:00:10. > :00:12.This is BBC World News Today with me Tim Willcox, live at Westminster.
:00:12. > :00:22.Bowing to public and political pressure, Rupert Murdoch's News
:00:22. > :00:26.
:00:26. > :00:30.Corporation dramatically pulls out of its bid for BSkyB. This a
:00:30. > :00:35.company needs to sort out the problems at News International and
:00:35. > :00:38.News of the World. One inquiry, in two parts. David
:00:38. > :00:40.Cameron announces who will lead the investigation into the phone
:00:40. > :00:50.hacking scandal amid ferocious criticism of News International in
:00:50. > :00:56.
:00:56. > :00:59.Parliament. Not be missed conduct, but law-breaking and its links with
:00:59. > :01:02.the criminal underworld. Also in this programme:
:01:02. > :01:05.A co-ordinated terrorist attack in Mumbai. Three explosions have
:01:05. > :01:08.killed at least 17 people. With fish numbers running low, The
:01:08. > :01:18.EU presents a policy to stop fishermen from throwing their catch
:01:18. > :01:23.
:01:24. > :01:26.Hello and welcome to Westminster on what has been another day that has
:01:26. > :01:33.seen a seismic and humiliating reversal for Rupert Murdoch and his
:01:33. > :01:35.media empire. Bowing to public pressure, and faced with rare
:01:35. > :01:37.political unity behind an opposition debate here at
:01:37. > :01:47.Westminster, he has withdrawn News Corporation's bid to take full
:01:47. > :01:48.
:01:48. > :01:51.control of BSkyB. The man who for decades was courted by the
:01:51. > :01:59.political establishment, and viewed by many as a kingmaker, now reaping
:01:59. > :02:01.the whirlwind of public and political opprobrium. On a dramatic,
:02:01. > :02:03.fast-moving day at Westminster, David Cameron also announced
:02:03. > :02:06.details about a far-reaching inquiry into recent events,
:02:06. > :02:14.regulation of the press, and the relationship between politicians
:02:14. > :02:17.and the Fourth Estate. More on that and the debate in a minute, but
:02:17. > :02:27.first, this report on a multi- billion pound deal now in tatters
:02:27. > :02:31.
:02:31. > :02:36.from our business editor. Rupert Murdoch, the news mogul, in
:02:36. > :02:42.the news for the wrong reasons. Putting on a brave face before one
:02:42. > :02:52.of the great humiliations of his career, his abandonment to own all
:02:52. > :03:02.
:03:02. > :03:11.of British broadcasting. Here is Minutes before, this was the
:03:11. > :03:17.climate. When such a serious cloud hangs over News Corporation, a does
:03:17. > :03:23.he agree with me that it would be wrong for them to expand their
:03:23. > :03:29.stake in the British media? And this was the Prime Minister a
:03:29. > :03:34.little bit later. This is the right decision. This company needs to
:03:34. > :03:42.sort out the problems at News International, at the News of the
:03:42. > :03:46.World. That must be the priority pulls up it is the second setback
:03:46. > :03:55.for Mr Murdoch. Days ago, he closed the News of the
:03:55. > :04:00.World. 10 days ago, there are allegations that the News of the
:04:00. > :04:04.World hacked into the phone of Milly Dowler, and that the privacy
:04:04. > :04:09.of the families of soldiers had been invaded along with other
:04:09. > :04:13.shocking revelations. This is a victory for people up and down this
:04:13. > :04:19.country, who had been appalled by the revelations, who have thought
:04:19. > :04:25.it is beyond belief that Mr Murdoch could expand his stake in the
:04:25. > :04:30.British media. Rupert Murdoch was keen to increase
:04:30. > :04:35.his ownership, because it would have given him access to the vast
:04:35. > :04:41.amounts of cash generated by the UK's television industry. BSkyB's
:04:41. > :04:44.profits were around �1 billion, which would have been very useful
:04:44. > :04:49.to News Corporation, at a time when his newspapers had been struggling
:04:49. > :04:57.to maintain their revenues. As for the other shareholders, they have
:04:57. > :05:02.also paid a big prize. BSkyB's share price has fallen by 20%,
:05:02. > :05:08.wiping almost �3 billion from the value of the company. So what has
:05:08. > :05:13.Rupert Murdoch lost? This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to
:05:13. > :05:22.acquire 100% of a business which has a very good prospects, a growth
:05:22. > :05:32.Tribbeck Cherie, it would have increased the company by 25%. --
:05:32. > :05:33.
:05:33. > :05:38.Mr Murdoch would see himself as the founder of BSkyB. To be told by
:05:38. > :05:43.politicians who were seen as some as his creatures, that he should
:05:43. > :05:53.not press ahead, and them to do as they insisted, it is a very
:05:53. > :05:54.
:05:54. > :05:58.embarrassing setback. It is extremely rare to have an
:05:58. > :06:08.opposition day motion being supported by all political parties.
:06:08. > :06:11.That debate has just broken up. There was no vote. There were
:06:11. > :06:15.stinging criticisms of News International and the tactics it
:06:15. > :06:22.used in getting stories, in particular from the former Prime
:06:22. > :06:27.Minister, at Gordon Brown. Quite a rise in this debate not to speak
:06:27. > :06:32.about myself, but for those who cannot defend themselves. For the
:06:32. > :06:39.grieving families have a lot more dead, for survivors of the July
:06:39. > :06:42.seventh bombings, the many victims of crime, and most recently, the
:06:42. > :06:51.victims of the violation of the rides of a missing and murdered
:06:51. > :06:55.child. Many innocent men, women and children, who at their darkest hour,
:06:55. > :07:01.the most abominable moment in their lives, with no one and nowhere to
:07:01. > :07:11.turn, found their private lives treated as the public property of
:07:11. > :07:14.
:07:14. > :07:18.News International. That curious intervention by Gordon
:07:18. > :07:26.Brown. He believes that the medical records of his son, who has cystic
:07:26. > :07:34.fibrosis, were accessed by News International. That denies the
:07:34. > :07:44.report. I have been run -- talking to Alastair Campbell about the
:07:44. > :07:45.
:07:45. > :07:48.relationship of the press and the political establishment. I began by
:07:48. > :07:53.asking him how important he thought this development was today, the
:07:53. > :08:01.fact that News Corporation had pulled out of the bed.
:08:01. > :08:08.opposition, the Labour Party has always had a rough ride. Successive
:08:08. > :08:12.leaders have been battered by the right-wing press. Going out and
:08:12. > :08:16.doing this speech to a very influential audience of editors and
:08:16. > :08:24.executives, I can give them why we did that, and it did help us a
:08:24. > :08:30.level that playing field. We won the election in 1997. We did not
:08:30. > :08:35.win the election because the summer backed us. What I do accept, as we
:08:35. > :08:40.got into government, the relations between parts of government and
:08:40. > :08:49.News International did get too close. If we had been beholden to
:08:49. > :08:55.Murdoch, we would have had a very anti-European policy. I think that
:08:55. > :08:59.what I would accept, in my own defence, I have been arguing about
:08:59. > :09:05.this for some time. The relationship between politics and
:09:06. > :09:15.the media isn't a very bad place. We should have done more to change
:09:15. > :09:21.it. So much amber -- anger, by Gordon Brown. Is there a risk the
:09:21. > :09:28.result of this is that it would not be good for deep state of the press
:09:28. > :09:31.or democracy if tighter press regulations come in? There is a
:09:31. > :09:37.risk. It is important that parliamentarians and the media have
:09:37. > :09:42.a reasonable, or rational debate about this. I think Gordon made a
:09:42. > :09:50.very powerful speech. I was with him during the election campaign,
:09:50. > :09:59.and I know how angry he was by how News International treated him. It
:09:59. > :10:05.was hate, hate, hate. I hope we can get back to a more reasonable
:10:05. > :10:15.debate. I do think, however, I can remember as a journalist in the
:10:15. > :10:19.'80s, most members of the public will think they have been drinking
:10:19. > :10:23.in the last chance saloon and getting drunk for a very long time.
:10:23. > :10:32.The idea that the sort of self regulation that the press are one,
:10:32. > :10:38.where they run it, they have the its senior jobs, I think that will
:10:38. > :10:43.have to go. However, I accept we have got to be very careful that we
:10:43. > :10:47.do not then go so far as to have a press there were not be able to do
:10:47. > :10:57.what decent press can do. The question is, do we have that decent
:10:57. > :10:58.
:10:58. > :11:03.press? The other thing we will see, once this inquiry gets underway, it
:11:03. > :11:09.does not stop at the doors of News International.
:11:09. > :11:19.Alastair Campbell speaking to me a little earlier. Let us speak to the
:11:19. > :11:24.
:11:24. > :11:29.What did you make of today's development? Is this the biggest
:11:29. > :11:35.humiliation of Rupert Murdoch's Korea? It probably is. All
:11:36. > :11:45.political careers end in failure. Mr Murdoch is 80, and is looking
:11:45. > :11:53.like a tea. He seems to have lost it. -- like a to. A tiny corner of
:11:53. > :11:58.my brain says, he will be back. There are reports, in some
:11:58. > :12:08.newspapers, that News International might look to jettison some of
:12:08. > :12:18.these titles. That would be disastrous, wanted? There is a
:12:18. > :12:18.
:12:18. > :12:28.paradox in all of this. The Guardian exposed Ron Dearing. --
:12:28. > :12:29.
:12:29. > :12:36.wrongdoing. The News of the World closes. Our industry is in trouble.
:12:36. > :12:42.We hope that will not happen. They may be bluffing. Murdoch is a big
:12:42. > :12:48.card player. What about the inquiry and future of press regulation.
:12:48. > :12:55.Should be independent? Is there another risk that this country
:12:56. > :13:05.might end up with a much more controlled, less three press?
:13:05. > :13:09.is the fear this country. Free press, we just want them to behave.
:13:09. > :13:17.David Cameron worked in television, and knows the difficulty of Bury
:13:17. > :13:23.had feared he regulated media. My feeling is that the law should be
:13:23. > :13:33.enforced. We saw it enforced the other day would be Johanna Yates
:13:33. > :13:38.murder case. Regulation should be better, with them a souped-up Press
:13:38. > :13:44.Complaints Commission, it is to follow up editors. We contribute
:13:44. > :13:50.the money and control the money. In is to be handled by a third party.
:13:50. > :13:55.In that way, you can have a more believable and falls for industry
:13:55. > :14:05.regulation. It is not impossible. The world has to be there, maybe it
:14:05. > :14:07.
:14:07. > :14:17.Michael White of the Guardian. Let us get an idea of the sort of
:14:17. > :14:20.
:14:20. > :14:27.financial impact. We can go to New York. What have the effects been in
:14:27. > :14:31.terms of share price and sentiment there? The share price reaction
:14:31. > :14:41.suggests to us that investors are starting to look beyond this BSkyB
:14:41. > :14:42.
:14:42. > :14:52.bid. This company has 50 billion US dollars in cash. This has to be
:14:52. > :14:58.deployed. While this scandal overhang is likely to linger, the
:14:58. > :15:01.reality is that the company's fundamentals have been driven by
:15:01. > :15:07.the television networks which are nothing to do with the newspapers.
:15:07. > :15:14.There is a rumour that News Corporation would jettison the
:15:14. > :15:21.English newspapers. What do you make of those reports, of class
:15:21. > :15:25.actions, about the handling and control of News Corporation, so
:15:25. > :15:33.heavily influenced by the Murdoch family? I do not think investors
:15:33. > :15:39.are losing sleep about those kinds of losses. The bigger question here
:15:39. > :15:44.is what does a company to, given the sell-off we have seen in the
:15:44. > :15:54.past week, and that is why I think the spin-off of the newspaper
:15:54. > :15:54.
:15:54. > :16:01.business becomes increasingly plausible. Now I think the options
:16:01. > :16:06.are on the table, and the danger is the company does not react
:16:06. > :16:14.decisively to prevent the scandal from having collateral consequences
:16:14. > :16:18.in other business. This is the situation in at
:16:18. > :16:23.Westminster this evening. The debate has finished. There was no
:16:23. > :16:32.vote on that. Extremely angry words, in particular from the former Prime
:16:32. > :16:37.Minister Gordon Brown. Gordon Brown's son who had cystic fibrosis
:16:37. > :16:42.and was convinced the medical records were access by part of the
:16:42. > :16:49.News International empire. They deny that. The Sun newspaper
:16:49. > :16:59.produced the source who they say was behind that story. News
:16:59. > :17:03.
:17:03. > :17:06.Corporation withdrawing their bid At least 21 people have been killed
:17:06. > :17:12.and 80 wounded in three separate but simultaneous explosions in the
:17:12. > :17:16.heart of Mumbai's business district. India's home minister com are P
:17:16. > :17:21.Chidambaram, has called it a coordinated terrorist attack. The
:17:21. > :17:26.blasts were several kilometres apart. The first was at the
:17:26. > :17:31.celebrated jewellery market, Zaveri Bazaar. The second at the Opera
:17:31. > :17:37.House district and the third in its Dadar. 166 people were killed when
:17:37. > :17:44.6 -- 10 militants attacked two major hotels, the main railway
:17:44. > :17:48.stations and the main Jewish centre several years ago. Our
:17:48. > :17:54.correspondent has been to the location of one of the explosions.
:17:54. > :17:59.This site of Dadar North is one of three situations where explosions
:17:59. > :18:07.have gone off in Mumbai. A vehicle reportedly part with explosives was
:18:07. > :18:14.located here and decorated. This, along with two other blasts, took
:18:14. > :18:18.place at 7pm local time in highly densely populated areas. Lots of
:18:18. > :18:24.traffic around peak time. We are hearing of many injuries across the
:18:24. > :18:28.three blast site. The injured have been taken to local hospitals.
:18:28. > :18:34.Priority, according to the police and those leaders who have been
:18:34. > :18:38.coming to these areas saying that the priority is for those to make
:18:38. > :18:43.sure that the injured are taking care of. It is yet unclear as to
:18:43. > :18:48.who is behind these attacks, as to what has taken place and whether
:18:48. > :18:54.there is any correlation to those attacks in 2008 indoor my and those
:18:54. > :18:57.five years ago in this city. The Afghan President has led
:18:57. > :18:59.thousands of mourners at the funeral of his half-brother at the
:18:59. > :19:03.family's home village. Hamid Karzai wept openly during the ceremony and
:19:03. > :19:07.appealed to his countrymen to stop the violence. Ahmad Wali Karzai was
:19:07. > :19:10.one of the most powerful figures in the southern Afghanistan. He was
:19:10. > :19:19.shot dead by his own head of security. From Kabul, Sanjoy
:19:19. > :19:23.Majumder reports. It was an emotional moment for
:19:23. > :19:30.President Hamid Karzai. Burying his half-brother a day after a shocking
:19:31. > :19:35.killing. How Ahmad Wali Karzai was laid to rest here, at his ancestral
:19:35. > :19:39.village in Kandahar. Afterwards, a plea from the President to those
:19:40. > :19:44.behind his death. My message for them is, my
:19:44. > :19:48.countrymen, my brothers. Stop killing your own people. It is easy
:19:48. > :19:53.to kill and everyone can do it but the real man is the one who can
:19:53. > :19:59.save people's lives. The funeral drew many. Top members
:19:59. > :20:03.of the Afghan government, tribesmen and ordinary citizens. All here for
:20:03. > :20:11.a last glimpse at one of Afghanistan's most powerful men.
:20:11. > :20:14.Even as the funeral was taking place, a bomb targets at the
:20:14. > :20:19.governor of Helmand. He escaped unhurt but four policemen were
:20:19. > :20:24.injured. It is a grim reminder of the tense situation unfolding in
:20:24. > :20:29.the aftermath of Ahmad Wali Karzai's death. Questions have been
:20:29. > :20:33.raised on the manner he was killed and you could have carried it out.
:20:33. > :20:37.Ahmad Wali Karzai was seen as somebody who could come to the
:20:37. > :20:42.Taliban, especially in this part of the country where they are greatly
:20:42. > :20:46.influential. He was chosen as a close ally, overlooking serious
:20:46. > :20:50.allegations against him. Thousands of NATO troops would have left
:20:50. > :20:56.Afghanistan by the end of the yeah. His killing leaves a power vacuum
:20:56. > :20:58.it -- a power vacuum in the south and comes at a sensitive time.
:20:59. > :21:01.Now a look at some of the days other news:
:21:02. > :21:03.The next head of the European Central Bank has criticised the way
:21:04. > :21:06.politicians have handled the Eurozone debt crisis, saying
:21:07. > :21:09.partial and temporary solutions have only increased uncertainty. It
:21:10. > :21:15.comes as concerns are growing about the danger of the crisis spreading
:21:15. > :21:19.to Italy. The police in Northern Ireland say
:21:19. > :21:21.16 officers were injured during last night's violence. There were
:21:21. > :21:24.26 arrests following trouble in Belfast, Londonderry, Armagh and
:21:24. > :21:29.County Antrim. Nationalist youths attacked the police at the end of
:21:29. > :21:31.the busiest day in the Orange Order marching season.
:21:31. > :21:34.British judges have deferred a decision on whether to allow
:21:34. > :21:38.WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden. He is
:21:38. > :21:48.wanted there to face allegations of sexual misconduct. The decision
:21:48. > :21:50.
:21:50. > :21:53.will now be made at a later date. It is one of the most controversial
:21:53. > :21:59.areas of European policy but now the rules governing fishing in
:21:59. > :22:06.Europe are set to change. The EU has proposed radical changes
:22:06. > :22:12.proposing to stop over fishing in European waters.
:22:12. > :22:16.The mysterious movements of fish remain an enigma...
:22:16. > :22:21.Back in 1967, it all seemed so simple. Fishermen bringing in their
:22:21. > :22:28.catch and selling it all at the local market. By the 1970s, this
:22:28. > :22:34.was history. Today it is clear that the common fisheries policy,
:22:34. > :22:38.brought in to promote sustainable fishing, is a failure. Its rules
:22:39. > :22:43.are a major reason why there is so much of this. They call it discard,
:22:43. > :22:50.hundreds of thousands of perfectly good fish are being thrown back
:22:50. > :22:55.into the sea, dead. Rick Smith can look back at a 35 year career as a
:22:55. > :23:00.skipper. For him, discards are a direct result of EU rules.
:23:00. > :23:05.When there is a ban or a quota on court, for instance, you are still
:23:05. > :23:08.catching all the other species, and you catch cod. You have no
:23:08. > :23:14.alternative but to throw it away, dead.
:23:14. > :23:17.That must be heartbreaking? Yes. That is what the law states.
:23:17. > :23:20.Discards are the most obvious problem with the common fisheries
:23:20. > :23:24.policy but there are many other issues as well. The EU commissioner
:23:24. > :23:29.is today proposing a radical programme of reform, including
:23:29. > :23:35.banning discards. Our proposal is to change the
:23:35. > :23:41.system so that all catches are landed and counted against quotas.
:23:41. > :23:45.A third element is giving an alternative to overfishing.
:23:45. > :23:48.UK ministers describe the regulations as fundamentally broken,
:23:48. > :23:53.it is welcome news to them. They know the hard bargain is just
:23:53. > :23:57.beginning. We have now got a very busy year to
:23:57. > :24:03.make sure that the commissioner's proposals, many of which we have
:24:03. > :24:09.been pushing for, will see the light of day. We also need to
:24:09. > :24:13.reverse the hugely damaging effects of the common fishing policy.
:24:13. > :24:18.The debate in Europe will be protected, potentially better, with
:24:18. > :24:22.so much vested national interest, there is no guarantee that any of
:24:22. > :24:25.the proposed reforms will come into force.
:24:25. > :24:30.Many conservationists say the basic problem is there are too many
:24:30. > :24:34.fishing boats going after too few fish. Their logic is there should
:24:34. > :24:38.be slimmed down European fishing fleet. That is a difficult message
:24:38. > :24:47.for any politician to deliver to a community like Brixham, so
:24:47. > :24:50.dependent on the fishing industry. Welcome back to Westminster, where
:24:50. > :24:54.the the bed -- where the debate which was tabled by the opposition
:24:54. > :24:59.leader Ed Miliband, saying there was no public confidence in the
:24:59. > :25:06.News Corporation taking over steep -- BSkyB, had ended. It didn't go
:25:06. > :25:10.to a vote because News Corp decided to pull out of that bid for BSkyB.
:25:10. > :25:14.Some very strong, passionate language in the chamber today.
:25:14. > :25:18.Yes. We heard Gordon Brown talking about how News International had
:25:18. > :25:24.descended from the gutters into the sewers. That is the problem for
:25:24. > :25:27.Rupert Murdoch. There is no end in sight to MPs piling into damage the
:25:27. > :25:32.reps is eight -- the reputation of News International.
:25:32. > :25:39.What a change in nine days. A lot of party leaders were falling over
:25:39. > :25:44.themselves to court Rupert Murdoch after those of his emotions --
:25:44. > :25:49.before those revelations. Yes. David Cameron was saying just
:25:49. > :25:53.a few days ago that MPs shouldn't confuse the issue of the BSkyB bid
:25:53. > :25:59.with the issue of phone hacking. And yet, this morning, in the House
:25:59. > :26:03.of Commons, he was saying they should do that. A massive U-turn.
:26:03. > :26:07.It hasn't been a good nine days for No. 10, has it?
:26:07. > :26:12.It hasn't. They look like they have been at the back foot for most of
:26:12. > :26:15.this crisis since those allegations about Milly Dowler first arose. On
:26:15. > :26:19.the one hand they point out that David Cameron was outside the
:26:19. > :26:22.country when they first broke but even so, it has been Ed Miliband
:26:22. > :26:26.who has made the running on this one.
:26:26. > :26:31.Thank you. It has been a dramatic day at Westminster. It has also
:26:31. > :26:35.been a day of a humiliation for Rupert Murdoch. Forced by public
:26:35. > :26:39.opinion to withdraw that bid for BSkyB. He wanted that takeover
:26:39. > :26:44.because it is a huge potential money spinner for the company. It
:26:44. > :26:54.could be resurrected, perhaps, in the next few months, but who knows
:26:54. > :26:59.
:26:59. > :27:02.quite what will happen? That is it Hello. Most of the United Kingdom
:27:02. > :27:06.will be dry on Thursday. The cloud will be broken and sunshine will
:27:06. > :27:10.come through but this isn't the whole story because there is a
:27:10. > :27:14.notable wet exception and that is in eastern most parts of England,
:27:14. > :27:20.courtesy of an area of low pressure on the Continent, pushing rain into
:27:20. > :27:25.coastal Norfolk and Suffolk. It will be an unpleasant day here. The
:27:25. > :27:29.brain are starting to hack. A cool feel to the weather. Elsewhere, you
:27:29. > :27:34.can see some of that sunshine on offer. Good sunny spells across the
:27:34. > :27:40.North of England but Lincolnshire south, you are in the cloudy and
:27:41. > :27:46.wet zone in parts of Essex and East Kent. The windy his own and cool
:27:46. > :27:51.where the rain is heavy. Maybe just 12 degrees. In stark contrast we
:27:51. > :27:55.have the south-west of England and Wales, dry with good sunny spells.
:27:55. > :27:58.Feeling warmer than it did today. That is the case in north-west
:27:59. > :28:04.England as well. Northern Ireland will get increasing clout through
:28:04. > :28:08.the afternoon. Some of that cloud pushing into Scotland. Elsewhere in
:28:08. > :28:12.Scotland, one or two showers developing but few and far between.