CNN apologises for pager comment by conservative panellist to Mehdi Hasan

Ryan James Girdusky removed from NewsNight show after telling fellow guest I hope your beeper doesn't go off'

CNN has apologised to its viewers after a panellist on its NewsNight programme made derogatory remarks implying that a fellow guest on the show, the broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, was a terrorist.

Ryan James Girdusky, a conservative commentator, told Hasan, a Guardian US columnist and former host on MSNBC, who is Muslim, that he hoped his beeper doesn't go off", in an apparent reference to Israel's targeting of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon with exploding pagers last month. The wave of coordinated explosions killed 12 and injured thousands.