- LONDON: A British lawmaker says he is heading for the United States to try to speak at the annual general meeting of News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch company whose journalists are accused in the UK's phone-hacking scandal.
Tom Watson told a parliamentary committee Wednesday that he had acquired "a proxy shareholding vote" ahead of the Friday meeting in Los Angeles. That means he can try to use the gathering to air criticism of the company over the conduct of its reporters.
Three criminal inquiries and a host of reviews are scrutinizing the interception of private voice mail messages and other shady practices by UK reporters. The phone-hacking revelations horrified British citizens. News Corp. closed Britain's best-selling Sunday tabloid, The News of The World, amid the uproar.