British PM regrets hiring ex-Murdoch editor (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Prime Minister David Cameron made a public admission of regret over Britain's phone-hacking scandal Wednesday, saying with hindsight he would not have hired a former tabloid editor as his media chief.

As media mogul Rupert Murdoch wrapped up a turbulent visit to Britain, Cameron made a statement during a stormy emergency session of parliament defending his original decision to employ ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

But a day after cutting short a trip to Africa to confront the crisis, the under-pressure Conservative leader conceded he would not have employed Coulson had he been able to predict the furore of recent weeks.

"With 20-20 hindsight and all that has followed, I would not have offered him the job and I expect that he wouldn't have taken it," Cameron said amid jeers from opposition lawmakers.

"You live and you learn and believe you me, I have learned."

Coulson resigned as Downing Street communications director in January. He was arrested on July 8 on suspicion of phone-hacking and paying police for information, but denies any wrongdoing.

Cameron refused to cut Coulson loose, however, telling lawmakers: "I have an old-fashioned view about innocent until proven guilty but if it turns out I have been lied to that would be a moment for a profound apology."

Opposition Labour party leader Ed Miliband demanded a full apology from Cameron, accusing him of a "deliberate attempt to hide from the facts about Mr Coulson."

The scandal has so far forced Murdoch to close down the News of the World, claimed the jobs of two of his top aides, and has rocked his global News Corporation empire while also forcing two senior British policemen to resign.

Australian-born Murdoch, now a US citizen, flew out of Britain on his private jet Wednesday after an 11-day visit during which lawmakers grilled him on what he termed the "most humble day of my life".

Parliament speaker John Bercow announced an inquiry into how a protester was able to attack Murdoch with a foam filled "custard pie" at the parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, at which Murdoch's son James was also questioned.

The Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper praised his "plucky" Chinese-born wife Wendi Deng for hitting his alleged assailant, while China's huge online community hailed the "Tiger mother" for her actions.

Police on Wednesday charged Jonathan May-Bowles, 26, over the attack.

It was Cameron's turn to take the heat over the controversy on Wednesday.

He admitted that another arrested former executive from the paper, Neil Wallis, may have advised Coulson before last year's general election but said his Conservative party had not paid him.

The premier also sought to play down his friendship with Rebekah Brooks, who until last week was chief executive of News International, the mogul's British newspaper arm, amid reports the pair regularly saw each other.

"I have never held a slumber party or seen her in her pyjamas," he said, in reference to reports that former Labour premier Gordon Brown's wife Sarah hosted a get-together in 2008 for influential media women, including Brooks.

Elsewhere, Britain's royal family were dragged into the row over Coulson when a Labour lawmaker claimed senior royal staff had been "troubled" by his appointment.

Buckingham Palace described the claim as "outrageous". Downing Street called it "rubbish."

Earlier Wednesday lawmakers released a report criticising attempts by News International to "thwart" phone-hacking investigations and blasting a "catalogue of failures" by police.

The scandal first emerged in 2006 with the conviction of a former News of the World journalist and a private investigator for hacking the phones of members of the royal family.

But evidence that the practice was widespread lay untouched until the investigation was reopened in January and the row exploded this month when it emerged that the phone of a murdered teenaged girl, Milly Dowler, was also hacked.

Scotland Yard said Wednesday it was boosting the investigation team from 45 officers to 60 after a "significant increase in workload."

In the US, former British News of the World and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan demanded an apology from a lawmaker who made claims at Tuesday's hearing about him admitting to phone hacking.

Morgan, now a presenter for US television news network CNN, denied the claims by Louise Mensch that he had "boasted" of phone hacking in a book about his days as editor of the Daily Mirror. She has not responded.

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Top British police quit as PM pressed over hacking (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Britain's phone-hacking scandal claimed the scalps of two top policeman as Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday cut short a trip to Africa to deal with a crisis that threatens his own position.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who refused to reopen an investigation into the now-defunct News of the World tabloid in 2009, resigned Monday, a day after the departure of his boss Paul Stephenson, chief of London's Metropolitan Police.

Yates had expressed regret last week over his earlier decision that the inquiry into the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper did not need to be revived, but pinned the blame on Murdoch's empire for failing to cooperate.

"Assistant Commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign," said a Scotland Yard statement. "This has been accepted."

Yates was one of the Met's most senior officers and had responsibility for special operations, but came under fire after dectectives reopened the investigation in 2011 and found thousands of alleged hacking victims.

He quit when he found out he was about to be suspended.

As the scandal kept scything through the heart of the British establishment, Cameron's aides announced that he would cut short a visit to South Africa and Nigeria, flying back on Tuesday evening instead of early Wednesday.

They said the Conservative leader wanted to prepare a statement that he will deliver during an emergency session of parliament on Wednesday, having delayed the summer break for lawmakers for a day.

Cameron has also been forced to defend his own position after Stephenson, Britain's most senior police officer, took a swipe at the prime minister's decision to hire former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his media chief.

Stephenson quit on Sunday over the force's hiring of Neil Wallis -- who was deputy to Coulson at the tabloid -- and over a spa break he accepted from a firm where Wallis was a consultant.

"I don't believe the two situations are the same in any way, shape or form," Cameron told a joint news conference in Pretoria with South African President Jacob Zuma when asked about a comparison with the troubles at Scotland Yard.

Coulson resigned from Downing Street in January and was arrested on July 8. Wallis was arrested on July 14.

Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband piled pressure on Cameron -- also facing criticism for his social contacts with Murdoch aides -- by calling on him to apologise for hiring Coulson.

Asked whether Cameron should consider his position, Miliband said there was a "sharp contrast between his actions and the honourable actions of Sir Paul Stephenson who resigned over the hiring of Mr Coulson's deputy."

Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper unit, News International, and editor of News of the World when it allegedly hacked a murdered girl's phone, was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of phone hacking and bribing police. Her lawyer Stephen Parkinson said she was "not guilty of any criminal offence" and that Scotland Yard would have to account for the "enormous reputational damage" to the 43-year-old -- who is a personal friend of Cameron's.

He said she still planned to testify alongside the Australian-born Murdoch and his son James, who is chairman of News International, before a committee of British lawmakers on Tuesday.

At a previous hearing in 2003 the flame-haired Brooks, the 10th person and most senior Murdoch aide to be arrested over the scandal, admitted the paper had made payments to police.

An original police investigation into the tabloid in 2006 led to the jailing of its former royal editor and a private investigator, but it later emerged that thousands more celebrities, royals and even crime victims also had their voicemails targeted by alleged "industrial-scale" hacking.

The chairman of a British parliamentary committee which grilled Yates last week over his refusal to reopen the investigation told him his evidence had been "unconvincing".

Senior police officers have since faced criticism for having a series of dinners with top News of the World executives.

Murdoch's US-based News Corp. is in crisis, having also had to abandon its bid for full control of pay-TV giant BSkyB and accept the resignations on Friday of Dow Jones chief Les Hinton, who had worked with the media baron for 52 years.

Shares in News Corp. plummeted 5.82 percent in Australian trade on Monday.

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On his 20th try, Clarke wins the British Open (AP)

SANDWICH, England – Another major goes to Northern Ireland. The surprise was Darren Clarke's name on the claret jug.

Ten years after he last contended in a major, no longer in the top 100 in the world, Clarke delivered his defining moment Sunday in the British Open when he held off brief challenges from Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson to win golf's oldest championship.

The weather was so wild that heavy rain gave way to sunshine in minutes, and the wind was relentless.

Clarke was a steady presence through it all.

A 20-foot eagle putt on the seventh hole gave him the lead for good, and he didn't drop a shot until it no longer mattered. With bogeys on the last two holes, Clarke closed with an even-par 70 for a three-shot victory over the two Americans.

Northern Ireland had gone 63 years without a major. Now it has three of the last six — Graeme McDowell in the U.S. Open last year at Pebble Beach, followed by Rory McIlroy at the U.S. Open in a record performance last month at Congressional, and now the 42-year-old Clarke.

"Northern Ireland...... Golf capital of the world!!" McIlroy tweeted as Clarke played the last hole.

Clarke had reason to believe his best celebrations were behind him. Surely, nothing could top playing a Ryder Cup on home soil in Ireland five years ago and leading Europe to victory just one month after his wife, Heather, died of cancer.

He is engaged now, but after thanking his family, added, "Somebody up there is watching down as well."

It was overdue.

No one had ever gone more than 15 starts in the British Open until winning, and this was the 20th try for Clarke. Yet even as he struggled with his game and the adjustment of raising two boys without their mother, and as the spotlight shifted to youth, Clarke never gave up on his dreams.

"I always believed I would get myself back up here," he said before heading out to the 18th green to collect the oldest trophy in golf. "I always believed I had enough talent to challenge and win one."

He delivered on the demanding links of Royal St. George's to hold off Mickelson and Johnson.

Mickelson, rarely a threat in this major, made up a five-shot deficit in seven holes and was only one shot behind after a birdie on the 10th until he started missing short putts. He shot 38 on the back nine, hitting his final approach into the grandstand.

Then it was Johnson's turn. In the final group of a major for the third time in six years, Johnson made two birdies early on the back nine and was only two shots behind when his second shot to the par-4 15th went out of bounds, ending his hopes again.

The last hour was a coronation for Clarke, long a popular figure not only in Europe but around the world. Puffing away at cigarettes as he barreled down the fairways, he never looked to be in any trouble.

And the few times he did, the golfing gods came to the rescue. He twice hit shots that were headed for pot bunkers well short of the green, only to hop over them or around them, keeping him in control.

He posed with the claret jug that was empty, but not for long. He promised some "nice, Irish black stuff" by evening. And when asked about the celebration, Clarke promised only that it would be "long."

"And I'll be very, very hungover," he said.

He finished at 5-under 275 and became the first player in his 40s to win a major since Vijay Singh at the 2004 PGA Championship. Only two other players were older than Clarke when they won their first major — Roberto De Vicenzo (44) in the 1967 British Open, and Jerry Barber (45) in the 1961 PGA Championship.

For the Americans, their longest drought without a major since the Masters began in 1934 will continue at least until the PGA Championship next month. They had plenty of contenders, from Mickelson to Johnson to Rickie Fowler and Anthony Kim, but none came through.

Mickelson's problems started on the par-3 11th, when he missed a par putt from just inside 3 feet.

"It was just a dumb, mental error," Mickelson said. "I just lost focus there, and it hurts to throw shots away like that when I'm behind."

He wound up with a 68, which felt more like a 78, and had his seventh runner-up finish in a major.

It might have been more devastating for Johnson, who never lost his composure even as he fell four shots behind on the front nine. Johnson made a 6-foot birdie on the 10th and a 15-foot birdie on the 12th to get within two shots.

Just like that, it was all over.

Johnson had an 8-foot birdie attempt at No. 13 as Clarke went over the green. Instead of a potential two-shot swing, however, Clarke saved yet another par, and Johnson missed his putt. From the middle of the 14th fairway, Johnson tried to lay up with a 2-iron, playing a draw back toward the flag. The wind caught it and took it beyond the white stakes, and Johnson hung his head and dropped another ball in the fairway.

It was another wasted opportunity — the 82 in the final round of the U.S. Open with a three-shot lead, then taking a two-shot penalty on the last hole of the PGA Championship when he didn't realize he was in a bunker.

"The more I put myself in this situation, the better," said Johnson, who closed with a 72. "The more I learn, the more I understand my game and what happens in this situation."

Thomas Bjorn, who threw away the British Open in a bunker on the 16th hole eight years ago, acquitted himself nicely. He never got closer than three shots all day, but his 71 put him in fourth place and at least earned him a trip back to the Masters next year.

Chad Campbell (69), Kim (70) and Fowler (72) tied for fifth.

Clarke won for the second time this year — he beat a weak field in Spain that was opposite The Players Championship — and goes to No. 30 in the world. He had been No. 111, the lowest-ranked player to win a major since Shaun Micheel in 2003 at the PGA.

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Murdoch, son will testify to British MPs (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son James backed down in the face of threats of jail from British lawmakers Thursday and agreed to testify to a parliamentary committee on the phone-hacking scandal.

In another dramatic day in the saga that has killed off the News of the World tabloid and wrecked Murdoch's takeover bid for pay-TV giant BSkyB, the Murdochs reversed their earlier refusal to give evidence to MPs on Tuesday.

Police also arrested Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive, but were later forced to admit that Scotland Yard itself had previously employed him as an advisor, raising fresh concerns about police corruption in the case.

The Murdochs' climbdown came only five hours after parliament's media select committee formally summoned them to attend, having received letters from the pair saying they were "unable" to attend but giving no reasons.

That left Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper arm and a former editor of the News of the World from 2000-2003, to appear by herself before the committee.

But a spokeswoman for Murdoch's News Corp. later said: "News Corp. can confirm that we are in the process of writing to the select committee with the intention that James Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch will both attend on Tuesday."

Committee chairman John Whittingdale had said that if the Murdochs did not answer the summons then the matter would be dealt with by the House of Commons, which can then order the person to attend.

"If that is not obeyed then it becomes a matter of contempt of parliament and there are penalties," he said, adding: "I understand that it can include imprisonment."

For the tabloid's ex-editor Brooks, it promises to be a tough session.

At her last committee appearance in 2003 she admitted: "We have paid the police for information in the past", though she later said she was referring to the industry in general.

The extent of those payments is part of a Scotland Yard investigation which is also dealing with the voicemail hacking, and of a full public inquiry announced by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Australian-born Murdoch has been in London in crisis mode since Sunday, the day the 168-year-old News of the World published its last ever edition.

The row had rumbled on for months but exploded last week after it emerged that the paper had targeted the messages of Milly Dowler, a murdered 13-year-old girl, and of the families of the veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Wednesday, Murdoch's News Corp. announced it was dropping its bid for full control of BSkyB, whose portfolio includes live English Premier League football and blockbuster films and has 10 million household subscribers.

In London, police arrested Wallis, 60, the former executive editor and deputy editor of the News of the World, who left the paper in 2009. Wallis is the ninth person to be arrested since the inquiry was reopened in January.

Wallis was deputy editor from 2003 to 2007 under editor Andy Coulson. Coulson quit the paper in 2007 after its royal reporter and a private investigator were jailed for hacking mobile phone voicemails.

Coulson, who went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief before quitting that job in January, was arrested on Friday in connection with the scandal and later bailed.

But Scotland Yard later confirmed that a media company owned by Wallis "was appointed to provide strategic communication advice and support to the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service)".

It said the contract, which ran from October 2009 to September 2010, included advice on speech writing and public relations, while the police force's deputy director of public affairs was on sick leave.

Wallis was previously a member of the Press Complaints Commission, the British newspaper industry's self-regulating body which now faces reform.

Separately British detectives have told the cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian man shot dead by police in London in 2005 after being mistaken for a suicide bomber, he may been targeted by the News of the World, campaigners said.

In Australia, the birthplace of Murdoch's global empire, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Thursday she would be open to an inquiry into media regulation and ownership after the "disgusting" scandal engulfing News Corp.

In Washington, Democratic senators Jay Rockefeller and Barbara Boxer urged US Attorney General Eric Holder and the Wall Street watchdog Securities and Exchange Commission to launch investigations into the scandal.

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Murdoch drops bid for British Sky Broadcasting (AP)

LONDON – In a stunning retreat, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media empire dropped its bid Wednesday to take over full control of British Sky Broadcasting amid a political and legal firestorm over phone hacking at one of its British newspapers.

Murdoch stepped back from making potentially his biggest, most lucrative acquisition, accepting that he could not win British government acceptance of the takeover since the country's major political parties had united against it.

"It has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate," News Corp. deputy chairman and president Chase Carey said in a brief statement to the London Stock Exchange.

Shares in BSkyB dived 4 percent lower after the announcement, but quickly rebounded to trade around 1 percent down.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron announced he was putting a senior judge in charge of an inquiry into phone hacking and alleged police bribery by one of Murdoch's British tabloids, News of the World. The British leader also vowed to investigate an allegation that a U.K. reporter may have sought the phone numbers of 9/11 terror victims in a quest for sensational scoops.

"There is a firestorm, if you like, that is engulfing parts of the media, parts of the police, and indeed our political system's ability to respond," Cameron said in the House of Commons. He said the focus must now be on the victims — police say they will be contacting over 3,700 people in the probe — and making sure the guilty are prosecuted.

It is a bitter irony for Murdoch that News of the World, his first British acquisition in 1969, sabotaged his ambitions to control the nation's most profitable broadcaster. The media baron had shut down the 168-year-old muckraking tabloid Sunday and flew to London in a desperate scramble to keep the BSkyB bid alive.

The scandal cost another media executive his job. News International, the British unit of News Corp., said its legal director, Tom Crone, had left the company. Crone had led an internal inquiry that concluded only two people at the News of the World had been involved in phone hacking of celebrities, politicians, top athletes and murder victims — a stance that collapsed as numerous revelations tumbled out this year.

"This is a victory for people up and down this country who have been appalled by the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the failure of News International to take responsibility," said Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who had mobilized all of Britain's major parties to unite behind a motion urging Murdoch to back off the BSkyB bid.

Murdoch had hoped to gain control of the 61 percent of BSkyB shares that his News Corp. doesn't already own.

"People thought it was beyond belief that Mr. Murdoch could continue with his takeover after these revelations," Miliband said.

Outrage has grown and Murdoch's News Corp.'s share price has fallen since a report last week that his News of the World tabloid hacked into the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into her disappearance. That was followed by claims of intrusion into private records by Murdoch's other U.K. papers, The Sun and The Sunday Times.

Police have arrested eight people so far in their investigation, including Cameron's former communications director Andy Coulson, a former editor of News of the World. No one has been charged.

Dowler's family met with Cameron at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday. Mark Lewis, a lawyer for the family, said they were pleased that politicians reacted "so quickly in response to the outrage of the public."

Cameron appointed Lord Justice Brian Leveson to lead the inquiry, which will be able to compel witnesses — including government figures — to give evidence under oath.

Leveson will first investigate the culture, practices and ethics of the press, its relationship with police and the failure of the current system of self-regulation. That inquiry is expected to last up to one year. Only then will the inquiry focus shift to what went wrong at the News of the World and other papers, Cameron said.

The judge said some aspects of his work would have to wait until the criminal investigation is complete.

"The press provides an essential check on all aspects of public life. That is why any failure within the media affects all of us," Leveson said. "At the heart of this inquiry, therefore, may be one simple question: who guards the guardians?"

The suggestion that 9/11 victims may have been targeted surfaced Monday in the Mirror, a British competitor of The Sun. It quoted an anonymous source as saying an unidentified American investigator had rejected approaches from unidentified journalists who showed a particular interest in British victims of the terror attacks. It cited no evidence that any phone had actually been hacked.

In Washington, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, urged an investigation into whether Murdoch's News Corp. had violated U.S. law because of the British paper's activities.

If there was any hacking of phones belonging to 9/11 victims or other Americans, "the consequences will be severe," said Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

A report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, which is part of News Corp., said Murdoch has met with advisers over recent weeks to discuss possible options, including the sale of his remaining British newspapers — The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

The Journal, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation, said there didn't appear to be any buyers given the poor economics of the newspaper division.

Still, a defiant mood was evident at one News International paper, The Sun tabloid, which slapped the headline "Brown Wrong" across its front page in response to claims by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the paper had obtained confidential medical records of his younger son.

Brown accused Murdoch's papers, including The Sun and The Sunday Times, of obtaining his confidential bank accounts, tax records and even health information about his son, Fraser, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, using fraudulent, criminal means. But, the newspaper insisted it learned of the boy's ailment from the father of another child with the same condition, and that it contacted the Browns, who consented to the story.

"We are not aware of Mr. Brown, nor any of his colleagues to whom we spoke, making any complaint about it at the time," The Sun said.

News International responded to Brown's accusations by asking him for any information that would help to investigate them.

Police in the U.K. are pursuing two investigations of News International, one on phone hacking and the other on allegations that the News of the World bribed police officers for information.

Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, urged News International to come clean about any payments.

"Let's not play around with legal games here: If they have names, dates, times, places, payments to officers, we would like to see them so that we can lock these officers up and throw away the key," Orde told the British Broadcasting radio.

Police officials have indicated the bribery investigations involve about half a dozen officers.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said Wednesday that he had been informed that his telephone had been hacked, but he decided not to take legal action.

"Why on earth should I go through some court case in which it would have inevitably involved going over all the pathetic so-called revelations that the News of the World had dug up?" Johnson said.

"Why should I, when the police had made it clear to me when they had abundant evidence?" he added.

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British government moves to halt Murdoch Sky bid (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – The British government joined efforts to block Rupert Murdoch's bid for broadcaster BSkyB on Tuesday, dashing his hopes of a rapid expansion in television as the scandal over phone-hacking by one of his newspapers widened.

By completing a phalanx of resistance to the global media magnate that includes all Britain's main parties, the move by Prime Minister David Cameron showed how far a man long feared and courted by left and right as a kingmaker may be hampered by outrage over the past week's allegations about his journalism.

The opposition Labour party, which has sought to capitalize on Conservative leader Cameron's personal ties to key figures in the affair, scheduled a non-binding vote in parliament for Wednesday. It will call on Murdoch to withdraw News Corp's $14-billion bid for the 61 percent it does not already own in BSkyB, Britain's main pay-TV group.

Barely an hour later, a spokesman for the government said it too would back the motion, setting a huge political, if not strictly legislative, hurdle for the takeover. Ministers had looked increasingly embarrassed by having already given their provisional blessing to Murdoch's offer, a fact that left the fate of the deal largely in the hands of independent officials.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said after calling the vote: "The best way of achieving our objective, which is to make sure that this bid cannot go ahead while the criminal investigation is going on, is for Mr Murdoch to withdraw the bid."

Developments since the scandal blew up had already meant the bid being referred to the competition watchdog, entailing a delay of possibly a year. But while that may have seemed a convenient respite for News Corp and the government to let the scandal die down, parliamentary unanimity against the takeover, even if not binding, may prove durable and hard to overcome.

SHARES DOWN

BSkyB shares closed 3.3 percent lower. News Corp shares lost gains they had made on news of a $5 billion share buyback that has taken advantage of a 14-percent slide in the stock price in New York since Thursday, when Murdoch announced the closure of top-selling tabloid the News of the World.

One London media analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the companies' future was very hard to predict, given how far politicians had been forced to take positions in the light of popular anger: "The worm is turning," the analyst said of the stance Cameron's party was taking.

"It's serious in that it shows the political will at the moment. But the truth is things are changing by the hour in all of this so in a year's time, who knows? News Corp may not own any more newspapers in a year's time. So it's a tough one to call. The politicians are blowing in the wind."

Earlier on Tuesday, a senior policeman who investigated phone hacking by Murdoch's journalists said his own voicemails were probably spied on, but he denied that fear of embarrassing exposure intimidated him into dropping the inquiry.

Tapping popular anger at the global media magnate over allegations a tabloid newspaper spied on thousands of people, from the rich and powerful to vulnerable victims of crime, parliament summoned Murdoch and two top lieutenants to answer questions next Tuesday. It was not clear if they would attend.

The crossfire of mutual recrimination among politicians, press and police included an emotional charge from former prime minister Gordon Brown that Murdoch journalists hired "known criminals" to probe his private affairs at a time when they were running stories about his finances and his baby son's illness.

News International, News Corp's British newspaper arm, defended the story in its Sun daily, about the infant's cystic fibrosis, saying its source had been legitimate.

Police have been under fire for failing to follow up inquiries into phone hacking by the News of the World after the paper's royalty correspondent was jailed in 2007 for conspiring to listen in to the voicemails of court officials.

Serving and former senior officers faced hostile questions from a parliamentary committee about allegations police sold information to journalists and may have been bribed or pressured to prevent inquiries. Several tried to turn the tables, accusing News International of withholding evidence.

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden, Paul Sandle, Keith Weir, Tim Castle, Mike Collett-White, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Sinead Cruise, Chris Vellacott and Karolina Tagaris; Writing by Alastair Macdonald, editing by Tim Pearce)

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Murdoch summoned by British MPs over hacking (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – British lawmakers summoned Rupert Murdoch and his top executives for questioning in a dramatic new turn in the phone hacking row Tuesday, as police accused his newspapers of blocking their investigations.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown also piled pressure on Murdoch's media empire, accusing it of hiring "criminals" to obtain his private documents and suggesting it used illegal methods to break the news of his son's illness.

The government meanwhile said it would back a parliamentary motion by the opposition Labour party on Wednesday calling on Murdoch to drop his controversial bid for control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Brown's claims are the first to explicitly drag other newspapers within News International, Murdoch's British newspaper operation, into the long-running scandal which killed off the News of the World tabloid at the weekend.

Murdoch flew to Britain on Sunday to take control of the crisis and on Tuesday he held meetings with News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who was News of the World editor at the time of some of the hacking, and other key figures.

Lawmakers took advantage of his presence to call on him, his son, News Corp. executive James Murdoch, and Brooks to appear before them to face questions about hacking and allegations that Murdoch papers paid police for information.

News International said it would "cooperate" with the request from the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee to appear next week.

The long-running scandal led to the shock closure of the 168-year-old News of the World last week, and indirectly caused the government to refer News Corp.'s bid for BSkyB to competition regulators.

But Murdoch is not the only one under pressure.

Senior police officers were grilled by a separate parliamentary committee on Tuesday to explain why their original probe into the News of the World in 2006 failed to unearth all the latest allegations.

Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who decided not to reopen the investigation in 2009, expressed regret at that decision and apologised to the victims but blamed News International for failing to hand over key evidence.

"The evidence that we should have had in 2005-6 and in 2009 has only recently been supplied by News International," he said, adding that the company had "clearly misled us".

He also revealed that his own phone had been hacked during 2005-06, but strongly denied any suggestion that he decided not to reopen the police probe because he feared his private details would emerge in the press.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz said he had found Yates "unconvincing".

A new police investigation was opened in January, and officers are now trawling through 11,000 documents seized from private detective Glen Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 as a result of the original investigation.

Peter Clarke, a former deputy assistant commissioner who oversaw the original probe, also accused News International of withholding evidence.

"This is a major global organisation with access to the best legal advice, in my view deliberately trying to thwart a police investigation," he told the parliamentary committee.

He defended his decision not to sift through the 11,000 documents at the time, saying that in the wake of the July 2005 bombings in London, counter-terrorism had been a priority.

The claims in the documents include last week's allegations that the tabloid hacked the voicemails of a murdered teenager and the relatives of dead soldiers, which unleashed the public outrage that led to the demise of the paper.

In another major twist, Brown accused the Sunday Times, the News of the World's upmarket stablemate, of using con tricks to obtain bank details and legal documents relating to a flat he bought.

"I'm shocked, I'm genuinely shocked to find that this happened because of their links with criminals, known criminals who were undertaking this activity, hired by investigators who were working with the Sunday Times," he told the BBC.

He also said he "couldn't think" how The Sun, another Murdoch paper, had obtained information that his son had cystic fibrosis, adding that when the tabloid splashed the news on its front page in 2006 he was left "in tears".

Brown, who was finance minister from 1997 to 2007 and then Labour prime minister until 2010, said it was Brooks who told him about The Sun's story, as she was editor of the tabloid at the time.

A News International source said they were "satisfied that the story about his son came from legitimate sources."

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Murdoch under pressure to reconsider British bid (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain was looking for a way out of approving media baron Rupert Murdoch's multi-billion dollar deal to buy broadcaster BSkyB amid a phone-hacking scandal that has damaged the prime minister and raised broader questions about politicians' relations with the media.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, from the junior coalition partner the Liberal Democrats, urged Murdoch to reconsider the bid after revelations one of his newspapers hacked into the phones of murder victims and relatives of Britain's war dead.

New allegations Monday included reports it had bought contact details for the British royal family from a policeman and tried to buy private phone records of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

"Do the decent thing, and reconsider, think again about your bid for BSkyB," Clegg told BBC News after meeting relatives of one of the victims of phone-hacking, a murdered schoolgirl.

The government, which faces a stormy parliamentary debate on Wednesday, earlier asked media regulator Ofcom and the consumer watchdog to reassess the bid in the light of the scandal, a move that could provide a basis to block the buyout.

The new request to Ofcom, which is already assessing whether News Corp is a 'fit and proper' holder of a broadcast license, and the Office of Fair Trading follows a report in the Independent newspaper that government lawyers were drawing up plans to block the BSkyB bid.

Shares in BSkyB dropped more than 7 percent Monday morning after a similar fall Friday. News Corp shares fell more than 7 percent in New York last week.

"We believe the deal is all but dead," Panmure Gordon analyst Alex DeGroote said.

The head of UK equities at one top 30 investor in BSkyB told Reuters they expected the deal to be delayed. "I believe the takeover will happen in due course but it is unlikely to go through until next year at the earliest," the investor said.

Murdoch flew to London Sunday from the U.S. to try to contain the damage to his media empire, which wields influence from Hollywood to Hong Kong and includes U.S. cable network Fox and the Wall Street Journal as well as Britain's biggest selling paper, the Sun.

He has shown no sign of backing away from the BSkyB deal, which would be his company's largest acquisition. Sources close to his company said he could consider other options to get it through if he felt the government was going to block or delay it, but they did not elaborate.

Eight people, almost all journalists, have been arrested so far in a police inquiry into the allegations, which include that police may have been paid for information and a company executive may have destroyed evidence. News Corp's British media arm firmly denies any obstruction of justice.

"You wouldn't be human if you weren't totally appalled by the revelations that have come to light, they're just stomach churning and I think everyone feels totally shaken," Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said in a television interview.

Hunt's strong comments, and the approach to the regulators, may have been designed to give the government some political cover ahead of Wednesday's debate, lawyers said, as from a legal standpoint the takeover deal and hacking scandal are not linked.

Both Hunt and Prime Minister David Cameron, from the center-right Conservatives who lead the coalition government, have been accused by left-leaning Labor of being too close to Murdoch and too slow to act to uncover the full extent of the scandal.

Andy Coulson, a former editor of the News of the World, was until earlier this year Cameron's spokesman, before he was forced to resign over the scandal.

Labor party leader Ed Miliband said Sunday he would force parliament to vote this week if Cameron did not take steps to halt News Corp's $14-billion bid for the 61 percent of BSkyB that it does not already own.

He said Monday the government had moved reluctantly. "They are doing it not because they want to, but because they have been forced to," Miliband said, urging Murdoch to "drop the bid for BSkyB."

A vote in parliament could split the coalition between Cameron's Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who, traditionally less favored by Murdoch's media, have signaled they could vote with Labor on the issue.

It would also give Labor a chance to cast itself as the champion of a public angered by allegations that News of the World reporters and editors were complicit in breaking into voicemails including those of bombing victims for stories.

"We are working on a plan to suspend the deal while the police investigation is taking place," the Independent quoted a senior government source as saying. A spokesman for the prime minister declined to comment.

Hunt's letter to the regulator asked them to consider whether News Corp's undertakings which were made to secure the deal were still credible given the revelations.

"Given the well-publicized matters involving the News of the World in the past week...I would be grateful if you could let me know whether you consider that any new information that has come to light causes you to reconsider any part of your previous advice to me including your confidence in the credibility, sustainability of practicalities of the undertakings offered by News Corporation," the letter said.

Murdoch's own Sunday Times reported that a 2007 internal investigation at the News of the World had found evidence that phone hacking was more widespread than the company had admitted and that staff had illegally paid police for information.

As Murdoch, 80, was driven into his London headquarters on Sunday, he held up the final edition of the News of the World, the 168-year-old newspaper he bought in 1969 then closed last week in a bid to stem the crisis.

Christina Camargo-Lima, walking on her way to work past Murdoch's London flat Monday morning, welcomed the criticism of Murdoch. "I think it's time the mogul came down. They just can't control democracy like that."

LURID HEADLINES

The News of the World is best known for its lurid headlines exposing misadventures of the rich, royal and famous. Its last headline said simply "Thank You & Goodbye" over a montage of some of its most celebrated splashes of the past 168 years.

Monday, the BBC said News International had bought phone details for the royal family from a security officer, citing company emails. "The implication, therefore, is that the security of the head of state was in some sense being threatened," said BBC business editor Robert Peston.

The Daily Mirror newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source, that News of the World journalists had offered to pay a New York police officer to retrieve the private phone records of victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

There was no immediate comment from the company.

Murdoch dined Sunday in an upmarket hotel with his British newspaper arm's chief executive Rebekah Brooks, a friend of Cameron's and editor of the News of the World at the time of the alleged phone-hacking, and his son and heir apparent, James. Cameron has since said Brooks should step down.

The affair has thrown a harsh spotlight on the long-standing ties between British politicians and Australian-born Murdoch.

Cameron has insisted that the government has no legal power to block the BSkyB deal if it is satisfied that enough media plurality -- competition -- will be maintained. It had already indicated it would accept News Corp's assurances on this count.

"FIT AND PROPER"

The Independent said the government had latterly hoped the broadcasting regulator Ofcom would stop the deal going through on grounds that News Corp directors were not "fit and proper" to run BSkyB, but this was unlikely to happen until a possibly lengthy police investigation had been completed.

Instead, it said lawyers in the department of Culture and media were now looking at using competition criteria to block the deal.

That would still be embarrassing for the prime minister, who has ordered a public inquiry and also admitted media barons had too much influence over politicians, but arguably less damaging than a split with his coalition partners.

Blocking the BSkyB deal on grounds of media plurality would also be better for Murdoch than if he and his team were found to be not "fit and proper" to run the broadcaster, as that could see him lose his existing 39 percent of the company.

(Additional reporting by Paul Sandle, Keith Weir, Tim Castle, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Sinead Cruise and Chris Vellacott; writing by Philippa Fletcher)

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British PM's ex-aide arrested over tabloid scandal (AFP)

LONDON (AFP) – Police arrested David Cameron's ex-media chief and a former royal reporter over Britain's tabloid phone hacking row Friday as the prime minister promised urgent inquiries into the spiralling scandal.

Cameron looked rattled during the toughest press conference of his year in power, but he defended his decision to hire Andy Coulson, the former editor of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, which is to shut this weekend.

He admitted the scandal went to the heart of the British establishment, saying: "The truth is, we have all been in this together -- the press, politicians and leaders of all parties, and yes, that includes me."

Cameron said he gave Coulson a "second chance" after he quit the News of the World in 2007 when two people were jailed over hacking. Coulson then resigned from Cameron's Downing Street office in January, citing pressure over the claims.

"The decision to hire him was mine and mine alone, and I take full responsibility for it," Cameron said, adding however that Coulson "became a friend and is a friend".

Murdoch caused astonishment on Thursday when he killed off the 168-year-old News of the World, Britain's biggest selling Sunday paper, amid claims that it hacked the voicemails of a murdered girl and the families of dead soldiers.

Cameron announced that he would set up a public inquiry led by a judge into the furore around the paper, as well as a second inquiry into the way in which the British press is regulated.

"These are the questions that need answering: Why did the first police investigation fail so abysmally? What exactly was going on at the News of the World? And what was going on at other newspapers?" he said.

Minutes after the prime minister spoke, London's Metropolitan Police arrested the 43-year-old Coulson by appointment at a South London police station "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking".

The corruption allegations refer to alleged improper payments to police officers by the paper when Coulson was editor of Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper from 2003 to 2007.

He remained in custody late Friday.

Police said they had also on Friday re-arrested Clive Goodman, the News of the World's former royal editor, one of the two men who was jailed in 2007 for hacking the voicemails of Princes William and Harry.

Goodman, 53, was apprehended at his house in Surrey, south of London, on corruption charges.

Police said they had also raided the offices of another British tabloid, the Daily Star Sunday, where Goodman had worked as a freelance reporter over the past year.

In a statement, the paper said officers had requested computer material linked to Goodman "to cross-check it with his activities in his News of the World role", adding that there was no suggestion he had acted improperly at the Daily Star Sunday.

The shock closure of the News of the World was widely seen as a way to quell the scandal and save the bid by his News Corp. for control of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB, on which the British government is due to decide.

Shares in BSkyB plunged 3.94 percent to 780.5 pence in late morning deals Friday, topping the fallers board on the FTSE 100 index.

It was also seen as a way of protecting Rebekah Brooks, the embattled head of Murdoch's British newspaper wing, News International, who was editor of the News of the World from 2000 to 2003, when some of the allegations also date from.

Cameron said of reports she had offered her resignation: "In this situation, I would have taken it."

Brooks however told the 200 sacked staff at the News of the World office on Friday that she felt "betrayed" and that she would try to find them jobs across the company, Sky News reported.

The last edition of the unashamedly sensationalist tabloid will be on Sunday, ending a long history of publishing sex scandals but also hard-hitting investigations including into recent Pakistani cricket match-fixing claims.

British newspapers on Friday mourned the passing of their scandal-hit comrade.

The Daily Mail ran with the headline "The Paper that Died of Shame", and bemoaned the "downfall of a fine British institution" while The Daily Telegraph opted for "Goodbye, cruel World".

Murdoch will reportedly replace it with a Sunday edition of The Sun, his daily tabloid, which is Britain's biggest selling newspaper.

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