Charles Wheeler dies, aged 85

BBC reporter worked in Asia, Germany, U.S. LONDON — The BBC’s longest serving foreign correspondent, Charles Wheeler, has died. The 85-year-old reporter had been suffering from lung cancer. Wheeler, who was working on a program about the Dalai Lama almost until he died, covered such stories as the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and Watergate during eight years as the corp.’s Washington correspondent. The BBC’s director-general Mark Thompson described Wheeler, who joined the pubcaster in 1947 following service in the Second World War, as “a legend.” “His integrity, his authority and his humanity graced the BBC’s airwaves over many decades,” Thompson said. “He is utterly irreplaceable but like everyone else, I am privileged to have worked with him.” Wheeler, famous in media circles for his outspoken... [read full story]