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Rupert Murdoch by the people who know him best - his children

What do the sons and daughters of media mogul Rupert Murdoch really think about him? They reveal all to Michael Wolff

Guns, grenades, then a battle to the death in 105-year-old hotel

Fifteen Air France workers remained among a number of guests and workers trapped inside a luxury hotel in Mumbai last night after commandos freed hostages elsewhere in the city. An official at the French consulate said a flight crew was in the Oberoi Trident hotel, which was among those targeted by gunmen in attacks that began on Wednesday.A government official said the siege had ended at the Taj Mahal hotel and the last three gunmen there had been killed.There were conflicting reports about the fate of hostages held at the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch, with diplomats denying a government claim that eight hostages had been freed.As the attacks began, the authorities had been content to rely on conventional police methods to deal with the threat. However, as flames erupted from the Taj Mahal hotel it became clear that India was confronting an enemy unlike anything it had met in the past. To begin with, police had battled on the streets with militants wearing backpacks on their shoulders and with guns and grenades in their hands. This was a street war they were losing: in the early hours, a gunfight erupted under the glittering lights of Marine Drive, near the lobby of the Trident hotel. A top Mumbai police chief was killed.The tide of battle only turned with the arrival of the elite national security guard, who landed in Mumbai six hours after the terrorist attack began. They were joined by heavily armed army para commandos and the navy's marine commando force.These commandos, who train with US navy and British special forces, retook the lower floors of both the Trident and the Taj in the early hours. Soldiers speaking to the Guardian said their plan was to "secure the lower floors and set up a safe perimeter", and then to make their way up "level by level". "We are interested in getting the job done. We will not do that by sitting downstairs," said one "black cat" commando, wearing the trademark dark fatigues of the elite unit.However, army officers acknowledged that they faced difficult opponents whose intention was to kill and then be killed. This remorseless battle to the death pockmarked and pitted the luxury hotels. Three times flames raged over the roof of the 105-year-old Taj Mahal, reducing much of it to ashes and cinder. By 11.20pm yesterday, army sources told Indian television that "all terrorists have been eliminated". Columns of troops were sent into the Trident complex late yesterday. The upper-floor windows of the hotel were blown out in a shower of flames, glass and bullets just hours after 40 people had been led from the building."We came up against highly motivated terrorists," Vice-Admiral JS Bedi told NDTV news channel. He said his commandos had exchanged fire with terrorists on the second floor of the Taj hotel, and showed pictures of recovered hand grenades, tear gas shells, AK47 magazines, knives and credit cards.The commandos' work was made even more difficult by the fact the hotel guests fearful of being taken hostage were still barricaded in their rooms at both the Taj Mahal and Trident. In the Trident alone it was estimated that 200 people may have locked themselves in.Like the Taj, the Oberoi Trident is popular with international visitors. Previous guests have included the News Corporation chairman, Rupert Murdoch, and Microsoft's founder, Bill Gates. As the battle against the terrorists entered its second day, many called for a swifter and harder response from the authorities. "By now we should have learned to put a crisis management infrastructure in place which could snap to attention and cope with such attacks if we don't want lots of innocent people to suffer," Ratan Tata, head of the Tata Group, which owns the Taj, told reporters. "This action [by the authorities] has not come together fast enough."Indian security officials reply that this new breed of hardened militant is not open to negotiated settlement. "Neither have they tried to talk, nor made any contact with us," RR Patil, the interior minister of Maharashtra state, told journalists. "Unlike earlier terror strikes, they are making no attempt to run either. The terrorists clearly want to stay and fight."At the heart of the matter lies the question of whether the police can deal with terror on the streets of Indian cities. The police are poorly equipped with primitive body armour and carbines, and are also hamstrung by the absence of a national anti-terror force. As a result, the fightback remains uncoordinated nationally, and fragmented at the provincial level.Mumbai terror attacksIndiaguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Roger Ailes the founder of Fox News has signed up for another five years

Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News and a key lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch, has signed up for another five years with the channel's owner News Corporation. By Caitlin Fitzsimmons

Is 41 too late to become a father?

Last night I ate a large bowl of beetroot from my garden. This morning my urine is the colour of rosé wine and I'm worried that my semen might have taken on a similar hue. The colour of my semen is a concern because someone will be studying it in a short while. I'm considering this while sitting in the top floor 'specimen room' of the London Fertility Centre on Harley Street. Later on, when I mention where I've been to friends and colleagues they seem really interested in the interior design details of a room set aside for masturbation. So if you're planning one, here's some decorating tips. The room is on the second floor and it has two notices on its door: one saying 'Quiet Please' (in case passers-by are inclined to cheer or clap, I guess) and a sliding sign with 'Vacant/Occupied' options - I've opted for 'occupied' although I'm not, so far. Inside, the room is about 6ft x 12ft and painted in various pale non-colours. It is equipped with an ensuite shower, light-green vinyl-covered daybed and a fudge-coloured bathroom suite (including bidet). There is a sash window - which isn't overlooked. The atmosphere is more Carry On than Casualty. On one side of the sink there is a small empty plastic beaker (with my name on it). On the other a DVD player, screen and a remote. I consider all the hands that have touched the remote. Using one of the many tissues provided I pick it up and inspect it; it appears to be clean. The television doesn't show any of the normal channels.I'm here because I'm concerned about my sperm. Not that they might be beetroot coloured, but rather that they might not be fit for purpose. That they might not be as athletic, plentiful and perfectly formed as they need to be. I'm 41 and childless, and although I'm not involved in a 'trying-for-a-baby'-type scenario I've been reading the papers and the news for fortysomething men and their sperm isn't great.'Scientists warn that biological clock affects male fertility' warned the Guardian in July - well, scientists are always saying stuff aren't they? 'Risk of miscarriage soars once the father reaches 35' (Daily Mail) - that sounds worrying. 'Blokes going infertile aged 35' (Sun). Must have sex, pronto! The papers were all reporting in their own particular ways on the research of Dr Stephanie Belloc from the Eylau Centre for Assisted Reproduction in Paris. Dr Belloc had studied the records of 12,000 couples who visited her clinic and separated out the influence of the mother's and father's ages on the chances of conception and miscarriage. Belloc and her team found that women whose partners were 35 or older had more miscarriages than those who were with younger men, regardless of their own age. The risk of miscarriage was on average 16.7 per cent when the men were aged 30-34, but it doubled to 33 per cent in men over 40. Moreover, her research showed that men's ages also affected pregnancy rates, which were lower in the over-40s. As the Mirror summed it up, 'Over-35? You're a dad loss.'I can remember ridiculing my own father for being 40, so how did I end up childless at 41? To start with I went to university and became middle-class. It seems only people from council estates and people who own estates have kids young these days. The middle classes are too busy in their twenties establishing careers, climbing the property ladder and going on snowboarding holidays.Although lack of one doesn't stop some people, I feel you need to be in a reasonably stable relationship before having kids - and I haven't been in one of those of late. But of late, many of my peers are reproducing, some are already on to their third. Even the ones who had drug problems are conceiving and, meanwhile, gay friends are cutting breeding deals with lesbians. I wonder if time is running out.It's an easy thought to have because I can't act on it, but sometimes I think I should have had some children in my twenties. I had more energy and didn't have many material comforts to give up or much of a lifestyle to compromise. I'd be packing them off to university around now, thumbing sports car brochures and thinking about buying a peach farm in Spain. Frankly, I can't remember that much of my twenties, so maybe it would have put this decade of void to good use. I don't recall any of my peers having kids; maybe it was a hangover from the Aids era - people seemed pretty conscientious about birth control, there were no 'accidents'. So now, at 41, I wonder if I've skipped the whole kids thing. I seem to be developing the hobbies and pastimes of a senior citizen - golf, growing beetroot, buffing my classic car. But the reality is I've got 19 years until I qualify for my bus pass - which is just enough time to raise at least one human being. So should I be worried about or believe in the 'male biological clock'?Back in 2001, Professor Dolores Malaspina, of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, concluded that men aged 50 or over are three times more likely to father a child with schizophrenia compared with men of 25 or under. Four years later, epidemiologist Jorn Olsen at the University of California, Los Angeles, found a fourfold rise in Down's syndrome among babies born to men aged 50 and older. And in 2006 scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York found that children born to fathers aged 40 and over were nearly six times more likely to suffer from autism than those with a father under 30. Meanwhile, other researchers have suggested patterns between older fathers and increased chances of bipolar disorder, dwarfism and Apert syndrome - whose unlucky sufferers have a malformed skull and webbed hands and feet, among other disfigurements. A report in 2006 even suggested 'a modest effect of advanced paternal age on the Apgar score'. And after finding out what an Apgar score is I now know this to be less than good. The evidence appeared to be stacking up.Yet are these findings as scary as they sound? Dr Belloc's sample was made up entirely of couples presenting for infertility treatment. 'It is not evident that we can extrapolate these conclusions to a fertile population,' she tells me. And many of the incidences in the other studies are minute; so a fivefold increase is still only a five-times-minute chance of some disorder or other. Moreover, these studies only show patterns, rather than direct causal links - finding a direct link would probably require examining DNA at a detail beyond most researchers' budgets or ability. Some commentators have speculated that if a man first becomes a father in his forties or fifties that may indicate he has had trouble forming relationships earlier in his life, which may mean in a mild, undiagnosed kind of way he's a carrier of problems like bipolar disorder or autism which have a genetic element - so his paternal age is irrelevant to the outcome.Which isn't exactly comforting, but it suggests the 'male biological clock' doesn't tick as loudly as the headlines suggest. For Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University, the clock is nothing more than ageing. As you grow older, you lose a bit of hair and experience the odd 'senior moment', so you shouldn't be surprised if your sperm isn't as sprightly as it used to be. 'In terms of numbers it's the same, but what tends to happen is that the sperm isn't as good.' If their biological clock is ticking, men are pretty deaf to it. The age of fatherhood is creeping up: the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the average age of married fathers rose from 29.1 in 1971 to 34.1 in 2003 - getting close to the 35-year point where some of the problems are alleged to kick in. I ask Dr Pacey if this is a worrying trend. 'The problem is couples are waiting until they are older. To wait until the woman is approaching 40 is the wrong time to be starting, and that will be exasperated by any problem that he has due to ageing.' Dr Pacey's advice to me is not to hang about: 'You will be more successful having a child naturally at an earlier age; it will be cheaper for you and it will be much more fun than waiting until you're well into your forties, going to an infertility clinic and having it done artificially. What we're finding are lots of people attending infertility clinics in their forties who would have succeeded in getting pregnant at 25. Rather than waiting for technology to sort it out, if you are in a position to have children early, then go ahead and do it.'What Dr Pacey and others are quick to point out is that there's definitely a female biological clock. Women are born with a finite number of eggs and at some point they will run out. According to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), a woman is half as fertile at 35 as she is at 25, and half as fertile again at 40.You might be thinking, 'Why is he bothering to spell that out, everyone knows that?' Well, before researching this piece I was only vaguely aware of those blunt facts, but, more surprisingly, when chatting to single and married thirtysomething childless women about this article they start saying things like: 'My gran had my mother at 45,' 'What about Madonna?' or, most biologically incorrect: 'I'm not ready yet.' They seemed about as informed as I was. 'With the Madonnas and all the rest who seem to have children quite naturally, no one mentions IVF or egg donors, and celebrity miscarriages don't make the pages of Heat,' says Dr Pacey. 'This silence reinforces the myth that these miracle births happen, when often there's a medical intervention.' And IVF isn't a safety net: according to the HFEA, IVF has only a 12 per cent success rate for a 40-year-old woman. And it will cost you: the NHS, on the advice of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice), doesn't fund IVF for women over 40 because of the low success rate. The average cost of a cycle is £4,000-£8,000. Is it chauvinistic to question the sense of delaying having kids for the sake of a career if you're going to spend most of the extra income on fertility treatment?However it's not only career building that is nudging the maternal age up; those commitment-phobic, nappy-changing-averse partners make a contribution, too - people like me. One could argue that this male biological clock business is providing men with another excuse to avoid having kids - we move from 'I'm not ready yet' to 'It's too dangerous now' in the time it takes to power up a Nintendo Wii. Or maybe you could blame the introduction of Viagra - which has engendered the idea that men can stay virile forever, so why rush? - as most men think the difference between virility and fertility is latex thin. But if you're looking for something that's really obscuring the hands of the male biological clock, look to famous people. When it comes to fertility, biology tells us one thing, but celebrities tell us another: ie, no matter how superannuated you are, getting your girlfriend up the duff is child's play. Middle-aged famous fellas love a baby shower. Dr Pacey isn't impressed: 'The John Humphrys thing does distort the picture. There'll be lots of men who will read this piece and say, "I was 50 and I had a child," and it's really difficult to argue against that because they do, but statistically you are less likely to succeed and more likely to have problems. For the individual who has been successful it will seem stupid that I'm saying that, but for every 50-year-old father there'll be 10 times more thinking, "I had a lot of problems."'Even if you, your sperm and your wife from a younger generation manage to buck the stats, there are other non-bio reasons against fathering kids late. Most obviously you might die before they graduate - if you're 65 now, on average you'll die at 82 - although for how much longer you will be capable of having a kick-about, helping them with their homework or visiting the lavatory without their assistance isn't recorded. And while it's embarrassing to be mistaken occasionally for their grandfather, it's thoughtless not to meet your grandchildren.Am I being too hard on the older dad? I call Charlie Lewis, professor of family and developmental psychology at Lancaster University. Should we give middle-aged men the snip? 'Some men claim to be better fathers when older, but I don't see this in the majority of men. I find them saying, "I'm clapped out, I've done my bit at work, I've provided a house and comfortable living, now let me vegetate." They think it's their right to sit in front of the telly and not take part in any interaction. It's almost autistic. Older fathers tend to do less of the stereotypical activities than younger fathers do, less childcare and less kicking footballs - for fear of snapping a tendon. They think, "I'm much too old for this."'Surprisingly, Lewis is more relaxed about the dying thing. 'I don't want to put fathers down, but if you look at the majority of evidence on loss, it does point to losing a mother before 11 being more predictive of later social/psycho disorders than losing a father. These effects are most often caused by the child absorbing the surviving partner's grief. So if the mother can manage the grieving process, the predictable death of an older father needn't be a life-changing trauma.'Dads dead or alive, we should be more concerned about the kids, says Lewis. 'You do get studies that say old dads feel closer to their kids, but I'm not aware that kids feel closer to their older fathers.'I wonder if I would become one of these dead-beat, distant dads. I like to think not. I don't quite understand how that could happen. What kind of an individual would tune into a Top Gear repeat rather than read to their child or even relieve them of a shitty nappy? Maybe I'm being naive. I talk to some dad friends.Gary, 45, first became a father when he was 23, but then remarried and had three more children, the oldest of whom is five. Would he like to compare and contrast? 'Obviously becoming a father young was a bit of a shock, it made me grow up quickly. I'm not sure at that age if you're responsible enough to look after yourself let alone a little child.' So how is it second time around: does older dad mean better dad? 'When my second wife first wanted children I did have slight panic attacks, because I had this memory of it being a total whirlwind, but this time it's completely different, it doesn't seem half as stressful as when I was in my twenties.' Gary says this isn't just because he's been a parent before - 'No, it's mainly because I'm more grown-up, more patient, more financially settled. I'm far more chilled out this time around.' So you'd advise an older option? 'It's better to have children at a later date, but myself, I'm worried about getting older. First time round I was one of the youngest parents in the playground; now I'm one of the oldest. My youngest is 10 months, so I'll be at retirement or grandfather age in her late teens. You hope to be running around in the park, doing those things that children want you to do and provide as parents. Hopefully I'll be one of those who manages it, but I will have to wait and see.'The energy issue: I've heard this raised before. People talk about the nuclear-like amounts of energy you need to bring up a child, but I suspect it's similar to the stamina needed to squire a girlfriend half your age. Because down-ageing your just-broody girlfriends each time they start describing a new frock as 'a bit maternity' is really the only alternative to producing offspring.Jonathan, 49, had two sons when he was 23 and 27. He says the early months were 'terrifying', and both he and his girlfriend had to abandon their career plans: 'Our embryonic lives together as a couple were entirely transformed into a fully fledged proper adult relationship. And we didn't have much money - I even used to scavenge skips for firewood.' But for all the foraging the relatively small age difference means he's closer to his kids. 'We can go to the cinema together, appreciate some of the same music, go out for a beer, they call me by my first name.' He got divorced and, a couple of years ago, he remarried. He isn't keen to become a father again: 'I'm interested in the relationship with my wife rather than with anyone else. The relationship I have with my children is established, I like the marriage and lifestyle we have, and because of my previous experience I can see how that could be compromised.' What is his advice for someone like me, thinking of becoming a father in my forties? 'I think, you're not going to get a lot of sleep. And by the time you're my age, when you take your kids to a restaurant they'll be running around banging their heads, stealing food, whereas I'll be discussing the amount of oak in the Sauvignon with mine. I'd think about that quite carefully.'So that's what I should have done. Bred early. Guess there's no point in crying over spilled, er, milk.The trouble with this when-to-procreate business is it's personal. Apologies, it's not much of an insight but everyone is different. They earn lots of money, earn not much money, like kids, don't like kids, have live-in help, are still looking for The One, are given a babies-or-else ultimatum by their partners, had a shit childhood themselves, don't feel the need to have babies to preserve their relationship, are worried they'll pass on a condition, feel they've established their career, don't want a career, haven't been to Patagonia yet - the list of caveats and factors that make it the 'right time' for someone is as long as the waiting list for a Doctor Who Dalek Electronic Voice Changer Helmet.So, to borrow a phrase from a Dragon: 'Let me tell you where I am.' For me, I think 45 is the cut-off. For biological reasons - you can't donate sperm past 45 - there must be something in those scary reports. And financially, I'd like to retire on time, if indeed I'm lucky enough to still have a career by then. Which doesn't give me much time, I guess, to meet someone, fall in love, imagine being with this person for the foreseeable future - if that's not over-romantic, delusional, too-much-like-a-John-Cusack-movie. But I'm getting ahead of myself: maybe I'm firing blanks anyhow.For the 20-minute wait while my sperm is being tested, I chat to Dr Magdy Asaad, clinical director, in his office about the problems with semen. Mine is being tested for volume, viscosity, concentration, mobility, morphology and antibodies. Dr Asaad uses the gold standard WHO criteria which are surprisingly generous - only 50 per cent of your sperm needs to move, for instance, and you're allowed up to 80 per cent with an abnormal form, such as funny-shaped heads or two tails, 'because 20 per cent of 20m is considered enough, it's a lot of sperm,' Dr Asaad chuckles.I'm curious: do anxious men often pop in on their own for a lunchtime sperm test, check everything is wriggling right? 'It's not common, but when men present on their own, it's normally a problem with their ability to have an erection or ejaculation.'Well as you can tell I have no problems in that area, I say.'But some men don't like to give a sample,' he continues. 'They find all kinds of excuses: maybe they are worried it will not be good, or that it's an artificial thing, to press a button [is he talking about the remote control?]. I don't know how it was for you, I'm not asking. Sometimes a gentleman will have difficulty preparing manually.' Unbelievable.The walls and desk of the doctor's office are smothered with framed photographs of beaming parents with their children - patients he's helped to fashion a bundle of joy for over the years. In your experience, I ask Dr Asaad, when is a good age for procreation? 'You're mature enough by your late twenties, early thirties, responsible enough, you probably have a job, a partner. I don't think it's a very serious problem waiting to 40-45, but beyond that you have to think about time with the child.'With that, Dr Asaad prints off a piece of A4 containing all my sperm's vital statistics. 'It's a good sample,' he says, 'so you're all right.' I'll spare you the details.On one hand this is a relief, but on the other it means I've no alibi, no excuses, I'm ready to breed. All I need now is a woman.Paternity frights: ten bus-pass fathersJulio Iglesias Sr, a dad at 89Nobody could accuse the gynaecologist father of Julio and grandfather of Enrique, and who was head of a Madrid family-planning unit, of not taking his work home with him. After having two children with his first wife, he remarried and, at 89, when his wife was 40, produced another son. Barely out of the maternity ward, Ronna signed up for IVF and within a few months was pregnant again. Tragically, filling a test-tube turned out to be the former Franco supporter's last significant act: two months later he was muerto. His daughter Ruth was born posthumously seven months later in July 2006. Dad-speak: 'At my age, a child is marvellous. I felt just like Abraham. It was an act of generosity towards her [Ronna]. I leave her part of my blood, of my life.'Saul Bellow, a dad at 84The Nobel Prize-winning novelist had four children: three sons with his first three wives, and a daughter, Naomi-Rose, with his 41-year-old fifth wife. He died when she was five, in 2005. Writing two months after his death, one of his sons, Adam, whose mother Bellow left when he was two, recalled 'a fond but highly attenuated bond with a frequently distracted, often absent and much older father.'Dad-speak: 'Well, my wife won't be lonely when I die. She'll have somebody'Anthony Quinn, a dad at 81The star of more than 100 movies, including Zorba the Greek and The Guns of Navarone, enjoyed procreating. He had five children with his first wife Katherine, the daughter of Cecil B DeMille, three with the second, then at the age of 81, he got his 29-year-old secretary pregnant, married her and had two children. The double Oscar-winner also squeezed in three more children with women he wasn't married to before he died in 2001. Dad-speak: [of his penultimate child] 'She's beautiful, she looks like me'Rupert Murdoch, a dad at 72The Australian-American global media mogul (real first name Keith) has been married three times. He produced one child with the first and three (Elizabeth, James and Lachlan) during a 31-year marriage to the second. Seventeen days after the $1.2bn divorce, the Dirty Digger married former photographic model Deng Wendi (she transposed her names post nuptials), a 30-year-old executive at his Asian Star TV channel. They have two children, the most recent in July 2003. Dad-speak: 'All my children will be treated equally'Des O'Connor, a dad at 72The former Countdown host has been married four times and has four grown-up daughters. His current wife, the 37-years-younger singer/dancer Jodie, who he met in 1990, when they were doing panto together, provided him with a son in September 2004. Dad-speak: 'When the baby was born the odd comment was made about my age, but I plan to play football with Adam'Luciano Pavarotti, a dad at 67The well-upholstered tenor had three daughters with his first wife, who he stayed with for 35 years. Then, in 1996, he left her for his secretary, Nicoletta - 36 years his junior. In 2003 she gave birth to twins, another daughter and a son; tragically, the latter was stillborn. 'The King of the High Cs' died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer just before his youngest daughter's fifth birthday. Dad-speak: 'I never imagined that at this time of life I would have another child. But I met Nicoletta, and she is young'Warren Beatty, a dad at 62After years of womanising (Natalie Wood, Julie Christie, Isabelle Adjani, Vivien Leigh, Cher, Madonna, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Britt Ekland, Diane Keaton, Mary Tyler Moore, Janice Dickinson and Faye Dunaway to name a few) he plumped for Annette Bening. They've had four kids, the latest of whom was born in 2000. I think we can assume fatherhood has mellowed Warren. Dad-speak: 'We're fortunate to have a big house'Rod Stewart, a dad at 60The rooster-haired senior citizen has been breeding for 41 years. He's had seven children by five different women, although modest Rod often downgrades to six offspring, passing over his first, who was put up for adoption: 'You can count her if you want. I try not to,' he once said. Penny Lancaster provided him with his sixth/seventh, Alastair, in 2005. According to his brother Don, Rod prefers to leave Alastair's nappy-changing and feeding to the hired help. Unperturbed, 37-year-old Penny has dropped heavy hints she'd like a second with the 63-year-old Celtic fan.Dad-speak: 'I didn't see my oldest kids a lot as they were growing up. I don't feel any guilt, but maybe having a family is something Rachel and Alana and I should have thought about more before we had children'Michael Douglas, a dad at 58The Basic Instinct star had a son, Cameron, with Diandra Luker, his wife of 23 years. She divorced him in 2000. Later that year he ran into Catherine Zeta Jones and seduced her with the admirably direct and honest line: 'I'd like to father your children.' True to his word he hasn't let the 25-year age gap stop him from impregnating her twice, when he was 55 and 58.Dad-speak: 'It's not that I didn't enjoy it the first time, but I just didn't have the time. I'm not the only father who has felt guilty about the lack of time spent with his kids. So now I have a situation where I can savour it with my younger children. And you can see the effect of hanging out with them for three years and the security they have. And for me, it's a ball. Movie roles come and go and it's a finite period of time. This is sort of eternal'John Humphrys, a dad at 56The Welsh son of a hairdresser and French polisher has been married twice. The first wife provided the Mastermind host with two children, now both grown up. He remarried in 1987 and, after a reverse vasectomy, the Today programme interrogator became a proud father to a son, Owen. Dad speak: 'I thought I might resent this little kid for buggering up my life, as it were. The opposite has happened to me because of him. He's the most wonderful thing that's ever happened to me'FamilyHealth & wellbeingHealthguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Facebook and MySpace go head to head with their visions of future

In the past few years they have become synonymous with the social networking phenomenon - and become rivals fighting each other for millions of users. Yesterday internet giants Facebook and MySpace went head to head again, as they outlined audacious plans for the future.Speaking in San Francisco, Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said he would continue to plan to expand aggressively around the world. The head of MySpace, meanwhile, suggested that the company could bring out its own music player to rival the iPod.The comments came at the Web 2.0 summit, an annual gathering of some of the world's top technologists and investors. MySpace's chief executive, Chris DeWolfe, said that he was focused on beating the economic downturn, initially through expanding its advertising programme and also through the new MySpace Music site, which lets surfers buy and download tracks online.But he also hinted that the social network could have a big target in its sights - Apple, the company behind the massively successful iPod. Asked whether the company would consider producing its own MP3 player to build on its reputation in online music, DeWolfe replied it was "possible".Zuckerberg said that he was not as interested in raking in profits as his competitors but would concentrate on continuing to expand the website. "Growth is our top priority," he said. "The challenge that we have is to bring people along the whole path, first bring people along to Facebook, and make people comfortable with sharing information online. We got people through this really big hurdle of wanting to put up their full name, picture - their mobile phone number in many cases."Over the past year the two websites have been jostling for top spot. Facebook has seen remarkable growth in the last 12 months, growing from 50 million users at the start of 2008 to around 161 million users today, by some estimates, making it the world's biggest active social network.However, beyond potentially ground-breaking developments such as taking on Apple, DeWolfe said he thought the future of social networking would look much the same as it does today. "The starting-off point is always going to be your home page on the internet," he said. "On that page you'll have everything you're passionate about ... and you'll bounce off to whatever you're interested in - the weather, sports scores, news headlines - whatever it is."Not everyone agrees, however. In his talk Zuckerberg hinted that bringing Facebook to mobile phones could be a crucial next step for the company.The chance to take social networking truly mobile, taking advantage of increasingly popular phone technology such as built-in satellite location, is being touted by some as the next big thing.Global rivalsMembers worldwideFacebook: 161 million (18.4 million in UK)MySpace: 118million (7.8 million in UK) Source: ComScore's figures from September this year Founded/ownershipFacebook Grew out of a student website at Harvard University and founded in February 2004. MySpace: Co-founded in the US in 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. In 2005 Rupert Murdoch acquired Intermix, including MySpace, for $580m.FacebookMySpaceSocial networkingInternetguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Mandelson met oligarch earlier than he admitted

European commission officials who worked for Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, issued a misleading statement about the history of his relationship with Oleg Deripaska, the Russian billionaire, the Guardian has established.Mandelson's officials in Brussels, where he served as trade commissioner before returning to a role in the government earlier this month, said the two men met "at a few social gatherings in 2006 and 2007", but had never discussed aluminium, the main source of Deripaska's wealth.However, Mandelson and Deripaska were seen together at a Moscow restaurant in October 2004, after he had been appointed trade commissioner, but before he formally took up the post. A journalist spoke to both men and their companion, German Gref, who was then the Russian economics minister, and the event is also described in the blog of Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Mandelson's former adviser and close friend.The statement by the European officials is understood to be based on information provided by Mandelson himself. It is unclear why the business secretary has not corrected it to reflect the earlier meetings. The disclosure that the two men had met earlier is likely to fuel Conservative demands for an investigation into the relationship between Mandelson and the Russian oligarch.Yesterday the Tories learned that they were themselves facing official inquiries arising out of meetings the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, had with Deripaska this summer, after the parliamentary commissioner for standards was asked to rule whether Osborne should have declared his stay at the Corfu villa of Nathaniel Rothschild.The Tories were also facing the threat of an investigation into foreign financing after the party accepted a £6,000 donation from a US financier, Robin Saunders, through her UK investment company.Last night, it was also revealed that David Cameron accepted free flights to visit Rupert Murdoch on his private yacht in the eastern Mediterranean. The flights, organised by Murdoch's son-in-law, Matthew Freud, to fly Cameron and his family from Istanbul to meet Murdoch on his yacht and then back to a resort in Turkey, were declared in the parliamentary register of members interests. Conservative Central Office said last night that "everything that needs to be declared in relation to August 16 has been properly declared".Mandelson's staff in Brussels confirmed yesterday that he had told them that he met Deripaska in 2006, and they said they knew nothing of previous encounters.In addition to the lunchtime meeting between the two men at Moscow's Pushkin Cafe, it has been reported that Mandelson and Deripaska met for dinner at another Moscow restaurant, the Cantinetta Antinori, in January 2005.It has been reported that in 2005 Lord Mandelson was instrumental in easing EU tariffs on imports of Russian aluminium foil, which would have been favourable to Deripaska, but European commission officials pointed out yesterday that this decision had been taken in 2001, three years before Mandelson arrived in Brussels.There was no clarification from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, of which Mandelson was appointed secretary of state in Gordon Brown's reshuffle three weeks ago. A spokeswoman said: "Peter Mandelson's social and other contacts with Oleg Deripaska over a number of years have been well rehearsed. He does not believe anything is added by giving regular updates on dates and places where they met, or in giving a retrospective running commentary of every meeting he has had with people he met during his time as EU trade commissioner."Mandelson's relationship with Deripaska had been the subject of mounting media interest until last Monday, when Rothschild sent a letter to the Times in which he disclosed that Osborne and a senior Conservative party fundraiser, Andrew Feldman, had attempted to "solicit a donation" from Deripaska.Rothschild claims that he leaked this news because Osborne, who had been his guest at a private party, broke a number of confidences in an apparent attempt to embarrass Mandelson. The result of the Times letter was that the tables were instantly turned on the Conservatives, and Osborne in particular.Yesterday, however, some in Westminster were questioning whether Rothschild would have destroyed his life-long friendship with Osborne, the man who may become the next chancellor, over such a relatively minor matter, or whether he wrote the letter in an attempt to protect Mandelson, or Deripaska, or both.Mandelson had known members of the Rothschild family for many years. Rothschild is said to have been present at the dinner in Moscow in January 2005 with Mandelson and Deripaska. The three met again last August on Corfu, where Rothschild has a villa and where Deripaska moored his £80m yacht.Peter MandelsonLabourOleg DeripaskaParty fundingGeorge Osborneguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Bennett donates his life's work to the Bodleian library

The scholarly work of one of the world's most famous libraries keeps being interrupted by cackles of laughter, as staff in the Bodleian at Oxford University get to grips with their latest treasure: a free gift of Alan Bennett's entire archive.While other writers or their heirs have made fortunes selling archives - only this week the British Library announced the £500,000 purchase of the papers of the late poet Ted Hughes - Bennett, one of the best-loved writers in English, is giving his archive out of affection for Oxford and in passionate defence of free state-funded education. It includes his manuscripts, diaries, letters and, on his death, all remaining papers and his working library, including hundreds of inscribed first editions of his own and other books."I really feel that Oxford is where I was educated and where I belong, and that if Bodley would like them, then they should have them," Bennett told the Guardian. "It sounds rather grand to say I can afford to, but libraries in England anyway are not well-endowed; they don't have much money. Me and my partner, we're relatively well off, and so I felt I didn't really want to take money for them."To say the Bodleian would like them is a serious understatement. Sarah Brown, the library's American director, said: "I'm absolutely thrilled about Bennett's papers and his message. His gift is inspirational.""We keep pinching ourselves, we still can't really believe it," said Richard Ovenden, associate director of the library, his desk covered in sheets neatly typed on the ancient manual typewriter Bennett bought for a few pounds from Age Concern in Settle, and then corrected, scored out, annotated and amplified in a blizzard of pencil and red, green purple and black ink. "Actually, that's a point - we must get that typewriter."Library staff have started catalogueing 30 years of diaries, of which extracts became a bestseller, and various drafts of The Madness of George III, which became the Oscar-winning movie partly filmed in the Bodleian. They also have the script of The History Boys, which won awards as stage play and film. Also included is his first great stage success, Forty Years On, which ran for more than a year in London from 1968, starring Sir John Gielgud: the title page reveals it could have been called Speak for England, Albert.Bennett was originally prompted by a former Bodleian chief librarian, David Vaizey, a friend since they met as undergraduates, and said yesterday that he saw the gift as a debt repaid."I was educated free right from the start. I was educated free in Leeds where I went to a state school, and then I got a scholarship to Exeter College Oxford, and so at no point did my parents or me have to pay anything for my education. "One didn't have much money, but one never really gave money a thought because you had just about enough to be going on with. Now that's a situation that students today can only dream of, really."In that sense giving the manuscripts to Bodley - it sounds rather pious - is a kind of small recompense for what I was given. And not merely given by Oxford, I also feel I was given it by the state, and the state isn't something that people would normally thank or think well of and hence the phrase 'the nanny state'. "I was nannied in the sense that everything was paid for, the Leeds education committee gave me a scholarship and then I had another scholarship later on: now if that's being nannied, I'm all for it."Oxford has recently led the demand for the elite universities to charge massive top-up fees: Bennett drew a firm distinction between his support for the library he loves and the university administration."I've differed from the university on other things, on their soliciting money from Rupert Murdoch, for instance. But the library is something separate, and however well-endowed the Bodleian is, it's like other libraries; it's strapped for cash, so I don't really think that applies. The philosophy of the library and the philosophy of the university are probably not the same."Already Ovenden and Chris Fletcher, head of western manuscripts, have collected a mass of papers, sorted for them into 100 box files in Bennett's north London home. They accepted a cup of tea, put them in the car and drove off, quivering with excitement. "I'm actually quite glad to see the back of it," Bennett said.In the archive? Unpublished manuscripts, including School Farce, with his note "written while waiting for Forty Years On to be put on, not published or (thankfully) produced"? The script for The Vicar's Wife, a proposed film with the late Ned Sherrin, which contains this exchange from the scene The Funeral Tea:"Could I have some rock salt, please?"Waitress: "What dear?"Minerva: "Rock salt. I don't want any salt with all the goodness taken out of it"? Manuscripts and drafts of all his stage, television and radio plays? Thirty consecutive years of almost entirely unpublished diaries - the rest will come to the library after his death - and manuscripts of autobiographical writing, including Writing Home and Untold Stories? Manuscripts of all his published novellas and short storiesAlan BennettUniversity of Oxfordguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

iPlayer reaches for the Sky

Auntie gets into bed with Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch image on photo shortlist

A portrait of Rupert Murdoch is a contender for the National Portrait Gallery Photographic Prize.

MySpace + McDonald's + Toyota = iTunes?

Rupert Murdoch's social net giant is expected to announce on Monday that McDonald's, State Farm Insurance and Toyota have agreed to advertise on the new music venture, which already boasts the backing of News Corporation as well as three of the four monolithic major labels.