News of the World is accused of hacking phones of 9/11 victims 
 
 Murdoch journalists 'wanted phone records of British victims' 
 
 Rebekah Brooks may be questioned under caution in coming weeks 
 
 
 
 Ed Miliband launches bid to postpone BSkyB takeover 
 
 
 
 Ground zero: News of the World reporters allegedly tried to hack phones of 9/11 victims 
 
 News of the World reporters tried to hack the voicemails of dead 9/11 victims, a former New York policeman claimed last night. 
 
 He alleged he was contacted by News of the World journalists who said they would pay him to retrieve the private phone records of the dead. 
 
 The former cop, who now works as a private investigator, said that reporters wanted British victim’s mobile numbers and details of calls in the days surrounding the tragedy. 
 
 The voicemails are likely to have included harrowing messages from distraught relatives desperately trying to contact their loved ones in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001. 
 
 
 
 A source told the Daily Mirror: 'This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims’ private phone data. 
 
 
 
 'He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their ­relatives. 
 
 'His presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the ­relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the UK. The PI said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.' 
 
 The source said that the ­journalists were interested in getting the phone records belonging to the British victims of the attacks. 
 
 
 
 Under American law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) makes it a crime for American companies to offer corrupt payments to foreign government officials. 
 
 If the allegations of payments to police officers are proven, Mr Murdoch could face an American prosecution in his role as deputy chief operating officer the US-listed News Corp. 
 
 A former New York police officer has also claimed that News of the World journalists tried to pay him for phone details of British 9/11 victims 
 
 Capitalising on grief: Reporters were allegedly tried to get hold frantic calls as the tragedy unfolded 
 
 In 2009, the former Hollywood producer Gerald Green was jailed for six months after being prosecuted under the FCPA for making $1.8m (£1.1m) in bribes to a Thai government official. Butler University law professor Mike Koehler, an FCPA expert, said: 'I would be very surprised if the U.S. authorities don't become involved in this News International conduct.' 
 
 He said the FCPA could be invoked because News Corp is an American company and because the alleged payments would have been made in order for the newspaper to make money from the stories obtained. 
 
 Brett Pulley, media correspondent for the Bloomberg news agency in New York, said: 'If the fall out were to continue, my goodness, if it were to impact James Murdoch, then we start to talk about it impacting News Corp’s succession plan, so that affects the company globally.' 
 
 Paul Farhi, media correspondent for The Washington Post, added: 'There’s a whole domino effect. What else falls apart? Do bankers get nervous? 
 
 'Rupert Murdoch had one flirtation with bankruptcy in the early 90s. He’s very dependent on the goodwill of Wall Street and of bankers. 
 
 “His company is very profitable now — it’s not quite the same as the 1990s — but he doesn’t want these dominoes to keep toppling … 
 
 'The fact he shut down a newspaper reflects how seriously the scandal is affecting a whole empire.' 
 
 In Slate.com, noted commentator Jack Shafer wrote: 'Like all reverse-ferret manoeuvres, the closing of News of the World is designed to scatter and confuse the audience. It looks like the sacrifice of something very special to him, seeing as it was his first U.K. newspaper acquisition in 1968. But it's not. 
 
 'It looks like atonement, but it's not. It's supposed to change the subject, but it's too late for that. 
 
 'The most shocking thing to me about the paper's closure is what an empty gesture it is. 
 
 'I expected much better from the genocidal tyrant. 
 
 'The tricky thing about the reverse ferret is that unless you nab the beast the moment it bursts out of a pant leg, it can be impossible to apprehend. 
 
 'From the way News Corp. is acting, it looks to me as if the Murdochs have lost control of their precious ferret. If I were Rupert Murdoch, I'd start wearing my socks over my cuffs. Ferrets will eat anything that looks and smells like meat.' 
 
 T he claims came as the disgraced paper's owner Rupert Murdoch flew into London to take personal charge of the phone-hacking scandal. 
 
 He first stopped at News International's headquarters in Wapping, East London, where he arrived in a red Range Rover, a copy of the last edition of the News of the World in his hands. 
 
 Protective: Rupert Murdoch guides Rebekah Brooks away from the media as they leave his London flat 
 
 Family affairs: James Murdoch leaves his father's Mayfair apartment yesterday. He later joined Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks at the Stafford Hotel where they were expected to dine together 
 
 
 
 Later yesterday he put on an extraordinary show of support for Rebekah Brooks - apparently unconcerned about her imminent interview under police caution. 
 
 Mrs Brooks, who has twice offered to resign over the controversy, was seen entering Mr Murdoch's Mayfair apartment at around 5.30pm yesterday. 
 
 Later, when asked what was his top priority, the 80-year-old media mogul gestured to Mrs Brooks. 'She is,' he replied. 
 
 The pair spent an hour in the apartment on the day the final edition of the News of the World hit news stands. 
 
 Then, in front of hordes of photographers, Mr Murdoch walked Mrs Brooks out of the block of flats with his arm firmly around her. 
 
 Last hurrah: Editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, poses with staff outside the newspaper offices for the last time 
 
 They had beaming smiles as they crossed the road to the Stafford Hotel, where they were expected to dine together. They were later joined by Mr Murdoch’s son, James, the chairman of News International. 
 
 Pictures of the 'Rupert and Rebekah show' will infuriate the victims of phone hacking and those who question her denials. 
 
 The phone hacking row erupted last week when fresh allegations emerged that News or the World journalists paid private investigators to hack into the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. 
 
 They are also alleged to have listened in on voice messages from the family of Soham victims Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. 
 
 Hordes of advertisers finally abandoned the 'toxic' paper, forcing it to close, when it was revealed that they may have hacked into the phones of war dead. 
 
 Alleged victims: The families of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are claimed to have had their phone hacked alongside Milly Dowler when she was missing 
 
 
 
 A string of the paper's senior executives, including Mrs Brooks, face being quizzed as potential suspects or witnesses over their roles in the phone-hacking scandal which brought down the 168-year-old title she once edited. 
 
 Mrs Brooks is set to be questioned under caution in London in the next two weeks. She will be asked to give a full account of her actions during the period from 2000 to 2003 when she was editor. 
 
 It has also been revealed that at least nine former News of the World journalists, and three police officers, face charges over the hacking and corruption scandal. 
 
 Meanwhile, a 63-year-old man arrested on Friday has been bailed. Officers would not confirm reports he is a private investigator 
 
 The scandal has threatened Murdoch's controversial bid to take full control of BSkyB. 
 
 Labour leader Ed Miliband plans to attempt to force through a Commons vote this week that could see the deal postponed until after the police investigation into phone hacking is complete. 
 
 M<r Miliband said yesterday: 'The idea that this organisation, which has engaged in these terrible ­practices, should be allowed to take over BSkyB... without that criminal investigation having been completed, and on the basis of assurances from that self-same ­organisation… frankly that won’t wash with the public.' ||||| Image copyright PA Image caption Mr Coulson resigned from News International in January 2007 
 
 Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, received several hundred thousand pounds from News International after starting work as the Conservative Party's Director of Communications in July 2007. 
 
 Mr Coulson has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and bribing the police. The payments were part of his severance package, under what is known as a "compromise agreement". 
 
 According to sources, Mr Coulson's contractual leaving pay was given to him in instalments until the end of 2007 - which means he continued to be financially linked to News International for several months of his tenure as David Cameron's main media adviser. 
 
 The disclosure that Mr Coulson maintained a financial relationship with News International after moving into a sensitive role in the Tory Party will be controversial. 
 
 According to a senior member of the government, Tory Party managers at the time say they were not aware Mr Coulson was receiving these payments from News International while employed by the Conservative Party. 
 
 As I understand it, after Mr Coulson resigned from News International on 26 January 2007, News International said it would pay him his full entitlement under his two-year contract as editor of the News of the World - although the money would be paid in instalments. 
 
 I am told that Mr Coulson also continued to receive his News International work benefits, such as healthcare, for three years, and he kept his company car. 
 
 Mr Coulson was appointed as the Conservative Party's Director of Communications on 31 May 2007 and took up the post in July of that year. He was reportedly paid £275,000 a year by the Conservative Party. 
 
 News International is the UK arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. For decades, leaders of the Tory and Labour parties have battled to win the support of Mr Murdoch's influential newspapers, including the Sun and the Times. 
 
 The Tories and Labour have both had to respond to criticisms that they became unhealthily close to Mr Murdoch and his senior executives, including Mr Coulson's predecessor as editor of the News of the World, Rebekah Brooks, who went on to become chief executive of News International - and who has also been arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and making illegal payments to police officers. 
 
 Some will question whether Mr Coulson could give impartial advice on media issues to Mr Cameron when in opposition, given that he retained financial ties to News International. 
 
 Mr Coulson's supporters would dispute that his impartiality had been compromised. 
 
 When the newspaper's then royal editor, Clive Goodman, was convicted of phone hacking in January 2007 and was imprisoned, Mr Coulson resigned from News International. 
 
 Mr Coulson denied any knowledge of the phone hacking but said he felt obliged to quit because the hacking had taken place while he was editor of the News of the World. 
 
 A letter written by Mr Goodman in March 2007, disclosed last week by the Culture Media and Sport Committee, claims that phone hacking was routinely discussed in the News of the World's editorial conference, although it does not explicitly say that Mr Coulson knew about hacking. 
 
 In May 2010, after the Tories formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, Mr Coulson became Director of Communications for the government. In January of this year, he resigned from that post, following disclosures that criminal activity at the News of the World may have been more widespread than News International had been saying. 
 
 Mr Coulson was arrested in July. 
 
 David Cameron has had to defend his recruitment of Mr Coulson, following claims he ignored warnings that phone hacking went wider than Mr Coulson had claimed. 
 
 A spokesman for News International said: "News International consistently does not comment on the financial arrangements of any individual." 
 
 Mr Coulson did not return calls. 
 
 Update, 09:18, 23 August 2011: Here are a few additional questions raised by my post last night on the terms of Mr Coulson's departure package from the News of the World. 
 
 1) Why weren't Mr Coulson's payments from News International "mitigated" to use the jargon, or reduced by News International after he started drawing salary from the Conservative Party? Mitigation in these circumstances is not unusual, although it does not by any means always take place. Mr Coulson was reportedly being paid £275,000 a year by the Tories. 
 
 2) As the recipient of work benefits including private healthcare from News International for three years after leaving, what were these benefits worth - and what kind of administrative links did Mr Coulson maintain with News International when receiving them? 
 
 3) Given that Mr Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World because he felt he should take personal responsibility for the damage to the now-closed Sunday tabloid caused by Clive Goodman's imprisonment for phone hacking (though Mr Coulson said he had no knowledge the hacking was taking place), why did News International give him what sources describe to me as the most generous severance package he could have received? 
 
 4) Did Mr Coulson receive any commitment from News International that it should pay his legal costs, should the need arise? Is News International providing him with financial help with his legal expenses following his arrest in July on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and bribing the police (various News International sources were reluctant to talk about this when I put it to them)? 
 
 5) An influential government member told me last night that senior Conservative party managers at the time did not know Mr Coulson continued to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds from News International while in the employ of the Conservative Party (the payments stopped at the end of 2007). But did the Conservative Party or David Cameron, as the party's leader, ask Mr Coulson whether he had any continuing financial links with News International when it hired him as Director of Communications in May 2007 (he started the job in July 2007)? ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rupert Murdoch has met Rebekah Brooks over the phone-hacking scandal 
 
 News International found e-mails in 2007 that appeared to indicate that payments were being made to the police for information, although this evidence of alleged criminal behaviour was not handed to the Metropolitan Police for investigation until 20 June of this year. 
 
 According to sources, these e-mails were in the possession of the firm of solicitors, Harbottle & Lewis. 
 
 They were retrieved from Harbottle & Lewis by lawyers acting for News Interernational and for William Lewis - general manager of News International - who is in charge of News International's clean-up of what went wrong at the News of the World (and who was recruited by News International last July). 
 
 The e-mails appear to show Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World from 2003-2007, authorising payments to the police for help with stories. 
 
 They also appear to show that phone hacking went wider than the activities of a single rogue reporter, which was the News of the World's claim at the time. 
 
 Mr Coulson, who subsequently became David Cameron's director of communications in 10 Downing Street, was arrested and bailed last week. 
 
 In a letter presented to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Harbottle & Lewis confirmed that it had been asked by News International to review whether the illegal actions of Clive Goodman - the News of the World's former royal editor, jailed in 2007 for phone hacking - were known to his News of the World colleagues. 
 
 In this letter, dated 29 May 2007, and sent to Jon Chapman of News International, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis wrote that it had "reviewed e-mails to which you have provided access from the accounts of Andy Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Ian Edmondson, Clive Goodman, Neil Wallis, Jules Stenson". 
 
 Mr Abramson confirmed to Mr Chapman that it "did not find anything in those e-mails which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman's illegal actions were known about and supported by both or either of Andy Coulson, the editor, and Neil Wallis, the deputy editor, and/or that Ian Edmondson, the news editor, and others were carrying out similar illegal procedures". 
 
 The letter from Mr Abramson to Mr Chapman makes no mention of whether the e-mails contain evidence of wrongdoing by journalists other than Mr Goodman. 
 
 However, when William Lewis and his fellow News International executives re-acquired those e-mails from Harbottle & Lewis, they found what they perceived to be prima facie evidence that the illegal phone hacking went wider than just the activities of Mr Goodman and that there were potentially illegal payments to the police. 
 
 William Lewis went looking for these e-mails after the Metropolitan Police of Operation Weeting, who are investigating alleged phone hacking, enquired about the existence of 2,500 e-mails that Colin Myler - who replaced Andy Coulson as editor of the News of the World - mentioned to MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee. 
 
 Mr Myler told the MPs these e-mails had been trawled through as part of his own inquiry into whether hacking was carried out by others than Mr Goodman. 
 
 In response to a question by the MP Philip Davies about whether Mr Goodman was working alone, Mr Myler said: "I conducted this inquiry with Daniel Cloke, our director of human resources. Over 2,500 e-mails were accessed because we were exploring whether or not there was any other evidence to suggest essentially what you are hinting at. No evidence was found; that is up to 2,500 e-mails". 
 
 William Lewis and his News International colleagues on a newly created management and standards committee have not found the full 2,500 e-mails mentioned by Mr Myler, just the sub-set of 300 that were passed to Harbottle & Lewis. 
 
 The disclosure that News International found 300 e-mails as long ago as 2007, that indicated wider malpractices at the News of the World than those which led to the jailing of Mr Goodman and of the private detective Glenn Mulcaire, will pose very difficult questions for News International's chairman, James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch. 
 
 In December 2007, James Murdoch took charge of News International as chief executive of the European and Asian operations of its parent company, News Corporation. 
 
 Some four months later, in April 2008, he authorised the payment of a substantial out-of-court settlement, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds, with Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, over the hacking of Mr Taylor's phone. 
 
 That settlement - which was agreed by Mr Murdoch and signed by News International's chief operating officer at the time, Clive Milner - contained a gagging clause, making it impossible for either party to talk about the settlement or what led to it (though many of its details were subsequently revealed by the Guardian). 
 
 Mr Murdoch has now conceded that it was wrong of him to agree to the settlement with Mr Taylor and also to other out-of-court settlements made at a similar time. 
 
 He said on Thursday: "I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret." 
 
 There have been allegations that Mr Murdoch, in settling with Mr Taylor, was endeavouring to put a lid on the furore to deter a wider police investigation of the News of the World's behaviour. 
 
 News International denies this. 
 
 It insists that Mr Murdoch only approved the Taylor settlement and gagging clause because he was ignorant of the alleged transgressions by other News of the World journalists. 
 
 In particular, News International says Mr Murdoch had no knowledge of the 300 e-mails that Harbottle & Lewis were asked to review.
– Rupert Murdoch's shamed and now shuttered News of the World tried to pay a New York City police officer for phone records on British victims of 9/11, Reuters reports. The police officer, who now works as a private investigator, turned down the offer because it would "look bad," a source told the Daily Mail. Other substantial sums were apparently paid to British cops for information on a number of other news stories, reports the BBC. Emails dated 2007 indicate that then-editor Andy Coulson authorized payments to cops for inside info, according to sources. That email evidence, uncovered by a law office, was not turned over to investigators until last month. Coulson, who has been arrested in connection with the News of the World's burgeoning phone hacking scandal, was subsequently hired to be Prime Minister David Cameron's director of communications—but stepped down early this year.