British lawmakers staged an emergency debate yesterday to vent their outrage over a widening phone hacking scandal in which a tabloid allegedly targeted missing schoolgirls and the families of London terror victims in addition to celebrities and royals.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called for inquiries into the News of the World’s behavior, as well as into the failure of the original police inquiry to uncover the latest allegations now emerging.
London’s Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, confirmed they were investigating evidence from News International, parent of the tabloid, that some officers illegally accepted payments from the newspaper in return for information.
“It is absolutely disgusting what has taken place,” Cameron said, speaking in the House of Commons shortly before the debate opened.
However, he said any inquiry into the News of the World would have to wait until the police investigation is concluded.
News International, the British linchpin of Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire, was under intense pressure following reports that its tabloid had hacked into the cellphone of missing 13-year-old Milly Dowler in 2002, deleting messages and giving her parents and police false hope that she was still alive.
Milly had been abducted and murdered, and the search for her transfixed Britain at the time.
Members of Parliament seized on the case to demand a full debate as pressure rose for the chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, to resign, since she was a former editor of News of the World. Major advertisers — including Ford UK and leading mortgage lender Halifax — pulled their ads from the paper.
UK tabloids have a history of harassing royals, sports stars and celebrities, eavesdropping and paying even the most tangential sources for information about stars’ sex lives and drug problems, but the Dowler allegations amounted to interfering in a police investigation to seek tabloid headlines.
The scandal widened further yesterday with new allegations that Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective employed by News of the World, had obtained telephone numbers of relatives of some of the 52 people killed in the 2005 terrorist attack on London’s transit system. It was unclear whether any of those phones had been hacked.
British media also reported that the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, schoolgirls murdered in a sensational 2002 case, had been informed by police that they were investigating whether the News of the World also hacked their telephones.
Mulcaire and former News of the World reporter Clive Goodman have already served prison sentences for hacking into the phones of royal officials. Mulcaire issued an apology on Tuesday to anyone who had been hurt by his actions, but said there was no intention of interfering with a police investigation.
“Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results,” Mulcaire said.
Graham Foulkes, father of one of the 2005 terror victims, said police told him he was on a list of names of potential hacking victims.
“I just felt really upset and sad and sickened that some people would go to those extremes given the distress of 52 families at that time,” Foulkes said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
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