MUMBAI: The media company headed by Rupert Murdoch, won approval of a $139 million settlement of investor lawsuits claiming directors ignored employee misconduct, including phone-hacking.

The settlement of claims that the board turned a blind eye to journalists? illegal reporting tactics, including paying bribes and hacking into celebrities? phones, "is reasonable, fair and adequate," Delaware Chancery Court Judge John Noble said today at a hearing in Dover.

As part of the derivative accord, the $139 million is being paid to News Corp. out of insurance covering directors.

Noble also approved $28 million in legal fees and expenses for investors? lawyers to be paid from the insurance proceeds.

News Corp. officials continue facing fallout from the scandal over the company?s newsgathering tactics. Last week, prosecutors said a journalist at News Corp.?s Sun tabloid newspaper in London and a corrections officer are facing criminal charges over bribes paid for information about operations at English prisons.

Nathaniel Brown, a spokesman for New York-based News Corp., didn?t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the court?s approval.

The case is In re News Corp. Shareholder Derivative Litigation, CA 6285, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).

MUMBAI: Battered and bruised by the phone-hacking scandal, News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that he is considering spinning off British newspapers business News International to protect his media empire from the scandal.

According to reports in The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times, executives at News Corp were looking into ways to split off the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.

Among the various options before the media conglomerate, putting the News International titles into a trust is also being considered. It is also weighing the option of selling the newspapers besides a proposal to go into a joint venture with a media partner was also on the table.

However, the plans are still in their infancy, the reports said.

"News Corporation remains firmly committed to our publishing businesses, including News International, and any suggestion to the contrary is wholly inaccurate. Publishing is a core component of our future," Murdoch Sr said in a statement.

The development comes in the wake of British public prosecutor charging former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and five others including her husband Charles Brooks for perverting the course of justice in the phone hacking scandal.