Hugh Grant accuses paper of phone hacking

Actor Hugh Grant testified Monday at Britain's government inquiry into media ethics he thinks he was a victim of phone hacking.

The British celebrity accused the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which is not owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, of hacking into his phone for a story about his relationship with former girlfriend Jemima Khan.

The Daily Telegraph said Grant testified it was "inconceivable" the paper had obtained a story about his relationship with Jemima Khan any other way

He also implied police were leaking stories to the press, saying paparazzi showed up before police when his girlfriend was mugged.

Earlier, the parents of a slain British schoolgirl testified they had false hope their daughter was alive because a hacker had cleared the girl's voice mail.

The parents, Sally and Bob Dowler, accustomed to hearing a recording that their daughter's voice mailbox was full, said they were thrilled when they thought Milly Dowler had picked up her messages, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

But Milly Dowler's phone had been breached and messages were deleted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective hired by Murdoch's defunct News of the World.

"At first we were able to leave messages and then her voice mail became full ... so I was used to hearing that," Sally Dowler told a government inquiry. The inquiry was ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron after it emerged Milly Dowler, 13, who was abducted and killed, had been a subject of the phone-hacking scandal that forced the News of the World to close and resulted in the arrests of several members of the newspaper's management team.

"I rang her phone and it clicked through on to her voice mail and I just jumped and said: 'She's picked up her voice mails Bob. She's alive,'" Sally Dowler said. "When we heard about the hacking that was the first thing I thought."

She said the revelation about her daughter's phone being hacked had been "terribly difficult to process."

"We would sincerely hope that News International [parent of News of the World] and other media organizations would look very carefully how they procure, how they obtain information about stories. Obviously, the ramifications are far greater than what appears in the press," Sally Dowler said.

The mother told the inquiry into media culture, practices and ethics she didn't sleep for three days after learning her daughter's phone was hacked, the BBC said.

Iran ready to 'pound' Israel

Iran is ready to hit centers of Israeli support if the Islamic republic is attacked by its adversary's military forces, a military chief said.

Tehran blamed Israel for a mid-November explosion at a weapons depot belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The explosion at the Aghadir missile base, 25 miles southwest of Tehran, killed Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam, acknowledged as the architect of Iran's strategic missiles forces.

Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, deputy chairman of the Iranian Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the semiofficial Fars News Agency that Israel would pay the price for military aggression.

"We are fully prepared to pound all the centers of the Zionists through reliance upon the missile power which has been gained through the efforts made by Great Martyr Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam," he said.

Iran last week embarked on a military exercise that it said encompassed about 300,000 square miles along the country's eastern border.

Israel was suspected of launching preparations for a military strike on Iranian nuclear installations. The Israeli military destroyed nuclear targets in Iran in the 1980s and in Syria in 2007.

The saber rattling comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, said it believed Iran was carrying out some scientific research that was tied to the development of a nuclear bomb.

Tyler Perry explains Kim Kardashian "Counselor" casting

Tyler Perry has caught no small amount of flak for casting reality TV star Kim Kardashian in his upcoming movie "The Marriage Counselor."

And now the writer/producer/media magnate has spoken out in defense of using the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star, whose resume is a little thin when it comes to officially scripted fare. Perry has posted a lengthy missive on his blog, detailing his reasons for casting Kardashian.

The takeaway from Perry's pro-Kardashian manifesto? He's doing it for the kids -- specifically, to get them into the theaters to see his movie and absorb its message.

The "Madea" auteur begins his justification with a little ice-breaker, acknowledging the flood of angry emails he's received over the casting decision with a joke.

"Y'all gave me a new movie title, Tyler Perry's 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman Cause You Hired Kim Kardashian, Don't Make Me Take Off My Earrings and Boycott Yo A**,'" Perry quips. "Some of my ladies are upset. OK, all jokes aside, can I have my say? Will you at least here me out?"

According to Perry, he cast Kardashian, 31, in the film because of the sway she has over the youth audience. Perry noted in his post that, after writing the script, he read through it and realized the importance of exposing a younger audience to the message of the film.

"YOUNG FOLKS NEED TO SEE THIS!!!" Perry said of "The Marriage Counselor, which trails an aspiring relationship expert whose own union becomes imperiled by outside influences.

Perry added that, as he was casting the film a couple of months ago -- "long before I even heard about Kim's marriage or divorce" -- he asked a producer which performers are admired by the nation's youth. After being shown a photo of a young crowd piling up outside of one of the Kardashians' Dash boutiques, Perry had his answer.

"I thought, 'What better person?'" Tyler recalled. "She literally has millions of young people following her. I thought and still do think, that it would be very responsible of her to be a part of this film."

Adds Perry, "If one of those young people see this film and find the strength to live a better life and not go through what these characters went through in this movie, then we have all done what I feel I'm being led to do here. I hope you understand. I really do!"

In the film, Kardashian plays Ava, a co-worker of the film's female lead character, Judith (portrayed by Jurnee Smolett), who's "constantly trying to influence Judith on everything from her shoes to her hair."

Since word of Kardashian's casting broke, a multi-front campaign on internet outrage has sprung up. Threatening to boycott the film if Kardashian wasn't axed from the production, many complained of Kardashian's supposed lack of moral fiber, in light of her 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries.

Former "The Talk" co-host Holly Robinson Peete, meanwhile, joked that the worldwide community of "blacktresses" were upset because Perry had eliminated a potential job for them by casting Kardashian.

Perry addresses the moral issue at the end of his post, asking, "And lastly, because I believe that my films speak from the inside out, why wouldn't Kim Kardashian be invited into a film about Faith, Forgiveness and the healing power of God? What is wrong with that??"

Deficit deal failure would pose crummy choice

If the deficit-cutting supercommittee fails, Congress will face a crummy choice. Lawmakers can allow payroll tax cuts and jobless aid for millions to expire or they extend them and increase the nation's $15 trillion debt by at least $160 billion.

President Barack Obama and Democrats on the deficit panel want to use the committee's product to carry their jobs agenda. That includes cutting in half the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax and extending jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed for more than six months.

Also caught up in what promises to be a chaotic legislative dash for the exits next month is the need to pass legislation to prevent an almost 30 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. Several popular business tax breaks and relief from the alternative minimum tax also expire at year's end.

A debt plan from the supercommittee, it was hoped, would have served as a sturdy, filibuster-proof vehicle to tow all of these expiring provisions into law. But after months of negotiations, Republicans and Democrats were far apart on any possible compromise, and there was no indication of progress Saturday.

Failure by the committee would leave lawmakers little time to pick up the pieces. And there's no guarantee it all can get done, especially given the impact of those measures on the spiraling debt.

Instead of cutting the deficit with a tough, bipartisan budget deal, Congress could pivot to spending enormous sums on expiring big-ticket policies.

If lawmakers rebel against the cost, as is possible, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help prop up the economy, to lapse.

Last year's extensions of jobless benefits and first-ever cut in the payroll tax were accomplished with borrowed money.

The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers at a total cost of $179 billion and reduce the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.

"The notion of imposing a new payroll tax on people after Jan. 1 in the midst of this recession on working families is totally counterproductive," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with 1.8 million cut off within a month.

Economist say those jobless benefits — up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states — are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away.

"We will have to address those issues," Durbin said.

Extending benefits to the long-term unemployed would cost almost $50 billion under Obama's plan. Preventing the Medicare payment cuts to doctors for an additional 18 months to two years would in all likelihood cost $26 billion to $32 billion more.

Lawmakers also had hoped to renew some tax breaks for business and prevent the alternative minimum tax from sticking more than 30 million taxpayers with higher tax bills. Those items could be addressed retroactively next year, but only increase the uncertainty among already nervous consumers and investors.

This time, Obama wants them to be paid for. But a move by Democrats to try to finance jobs measures with hundreds of billions of dollars in savings from drawing down troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has gotten a cold shoulder from top Republicans.

"I've made it pretty clear that those savings that are coming to us as a result of the wind-down of the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan should be banked, should not be used to offset other spending," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. He did not address whether war savings could be used to extend expiring tax cuts.

Those savings are the natural result of national security strategies unrelated to the federal budget. Deficit hawks say tapping into them is simply an accounting gimmick.

"It's just the worst of all worlds if that were to happen," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

But without the war money at their disposal, lawmakers simply can't pay for the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits. Liberals such as Durbin are fine with employing deficit financing, especially if the alternative is playing Scrooge just before the holidays.

"Many people will hate to go home for Christmas saying to the American people, 'Merry Christmas, your payroll taxes go up 2 percent Jan. 1 and unemployment benefits are cut off.'"

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi captured in southern Libya

Moammar Gadhafi's former heir apparent Seif al-Islam was captured by revolutionary fighters in the southern desert Saturday just over a month after his father was killed, setting off joyous celebrations across Libya and closing the door on the possibility that the fugitive son could stoke further insurrection.

Seif al-Islam — who has undergone a transformation from a voice of reform in an eccentric and reviled regime to one of Interpol's most-wanted — now faces the prospect of trial before an international or Libyan court to answer for the alleged crimes of his late father's four-decade rule over the oil-rich North African nation.

Thunderous celebratory gunfire shook the Libyan capital of Tripoli and other cities after Libyan officials said Seif al-Islam, who has been charged by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, had been detained wearing traditional Tuareg clothing about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of the town of Obari in an area that borders Niger, Mali and Algeria.

A photograph was widely circulated showing the 39-year-old son, who had been the last wanted Gadhafi family member to remain at large, in custody, sitting by a bed and holding up three bandaged fingers as a guard looks on. Osama Juwaid, a spokesman for the fighters from Zintan who made the arrest, said it was an old injury caused by a NATO airstrike and the detainee was otherwise in good health.

"I am hopeful that the capture of Gadhafi's son is the beginning of a chapter of transparency and democracy and freedom," Libya's interim Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib at a news conference in the western mountain town of Zintan, where Seif al-Islam was taken after his capture.

It was unclear what would happen next, with the international community urging Libyan authorities to ensure he is treated humanely and to cooperate with the ICC on bringing him to trial.

The emergence of Seif al-Islam as the only Gadhafi in custody to face justice posed a major test of the interim government's commitment to human rights and the rule of law. The murky circumstances surrounding the deaths of the reviled Libya leader and another son Muatassim on Oct. 20, and the decision to lay their bodies out for public viewing drew widespread criticism.

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told The Associated Press that he will travel to Libya next week for talks with the country's transitional government on where the trial will take place. Ocampo said that while national governments have the first right to try their own citizens for war crimes, his primary goal was to make sure Seif al-Islam receives a fair trial.

"The good news is that Seif al-Islam is arrested, he is alive, and now he will face justice," Ocampo said in an interview in The Hague. "Where and how, we will discuss it."

Seif al-Islam's capture leaves only former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi wanted by the ICC, which indicted the two men along with Gadhafi in June for unleashing a campaign of murder and torture to suppress the uprising that broke out in mid-February. Protests inspired by the so-called Arab Spring sweeping the region soon escalated into a civil war, with NATO launching airstrikes under a U.N.-mandate to protect civilians.

Other photos and video clips showed Seif al-Islam wearing glasses and a beard, clothed in brown robes and a turban in the style of ethnic Tuaregs, a nomadic community that spans the desert border area of Niger, Mali, Libya, Algeria and Chad and long fought for his father's regime. In some, he was bundled onto an airplane that apparently carried him to Zintan, 85 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Tripoli.

Libya's transitional government has struggled to consolidate control over the country and form a new government and build many institutions from scratch after months of violence and the refusal of several armed factions to lay down their weapons or join the national forces. International rights groups also have documented widespread prisoner abuse mainly aimed at former Gadhafi supporters, casting doubt on reconciliation efforts as the country tries to forge a democracy.

French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who played an active role in his country's early stance on the side of the rebels who rose up against Gadhafi, alleged that Seif al-Islam was at least as much to blame for past atrocities against Libyans as his father.

"His arrest is a real important moment. It's the real end of this war," Levy said during an interview in London, adding his voice to calls for Seif al-Islam to be judged by an international court.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department said Seif al-Islam should be held accountable for his actions but urged the Libyans to treat all prisoners in full accordance with international standards.

"His capture and trial would be another step away from a 40-year dark chapter in Libyan history and help move the Libyan people toward the peaceful and democratic future they deserve," the State Department said.

It was a dramatic turnabout for Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, who is the oldest of seven children of Moammar and Safiya Gadhafi. He had one older half brother, Mohammed.

The British-educated son, who speaks fluent English, spent years touting himself as a liberalizing reformer in the autocratic regime, and he helped broker the agreement that saw Moammar Gadhafi renounce his weapons of mass destruction program and begin his journey back into the international fold after decades of isolation.

But Seif al-Islam staunchly backed his father in his brutal crackdown on rebels in the regime's final days, warning of "rivers of blood" if demonstrators refused to accept government offers of reform.

He went underground after Tripoli fell to revolutionary forces in late August and was widely reported to have been hiding in the besieged town of Bani Walid, issuing audio recordings to try to rally support for his father, but he escaped before it fell to revolutionary forces.

"This is the day of victory, this is the day of liberation, finally the son of the tyrant has been captured," said Mohammed Ali, an engineer, as he celebrated on Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, formerly called Green Square when it was the site often used by Gadhafi for fiery speeches. "Now we are free, now we are free, God is Great."

Revolutionary forces from the Zintan brigade said the arrest was made after midnight by fighters originally in the area to help with border protection when they got a tip that Seif al-Islam would try to flee the country.

Ahmad Ammar Abdullah al-Zintani, who was at the scene, said a group of 15 fighters armed with pistols, heavy machine guns and a rocket-grenade launcher took up positions on two hills overlooking the road at 10 p.m. Friday, then moved to surround two cars entering the area below about three hours later.

"Seif was in the second car. When the first car came forward we surrounded them and they didn't resist. And then the second car came up they tried to escape from the right and they got stuck in the sand, and Seif came out with three others," al-Zintani said.

He also said Seif al-Islam's thumb, index and middle finger on his right hand had been injured in a NATO airstrike and wrapped in a cloth since they couldn't be treated medically.

"We found out that he was trying to go to Niger hoping he could take over Libya again," al-Zintani said, echoing fears that Gadhafi's son could foment violence if he had remained in hiding.

Others said Seif al-Islam looked tired when he was caught.

"He was suffering from malnutrition and anemic because he had lived in the desert for a while. He was being protected by the al-Megarha tribe, which has been split in half over the revolution," Badawi Mohammed said. Members of the al-Megarha tribe include Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Bashir al-Tlayeb, who first announced the capture at a press conference in Tripoli, also claimed Seif al-Islam was caught with two aides who were trying to smuggle him into Niger, but the NTC's justice minister, Mohammed al-Alagi, said the detention was closer to the Algerian border and the convoy's destination was not known.

Seif al-Islam was being held in Zintan but would be transported to Tripoli soon, according to al-Alagi.

Libya's Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said the NTC had not taken an official position yet, but in his personal view, Seif al-Islam "is an outlaw and should be tried in front of the Libyan Court, by Libyan people and by Libyan justice."

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called the arrest an important step forward as Libya tries to put its past behind it.

"I welcome the Libyan authorities' commitment to ensure his detention and trial meet international standards," Hague said. "His arrest will allow the Libyan people to move on to the challenge of rebuilding their country."

Police, protesters clash for 2nd day in Egypt

Egyptian police are clashing for a second day in central Cairo with protesters demanding that the military quickly announce a date to hand power to an elected government.

The police on Sunday were using tear gas against several thousand protesters in and around Tahrir square, birthplace of the 18-day uprising that toppled authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February. The protesters were pelting the police with rocks.

The clashes followed a day of violence in Cairo and elsewhere in the country in which at least two people were killed and hundreds wounded. They were the worst clashes between police and protesters in months.

The clashes are stoking tension less than two weeks before the start of the country's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets stormed into Cairo's Tahrir Square Saturday to dismantle a protest tent camp, setting off clashes that killed two protesters, injured hundreds and raised tensions days before the first elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

The scenes of protesters fighting with black-clad police forces were reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that forced an end to Mubarak's rule in February. Hundreds of protesters fought back, hurling stones and setting an armored police vehicle ablaze.

The violence raised fears of new unrest surrounding the parliamentary elections that are due to begin on Nov. 28. Public anger has risen over the slow pace of reforms and apparent attempts by Egypt's ruling generals to retain power over a future civilian government.

Witnesses said the clashes began when riot police dismantled a small tent camp set up to commemorate the hundreds of protesters killed in the uprising and attacked around 200 peaceful demonstrators who had camped in the square overnight in an attempt to restart a long-term sit-in there.

"Violence breeds violence," said Sahar Abdel-Mohsen, an engineer who joined in the protest after a call went out on Twitter urging people to come to Tahrir to defend against the police attacks. "We are tired of this and we are not leaving the square."

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and beat protesters with batons, clearing the square at one point and pushing the fighting into surrounding side streets of downtown Cairo.

A 23-year-old protester died from a gunshot, said Health Ministry official Mohammed el-Sherbeni. At least 676 people were injured, he said. At least one other protester was killed in Alexandria, where demonstrations and clashes also took place, said a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to journalists.

Crowds swarmed an armored police truck, rocking it back and forth and setting it ablaze.

After nightfall, protesters swarmed back into the square in the thousands, setting tires ablaze in the street and filling the area with an acrid, black smoke screen. Police appeared to retreat to surrounding areas, leaving protesters free to retake and barricade themselves inside the square. The air was still thick with stinging tear gas.

Shortly before midnight, police pushed back toward the square, firing more tear gas and drawing a barrage of stones from the protesters holding the site.

The government urged protesters to clear the square.

A member of the military council, Gen. Mohsen el-Fangari, dismissed the protesters and said their calls for change ahead of the election were a threat to the state.

"What is the point of being in Tahrir?" he said, speaking by phone to the popular Al-Hayat TV channel. "What is the point of this strike, of the million marches? Aren't there legal channels to pursue demands in a way that won't impact Egypt ... internationally?"

"The aim of what is going on is to shake the backbone of the state, which is the armed forces."

In a warning, he said, "If security is not applied, we will implement the rule of law. Anyone who does wrong will pay for it."

Saturday's confrontation was one of the few since the uprising to involve police forces, which have largely stayed in the background while the military takes charge of security. There was no military presence in and around the square on Saturday.

The black-clad police were a hated symbol of Mubarak's regime.

"The people want to topple the regime," shouted enraged crowds, reviving the chant from the early days of the uprising. Crowds also screamed: "Riot police are thugs and thieves" and "Down with the Marshal," referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt's military ruler.

Some of the wounded had blood streaming down their faces and many had to be carried out of the square by fellow protesters to waiting ambulances.

Human rights activists accused police of using excessive force.

One prominent activist, Malek Mostafa, lost his right eye from a rubber bullet, said Ghada Shahbender, a member of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.

At least four protesters were injured in the eyes as a result of what Shahbender said were orders to target protesters' heads.

"It is a crime," she said. "They were shooting rubber bullets directly at the heads. ... I heard an officer ordering his soldiers to aim for the head."

A videojournalist for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm, Ahmed Abdel-Fatah, was also hit in the eye by a rubber bullet and was undergoing surgery.

Police arrested 18 people, state TV reported, describing the protesters as rioters.

Protests were also held Saturday in the Red Sea port city of Suez, where a crowd of thousands attacked a police station, with some hurling firebombs at the building, said protester Ahmed Khafagi. They were met with tear gas and gunfire.

In Alexandria, hundreds of people threw stones at the main security headquarters, said protester Ahmed Abdel-Qader. He said it felt like the revolution was starting all over again.

"We only managed to bring down the head of the regime. The rest of the tree is still standing," he said.

A day earlier, tens of thousands of Islamists and young activists had massed in Tahrir Square to protest Egypt's ruling military council, which took control of the country after Mubarak's ouster and has been harshly criticized for its oversight of the bumpy transition period.

Friday's crowd, the largest in months, was mobilized by the Muslim Brotherhood and focused its anger on a document drafted by the military that spells out guiding principles for a new constitution.

Under those guidelines, the military and its budget would be shielded from civilian oversight. An early version of it also said the military would appoint 80 members of the 100-person constitutional committee — a move that would vastly diminish the new parliament's role.

Groups across the political spectrum rejected the document, calling it an attempt by the military to perpetuate its rule past the post-Mubarak transition. Back in February, the military had promised it would return to the country to civilian rule within six months. Now, there is deep uncertainty over the timeline, and presidential elections might not be held until 2013.

El-Fangary said if the plan in place is followed, the military will be out of power by the end of 2012.

Friday's demonstration dispersed peacefully, but several hundred people remained in the square overnight in an attempt to re-establish a semi-permanent presence in the square to pressure the military council.

Violence began Saturday morning, as police moved in to clear them.

The Interior Ministry, which runs the country's police forces, accused people of trying to escalate tensions ahead of the parliamentary elections, which will be held in stages that continue through March.

Activists say they just want to guard the outcome of their revolution.

Unemployed graduate student Nasser Ezzat said he traveled from southern Egypt to Tahrir because he wanted to help finish the revolution that people died for. He came to the square on Friday, leaving behind his a pregnant wife in the city of Sohag.

"I dream of a fairer Egypt for my unborn daughter, one without police harassment and corruption," he said on Saturday.

Google Opens a Digital Music Store

Looking to extend its reach as a hub for entertainment and social networking, Google introduced a set of music features on Wednesday, including a download store to compete with iTunes.

The service, Google Music, will sell individual tracks and full albums, letting customers store the songs on servers, on so-called cloud accounts. And through an integration with Google’s nascent social network, Google+, the company will also let customers share music by offering friends one free listen to any bought track.

Google Music puts the company in direct competition with Apple, Amazon and Facebook. Many analysts saw the move as part of an escalating war among those companies to develop consumer environments.

“They’ve got to make their ecosystem appeal to consumers in a way that Amazon and Apple have,” said Michael Gartenberg, a media analyst with Gartner. “Personal cloud services are what’s going to drive the next wave of consumer adoption. So Google has to be playing here. But because they’re so late they have to be playing here in a unique way.”

Google will sell music through the Android Market, the marketplace where users of its mobile phone system buy apps, videos and e-books. The new service is an expansion of Music Beta, which the company introduced in May, and will store customers’ songs in remote servers and allow users to listen to them on any device or computer.

Google Music will have 13 million songs for sale, the company said. But while music from three of the four major record companies and many independents will be included, Google has so far been unable to reach a licensing agreement with the Warner Music Group. Warner, the third-largest major label, has artists including Green Day, Neil Young and Led Zeppelin.

The music service is also, to large degree, a way to enhance the company’s mobile offerings to compete with Apple’s iPhone.

Google’s announcement, held at a Los Angeles art studio and shown on YouTube, came two days after Apple opened its iTunes Match service, which for $25 a year lets users back up music in the cloud through a more efficient system than Google offers. But in the presentation, Jamie Rosenberg, a Google executive, noted that its cloud backup was free.

“Other cloud music services think you have to pay to listen to music you already own,” Mr. Rosenberg said. “We don’t.”

Amazon began selling its Kindle Fire tablet this week, which will be able to play music, video and other media. And in September, Facebook unveiled new features with music streaming services like Spotify and MOG that let users of those services share the music they are listening to.

Google’s relations with the major record companies have often been strained, with the labels accusing Google of not doing enough to curtail piracy. When Google introduced its limited Music Beta service in May, the company’s executives complained publicly that some of the labels would not agree to special licenses that would have allowed Google to offer more extensive features.

Yet Google’s reach makes it a powerful partner for music companies, according to Rob Wells, president of the Universal Music Group’s global digital business.

“We expect this to be a rich new revenue stream for our artists,” Mr. Wells said at the event. “Any new legitimate place to consume music is a fantastic antipiracy tool.”

Among the other features included in the announcement were a set of resources for independent artists, who for $25 can set up Web pages and offer their own music at prices of their choosing. To promote the new service, the company is also offering a number of free songs by the Rolling Stones, the Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay and the rapper Busta Rhymes.