London, July 7
In a breathtaking response to a scandal engulfing his media empire, Rupert Murdoch moved on today to close down the News of the World, Britain's biggest selling Sunday newspaper.

As allegations mounted this week that its journalists had hacked the voicemails of thousands of people, from child murder victims to the families of Britain's war dead, the tabloid had haemorrhaged advertising and alienated millions of readers.

Yet no one, least of all the 168-year-old paper's staff, was prepared for the drama of a single sentence that will surely go down as one of the most startling turns in the 80-year-old Australian-born press baron's long and controversial career. "News International today announces that this Sunday, July 10, 2011, will be the last issue of the News of the World," read the preamble to a statement from Murdoch's son James, who heads the British newspaper arm of News Corp .

Hailing a fine muck-raking tradition at the paper, which his father bought in 1969, James Murdoch told its staff that the latest explosion of a long-running scandal over phone hacking by journalists had made the future of the title untenable:

"The good things the News of the World does ... have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company. The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself.

"This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World... In addition, I have decided that all of the News of the World's revenue this weekend will go to good causes. We will run no commercial advertisements this weekend." Steven Barnett, professor of communications at Westminster

University, said he was "gobsmacked": "Talk about a nuclear option," he told Reuters. "It will certainly take some of the heat off immediateallegations about journalistic behaviour and phone hacking." Tom Watson, a member of parliament from the opposition Labour party who had campaigned for a reckoning from the paper over the phone hacking scandal, said: "This is a victory for decent people up and down the land. I say good riddance to the News of the World."

There was no immediate response from members of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led government, which has found itself embarrassed by the avalanche of allegations this week after it gave its blessing in principle to News Corp's takeover bid for broadcaster BSkyB .

It was unclear whether the company would produce a replacement title for the lucrative Sunday market, in which, despite difficult times for newspaper circulations, the News of the World is still selling 2.6 million copies a week.

The scandal had deepened with claims News of the World hacked the phones of relatives of British soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military veterans' association broke off a joint lobbying campaign with the paper and said it might join major brands in pulling its advertising.

The British Legion said it could not campaign with the News of the World on behalf of the families of soldiers "while it stands accused of preying on these same families in the lowest depths of their misery". Signalling how far the racy, flag-waving title has alienated a core readership already horrified by suggestions its reporters accessed the voicemails not only of celebrities and politicians, but also of missing children and crime victims, an online boycott petition had garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures. — Reuters

Washington, July 7
Barack Obama has become the first US President to host a Twitter Town Hall meeting to reach out to weary Americans on a range of issues, including the state of the world’s largest economy. “I am going to make history here as the first President to live tweet,” Obama, the 44th US President, said as he kicked off an event billed as a “Twitter Town Hall” from the East Room of the White House yesterday.

Obama used a live webcast to answer questions, submitted via tweets containing the hashtag #AskObama, on issues ranging from jobs to the economy. “It’s only 140 characters,” moderator and Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey reminded Obama as he failed to keep his answers to 140 characters. During his tweeting session, Obama did take 18 questions and gave feedback on six responses.

Obama, who pioneered the use of social media during his 2008 election campaign, began the event by tweeting his own question: “In order to reduce the deficit, what costs would you cut and what investments would you keep?” He then answered the question, saying the US must “make a determination in what programmes could help us grow”, like programmes focused on clean air and water.

“It could cause a whole new spiral into a second recession or worse,” Obama said of the potential effects of a failure to reduce the deficit.

Obama had previously said he wished to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion in the next decade by trimming domestic spending, including defence, and raising taxes on wealthy Americans.

Macon Phillips, the White House Director of Digital Strategy, said in a statement that the purpose of the Twitter Town Hall meeting is to “try to find new opportunities to connect with Americans around the country.” — PTI

Washington, July 7
North Korea paid several million dollars to top Pakistani military officials, including the then army chief Gen Jehangir Karamat, to gain access to secret nuclear technology and sensitive equipments to make a nuclear bomb, disgraced atomic scientist AQ Khan has claimed.

Khan produced a secret letter that he said supported his claim that he transferred more than $3 million in payments by North Korea to senior officers in the Pakistani military, The Washington Post reported.

In the letter dated July 15, 1998, posted by the paper on its website, Secretary of the Workers Party of (North) Korea Jon ByongHo asks Khan, who then was the project director of the Kahuta Research Center, to give “agreed documents” and “components” to a North Korean Embassy official in Islamabad.

In the letter, the authenticity of which according to The Post has been confirmed by senior US and western officials, Jon says “$3 million have already been paid to General Karamat and half a million dollars and three diamond and ruby sets have been given to Gen Zulfiqar Khan”. Both Karamat, who was the army chief from January 1996 to October 1998, and Zulfiqar Khan have refuted the allegations. Zulfiqar called the letter “a fabrication”. — PTI

Dhaka, July 7
Putting a lid on the row triggered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s controversial remarks, Bangladesh today said there is “no scope” for any “misunderstanding” and resolved to jointly combat terrorism in all its forms.

As External Affairs Minister SM Krishna was poised to wrap up a visit to Dhaka aimed at damage control following the Prime Minister’s utterances last week, Bangladesh said since the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has issued a clarification “there is no room for any kind of misunderstanding”.

After Krishna’s hour-long delegation-level talks with his Bangladesh counterpart Dipu Moni and a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Moni told mediapersons that “such type of mistakes do happen. There is no scope for any misunderstanding now. We are looking forward to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh”.

Manmohan Singh’s remarks, made during an interaction with editors in Delhi last week, were put on the official transcript but were later deleted.

Moni recalled how Bangladesh Foreign Ministry had also committed a similar mistake by putting something on its official website and edited it out after two-three days when it was found that some of the paragraphs were not presented in the manner they were discussed.

Krishna said Manmohan Singh was looking forward to his visit to Bangladesh in September as he “has affection and admiration for the people of Bangladesh”.

Krishna said the two countries recognised the importance of addressing each other's security concerns. “Both the countries expressed determination to jointly combat the menace of terrorism and insurgency and agreed not to allow their territories to be used by elements inimical to each other”, Kishna said. — PTI

California, July 7
Facebook will add Skype video chat to its pages, aiming to spice up the appeal of the world's No. 1 Internet social networking service while fending off increased competition from Google.

The agreement, announced by Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg at the company's Palo Alto, California, headquarters on Wednesday, deepens the company's cooperation with Microsoft Corporation, which is in the process of buying Skype to build up its web presence. Zuckerberg said Facebook has hit a record 750 million users. The new service, which has rolled out from Wednesday, could be a huge boost for Skype, which has about 145 million regular users.

The partnership comes as competition heats up in the Internet market, with Facebook and Google, as well as fast-growing companies such as Groupon and Twitter, vying for billions of dollars in online advertising revenue. — Reuters

Islamabad, July 7
A new biography of Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan pooh-poohs suggestions that he was romantically involved with slain former premier Benazir Bhutto.

“One of my cousins was interested in her (Bhutto) and she also took an interest when I introduced them to each other. At one point, marriage was virtually on the cards,” Imran told Frank Huzur, his Indian biographer.

Imran, who now heads the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf party, described Bhutto as a “personal friend” and said there was “mutual admiration between them”.

According to Imran, Bhutto had an affair with the “spotlight”. “She trusted my instincts for counsel. Politics was not her calling, but she was able to make it her calling. She would have made a great ambassador for Pakistan,” Imran is quoted as saying in an excerpt from Huzur’s book “Imran Vs Imran”.

“Talking glibly came easy to her. Retorting is not everyone’s forte. Benazir had the ability to retort with thunderous impact followed by one of her crystal-eyed stares. She wanted to stay in charge for ever,” Khan said.

Nearly two years ago, author Christopher Sandford claimed in his biography of Imran that Bhutto became infatuated with him during their student days at Oxford University in the 1970s and the pair enjoyed a “close” and possibly a “sexual” relationship.

Sandford also claimed Imran ‘s mother unsuccessfully tried to organise an arranged marriage between the pair.

In “Imran Vs Imran”, Khan further said: “When Benazir was sworn in as the first Muslim Prime Minister, I thought I had lost a friend to the murky game of power politics. I enjoyed her confidence.” He added, “...While among friends, she would brag about her father’s political skills. A number of us would chuckle over her confident brag, but she would put up a sparkling show.

“In Oxford debates, she would roar over the issues of human rights abuse, rule of law, gender justice, discrimination and fiscal corruption. But when she found herself in the middle of the power pitch, she metamorphosed into a venal, self-centred political empress. She tasted the blood of power, and got drunk.” Bhutto was killed by a suicide bomber shortly after she had addressed an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi in December 2007. — PTI