• Filth, neglect at British hospital fuel uproar

    By Maggie Fox, Senior Writer, NBC News

    Britons were horrified by a report released on Tuesday that documented "truly dreadful" care at an English hospital, from patients left moaning in their own waste to family members forced to bring in food.

    British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would press for a culture change in his country's treasured National Health Service to give patients a bigger say in their care-- and he’ll get American help to do it.

    The report says patients were ignored as they pleaded for clean sheets and even water, and it says certainly thousands died from the neglect. Britons, who take huge pride in their health service, were shocked by the findings of the report.

    "Many will find it difficult to believe that all this could occur in an NHS hospital," Cameron said Tuesday.

    While it was just one hospital – in the central English town of Staffordshire – Cameron said he couldn’t believe the problems were restricted to a single facility.

    “What happened at The Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and 2009 was not just wrong, it was truly dreadful. Hundreds of people suffered from the most appalling neglect and mistreatment,” Cameron said.

    “Calls for help to use the bathroom were ignored and patients were left lying in soiled sheeting and sitting on commodes for hours, often feeling ashamed and afraid,” reads the report, written by lawyer Robert Francis.

    “Patients were left unwashed, at times for up to a month. Food and drinks were left out of the reach of patients and many were forced to rely on family members for help with feeding,” added Francis, who was appointed to investigate the hospital in 2009 after it showed a higher-than-usual rate of deaths.

    Francis said it would not be possible to say just how many patients died from the neglect and poor conditions. Many British newspapers ran lurid accounts of conditions at the hospital, but Francis said he couldn't document some of them, such as reports about thirsty patients drinking from flower vases. 

    “The inquiry found that a chronic shortage of staff, particularly nursing staff, was largely responsible for the substandard care,” he added. “Staff who spoke out felt ignored and there is strong evidence that many were deterred from doing so through fear and bullying.”

    Cameron said he would get help from an American – Dr. Donald Berwick, who was appointed President Barack Obama’s administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but who finally stepped down after Republicans in Congress refused to confirm his appointment. Many Republicans were infuriated by Berwick’s praise of Britain’s NHS.

    Berwick, an expert in healthcare quality, is now at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. He has recommended changes in quality after a series of reports have shown that anywhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans die every year from mistakes and neglect in the U.S. healthcare system.

    Britain’s National Health Service is such a source of pride that it featured prominently in opening ceremonies for last year’s Olympics. U.S. supporters of healthcare reforms have pointed to its lower costs and to reports that show Britons are healthier than Americans. Critics of Obama’s approach have expressed doubts that Britain’s system works better than the U.S. system.

    “I love our NHS, I think it is a fantastic institution, a great organization, it says a great deal about our country and who we are,” Cameron said Tuesday.

    The report blamed cost-cutting for many of the problems at the Staffordshire hospital. Britain’s hospitals are run by trusts, which are a type of public corporation, with outside boards.

    “Problems at the Trust were exacerbated at the end of 2006/07 when it was required to make a 10 million pound ($16 million) saving,” the report reads. “The Board decided this saving could only be achieved through cutting staffing levels, which were already insufficient.”

    Cameron said boards need to be held more responsible for the hospitals they oversee, and patients need a chance to speak up when something goes wrong. But he also blamed Britain’s Department of Health, nursing organizations and doctors for failing to act.

    He said there were three problems in the NHS as a whole. “First, a focus on finance and figures at the expense of patient care,” he said. “Second, there was an attitude that patient care was always someone else’s problem….Third, defensiveness and complacency.”

    Health experts have identified similar problems at U.S. hospitals. The 2010 Affordable Care Act will gradually change the way hospitals are paid by Medicare and other government health insurance plans, to take patient satisfaction into account. Hospitals will also be penalized if patients get sick again too quickly after they are discharged or if they acquire infections while in the hospital.

    John Newland in London contributed to this story

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  • UK lawmakers back gay marriage in first vote

    By Andrew Osborn, Reuters

    LONDON - Britain's parliament voted heavily in favor of legalizing gay marriage on Tuesday, but Prime Minister David Cameron's authority in his own party took a blow as his Conservatives split in two over the measure he had championed.

    In the first of several votes required for its passage, the lower house of parliament backed the legislation by 400-175, but more than half of Cameron's 303 lawmakers voted against or abstained, signaling deep unease with it and his leadership.

    During a debate that lasted more than six hours, many Conservative MPs denounced the legislation, saying it was morally wrong, not a public priority, and unnecessarily divisive, threatening a corrosive legacy of bitterness.

    Conservative lawmaker Gerald Howarth told parliament that the government had no mandate to push through a "massive social and cultural change."

    "This is not evolution, it's revolution," added Edward Leigh, another Conservative member of parliament, saying marriage was "by its nature a heterosexual union."

    Although the vote went Cameron's way, many analysts believe he will now have to address a deep seam of discontent running through his party.


    He made a last minute televised statement ahead of the vote, arguing gay marriage would make society stronger.

    "I'm a big believer in marriage. It helps people to commit to each other, and I think that's why gay people should be able to get married too," he said.

    He later hailed the result of the vote as "a step forward for our country."

    Cameron is trying to perform a tricky balancing act: to reconcile his desire to show his party is progressive, with the views of many in it who are uncomfortable with such a reform.

    Amid talk of a possible leadership challenge to Cameron, many Conservative lawmakers say the prime minister is sacrificing core party values on the altar of populism.

    "He hasn't got a lot of political capital left in the bank," Stewart Jackson, a Conservative MP who opposes the gay marriage bill, told Reuters before the vote. "He has to deliver some authentic Conservative policies very soon."

    Such talk is rife among some Conservative lawmakers and follows a spate of articles in the British press in which a handful of MPs raised the possibility of ousting Cameron, a prospect most commentators regard as far-fetched before the next election in 2015.

    Grievances against Cameron
    Conservative MPs' grievances are many: that Cameron is "arrogant," that he is too fond of the European Union, that the party's policies have been diluted by its coalition partner after Cameron failed to win the last election outright, and a nagging fear that he will not win the next one.

    The gay marriage initiative has infuriated rank-and-file party activists and a protest letter signed by 25 past and present chairmen of local Conservative associations warned that members were starting to resign over the issue.

    Justin Welby, the newly elected Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the world's 80 million Anglicans, used his first comments after being confirmed on Monday to reiterate his own opposition to gay marriage.

    Faced with strong opposition from the Anglican and Catholic churches, the law would not force them to conduct gay marriages, but critics say gay people may launch legal challenges.

    A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times on Sunday showed 55 percent favored legalizing gay marriage, while 36 percent opposed it. However, the same poll showed the issue was not one that concerned most voters.

    The new law proposes legalizing same-sex marriage in 2014. It would also allow civil partners to convert their partnerships into marriages.

    Gay marriage supporters say that while existing civil partnerships for same-sex couples afford the same legal rights as marriage, the distinction implies they are inferior.

    In a sometimes emotional debate on Tuesday, several gay MPs from different parties took to their feet to commend the bill, describing the prejudice they had suffered growing up.

    "Millions will be watching us today," said Nick Herbert, a gay Conservative MP. "Not just gay people but people who want to live in an equal society."

    The vote was warmly welcomed by Cameron's junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, and by the opposition Labour party, while gay rights group Stonewall called the result "a truly historic step forward."

    Tuesday's vote in the House of Commons was "free," meaning MPs were able to vote according to their conscience, rather than under party orders.

    The bill is still many stages away from becoming law, and some of its opponents called on Cameron after the vote to consider amending it to appease their concerns, promising they would try to frustrate its progress through parliament.

    Warning of divisions
    Peter Kellner, president of pollster YouGov, said he felt the parliamentary rebellion would hurt the Conservative party.

    "For Cameron, gay marriage is part of his attempt to persuade the voters that his party belongs to modern, 21st century Britain," he wrote on the pollster's site.

    "But the divisions that the gay marriages bill has unleashed ... threaten to send an altogether different message: that the Tories are divided, out of touch and prone to quarrel over issues of little concern to most voters."

    With the next election still two-and-a-half years distant, there is a risk that internal party splits over issues like gay marriage could fester and turn what for now is only talk of a possible leadership challenge into the real thing.

    "David Cameron has split the Conservative Party in half on gay marriage and failed to win a majority of Tory MPs. Labour win," Jackson, the Conservative MP, wrote after the vote.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • UK prime minister pledges to hold referendum on quitting EU

    Matt Dunham / AP

    Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron makes a long-awaited speech on the UK's place in the European Union in London on Wednesday.

    By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

    U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday announced Britain would hold a referendum on whether it should leave the European Union if his Conservative Party wins the next election.

    His comments prompted a largely angry reaction from European politicians, who condemned Cameron for "playing with fire" and trying to bend the 27-nation bloc to his will.

    France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius revealed he had recently told a group of British businessmen that "if Britain wants to leave Europe, we will roll out the red carpet for you," Reuters reported Wednesday.

    In the written version of his speech posted on the prime minister’s website, Cameron said people in the U.K. felt the EU was “now heading for a level of political integration that is far outside Britain’s comfort zone” and claimed “democratic consent for the EU in Britain is now wafer thin.”

    “People ... resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation. And they wonder what the point of it all is,” he said.

    “It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics. I say to the British people: this will be your decision,” Cameron added. “And when that choice comes, you will have an important choice to make about our country’s destiny.”

    'Charting our own course'
    He said that he understood “the appeal of going it alone, of charting our own course.”

    “Of course Britain could make her own way in the world, outside the EU, if we chose to do so … But the question we will have to ask ourselves is this: is that the very best future for our country?” Cameron said.


    The center-right Conservative Party contains a number of anti-EU lawmakers and has come under pressure on the issue with the rise of the UK Independence Party.

    Cameron has talked about renegotiating the U.K.’s relationship with Brussels and told parliament later Wednesday he would campaign to stay in the EU -- if he was successful in reforming it.

    But he repeatedly refused to answer questions from Labour Party leader Ed Miliband on how he would vote in the referendum if he was unsuccessful.

    Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in the European Parliament, said Cameron was “playing with fire” by saying he would renegotiate Britain’s membership and hold a referendum, according to ITV News. “He ... is raising false expectations that can never be met,” he said.

    And European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the speech was “one of the worst I heard in a long time,” ITV News reported.

    Schulz said Cameron was in favor of the single European market but also was also complaining about the regulations that govern it. “So, what does he want -- the internal market or the regulations? … I find what Mr. Cameron is doing very implausible,” he added.

    Fabius, the French official, said it was as if Britain had joined a soccer club and then suddenly said "let's play rugby," Reuters reported. And German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said “cherry-picking” what the U.K. liked about the EU and leaving the rest was “not an option.”

    Nick Robinson, the BBC’s political editor, wrote that Cameron would never make a “bigger gamble.”

    “He is gambling that his referendum promise will calm rather than stir the fury of Eurosceptics both inside and outside his party, that he can persuade 26 other European leaders to give the UK the deal he wants and that voters will then choose to back it,” he said.

    “If he pulls it off he will restore [Conservative] Party unity, see off the threat of UKIP, put Labour on the back foot and secure a relationship with the EU which is no longer a political nightmare for him and his party,” he added. “If he doesn't the name Cameron will be added to those of [Harold] Wilson, [Margaret] Thatcher and [John] Major - those whose premierships were destroyed by that most toxic issue in politics - Europe.”

    Related:

    An EU without Britain? Europe frets ahead of key speech by UK's David Cameron

    Kids removed from UK couple over support for 'independence' from Europe

  • An EU without Britain? Europe frets ahead of key speech by UK's David Cameron

    Yves Herman / Reuters, file

    Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron (right) faces some tough negotiations with the likes of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (left).

    By Peter Jeary, Foreign Desk Editor, NBC News

    Updated at 8:55 p.m. ET: British Prime Minister David Cameron has cancelled a major speech, originally scheduled for Friday, because of the uncertain outcome of the hostage-taking crisis at an Algerian gas plant that started Wednesday, the Telegraph reported.

    An unknown number of the hostages — which included dozens of foreign nationals and Algerians — were killed as Algerian forces attempted a rescue mission that reportedly went awry late Thursday. One Briton was reported dead in the hostage crisis, and Cameron warned that the country should be prepared for "further bad news."

    Original report:

    LONDON — It says a lot about Britain's ambivalent attitude toward its membership of the European Union that the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which wants the country to leave the bloc, has 12 seats in the European Parliament.

    Although UKIP has yet to have any politicians elected to Britain's Westminster parliament, recent polls suggest it is surging in popularity.

    In several recent by-elections, the party even placed ahead of the Liberal Democrats, junior partners with the Conservatives in Britain's coalition government.

    Amid UKIP's rise and pressure from elements within his own Conservative party to loosen ties with Europe, British Prime Minister David Cameron is scheduled to give a key speech Friday mapping out how he sees his country's future role in the 27-nation bloc. 

    Britain is so close to continental Europe — the English Channel is just 26 miles across at its narrowest point — that people sometimes swim to France. But, politically, the country has arguably not been further away for decades.

    The right-leaning Telegraph newspaper reported Thursday that "Cameron is expected to pledge to renegotiate Britain’s [EU] membership, if he is re-elected in 2015, after which the revised relationship will be the subject of a referendum."

    Reuters described Cameron's looming speech as "one of the most closely watched Europe addresses by a British leader since World War Two."

    Political and business leaders have voiced concerns over the risk of calling a referendum that could see Britain leaving the EU, which offers a market of 500 million people on its doorstep.

    The EU has been awarded the Nobel Prize for its role in uniting the continent after two World Wars.  ITV's  James Mates reports.

    There are those who want to extend British influence in the EU and build upon what one group called "Britain's epic post-war achievements" within the bloc, such as free trade and security. Last year, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for turning the "continent of war" into a "continent of peace."

    And Reuters noted that "international partners from the United States to Germany and Ireland have made it clear they oppose a British EU exit and believe that such a move would isolate and damage Britain itself."

    But critics of the U.K.'s current relationship with Europe have multiple targets. EU legislation takes precedence over national laws in many key sectors and EU regulations dominate some industries.

    Europe's common currency, the euro, is mired in turmoil, leaving most Britons glad the U.K. kept the pound.

    John Curtice, electoral analyst and professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said UKIP’s poll surge was a major factor in pushing Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe to the center of the political agenda.

    "There is no doubt that recent electoral success for UKIP has made Europe an issue for Conservatives," he said.

    "There is enormous pressure on David Cameron from within his party," he added. "Many Conservative members of parliament are looking ahead to the next election and thinking, 'I'll be damned if I lose because my party cannot come up with a coherent policy on Europe that voters can support.'"

    Yves Herman / Reuters, file

    The rising star of British politics? UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage stands near a coffin symbolizing "the death of the Euro" during a demonstration in 2011 urging the European Union to stop extending help to Greece.

    Curtice said UKIP’s poll ratings appeared to be driven by mid-term protest votes that traditionally went to Liberal Democrats, but which were up for grabs now that the party has joined the Conservatives in the ruling coalition.

    "However, regardless of why UKIP is getting attention, its presence is making Europe a problem for the Conservative party and its supporters, many of whom are instinctively wary of Europe," Curtice added.

    One key challenge for Cameron is that getting the EU to change has proved notoriously difficult for successive British prime ministers. Cameron has also often been left isolated at EU summits due to his opposition to various proposals.

    Professor Iain Begg, of the European Institute at the London School of Economics, said a hard-line stance by Cameron could potentially result in "amendments to some of the [EU] directives that Britain finds unpalatable." 

    However, he said that a total renegotiation of the treaties that bind the EU together was unlikely.

    Cameron will need to reconcile demands from so-called Euroskeptics within his own party for the repatriation of powers from Brussels with calls from other parts of his coalition government for closer European integration.

    And he'll need to do so while not offending his political peers and allies in Europe and beyond.

    Speaking to Reuters, one unnamed EU diplomat wondered how Cameron could walk that tightrope:

    "Britain's Europe policy has been confusing for a long time. He's going to have to sort out a lot of misunderstandings before he can convince people of what he's doing," said the official, underlining that uncertainty would not go away overnight. 

    "The risk remains of an exit by mistake. It shouldn't happen, but other things that shouldn't have happened did."

    Finland's prime minister signaled he was worried about what Cameron might announce during Friday's speech.

    "The EU without Britain is pretty much the same as fish without chips," Jyrki Katainen told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. "It's not a meal any more." 

    NBC News' Alastair Jamieson and Reuters contributed to this report.

  • State collusion in 1989 murder of Belfast lawyer 'shocking,' British PM says

    Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters

    A woman walks past a mural to murdered lawyer Pat Finucane on the Fall's Road in West Belfast on Wednesday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    LONDON -- British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday there had been "shocking" levels of state collusion in the murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989.


    Cameron was quoting from a new report into the killing of Finucane by British lawyer Sir Desmond de Silva, saying that while it did not find that there had been an "over-arching state conspiracy" over the murder, it was still "extremely difficult reading."

    Finucane, a Catholic whose clients included members of the anti-British Irish Republican Army (IRA) guerrilla group, was shot dead by pro-British paramilitaries in front of his wife and their three children as they sat down to dinner.

    'Attempt to kill': Police in Belfast attacked as flag riots rage on

    There have since been long-running allegations of state collusion in the murder, one of the most controversial in 30 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

    Speaking in parliament, Cameron said of the report: "It sets out the extent of collusion in areas such as identifying, targeting and murdering Mr. Finucane, supplying a weapon and facilitating its later disappearance and deliberately obstructing subsequent investigations."

    He repeated a British government apology to Finucane's relatives but said he would not order a full public inquiry, as the family have been demanding.

    Clinton condemns violence, revisits family legacy in trip to Belfast

    Finucane's widow, Geraldine, said the report was "a sham... a whitewash... confidence trick," ITV News reported.

    Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband called for a full public inquiry into the murder and said the De Silva report had its limits.

    Reuters and ITV News, NBC News' U.K. partner, contributed to this report.

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  • Rupert Murdoch's papers, UK media condemned in phone-hacking report

    Senior judge Brian Leveson remarks on the findings of his yearlong inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal that shook up British media.

    By Carol Grisanti, Keir Simmons and Ian Johnston, NBC News

    Updated at 10:35 a.m. ET: LONDON — Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and other British media were reckless in the pursuit of sensational stories "almost irrespective of the harm" caused, according to a major report on Britain's phone-hacking scandal.

    The findings of the year-long Leveson Inquiry criticized a “failure of systems of management and compliance” at Murdoch’s News of the World (NoTW) tabloid, which was closed down as the full extent of their illegal actions became clear.

    Lord Justice Leveson said if Murdoch and his son James did not know about the extent of phone-hacking at the paper, then there had been a "determined cover-up" by unidentified staff.

    And if they had known then the Murdochs should have done something about it, he said. However, the judge added there was no evidence from which he could "safely infer" that Rupert Murdoch was aware of a wider problem.

    The report is being watched by American lawmakers amid concerns that U.S. laws may have been broken.


    Leveson did not recommend state regulation of the media – or censorship in the eyes of some – as some victims of press intrusion had demanded, but did propose a new self-regulatory body enshrined in law.

    The inquiry was set up after it emerged that people working for the News of the World had hacked into messages on a phone belonging to Milly Dowler, 13, while she was a missing person in 2002. She had been abducted and was murdered.

    A string of other examples of phone-hacking and other examples of press intrusion then emerged.

    In its report on Britain's phone-hacking scandal, the Leveson Inquiry described a failure of management systems at newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch and others.

    Read the full Leveson Inquiry report

    Leveson said it was not just Murdoch’s newspapers that were at fault, adding that "outrageous" behavior by the press had "wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people."

    “There has been a recklessness in prioritizing sensational stories almost irrespective of the harm that the stories may cause and the rights of those who would be affected (perhaps in a way that can never be remedied),” his report said.

    “Too many stories in too many newspapers are the subject of complaints from too many people,” it added.

    Related content:

    Key US lawmaker watching as Rupert Murdoch braces for phone-hacking report

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    Former UK PM accuses Murdoch of misleading inquiry into phone-hack scandal

    Rupert Murdoch not 'a fit person' to firm, UK lawmakers say 

    But Leveson was scathing about the Murdoch empire and the News of the World in particular. He said there was "a general lack of respect for individual privacy and dignity” at the paper.

    And the judge said there had been a “serious failure of governance” at the News of the World, News Corporation and its U.K. arm News International in dealing with the phone-hacking allegations.

    “There was a failure on the part of the management at the NoTW to take appropriate steps to investigate whether there was evidence of wrongdoing,” he said.

    Author J.K. Rowling and actress Sienna Miller testified at the Leveson inquiry, addressing the emotional pain they experience after having their privacy invaded by tabloid reporters. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    'Determined cover-up'
    Leveson said if Rupert Murdoch and his son James were kept in the dark then “one or more parts of the management at the NoTW was engaged in a determined cover-up to keep relevant information about potential criminal activity within the organisation from senior management within NI.”

    “… if James Murdoch had been the victim of a cover-up, or an attempt to minimise the gravity of the position, then the accountability and governance systems at NI would have to be considered to have broken down in an extremely serious respect,” he added.

    Leveson said there was “no evidence” from which he could “safely infer that Rupert Murdoch was aware of a wider problem.”

    But Leveson noted Rupert Murdoch did not appear to have followed up -- or arranged for his son James to follow up -- on the instructions Murdoch said he gave to Colin Myler, editor of the News of the World from 2007 to 2011, to “find out what the hell was going on.”

    Actor Hugh Grant took a starring role on Monday in a London courtroom, where he testified at a public hearing about alleged phone hacking by British tabloids. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    “If News Corporation management, and in particular Rupert Murdoch, were aware of the allegations, it is obvious that action should have been taken to investigate them,” Leveson said.

    The report noted evidence given to the inquiry that News International had been “obstructive” during an early police investigation into phone-hacking.

    “The approach taken by NI is far from what might be expected of a well-run corporation … An organisational culture that is founded on integrity and honesty would require not only full co-operation with law enforcement, but also a determination to expose behaviour that failed to comply with the law,” the report said.

    Leveson said that what was needed was a “genuinely independent and effective system of self-regulation.”

    The current Press Complaints Commission includes members of the media industry, but Leveson said his proposed new body should have no “serving editors or members of the House of Commons or government.” He also said that the new body should be recognized in law.

    He said he was “struck by the evidence of journalists who felt they might be put under pressure to do things that were unethical or against the [press standards] code.”

    To address this, he said there should be a new whistleblowing hotline and the new board should “encourage” media firms to include a “conscience clause” in their employment contracts.

    U.S. senator: 'Deplorable conduct'
    Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate commerce committee, earlier signaled he would be paying close attention to the findings of the report.

    In an emailed statement sent to NBC News before it was released, he called on investigators in the U.K. to hold media companies accountable for their “deplorable conduct.”

    The parents of murdered school girl Milly Dowler told the Leveson Inquiry how her phone had been hacked into when she went missing, giving them false hope that she may still be alive. ITV's Damon Green reports.

    Read more on this story from Britain's ITV News

    Rockefeller said that was "deeply concerned" that media companies "may have violated U.S. laws and injured U.S. citizens."

    He said he hoped Leveson’s report and other investigations would hold the media organizations involved “accountable for their deplorable conduct.”

    “While I understand that the main goal of this report is to make policy recommendations, the core of the inquiry remains the illegal and unethical practices of newspapers owned by the News Corporation,” Rockefeller said.

    Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted he was very close to News International as Prime Minister - but he told the Leveson Inquiry it was a working relationship, not a close one. Testimony was briefly interrupted by a protestor who accused Blair of being a "war criminal." ITN's Tom Bradby reports. 

    Former top aide to UK PM David Cameron charged in perjury case

    Meanwhile, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was later hired as U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron's chief media adviser, and Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News International, appeared in court Thursday to face charges related to allegations of corrupt payments made to public officials, ITV News reported. They were later released on bail.

    The Associated Press, Reuters and ITV News contributed to this report. ITV News is NBC News' U.K. partner.

    More world stories from NBC News:

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  • Key US lawmaker watching as Rupert Murdoch, UK press brace for phone-hacking report

    Senior British judge Brian Leveson is set to release the findings of his yearlong inquiry into phone-hacking and media ethics by newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch and others.

    By Keir Simmons and Ian Johnston, NBC News

    Updated at 8:15 a.m. ET: LONDON — The chairman of the Senate commerce committee signaled he will be paying close attention to the findings of a U.K. report into phone-hacking and media ethics by newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch and others, amid concern U.S. laws may have been broken.

    Senator Jay Rockefeller called on investigators in the U.K. to hold media companies accountable for their "deplorable conduct," ahead of the release of a report by the year-long Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press Thursday.

    It is expected to be "excoriating" about the wrongdoing of journalists.

    Numerous celebrities — including actor Hugh Grant and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling — told the inquiry how they had been harassed, bullied, and traumatized by the press.


    But ordinary people, such as Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 2002, were also subjected to invasion of privacy in the most shocking of circumstances.

    It emerged that while she was missing, employees of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid hacked into her telephone. Outrage over this case prompted Murdoch to shut down the tabloid and led U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron to commission the Leveson Inquiry.

    Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images, file

    Rupert Murdoch is driven from The Royal Courts of Justice after giving evidence to The Leveson Inquiry on April 26.

    Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was later hired as Cameron's chief media adviser, and Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News Corporation’s U.K. arm News International, appeared in court Thursday to face charges related to allegations of corrupt payments made to public officials, ITV News reported. They were later released on bail.

    This probe has raised the specter of possible charges in the U.S. under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, whose anti-bribery provisions could ensnare executives if it is proved that payoffs were made to people such as British police officers.

    'Deeply concerned'
    Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said in an emailed statement sent to NBC News that he feared that illegal journalistic practices may have been used on U.S. citizens.

    He said he hoped Leveson’s report and other investigations would "continue to clear the air" and hold the media organizations involved “accountable for their deplorable conduct.”

    "While I understand that the main goal of this report is to make policy recommendations, the core of the inquiry remains the illegal and unethical practices of newspapers owned by the News Corporation," Rockefeller said.

    "I remain deeply concerned that these companies may have violated U.S. laws and injured U.S. citizens," he added.

    Judgment day looms for Rupert Murdoch, Piers Morgan and UK press

    The Leveson report could have implications for CNN’s Piers Morgan, who was previously editor of the News of the World and the Mirror newspapers.

    In a 2006 article in the Daily Mail tabloid, Morgan said he was played a message left by former Beatle Paul McCartney on the phone of his then wife Heather Mills. Mills has said there's no way Morgan could have obtained the message honestly.

    At the Leveson Inquiry, Morgan refused to reveal how he was able to listen to the message, saying this would compromise a source.

    Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images, file

    CNN host Piers Morgan arrives at the 2012 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in West Hollywood, California, in February. He previously was editor of two tabloid newspapers in the U.K.

    There have been calls from several victims of press intrusion for the government to regulate the media, an idea some have likened to state censorship in countries like China.

    Fear for free speech
    After retired teacher Christopher Jefferies, 67, of Bristol, was wrongly arrested for the murder of a young woman renting an apartment he owned, his character was picked over and savaged in the press and he later won substantial damages for defamation from eight newspapers.

    He told ITV News that the government had to introduce some form of statutory regulation of the press.

    UK PM's ex-aide, Murdoch protege face charges in phone-hacking scandal

    "I'm sure that I and many other people will continue to feel extremely angry unless the sort of action which I have been suggesting needs to be taken, is taken," he said.

    However, more than 80 politicians from all three main parties in the U.K. signed a letter published in the Guardian and Telegraph newspapers warning Cameron against state control of the media.

    "We believe in free speech and are opposed to the imposition of any form of statutory control," they wrote.

    Former UK PM accuses Murdoch of misleading inquiry into phone-hack scandal

    Former News of the World journalist Tom Latham told ITV News that newspapers were already not running stories in the public interest in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry.

    "If you cede anything to the government it's a slippery slope and then you start to lose control of the freedom of the press,” he said.

    Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against former News of the World editor Andy Coulson and former News International executive Rebekah Brooks for their alleged involvement in Britain's phone-hacking scandal. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports from London.

    But, given the paper’s history, Leveson may be more sympathetic to the complaints of people like Hugh Grant.

    He has revealed that details of hospital visits he made were leaked to the press, his garbage was rifled through, his ex-girlfriend and his infant daughter harassed.

    Grant said articles in The Sun and the Daily Express about his visit to a hospital emergency room was a gross intrusion of privacy.

    "I think no one would expect their medical records to be made public or to be appropriated by newspapers for commercial profit," the actor said. "That is fundamental to our British sense of decency."

    Reuters, The Associated Press and ITV News contributed to this report. ITV News is NBC's U.K. partner.

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  • Q&A: Crisis at the BBC

    After being accused of covering up former BBC star Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse, the BBC falsely reported that a Margaret Thatcher-era politician had sexually abused children, leading to the resignation of the network's chief and the arrest of a former producer. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    By NBC News staff

    LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corp. is in the midst of its worst scandal in years, with the director general stepping down on Saturday.

    With the public losing trust in one of Britain’s most trusted enterprises, Chris Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, has said the BBC’s organizational structure needed a “radical overhaul” and three top editors have stepped aside. Here’s a look at some of the issues surrounding the crisis at Britain's flagship broadcaster.


    What is happening at the BBC?
    The BBC has been rocked by scandal following the production of two news programs, one broadcast Nov. 2 that falsely accused a politician and another from 2011 that alleged child sexual abuse by a former star BBC host, but which never aired.

    The director general of the BBC, George Entwistle, resigned Saturday amid the furor over how the world’s largest broadcaster has covered the scandal.

    On Monday, Helen Boaden, director of BBC News, and her deputy Stephen Mitchell, stepped aside pending a review of the BBC’s handling of the crises. Earlier, the editor of the news program at the center of the scandal had said he would also step aside pending the result of an investigation.

    Sweeping child abuse scandal shakes BBC, other UK institutions

    The saga has also called into question the role played by the new New York Times Company chief executive, Mark Thompson, a former BBC director general.

    Thompson was at the helm last year, when the BBC investigation into the alleged child sex abuse was dropped. He has said he did not know about the program's investigation and had no involvement in the decision to axe the report.

    In a statement last month, quoted by The New York Times, Thompson said, “During my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations or received any complaints about Jimmy Savile.”

    The BBC sent NBC News a prepared statement regarding Thompson’s knowledge of the affair:

    “Mark Thompson has repeatedly made clear he had no personal knowledge of the allegations." (Click here for the BBC’s full statements on the affair)

    How did this crisis begin?
    The crisis for the BBC began when it emerged that its flagship news program, “Newsnight,” had decided in December 2011 not to air the results of an investigation into allegations that former BBC star Jimmy Savile had sexually abused children. Instead, the BBC aired a program celebrating the life of Savile, who had recently died. The accusations against Savile were only aired by rival broadcaster ITV in October 2012.

    Jimmy Savile abuse scandal stuns Britain: a who's who primer

    The number of alleged victims of Savile, a radio and TV star from the 1960s through the 1980s, reached well into the dozens in the aftermath of the ITV program. Meantime, a number of police and other investigations have been launched into why the original “Newsnight” program was dropped and whether the BBC was involved in a cover up.

    On Nov. 2, “Newsnight” aired a separate program about allegations of abuse at a children’s home in Wales in the 1980s. In the broadcast, a witness claimed that he had been sexually abused a number of times by a senior Conservative Party politician.

    'Ghastly mess' at BBC: Ex-chief's pay questioned, more quit amid sex scandal

    “Newsnight” did not name the politician allegedly involved. But speculation on the Web suggested the abuser was former British Treasury minister Lord McAlpine, who issued a denial. The “Newsnight” witness then apologized for what he said was a case of mistaken identity. He said police had showed him a picture of his abuser but erroneously told him the man was McAlpine.

    What investigations are under way?
    In October, Entwistle announced two internal BBC investigations regarding the Savile sex abuse allegations.

    The first will be led by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News, which is another rival U.K. broadcaster. That probe will examine whether there were any failings of the handling of the original “Newsnight” investigation into the claims against Savile.

    A second investigation, led by former High Court Judge Dame Janet Smith, plans to examine the BBC culture during the Savile years.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    In relation to the Wales abuse claims, Cameron said on Nov. 5 he was appointing a “senior independent figure” to investigate the way sexual abuse allegations were handled in the 1970s and 1980s. The next day, British Home Secretary Theresa May announced a new police investigation into the Wales accusations.

    BBC Director General George Entwistle resigned on Saturday as the BBC spiraled further into scandal over its coverage of two separate sex abuse cases – one, a cover up, and the other, a possible wrongful accusation. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.

    What is the BBC’s background?
    Funded by an annual license fee levied on all TV viewers in Britain, the BBC employs around 22,000 people. As well as broadcasting in Britain, the BBC World Service has built an exceptional reputation around the globe reaching about 180 million people in 32 languages through its radio, TV and online services.

    Disturbed by both the commercialism of American radio and the state controls imposed in the Soviet Union, the BBC's founding father, John Reith, had intended the BBC to educate, inform and entertain when it was founded in 1922.

    NBC News staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Class wars: 'Gate-gate' scandal swamps UK PM David Cameron

    Dan Kitwood / Getty Images file

    British minister Andrew Mitchell, who reportedly insulted police officers after they stopped him from cycling out of the main gate down the street from the prime minister's official residence, arrives at a government meeting in May.

    By Chris Hampson, NBC News Director of International News

    LONDON - We’ve had Watergate, Irangate and even Weinergate.

    And now, in London, there’s a new hot-potato controversy that double-dips nicely the neat scandal-enhancing suffix “gate.”

    It’s called “Gate-gate.”


    The first gate in question sits at the end of Downing Street, home to generations of British prime ministers, and in recent years  -- in a nod to those who would destroy us -- a fortified enclave.  It is guarded around-the-clock by heavily armed police, cameras, barriers -- and that big, black, forbidding iron gate.

    Now this particular ballyhoo-gate involves a high ranking senior member of the British government, Andrew Mitchell, who wanted to ride his bike through the aforementioned main gate and, when he was refused and told to use the pedestrian exit,  apparently unleashed a tirade of four-letter abuse at the cops who are there to protect him.

    “Best you learn your f***ing place,” he reportedly said in anger.  “You don’t run this f***ing government.”

    But it gets worse.  Much worse.

    Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA

    Andrew Mitchell speaks to the media in London on Monday.

    Mitchell allegedly also called the police officers “plebs.”  What?

    For those of us for whom Latin is a forgotten language, the plebs (Latin: plebes) of Ancient Rome were the middle-class of society – free people, skilled artisans, farmers.

    But in the intervening centuries the word in Great Britain became something of an insult, suggesting the person in question was common, ignorant and – importantly – of a lower order.

    It’s an old-fashioned word these days – not much used by the common people to whom it refers, and seldom heard outside of a certain privileged world.

    Now you only have to watch "Downton Abbey" -- the popular TV drama starring overdressed and underworked aristos and their forelock-tugging salt-of-the-earth servants -- to know about the class divide in the United Kingdom.  And if you think it’s as dead as Latin, read on.

    'Thrasher'
    Enter into this upstairs-downstairs world of ours the quaintly titled Government Chief Whip Mitchell.

    He’s an important guy in government.  Some of his critics call him self-important.  He has an office and official residence in Downing Street.   His job -- as the title suggests -- is to be the prime minister’s enforcer, making sure Conservative legislators toe the party line in parliament and outside.

    It’s a tough job and one for which Mitchell seems well suited.  He is an alumnus of the elite fee-paying Rugby School, a reputedly tough place that gave its name to the sport and where his disciplinarian ways reportedly earned him the nickname of “Thrasher.”

    In this extended interview, British Prime Minister David Cameron talks to NBC's Brian Williams about Iran, Afghanistan, the 2012 Olympics, the "special relationship" with the United States and whether or not he has danced around like Hugh Grant's character in "Love Actually."

    Clearly Mitchell seems not the sort to take any nonsense from the “lower orders” after a bad day at the office. Which is just what happened last week as he approached that now famous locked and guarded main gate.

    The essence of every “gate” scandal is that the event has far greater consequences than the perpetrator ever imagines as they commit the deed.  It is the stone rolling down the hill before it becomes the avalanche. Gate-gate is no exception.

    The furor that Mitchell provoked has reached national level -- and it’s still making front page news.

    The day after the outburst, Prime Minister Cameron traveled upcountry to the city of Manchester to pay his respects to the families of two unarmed, female police officers gunned down in cold blood. That evening he had to reprimand his chief whip for showing disrespect to the police.

    UK police resist calls to give all officers guns

    Then there’s a question of who is telling the truth. The police officers who suffered Mitchell’s tongue-lashing – members of the elite Diplomatic Protection Group – wrote down in their notebooks what had been said to them. They knew to expect more trouble.

    But Mitchell disputes their version of the truth.  Not that he may have used the f-word, as they claim.  But he denies calling them “plebs,” which would – it seems – be very rude indeed.

    (The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday published what it said was a log of the exchange as recorded by the officers involved)

    So either we can’t rely on the hand-picked cops chosen to guard our most important people – or we can’t trust the prime minister’s right-hand man. The police say, quite correctly, that it’s a question of integrity.

    Then there’s the politics of it, as the government struggles in second place in the opinion polls. 

    Has Britain's Prime Minister Cameron lost his gloss?

    Cameron has long tried to shake off the taunt of privilege that haunts him and his closest supporters  -- a barb that implies they are out of touch with ordinary folk.  That’s tricky for a politician who wants to win elections (ask Mitt Romney).

    So “Dave” Cameron has sought to convince the voters they are as ordinary as you and me.  But not, of course, plebs. He has Mitchell to thank for reinforcing an image he has tried so hard to shake off. 

    How tragedy transformed UK PM Cameron

    For his part, Mitchell has, eventually, been suitably contrite.  He has apologized to the offended officers more than once, without ever telling us exactly what he did say.

    “I didn’t show the police the amount of respect I should have done,” he said Monday, before adding  “I hope very much we can draw a line under this.”

    A view for sure shared by Cameron and his advisors.

    The prime minister is toughing it out and saying Mitchell will not lose his job.  But that’s what beleaguered prime ministers always say.

    In the end -- if the cops turn out to be telling the truth -- this particular “gate” may deliver its own last word.  As in:  “Make sure the gate doesn’t bang you in the … on the way out.”

    And the police -- whom Mitchell admits he abused -- will take satisfaction in being the ones holding it open for him.

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  • UK PM's ex-aide, Murdoch protege face charges in phone-hacking scandal

    Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA, file

    Andy Coulson, one-time communications director for Prime Minister David Cameron and former editor of News of the World, is among those who face charges in the British phone-hacking scandal. He is shown here on May 10.

    By NBC News and wire services

    Updated at 11:55 a.m. ET: LONDON -- British authorities on Tuesday charged an ex-aide to the British prime minister, a former protege of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and six others in the ever-widening phone-hacking scandal. Prosecutors accused those charged of key roles in a lengthy campaign of illegal espionage that victimized hundreds, including top celebrities Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

    The announcement was a major development in a saga that has transfixed and at times horrified Britons and one that shows no signs of ending. A senior police official told The Associated Press earlier this week that her force was investigating more than 100 claims including computer hacking and illegal access to medical records stemming from the scandal.

    Prosecutors said Tuesday that Andy Coulson, Cameron's communications director for four years until 2011, and Rebekah Brooks, who oversaw Murdoch's News International, would face charges of conspiracy to intercept communications.

    The alleged offenses were committed between 2000 and 2006 when both served as editor of the News of the World, the salacious Sunday tabloid that Murdoch was forced to close a year ago amid public disgust at the phone-hacking revelations.

    Among the alleged victims were two former British home secretaries, former England soccer manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, Hollywood stars Jolie and Pitt, former Beatle Paul McCartney and a minor member of the royal family, Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.

    Brooks and Coulson are also both accused of involvement in hacking the telephone of Milly Dowler, a missing teenage girl who was later found murdered in 2002.

    Coulson: 'I will fight these allegations'
    It was the revelation that News of the World journalists had hacked her phone that triggered a furor that engulfed Murdoch's News International and ultimately led to the closure of the 168-year-old tabloid.

    "I am extremely disappointed by the [prosecutors'] decision today. I will fight these allegations when they eventually get to court,” Coulson said in a statement quoted by Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

    "I would like to say one thing today about the Milly Dowler allegation. Anyone who knows me, or who worked with me, would know that I wouldn't, and more importantly that I didn't, do anything to damage the Milly Dowler investigation," the statement said.

    Brooks sounded a defiant tone.

    "I am not guilty of these charges," she said in a statement. "I did not authorize, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship.

    "The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations," her statement said.

    Others being charged are senior tabloid journalists Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck, James Weatherup and Ian Edmondson.

    Also being charged is private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, whose extensive notes have been at the center of the scandal since it was first unearthed.

    External link: Read the phone charges in full here

    The maximum sentence for the phone-hacking charges is two years in prison or a fine -- or both.


    'Astonishing development'
    The development is particularly embarrassing for Cameron because Coulson was also charged with hacking the phones of David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, two former home secretaries from the now-opposition Labour Party. The home secretary is Britain’s top law enforcement official, roughly akin to an American attorney general.

    "That is an astonishing development and I think that is almost inevitably going to rebound on Cameron," Steven Barnett, professor of communications at Westminster University, said. "That is going to pose some very, very awkward questions for the prime minister."

    Alison Levitt, Principal Legal Adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions, said she had concluded there was sufficient evidence to charge the eight suspects with 19 offenses over the illegal accessing of voicemails on the cellphones belonging to politicians, celebrities and sports figures.

    Former UK PM accuses Murdoch of misleading inquiry into phone-hack scandal

    News International had for years denied that phone hacking was widespread after the tabloid's former royal reporter and private detective were jailed in 2007 for the crime.

    Poor judgment?
    Coulson resigned in the aftermath, and took up the role as director of communications of Cameron's Conservative Party, helping to shape his campaign to become prime minister.

    Neil Hall / Reuters, file

    Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, shown leaving London's Southwark Crown Court on June 22, will face charges in the phone-hacking scandal

    Critics say Cameron appointed Coulson in order to secure the backing of the journalist's former boss, Murdoch, and say the appointment showed a shocking lack of judgment.

    Complete UK news coverage on NBCNews.com

    The involvement of Coulson and Brooks -- a close friend of Cameron’s -- turned the long-running hacking story into a national political scandal that has laid bare the collusion between senior politicians, the police and the media.

    Brooks, her husband and her personal staff have already been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice over the hacking case, while Coulson has been charged in Scotland with perjury after he denied in an unrelated court case any knowledge of phone hacking.

    Brooks, wooed by a string of politicians and prime ministers first in her role as editor of the News of the World and Sun tabloid, and then as the head of Murdoch's British newspaper arm News International, was one of the most powerful women in Britain, instantly recognizable by her long, curly red hair.

    She was also close to Cameron, socializing with him over Christmas breaks, and both were embarrassed earlier this year when an inquiry into media ethics read out text messages sent between the two.

    Rupert Murdoch not 'a fit person' to run major company, UK lawmakers say

    Cameron used to sign his frequent text messages to Brooks with an affectionate "LOL", which he thought stood for "lots of love."

    Damaging, but not fatal, to Cameron's political fortunes
    Paul Farrelly, an opposition Labour lawmaker who questioned Rupert Murdoch and his son James as part of a parliamentary committee investigation into the hacking, said Tuesday's developments were damaging, but not fatal, for Cameron.

    "My view is that what happens to Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks reflects on David Cameron's judgment in both the appointment of Coulson and in being seen to be so close to a certain newspaper empire," he said.

    "Because it's been going on so long, it's in no way fatal to his premiership. What is more important to the survival of his premiership and the coalition is the economy," Farrelly added.

    NBC News correspondent Duncan Golestani, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • UK PM David Cameron grilled over links to Rupert Murdoch's empire

    David Cameron testified at the Leveson Inquiry that there was never any 'overt or covert' agreement with News International. The Prime Minister admits relations between the press and politicians have become too close, but denied any deal was made between the two. ITN's political correspondent Alex Forrest reports.

    By ITV News and msnbc.com news services

    LONDON -- British Prime Minister David Cameron, under fire for courting an exclusive media clique led by Rupert Murdoch, appeared before a judicial inquiry on Thursday to try to neuter claims his ministers tailored policy to further Murdoch's interests.

    Cameron's once-cozy ties with Murdoch's inner circle mean he is under pressure to pull off a virtuoso performance at the inquiry, which has sharpened the perception that Britain has been run for years by an elite that fawned on the News Corp chairman.

    The coalition government has divided along party lines over Cameron's backing for a minister accused of doing Murdoch's bidding when responsible for impartial oversight, as he struggles with an economy in recession and growing unease about his leadership within his own party.

    Cameron, 45, who set up the Leveson inquiry into media ethics himself last year after a newspaper phone-hacking scandal erupted, is due to be questioned for at least five hours, streamed live on television.

    Read more on this story from Britain's ITV News

    Early in the session, Cameron characterized the relationship between Britain's media and politicians as "bad."

    "I think a lot of politicians think the press always get it wrong... a lot of the press think politicians are in it for themselves," ITV News quoted Cameron as saying. 

    Vanity Fair's Sarah Ellison joins NOW w/ Alex Wagner to share her coverage on Rupert Murdoch's media empire that has been marred by investigations into a widespread hacking scandal.

    Cameron used to sign his frequent text messages to News Corp executive Rebekah Brooks with an affectionate "LOL" -- which he admitted he thought meant "lots of love" -- and employed another Murdoch editor, Andy Coulson, as his trusted spokesman.

    Former top aide to UK PM David Cameron charged in perjury case

    Cameron ordered the inquiry after the News of the World, the Sunday tabloid newspaper both Brooks and Coulson had once edited, was found to have hacked into the voicemail of, among others, a murdered schoolgirl to get stories.

    'Lapses of judgment'
    The Conservative prime minister has said politicians from both his party and the opposition Labour Party were too close to the Murdoch media empire and has vowed to resolve the problem, no matter how messy the process.

    But if Cameron had hoped the inquiry might take some heat out of the phone-hacking scandal, it has done the opposite; week after week of revelations have been served up casting British politicians as courtiers to king Murdoch.

    Former UK PM accuses Murdoch of misleading inquiry into phone-hack scandal

    "He did not foresee that it would morph into a form of war crimes tribunal," Max Hastings, one of Britain's most influential journalists, wrote in the Financial Times. "Revelations about his lapses of judgment weaken his authority to lead Britain."

    Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair testified this morning about his close ties to media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who's News of the World tabloid is in the middle of a phone-hacking scandal. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    The prime minister has been embarrassed by his association with the so-called "Chipping Norton" set, a high-powered social scene centered around the picturesque market town in Oxfordshire. Cameron, Brooks and Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth were among the high-flying friends with luxurious country homes in the area.

    Reports: UK PM leaves 8-year-old daughter in the pub

    Brooks and her husband Charlie, an erstwhile horse-riding partner of Cameron, are now charged with perverting the course of justice by allegedly hiding evidence from police investigating phone-hacking.

    Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and her husband, Charlie Brooks, have been charged with perverting the course of justice during the U.K. phone hacking scandal. ITV's Keir Simmons reports.

    The spectacle of a prime minister questioned under oath by one of London's top barristers on live television is a daunting prospect for Cameron's supporters, who are already reeling from criticism that he is a lightweight politician out of touch with the voters.

    The prime minister's aides said he was doing "a lot of preparation" and is being briefed by lawyers ahead of his appearance at the inquiry, where he can afford few mistakes, given his party's slump in the polls in recent months.

    Murdoch not 'a fit person' to run major firm, UK lawmakers say

    Cameron is under fire for shielding Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, a Conservative minister, who is accused by Labour of being far too helpful to News Corp while in charge of ruling on the company's bid for full ownership of BSkyB.


    Hunt was meant to be an impartial overseer of the $12.5 billion bid for the pay-TV operator, but testimony by Murdoch's executive son James at the Leveson inquiry appeared to show that Hunt's office was in regular contact with News Corp and may have given it confidential information.

    Cameron's Liberal Democrat coalition partners abstained on Wednesday from a parliamentary vote on a motion calling for the prime minister to order an inquiry into Hunt's actions, underscoring the divide in the coalition.

    Hunt's special adviser resigned over the affair.

    'War criminal': Tony Blair heckled during inquiry into Murdoch scandal

    In a sign of the concern inside Number 10 Downing Street, aides circulated a letter from the prime minister saying that he would outline measures to increase transparency on special advisers' work and shed more light on decisions such as the one entrusted to Hunt over BSkyB.

    The prime minister is also likely to be questioned about Cameron's decision to appoint Coulson as his communications adviser, even though he had resigned as editor of the News of the World after a reporter there was jailed for phone-hacking.

    Coulson was charged with perjury last month for remarks he made in court over the hacking scandal.

    Reuters and ITV News contributed to this report. ITV News is NBC's British partner.

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  • Ahmadinejad: UK would have 'problem with my presence' at Olympics

    By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he wants to attend the 2012 Summer Olympics in London but that the U.K. has a problem with him, The Guardian of London reported.

    “I would like to go,” Ahmadinejad told athletes at the Azadi sports complex in Tehran, according to the Guardian. “But unfortunately they have a problem with my presence. Otherwise I would have liked to have participated in the Olympics, and to have applauded our dear youth."

    The British have not banned him from attending; rather, Iran’s state media said, Ahmadinejad may not want to be fingerprinted for a visa, viewing it as humiliating. In addition, the relationship between Iran and the U.K. has been fraught: Last year, the British closed Iran’s embassy in London, telling its staff to leave within 48 hours, according to Sky.com.

    But unlike some other controversial leaders, the European Union has not banned him from traveling throughout Europe. Among those banned from traveling European Union countries, and therefore who won’t be allowed to attend the Games, according to the Guardian, are Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. Assad and his wife were added to the EU travel ban in March, the BBC reported.

    Ahmadinejad’s announcement may be welcome news to British officials facing pressure from human rights groups to ban certain leaders from the London Games, but other controversial heads of state say they’re coming regardless of their reputation. This creates what the Guardian calls a public relations headache for Prime Minister David Cameron.

    The list of leaders planning to attend has not been released.

    In total, 120 leaders have said they will attend the opening ceremony on July 27; 87 attended the Beijing Games in 2008.

    Denis MacShane, a British Member of Parliament, suggested to the Guardian that perhaps actor Sasha Baron Cohen, known for his deadpan imitations of dictators, could stand in for them all. Baron Cohen “could wear a nice uniform, lots of medals, a beard, and carry on his private torture case," MacShane said.

    More Olympics coverage:

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