Rebekah Brooks arrested by police in hacking probe
Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been arrested by police investigating phone hacking and bribery at the News of the World.
The 43-year-old was arrested by appointment at a London police station and remains in custody.
BBC business editor Robert Peston says that News International was not aware that Mrs Brooks would be arrested when her resignation was being discussed at the company on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, and that the development was "quite striking".
Mrs Brooks is due to appear in front of the Commons media select committee on Tuesday to answer MPs questions on the hacking scandal.
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Rebekah Brooks arrested in hacking scandal - sources
LONDON |
(Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World and a favoured lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch, was arrested on Sunday as part of an investigation into allegations of phone hacking and bribing police, sources familiar with the situation said.
Brooks, 43, has said she was unaware of allegations that the News of the World tabloid hacked thousands of phones including that of a murdered schoolgirl.
She resigned on Friday as chief executive of News International to try to deflect pressure from the media empire of Murdoch, whose News Corp has been rocked by the crisis.
Her lawyer Dave Wilson told Reuters that Brooks went to a London police station of her own volition by pre-arranged appointment. He said she was assisting police with their inquiries and declined to comment further.
A senior News International source said the company was surprised by the arrest and had had no indication it was coming.
The News of the World, which published its final edition a week ago, is alleged to have hacked thousands of phones, including that of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, sparking a furore that forced Murdoch to close the paper and drop a $12 billion plan to buy all of highly profitable broadcaster BSkyB.
Brooks, Murdoch and his son James will be questioned in Britain's parliament on Tuesday, including over reports that News International misled parliament during earlier hearings.
Brooks became the focus of widespread anger over the scandal but was initially protected by Murdoch, who guided her rise through the male-dominated world of UK tabloid journalism to become editor of the News of the World in 2000 and the Sun's first female editor in 2003.
Murdoch broke his silence by publishing apologies in several newspapers at the weekend, as British politicians demanded his grip over the country's media be weakened.
He lost another loyal executive on Friday when Les Hinton resigned as chief executive of Murdoch's Dow Jones & Co which publishes The Wall Street Journal.
"There are no excuses and should be no place to hide ... We will continue to cooperate fully and actively with the Metropolitan Police Service," News International said in an announcement on Sunday. Unlike apologies published on Saturday, these were not signed by Murdoch.
Leading British politicians renewed calls for greater media plurality and press regulation -- a direct threat to Murdoch's empire, which includes the influential Sun tabloid newspaper, the Times and Sunday Times broadsheets, and crucially, a large chunk of BSkyB.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that members of the board of BSkyB, of which News Corp owns 39 percent and where James serves as chairman, are due to meet in a special session on July 28 to discuss his future.
The scandal has also embroiled Britain's police, who are accused of being too close to News Corp, of accepting cash from the now defunct News of the World and other newspapers, and of not doing enough to investigate the phone-hacking allegations that surfaced as far as back as 2005.
(Additional reporting by Keith Weir and Georgina Prodhan, Writing by Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/17/idINIndia-58298120110717
Ex-Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks arrested in London
LONDON
London police arrested Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's former British CEO, in the phone hacking and police bribery scandal Sunday, and the former News of the World editor said she was "assisting the police with their inquiries."
Brooks, 43, was arrested at a London police station at noon Sunday by appointment. She is being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications -- phone hacking -- and on suspicion of corruption, which relates to bribing police for information.
A statement released on Brooks' behalf said she "voluntarily attended a London police station to assist with their ongoing investigation."
The arrest comes just two days before Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and his son James are due to answer questions from a parliamentary committee investigating the hacking. Sunday's arrest throws that appearance before Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee into question; Brooks would not have to answer questions that could prejudice a criminal investigation.
Brooks, one of Murdoch's most loyal lieutenants, stepped down Friday as head of his British newspapers. She was editor of the now-defunct News of the World between 2000 and 2003, when some of the phone hacking took place, but has always said she did not know hacking was going on, a claim greeted with skepticism by many who worked there.
At an appearance before lawmakers in 2003, she admitted that News International had paid police for information. That admission of possible illegal activity went largely unchallenged and, at the time, little noticed.
Police have already arrested nine other people connected to Murdoch's British media empire over allegations that the News of the World hacked into the phone voice mails of hundreds of celebrities, politicians, rival journalists and even murder victims. No one has yet been charged.
LONDON — British police on Sunday arrested Rebekah Brooks, a former top aide to Rupert Murdoch, casting doubt over her appearance before lawmakers this week to answer questions about the phone-hacking scandal.
The arrest of Brooks, 43, who resigned on Friday as chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper wing, piled pressure on Murdoch as the leader of the Labour opposition called for the break-up of his British media empire.
But there was immediate speculation about why the under-fire Scotland Yard made her pre-arranged arrest when it did, when it could mean that she is now unable to face questions before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
"Rebekah had a prearranged appointment with police which she attended of her own volition. She was arrested on arrival by police," her spokesman David Wilson told AFP.
Scotland Yard would only confirm that a 43-year-old woman had been arrested "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking" at the News of the World tabloid, which Brooks once edited and which shut down last week.
It said in a statement that she "was arrested by appointment at a London police station by officers" and was in custody.
Brooks is the 10th person and most senior member of Murdoch's empire to be arrested so far over the scandal, which exploded earlier this month amid claims that under her watch the News of the World hacked the phone of a murdered girl.
The flame-haired Brooks is due to appear alongside Murdoch and his son James, the chairman of News International, before the British parliament's media committee on Tuesday to answer questions about the growing scandal.
But the chairman of the committee, John Whittingdale, was quoted by Sky News as saying that he now did not know if she would attend, as questioning Brooks could in theory interfere with the police investigation.
Her arrest came hours after Murdoch published his second apology in British newspapers, although it failed to stop opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband calling for his British media interests to be dismantled.
"I think he has too much power over British public life," Miliband told the Observer newspaper, citing his ownership of the The Sun, Times and The Sunday Times newspapers as well as a 39 percent share in pay-TV giant BSkyB.
Abandoning his earlier defiance, Murdoch placed ads in most of Britain's Sunday newspapers for a second day, this time entitled "Putting right what's gone wrong".
Sunday's ads promised to fully cooperate with police investigating the hacking and provide compensation for those targeted, adding: "There are no excuses and there should be no place to hide."
Murdoch closed the News of the World one week ago but the move failed to stem the scandal, which is threatening the interests of the Australian-born magnate's News Corporation all around the world.
In recent days his bid for control of the rest of BSkyB collapsed while Brooks's departure on Friday was followed hours later by that of Dow Jones chief Les Hinton.
The Murdoch empire's links to the police and politicians also came under fresh scrutiny on Sunday.
Scotland Yard revealed that Commissioner Paul Stephenson met its executives and editors 18 times socially between 2006 and 2010. The force has faced criticism for botching the initial investigation into the News of the World.
Stephenson was linked to former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis in reports Sunday which said the police chief accepted a five-week stay earlier this year at a luxury health spa where Wallis worked as a PR consultant.
The force is already facing questions about why it hired Wallis as an advisor two months after he quit the tabloid. Wallis was arrested last week.
A police spokesman strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Home Secretary Theresa May will make a statement to parliament on Monday to set out her "concerns" about the hiring of Wallis.
Prime Minister David Cameron meanwhile faced questions about his decision to invite his former media chief Andy Coulson, another ex-News of the World editor, to his country residence in March, two months after Coulson quit Downing Street.
Coulson was arrested and bailed by police earlier this month.
The hacking scandal is also being investigated by the FBI in the United States, where News Corp. is based and where Murdoch is a naturalised US citizen.
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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