LONDON (AP) — Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's former British newspaper chief, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of phone hacking and bribing police, and the escalating scandal shaking Murdoch's global media empire also claimed the job of London's police chief.
The arrest of the 43-year-old Brooks, often described as a surrogate ******** to the 80-year-old Murdoch, brought the British police investigations into the media baron's inner circle for the first time.
Hours later, the resignation of Britain's most senior police officer, Paul Stephenson, who quit over his links to an arrested former editor at the same Murdoch's tabloid that Brooks once edited, was the latest shock in a scandal engulfing Britain's political and media elite.
Brooks' arrest came only 48 hours before she, Rupert Murdoch and his *** James were to be grilled by U.K. lawmakers investigating widespread lawbreaking at Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid. It also raises the possibility that Murdoch's old friend Les Hinton, who resigned Friday as publisher of The Wall Street Journal, or his 38-year-old *** and heir apparent, James, could be next.
