Resignation, unexplained death in hack saga

LONDON - Scotland Yard's assistant commissioner resigned yesterday, a day after his boss also quit, and fresh investigations of possible police wrongdoing were launched in the phone-hacking scandal that has spread from Rupert Murdoch's media empire to the British prime minister's office.

Prime Minister David Cameron called an emergency session of Parliament on the scandal and cut short his visit to Africa to try to contain the widening crisis. Lawmakers today are to question Murdoch, his son James and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Murdoch's U.K. newspaper arm.

In a further twist, a former News of the World reporter who helped blow the whistle on the scandal was found dead yesterday in his home, but it was not believed to be suspicious.

Murdoch shut down the News of the World tabloid after it was accused of hacking into the voicemail of celebrities, politicians, other journalists and even murder victims.

The crisis has roiled the upper ranks of Britain's police, with yesterday's resignation of Assistant Commissioner John Yates - Scotland Yard's top anti-terrorist officer - following that on Sunday of police chief Paul Stephenson over their links to Neil Wallis, an arrested former executive from Murdoch's shuttered News of the World tabloid whom police had employed as a media consultant.

The government quickly announced an inquiry into police-media relations and possible corruption.

Home Secretary Theresa May said that people were naturally asking "who polices the police," and announced an inquiry into "instances of undue influence, inappropriate contractual arrangements and other abuses of power in police relationships with the media and other parties."

In another development, police confirmed that a second former News of the World employee was employed by Scotland Yard. Alex Marunchak had been employed as a Ukrainian-language interpreter with access to highly sensitive police information between 1980 and 2000, the Metropolitan Police said.

Scotland Yard said it recognized "that this may cause concern and that some professions may be incompatible with the role of an interpreter," adding that the matter will be looked into.

The prime minister is under heavy pressure after the resignations of Stephenson and Yates, and Sunday's arrest of Brooks - a friend and neighbor whom he has met at least six times since entering office 14 months ago - on suspicion of hacking into the cellphones of newsmakers and bribing police for information.

Parliament was to break for the summer today after lawmakers grilled Murdoch, his son James and Brooks, in a highly anticipated public airing about the scandal. Cameron, however, said that lawmakers should reconvene tomorrow "so I can make a further statement."

Cameron insisted his Conservative-led government had "taken very decisive action" by setting up a judge-led inquiry into the wrongdoing at News of the World and into the overall relations between British politicians, the media and police.

Meanwhile, one of the first voices to blow the whistle on the phone hacking - former News of the World journalist Sean Hoare - was found dead yesterday in Watford, about 25 miles northwest of London. Police said that the death was being treated as unexplained but was not considered suspicious, according to Britain's Press Association.

Hoare was quoted by the New York Times as saying that phone hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World .