Murdoch makes fresh apology as brooks is arrested by UK police

LONDON: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp made a fresh apology for the phone-hacking scandal in UK national newspapers as Rebekah Brooks, ousted last week as the publishing unit's chief executive officer, was arrested by police. Brooks, 43, was arrested on Sunday in London, according to a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified because the information is confidential.

Police said in an e- mailed statement they arrested a 43-year-old woman on suspicion of corruption and conspiring to intercept communications. The escalating crisis around the News of the World has within two weeks forced the closure of the 168-year-old tabloid and the resignation of executives including Brooks and former News International Chairman Les Hinton. Murdoch withdrew its £7.8 billion($12.6 billion) bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc.

“He has too much power over British public life,” Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said in an interview with the Observer newspaper today, calling for a breakup of the 80-year-old's media empire. “We’ve got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20% of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News. I think it's unhealthy.” Under the headline “Putting right what's gone wrong,” News International, News Corp’s UK publishing unit, said it's the company's obligation to provide full cooperation with the police and compensation for those affected. The publisher is “committed to change” and said “apologising for our mistakes and fixing them are only the first steps.”

In advertisements in its own and rival UK newspapers for a second day, News International said there should be “no place to hide” from the police investigation into phone hacking. On Saturday, the company issued an apology in similar ads signed by Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of New York-based News Corp. News International also manages The Sun tabloid, the Times of London and the Sunday Times.

Murdoch has been in London since July 10 as the scandal escalated and politicians of all parties called on him and his son, James, to take responsibility for a crisis that has spread beyond the UK. The Murdochs and Brooks are scheduled to appear before a panel of UK lawmakers on July 19. John Whittingdale, chairman of the U.K. cross-party parliamentary committee, said Brooks may be interviewed separately.

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News Corp will take over from News International a committee set up to work with police over the phone-hacking scandal, according to people with knowledge of the matter.Simon Greenberg, corporate affairs director at News International, and General Manager Will Lewis will be employed full time by the management and standards committee, which will report to Joel Klein, Murdoch's top adviser, and Viet Dinh on behalf of News Corp's independent directors, said the people, who asked not to be identified. An announcement may be made as early as tomorrow, they said.

Hinton, chairman of News International in the years the alleged phone hacking occurred, stepped down as head of the Dow Jones division on July 15. That followed the exit of Brooks, who was editor of the News of the World, the newspaper implicated in the scandal, from 2000 to 2003, which was closed down last week.