Ex-aide of PM arrested in scandal

July 9, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

LONDON

Prime Minister David Cameron’s former communications chief and an ex-royal reporter were arrested Friday in a phone-hacking and police-corruption scandal that already has toppled a major tabloid and rattled the cozy relationship between British politicians and the powerful Murdoch media empire.

The 168-year-old muckraking tabloid News of the World was shut down Thursday after being engulfed by allegations its journalists paid police for information and hacked into the phone messages of celebrities, young murder victims and even the grieving families of dead soldiers. Its last publication day is Sunday.

The hacking revelations horrified the nation and advertisers, who pulled their ads en masse. News International, the British arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., jettisoned the paper in hopes of saving its $19 billion deal to take over satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting. But the British government signaled Friday the deal would be delayed due to the crisis.

UN peacekeepers for newest nation

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a new peacekeeping force for South Sudan on Friday, assuring the world’s newest nation on the eve of its independence of military and police support to help maintain peace and security.

The council authorized the deployment of up to 7,000 military personnel and 900 international police, plus an unspecified number of U.N. civilian staff including human-rights experts.

The council acted ahead of independence celebrations today in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, when the mainly ethnic African south officially breaks away from the Arab-dominated north, whose capital is in Khartoum.

William, Kate arrive in S. Calif.

LOS ANGELES

Bathed in sunshine and under clear blue skies, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived Friday in Southern California’s vacation playground. But within minutes of touching down, they were whisked off to work.

The royal couple had tacked on a quick visit to Los Angeles after a nine-day tour of Canada, their first foreign trip since marrying in April.

Aside from a game of polo in the seaside city of Santa Barbara, much of the couple’s three-day visit will focus on business and not pleasure.

3 Somali pirates charged in slayings

NORFOLK, Va.

Three suspected Somali pirates were charged with murder Friday in the slayings of four Americans aboard a hijacked yacht off the coast of Africa in February.

Ahmed Muse Salad, Abukar Osman Beyle and Shani Nurani Shiekh Abrar could face the death penalty if they are convicted.

The Somalis are among 14 men who were charged with piracy, kidnapping and weapons violations in the hijacking of the yacht Quest. Eleven of those men already have pleaded guilty to piracy for their roles in the case, although prosecutors have said none of those men shot the Americans or ordered anyone else to.

Police: Man killed his 3 sons, brother

WHEATLAND, Wyo.

A man opened fire inside a Wyoming mobile home, killing his three sons and a brother and injuring his wife, authorities said Friday. One neighbor said the wounded woman ran from the home screaming, “He killed my babies!” Everett E. Conant III surrendered without incident and was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, battery and a weapons violation.

Associated Press