Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox bids $14 billion for UK's Sky

By Jessica Toonkel and Kate Holton NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has proposed buying the 61 percent of British pay-TV firm Sky Plc it does not already own for around $14 billion, five years after a political scandal scuppered a previous bid. The plan is conditionally backed by Sky's independent directors and would strengthen the position of James Murdoch - who is both chief executive of Fox and chairman of Sky - in his 85-year-old father's media empire