British press eye launch of Murdoch's 'Sun on Sunday'

LONDON: Britain's newspapers were abuzz Saturday over Rupert Murdoch's announcement that he is to launch a Sunday version of his top-selling British tabloid The Sun.

The 2.5 million-circulation Sun carried the front-page message, "Coming soon: The Sun every Sunday."

Several rivals showed the media tycoon beaming and brandishing a copy of The Sun as he was chauffered towards the scandal-hit tabloid's offices in east London on Friday for a morale-boosting visit.

The tabloid has been rocked by the arrest of several senior reporters over claims that journalists paid police and other public officials for information.

Murdoch shut the News of the World, a Sunday tabloid, last July over a phone-hacking scandal, which has spawned three police probes and a government-ordered inquiry into the standards of the British press.

But on Friday, the 80-year-old founder and chairman of the US-based News Corp. announced that the suspensions of ten arrested Sun journalists would be lifted - and that the tabloid would gain a Sunday edition. (AFP)