The BP executives were testifying before a British parliamentary committee investigating the implications of the Gulf oil disaster on deepwater drilling.

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News Corp. is owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, who last year answered questions before a British parliamentary committee looking into press conduct.

CNN: UK lawyer set to file phone hacking claims in U.S.

British members of a parliamentary committee dealing with the media are now broadening a planned inquiry into privacy law and press regulation.

ECONOMIST: Are English courts stifling free speech around the world?

However an all-party parliamentary committee of British MPs at a news conference on Tuesday called for sponsors and drivers to withdraw from the race and for the F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone to cancel it.

BBC: Bahrain: Police 'fire tear gas' at boys' school

British Prime Minister David Cameron told a parliamentary committee he hoped to "persuade our European partners" to relax the embargo, which is due to be renewed in May, "but if we can't, then it's not out of the question we might have to do things in our own way".

BBC: Rebel soldier in Homs on

The phone-hacking accusations have reverberated through the top levels of British politics and journalism, led to the closing of a major tabloid and prompted a parliamentary committee to issue damning criticism of Murdoch.

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