that doesnt surprise me
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that doesnt surprise me
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has resigned following the phone hacking scandal.
Britain's most senior police officer has faced criticism for hiring former News of the World executive Neil Wallis - who was questioned by police investigating hacking - as an adviser.
Sir Paul said his links to the journalist could hamper investigations.
He said there were lessons to be learned from the affair, but he was leaving with his integrity intact.
He also said he had no knowledge of the extent of the phone hacking.
Home Secretary Theresa May said she was "sorry" he had resigned and thanked him for his work.
Earlier, she said she would address MPs on Monday about her "concerns" over the closeness of the relationship between News International and police.
'Great sadness'
Sir Paul said in a statement: "I have taken this decision as a consequence of the ongoing speculation and accusations relating to the Met's links with News International at a senior level and in particular in relation to Mr Neil Wallis."
He added: "Let me state clearly, I and the people who know me know that my integrity is completely intact.
"I may wish we had done some things differently, but I will not lose sleep over my personal integrity."
Sir Paul has also faced questions over his stay with his wife at a luxury health spa which employed Mr Wallis.
The journalist was working as a public relations consultant for Champneys spa when Sir Paul recuperated from surgery there earlier this year.
The Met acknowledged Sir Paul had stayed there for free while he recovered from a fractured leg caused by an operation to remove a pre-cancerous tumour.
Sir Paul said he had informed Buckingham Palace, Ms May and London Mayor Boris Johnson about his decision.
Mr Johnson said he accepted the resignation with "great sadness and reluctance" and he had no reason to doubt his "complete integrity".
"I believe him to be a fine, passionate and committed public servant who has done a huge amount of good for our city," he said.
'Brave decision'
The chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee - Keith Vaz - said he was "genuinely shocked" by the announcement.
"He was very keen that people realised that his integrity was intact, and I think what he basically said was, he was concerned about the leadership of the Met at this time," he said.
"It is a very brave decision, and I'm shocked by it, actually, because I don't think there's anything in the statement in particular that points to any wrongdoing or inappropriateness on the part of the commissioner."
Earlier on Sunday the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was arrested by police investigating phone hacking and corruption.
BBC News
so another one bites the dust
No doubt he will not suffer any financial penalties, such as keeping his pension entitlement etc and possible pay-off.The same as Rebeka Brooks. If I resign because of misconduct, I lose all eligibility for bonuses, gratuities etc. :angry:
One of Britain's top police officers insisted his "conscience was clear" after quitting Scotland Yard over the phone-hacking scandal.
John Yates said his decision to resign as assistant commissioner was a matter of great personal frustration. He said he had acted "completely" with integrity.
Mr Yates is understood to have been told he would be suspended by police regulators within half an hour before taking the decision to resign.
Scotland Yard's top counter-terror officer said it was with "great regret that I make this decision after nearly 30 years as a police officer".
He blamed his departure on a "huge amount of inaccurate, ill-informed and on occasion downright malicious gossip".
"This has the potential to be a significant distraction in my current role as the national lead for counter terrorism," he said.
"I see no prospect of this improving in the coming weeks and months as we approach one of the most important events in the history of the Metropolitan Police Service, the 2012 Olympic Games."
He said he would "never forgive myself" if he was unable to give total commitment to protecting London and the country.
Mr Yates added: "It is a matter of great personal frustration that despite my efforts, on a number of occasions, to explain the true facts surrounding my role in these matters since 2009, there remains confusion about what exactly took place."
PA
Latest news: No-one has resigned for ten minutes over the affair.
If he full truth of this sordid affair does ever come out there will be quite a few MPs on both sides of the house will be crapping themselves
A former News of the World journalist who made phone-hacking allegations against the paper has been found dead.
Sean Hoare had told the New York Times the practice was far more extensive than the paper acknowledged when police first investigated hacking claims.
Hertfordshire Police said the body of a man was found at a property in Langley Road, Watford, on Monday morning.
A police spokesman said the death was currently being treated as unexplained, but was not thought to be suspicious.
Cases referred
The spokesman said: "At 10.40am today [Monday] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street.
"Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.
"The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."
Mr Hoare had told the BBC's Panorama that phone hacking was "endemic" at the News of the World (NoW).
He also said the then NoW editor Andy Coulson had asked him to hack phones - something Mr Coulson has denied.
This whole story gets more disturbing each day.
Computer hackers have targeted The Sun website, with visitors being redirected to a hoax story about Rupert Murdoch's suicide.
The group LulzSec, which has previously targeted companies including Sony, claimed it carried out the hijack, via messages on Twitter.
Internet users trying to access thesun.co.uk were redirected to new-times.co.uk and a story entitled "Media mogul's body discovered".
It suggested that Mr Murdoch had been found after he had "ingested a large quantity of palladium".
After that site stopped working, The Sun address was re-directing to LulzSec's Twitter account, which claimed to be displaying "hacked internal Sun staff data" in one entry.
A News International spokeswoman confirmed the company was "aware" of what was happening, but made no further comment.
LulzSec is a group of hackers that has claimed responsibility for various high-profile computer attacks on bodies including FBI partner organisations, the CIA, the US Senate and a pornography website.
In the UK it also carried out a distributed denial of service attack - where large numbers of computers overload a target with web requests - on the Serious and Organised Crime Agency website.
The group's name comes from the word lulz, which is online slang for laughter at someone else's expense. Their logo is a cartoon man in a top hat and monocle, holding a glass of wine.
source: yahoo news uk
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NEEvGKb2CO...s1600/cats.jpg
Now we know why Fiz hasnt been on the cobbles. Its just a pity that Rebekkah isnt behind bars
thats freaky i havent noticed that before
Yes, one of them is currently protesting about being suspected of a crime she didn't commit and of perverting the course of justice. Oh, and so is the other one.Quote:
Originally Posted by alan45
But only one of them has ever been arrested for assaulting a soap star.
I am sick to the back teeth with this phone hacking
. The only thing to come out of this is, everyone making money out of the tax payers.
Everyone knows the truth, why do we have to pay these toffs to listen to lies.
James Hipwell, 45, alleged the illegal practice was "endemic" at the Daily Mirror while he worked under the editorship of Piers Morgan between 1998 and 2000.
The 45-year-old claimed he saw show business reporters regularly intercept voicemail messages while he worked next to them on the paper's business section.
He told the Independent newspaper: "You know what people around you are doing.
"They would call a celebrity with one phone and when it was answered they would then hang up.
"By that stage the other phone would be into their [the celebrity's] voicemail and they would key in the code, 9999 or 0000. I saw that a lot."
Mr Hipwell said he would be willing to give evidence to the public inquiry into hacking ordered by David Cameron and headed by Lord Justice Brian Leveson.
He said the death of former News Of The World showbiz journalist Sean Hoare had been a "game-changer" in his decision to speak out.*
Mr Hoare, who was found dead at his Hertfordshire home on Monday, blew the whistle on hacking at the now defunct News Of The World.
Mr Hipwell said: "He was a good bloke and I thought he was treated disgracefully. He is the only one who has had the balls to say that this was going on.*
"I take the view he was right. I know he was flawed, but he was treated very badly and now he's dead. I'm sick of all the lies."
Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the Mirror, hit back at Mr Hipwell's claims saying in a statement: "Our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct."
Mr Hipwell was sacked from the Mirror in 2000 over the "City Slickers" scandal in which he was accused of buying shares before tipping them in the paper.
He was convicted of market manipulation and served 59 days in jail.*
Meanwhile, witnesses who gave evidence about phone hacking in the trial of Tommy Sheridan are to be investigated over allegations that they may have committed perjury.
Strathclyde Police is looking at whether certain witnesses lied to the courts in the former MSPs own perjury trial last year as part of a "full" investigation into phone hacking in Scotland.
Among the people who gave evidence were Andy Coulson, the former NOTW editor; Bob Bird, the then editor of the Scottish edition of the newspaper; and reporter Douglas Wight.
News International has confirmed it had been contacted by police in connection with the investigation.
Trinity Mirror has announced a review of editorial "controls and procedures" following the phone-hacking scandal.
The company said it was being conducted in the light of the current environment rather than a specific allegation.
The BBC has found evidence of possible hacking at the Sunday Mirror, and there are separate claims Daily Mirror journalists hacked voicemails.
The group said its journalists work within the criminal law and Press Complaints Commission code of conduct.
BBC's Newsnight programme has spoken to a journalist who worked on the Sunday Mirror in the past decade who claimed to have witnessed routine phone hacking in the newsroom.
The source said celebrities including actress Liz Hurley and footballer Rio Ferdinand were targeted and the technique was used on a daily basis.
'Clear position'
This weekend, former Daily Mirror journalist James Hipwell told an Australian newspaper he is willing to testify that in the late 1990s Mirror journalists were told to go through the voicemails of celebrities to look for stories.
Hipwell has served time in prison for writing about companies whose shares he owned.
A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: "These are totally unsubstantiated allegations and our position is clear: all our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission Code of Conduct."
The spokesman confirmed the review of editorial controls and procedures was announced on Monday, and said it would apply to all titles across the group which also include the People, Daily Record and more than 160 regional newspapers.
The company's director of corporate communications, Nick Fullagar, added: "In light of recent events, we thought it was timely to look at our controls and procedures. Clearly, after any significant event, it's just good corporate governance."
Trinity Mirror last carried out a review of editorial procedures in 2004 following the Hutton Report, the findings of Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the company confirmed it had taken on law firm Herbert Smith to help with preparations ahead of the Leveson inquiry - the wide-ranging judge-led investigation into wrongdoing in the media and police.
On a lighter note
Rupert Murdoch has released a statement saying that he is touched by some of the messages left on Amy Winehouses phone
The private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking row said he "acted on the instructions of others", his lawyers have said.
In a statement Glenn Mulcaire's legal team said any suggestion he acted unilaterally was "untrue".
It comes after the mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne was told she may have been phone hacked by Mulcaire.
The investigator was jailed in 2007 after admitting to phone hacking while he was working for the paper.
The statement said: "As an employee he [Mulcaire] acted on the instructions of others.
"There were also occasions when he understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes.
"Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue. In the light of the ongoing police investigation, he cannot say any more."
Silly me, I thought that was the police's job, not the News of the World's.Quote:
Originally Posted by alan45
The publishers of the Daily Mail are to carry out a review of their editorial controls and procedures, amid the ongoing phone-hacking scandal.
In a statement, Associated Newspapers said its head of legal services was handling the review.
A Guardian article quotes sources saying the review is not linked to the phone-hacking scandal, but Associated Newspapers will not confirm that.
Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre says he has never countenanced hacking.
In a statement, Associated Newspapers said: "Liz Hartley, head of editorial legal services, who has responsibility for overseeing compliance with the company's policy on journalistic standards, has asked Eddie Young ...to join her to assist in a review of our editorial controls and procedures."
Rebekah Brooks is apparently still being paid by News International, it has emerged.
More than three weeks after she handed in her resignation on July 15 it has transpired that she has not yet fully left Rupert Murdoch's empire.
The former News of the World editor may have stood down as CEO of the company, but her resignation as director is still 'underway', a spokesman for the business said.
And questions put to Mr Murdoch's company and Mrs Brooks' representatives about whether the 43-year-old is still on the business's payroll have been met with a wall of silence.
Rebekah Brooks has allegedly been told by Rupert Murdoch to travel until the scandal quietens down and then he will find her another role
A NI spokeswoman said: 'News International declines to comment on the financial arrangements of any individual.'
Her representative said he would not comment on financial affairs.
The latest Companies House report about positions in Rupert Murdoch's sprawling News International empire shows that Mrs Brooks is still listed as the director.
Companies must inform Companies House, the official government register of UK companies, about any changes made to directors within 14 days of the change.
A spokesman for Companies House said: 'Up to this moment in time Companies House has not received the required documentation which would allow us to formally alter the public record to show that Ms Rebekah Brooks has indeed resigned from News International Newspapers Limited.
Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth declines 'inappropriate' nomination to News Corp board
'When and if we do, it may take us a few days to complete the approved paper process checks before this is formally recorded.
'We advise all interested parties to be vigilant regarding any such changes to the register.'
But a News International spokeswoman insisted it was only a matter of time before her resignation as director was accepted and appropriate records would be updated. 'Rebekah Brooks resigned as CEO of the Company on 15 July 2011,' she said.
'The process for her to resign as a director of the Company is currently underway and will be filed at Companies House shortly.'
Rumours have also appeared on the internet suggesting the media tycoon has advised Mrs Brooks to 'travel the world' until the hacking and bribery scandal quietens down and then he'll find her another role.
The Daily Telegraph reported that a source claimed to the newspaper: 'My understanding is that Rupert has told her to travel the world on him for a year and then he will find a job for her when the scandal has died down.'
Both news International and Mrs Brooks' representative refused to comment on these allegations, or deny them.
The comments will stoke the fury of the public, hacking victims and MPs who have been outraged at the litany of allegations that have surfaced about News International.
Allegations have been made that while Mrs Brooks was editor of the NoW journalists at the Sunday tabloid hacked into murdered teenager Milly Dowler's voicemail.
Mrs Brooks has firmly denied any knowledge and branded the actions of the journalists, who allegedly hacked into thousands of people's phones, as 'unthinkable'.
After repeated calls for her resignation, Mrs Brooks finally handed in her notice.
On July 15 Mrs Brooks announced in an internal email to staff that she was standing down, saying: 'I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt.
'I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist.'
She indicated that earlier attempts to resign had not been accepted but on this occasion Mr Murdoch and his son James, chairman and chief executive of News International, finally accepted it.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1UVcvz5XB
James Murdoch has resigned from the boards of the publishing units within News Corp's British newspaper arm, which used to include the now-defunct News of the World tabloid at the centre of the phone hacking scandal, regulatory filings show.
Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert and deputy chief operating officer of News Corp, remains chairman of News International, the News Corp unit that houses its British newspapers, and a member of the Times editorial board.
The News International unit has been damaged this year by the revelation that people working for the popular Sunday tabloid hacked into the phones of thousands to generate news.
Slow-burning investigations into the matter became front-page national news when it was revealed in July that one of the victims was missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who appeared to have been picking up voicemails but was later found murdered.
Ex-News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks resigned as chief executive of News International the following week, and was replaced by Tom Mockridge, the former head of News Corp-owned Sky Italia, on July 15.
"Following the appointment of Tom Mockridge as CEO of News International, in September James Murdoch stepped down from the boards of a number of News International subsidiary companies including News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL)," News International said in a statement.
Mockridge replaced Murdoch on the two company boards.
The filings show that Murdoch resigned on September 13 from Times Newspapers Ltd and on September 19 from NGN. September 13 was the date on which he discovered he would be recalled by a British parliamentary committee to answer more questions.
NGN is the company that has been sued by many of the phone-hacking victims, including Hollywood star Jude Law and his ex-girlfriend, actress Sienna Miller.
Media lawyer Mark Stephens said he did not believe the move had any legal implications for the phone-hacking cases. "He's either liable for what happened under his watch, or he's not," he told Reuters.
James Murdoch survived a vote to remain on the News Corp board last month only thanks to support from his family and another loyal shareholder.
Next week, he faces shareholders of British satellite broadcaster BSkyB, who will have to decide whether he should remain as non-executive chairman.
Some News Corp investors would like to see the company sell its newspapers, in which media interest is disproportionate to the small contribution they make in revenues and profits.
Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at London's City University, said the move could indicate that Murdoch was still worried over his own exposure to the phone hacking scandal or that News Corp was preparing to sell its UK newspaper holdings.
"The Sun is now the only thing keeping the ship afloat, in commercial terms," he told Reuters.
Reuters
You read it here first!Quote:
Originally Posted by parkerman
£600,000 to Charlotte Church just because the NOTW allegedly hacked her phone. Lose two legs in Afghanistan and get peanuts. FN scandalous
OMFG!! So true, so true. The priorities are way f%$ked up!!Quote:
Originally Posted by alan45