Testing times for the world's biggest media empire

It was presented as a sacrificial - and healing - act, the severing of a limb to save the body.

But killing off one of Britain's best-selling papers may not be enough to stop the taint of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal spreading to the wider News Corp brand.

Well-known newspaper titles The Times, Sunday Times, and The Sun are all part of the News Corp empire, as is pay-TV broadcaster BSKyB, which News Corp is currently trying to buy in full.

Image: News of the World tabloid newspaper Editor, Colin Myler poses with a front page of the last edition as he leads his staff out of the headquarter of News International, the publisher of News of the World newspaper, in London on July 9, 2011.

Text: Jodie Ginsberg, Reuters

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