that Madeleine McCann, the British toddler who vanished in 2007 while on vacation with her parents in Portugal, could still be alive, they said Wednesday. Madeleine’s story reverberated across the globe, and as the years passed most gave up hope of ever finding her.
But the Metropolitan Police released a statement saying its investigators had uncovered “genuinely new material,’’ as well as nearly 200 new opportunities for further inspection. Investigators “now believe that there is a possibility Madeleine is still alive,’’ and have called for the investigation by Portuguese police to be reopened.
The Metropolitan Police, known as Scotland Yard, also released an
age-progression image. The haunting picture of a wide-eyed 3-year-old,
seen worldwide after her disappearance on May 3, 2007, has been replaced
by that of a 9-year-old with blond hair swept in a side part.
Madeleine was nine days shy of her fourth birthday when she was abducted as she was sleeping along with her younger twin siblings, while their parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dined with friends in a tapas bar 100 yards away.
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"Portugal reluctant to open girl’s ’07 case" April 27, 2012|By Barry Hatton
LISBON - Portuguese police have not yet found any new evidence to merit reopening the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a senior police official said Thursday.
The comments from deputy national police chief Pedro do Carmo came a day after authorities in the United Kingdom urged Portugal to reopen the case of the missing British girl, who vanished during a family vacation in southern Portugal in May 2007 shortly before her fourth birthday.
Do Carmo did not definitively rule out reopening the case. But he said that detectives currently sifting through evidence from the initial investigation have yet to find a reason to do so.
“So far, no new element has been found that might provide the basis for a reopening of the investigation’’ into the girl’s disappearance, he said.
Madeleine’s disappearance drew worldwide attention and brought reports of alleged sightings as far away as Africa and Asia, but after investigation those reports proved false. Portuguese police closed the case in 2008 after failing to determine what happened to Madeleine.
British police said Wednesday they had reviewed the case and identified almost 200 possible leads to follow up. They said they would like the case to be reopened but stressed that it was ultimately a Portugese decision....
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Related: Portugal won't extradite US fugitive
Also see: Hackers batter UK abortion provider
British police arrest 3 men at airport on terror charges
