Murdoch pays Jude Law $200K over phone hacking

LONDON?? Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper company on Thursday agreed to pay actor Jude Law 130,000 pounds (about $200,000) to settle claims against the News of the World and The Sun tabloids.

Law's settlement was among three dozen announced Thursday in payouts totaling about $1 million.

News Group Newspapers (NGN) accepted that 16 articles about Law published in the now-defunct News of the World tabloid between 2003 and 2006 had been obtained by phone hacking, and that the actor had also been placed under "repeated and sustained physical surveillance."

The company also admitted that articles in The Sun tabloid misused Law's private information but did not give further details.

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Video: Piers Morgan grilled at UK hacking probe (on this page)

The agreement with the actor was among 36 cases the company said Thursday it would be settling, including soccer player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Chris Shipman, son of a serial killer Harold Shipman.

They are among dozens of people who were suing News Group Newspapers after their mobile phone voicemails were allegedly hacked by the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid. Other cases settled include those of former government ministers Chris Bryant, Tessa Jowell, ex-model Abi Titmuss and Sara Payne, who is the mother of a murdered girl, rugby player Gavin Henson, Princess Diana's former lover James Hewitt and singer Dannii Minogue.

Actress Sienna Miller had reached an earlier settlement with the company.

News International, the parent company of Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, said it did not admit that senior staff knew of the wrongdoing and tried to cover it up ? but it said that "for the purpose of reaching these settlements only, News Group Newspapers agreed that the damages to be paid to claimants should be assessed as if this was the case."

Financial details of 15 of the payouts, totaling more than 640,000 pounds (about $1 million), were made public at a court hearing Thursday. The amounts generally ran into the tens of thousands of pounds ? although Law received 130,000 pounds (about $200,000), plus legal costs, to settle claims.

In a statement that could further damage the company's reputation, lawyers for victims who have reached settlements said the agreements were based on News Group Newspapers acknowledging senior executives tried to hide evidence.

"News Group has agreed to compensation being assessed on the basis that senior employees and directors of NGN knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence," the statement said.

Video: Celebrities testify in phone-hacking hearing (on this page)

In all, Murdoch's company was facing 60 hacking lawsuits. The settlements were made public at a court hearing in London on Thursday.

Mark Lewis, a lawyer for many of the phone hacking victims, said in an email that the fight against Murdoch's empire was not over.

"While congratulations are due to those (lawyers) and clients who have settled their cases, it is important that we don't get carried away into thinking that the war is over," Lewis said. "Fewer than 1 percent of the people who were hacked have settled their cases. There are many more cases in the pipeline. ... This is too early to celebrate, we're not even at the end of the beginning."

News International set up a compensation scheme in November to deal with phone-hacking claims, moving to contain the consequences of a scandal that has rocked the company, the British press, police and the political establishment.

It has already received more than 60 claims and police say there are almost 6,000 potential victims.

Video: Hugh Grant blasts tabloids at hearings (on this page)

Lawyers for the victims said they had obtained documents from News International that revealed its attempts to destroy evidence, partly thanks to the fact that the 12 solicitors' firms involved had joined forces to work together.

"As a result, documents relating to the nature and scale of the conspiracy, a cover up and the destruction of evidence/email archives by News Group have now been disclosed to the claimants," their statement said.

"In the face of this overwhelming evidence, the 'rogue reporter' position has disintegrated and the range, scale and extent of phone-hacking has become clear."

News International had for years claimed that any hacking was the work of a single, "rogue" reporter, who was jailed for the offence in 2007. Last year, it admitted the problem was more widespread and paid compensation to several victims.

In July, after it emerged that the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, later found dead, had been hacked by the News of the World, News Corp took the drastic step of shutting down the 168-year-old tabloid.

The scandal forced the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman, a former News of the World editor. British police were accused of failing to properly investigate the affair and top police officials resigned.

Criminal probes are now under way into the phone hacking and allegations of payoffs to police. Cameron launched a judge-led inquiry into Britain's press ethics. News Corp was forced to scrap plans to take full control of Britain's highly profitable satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Hearings in the first cases of victims who have not settled are set to begin on February 13.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46053202/ns/world_news-europe/

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GE 4Q profit falls, sales miss estimates (AP)

NEW YORK ? General Electric Co. said Friday its fourth-quarter earnings fell 18 percent as revenue declined after it sold its stake in the NBC network.

Revenue of nearly $38 billion was lower than what Wall Street was banking on. Shares fell more than 2 percent in trading before the opening bell.

The Fairfield, Conn., industrial conglomerate, which makes everything from jet engines to light bulbs, earned $3.73 billion, or 35 cents per share, compared with $4.54 billion, or 42 cents per share a year earlier.

Revenue fell 8 percent to $37.97 billion. The decline was largely due to the company's sale of its majority stake in NBC Universal to Comcast last year. But GE also said it also saw slower growth in Europe, and its ongoing effort to make its GE Capital financing arm more efficient reduced revenue at the unit by 9 percent. GE Capital is the company's second-largest segment.

Excluding discontinued businesses and certain pension costs, earnings were 39 cents a share. That topped analysts' forecast of 38 cents, based on a FactSet survey. But revenue fell below Wall Street's $40.05 billion estimate.

GE said infrastructure orders rose 15 percent in the quarter, leaving it with its biggest-ever order backlog of $200 billion.

For all of 2011, the company earned $14.15 billion, or $1.23 per share, up 22 percent compared with $11.64 billion, or $1.06 per share, in 2010.

It expects to post double-digit earnings growth this year over last in its industrial and capital segments, but it still expects to see continued economic volatility.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_general_electric

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Source: http://finallyinfirst.blogspot.com/2012/01/meet-my-class-pets.html

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Beaufoy working on "Hunger Games" sequel script (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Lionsgate's "Hunger Games" franchise is moving full steam ahead. While the first film in the planned trilogy won't hit theaters until March 23, work has already begun on its sequel, TheWrap has confirmed.

Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire," "127 Hours") is writing the script for "Catching Fire." Gary Ross, who directed "Hunger Games," will also direct the sequel and is supervising the writing of the script.

The films are based on Suzanne Collins' bestselling young-adult novels about a nationally televised fight in which teens compete to the death. Collins wrote the script to the first movie with Ross and Billy Ray ("State of Play," "Shattered Glass").

Stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson and Liam Hemsworth are expected to return for "Catching Fire," which will hit theaters November 22, 2013. The release date was announced while the first film was still shooting.

The "Hunger Games" literary trilogy -- which also includes "Mockingjay" -- has sold more than 16 million copies worldwide.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/film_nm/us_hungergames

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With South Carolina Primary Looming, Republican Candidates Focus Their Message (ContributorNetwork)

A new poll released by Monmouth University on Tuesday shows Mitt Romney has increased his lead in South Carolina, according to AHN. This latest poll corroborates another by CBS News/New York Times that also showed Romney has achieved a measurable advantage going into Saturday's primary.

His nearest competitors remain Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, both of whom are vying to achieve their first primary victory. Both men are taking pains to present themselves as a better, alternative option to Romney and each other.

How is Mitt Romney polling in South Carolina?

The Monmouth University poll places Romney in the lead with 33 percent of the vote. Second place in that poll belongs to Gingrich, who polled at 22 percent, while Santorum claims third with 14 percent. Ron Paul is polling closely to Santorum, with 12 percent.

The CBS News/New York Times poll, released early Wednesday, has Romney in the lead by a slightly closer margin of 28 percent to Gingrich's 21 percent. In that poll, Santorum and Paul are also closer together, with 16 percent and 15 percent, respectively. In both polls, Rick Perry is garnering single-digit support.

What is Newt Gingrich's focus going into Saturday's primary?

As Romney's nearest competitor at this point in South Carolina's primary race, Gingrich's message has taken two different turns. The first part of his emphasis this week has focused on Romney. Gingrich is presenting himself to South Carolina voters in town halls and other campaign stops as the only viable conservative option, an alternative to Romney and the man best able to gather a national majority to beat President Barack Obama, according to USA Today.

The second part of Gingrich's focus this week concerns his own nearest rival, Rick Santorum. Gingrich has been touting Santorum's defeat in his re-election bid in Pennsylvania as proof that his fellow candidate can't ultimately win the presidential election in November. He has also been warning against the dangers of splitting the conservative Republican vote, saying that a vote for Santorum will essentially translate into a vote for Romney in Saturday's primary.

What message is Santorum focusing on leading up to the primary?

Santorum is focusing on worries surrounding his electability versus Obama. Politico has pointed out that he is actively trying to negate the charge that he is unelectable by highlighting the number of times that he has been elected to office and the high percentage of his political races that he has won in the past.

Santorum is not only focusing on proving that he is a strong candidate for president, but he has also been questioning the electability of Romney and Gingrich. He has highlighted the fact that his election record is better than Romney's, with him emerging the victor some four out of five of his political races, versus Romney's record of winning one out of three. He also has been placing his record up against Gingrich's performance in the primary season so far, pointing out that he beat his fellow candidate in both the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120118/pl_ac/10849403_with_south_carolina_primary_looming_republican_candidates_focus_their_message

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Russia asks if US radar ruined space probe (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia will look into the possibility that a U.S. radar station could have inadvertently interfered with the failed Mars moon probe that plummeted to Earth, Russian media reported Tuesday, but experts argued that any such claims were far-fetched.

The state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Yury Koptev, former head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, as saying investigators will conduct tests to check if U.S. radar emissions could have impacted the Phobos-Ground space probe, which was stuck in Earth's orbit for two months before crashing down near Chile and Brazil.

"The results of the experiment will allow us to prove or dismiss the possibility of the radar's impact," said Koptev, who is heading the government commission charged with investigating causes of the probe's failure.

U.S. experts suggested that the Russians should look for causes of the failure at home.

"The Russian Space Agency would do themselves and the future of Russian planetary exploration some good to look inside the project and the agency to find the cause of the Phobos-Ground mishap," said Alan Stern, former associate administrator for science at NASA and now director of the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida.

The current Roscosmos head, Vladimir Popovkin, has said the craft's malfunction could have been caused by foreign interference. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin acknowledged U.S. radar interference as a possible cause but said it was too early to make any conclusions and suggested the problem could be the spacecraft itself.

"Practially all disruptions are due to flaws in the technologies manufactured 12 to 13 years ago," he said.

Other space experts said the possibility of U.S. interference should be considered only after investigating all other possible causes.

Alexander Zakharov, a specialist at the Space Research Institute, which developed the Phobos-Ground, called the suggestion "contrived" and doubted the United States has radar powerful enough to interfere with a spacecraft at an altitude of around 200 kilometers (124 miles).

"You can come up with a lot of exotic reasons," Zakharov told RIA Novosti. "But first you need to look at the apparatus itself, and there is a problem there."

The Phobos-Ground fell to Earth on Sunday in the vicinity of Chile and Brazil, but no confirmed impact sites have been reported.

The $170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft's structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the ground anyway.

The Phobos-Ground probe was designed to travel to one of Mars' twin moons, Phobos, land on it, collect soil samples and fly them back to Earth in 2014 in one of the most daunting interplanetary missions ever. It got stranded in Earth's orbit after its Nov. 9 launch, and efforts by Russian and European Space Agency experts to bring it back to life failed.

Phobos-Ground was Russia's most expensive and the most ambitious space mission since Soviet times. Its mission to the crater-dented, potato-shaped Martian moon was to give scientists precious materials that could shed more light on the genesis of the solar system.

Russia's space chief has acknowledged the Phobos-Ground mission was ill-prepared, but said that Roscosmos had to give it the go-ahead so as not to miss the limited Earth-to-Mars launch window.

___

Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_sc/eu_russia_falling_spacecraft

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