Rupert Murdoch accepts resignations

Rupert Murdoch accepts resignations

LONDON

Rupert Murdoch accepted the resignations of The Wall Street Journal’s publisher and the chief of his British operations Friday as the once-defiant media mogul struggled to control an escalating phone-hacking scandal with apologies to the public and the family of a murdered schoolgirl.

The scandal has knocked billions off the value of Murdoch’s News Corp., scuttled his ambitions to take control of a lucrative satellite-TV company, withered his political power in Britain — and is threatening to destabilize his globe-spanning empire.

The controversy claimed its first Murdoch executive in the United States as Les Hinton, chief executive of the Murdoch-owned Dow Jones & Co. and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, announced he was resigning with immediate effect.

Murdoch’s British lieutenant, Rebekah Brooks, stepped down earlier Friday.

Liberal group warns Obama

CHICAGO

A liberal group upset over potential cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security delivered pledges Friday to President Barack Obama’s national campaign headquarters threatening to pull its support.

About a dozen people representing the Progressive Change Campaign Committee delivered what they said were 200,000 pledges from people who will refuse to donate or volunteer for Obama’s re-election campaign if he cuts the entitlement programs.

“It’s not a question of who they’re going to support for president; they’re going to vote for Barack Obama. It’s a question of where their time and money is going to go,” spokesman T. Neil Sroka said.

Libyan rebels fall back after failure

BENGHAZI, Libya

Rebels in Libya’s east pulled back Friday after a failed advance on an oil town, as embattled ruler Moammar Gadhafi rejected a decision by the U.S. and other countries to recognize those fighting to oust him.

The front lines in the Libyan civil war largely have stagnated since a popular uprising seeking to oust Gadhafi broke out in February. Rebels control much of the country’s east and pockets in the west. Gadhafi controls the rest from his stronghold in the capital Tripoli.

On Friday, the rebels’ National Transitional Council won a major boost when the U.S. and more than 30 other nations formally recognized it as the country’s legitimate government. The decision of the 32-member Contact Group on Libya, meeting in Turkey, also said Gadhafi’s regime is no longer legitimate.

Astronauts fix failed computer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

The pilots on NASA’s last space shuttle flight fixed another one of their main computers Friday after it failed and set off an alarm that shattered their sleep.

NASA declared all five of Atlantis’ primary computers to be working, pending evaluation of the latest shutdown.

Computer failures like this are extremely rare in orbit, said lead flight director Kwatsi Alibaruho. The two problems appear to be quite different, he noted. The first was caused by a bad switch throw; the second possibly by cosmic radiation.

“The fact that we did have two computer failures on a same flight on a spacecraft that’s otherwise performing beautifully, that’s not at all lost on me,” Alibaruho told reporters.

“I do have a saying that you’re not paranoid if they really are after you, so I am cautiously optimistic that we’ll have a healthy data- processing system” for Atlantis’ undocking and return to Earth next week, he added. “But we will be watching closely.”

Associated Press