Top cop quits, Rebekah Brooks arrested as phone hacking fallout continues

UPDATED: Britain's Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has quit following the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

Britain's most senior police officer said he had no knowledge of the extent of the practice and his integrity was "completely intact".

In a statement, he said "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 who as you know was arrested in connection with Operation Weeting last week."

There was yet another dramatic development in the News Corp phone hacking scandal over the weekend as former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks was arrested.

On Saturday New Zealand time, Ms Brooks resigned as head of News International, the company's UK newspaper division.

The popular theory was that Ms Brooks was being kept on as a firewall between the phone hacking investigation and her immediate boss, News Corp COO James Murdoch.

But with Ms Brooks gone, Rupert Murdoch's son is now first in the firing line - and a gleeful UK press wasted no time in speculating that James Murdoch's future as BSkyB chairman is uncertain.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police Service said, "She [Ms Brooks] was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906."

Ms Brooks (43) said police had requested an interview on Friday (Saturday NZ time), but at the time of her resignation she did not know the interview would lead to her arrest.

Following her resignation, Ms Brooks was replaced as News International chief executive by Tom Mockridge (55), a New Zealand ex-pat and formerly in charge of News Corp's pay TV operation in Italy - regarded as a turn-around success story.

A second major development over the weekend saw the resignation of long-time Rupert Murdoch lieutenant Les Hinton.

Mr Hinton was chief executive of News Corp subsidiary Dow Jones & Co, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.  

In 2009, before moving to the US, Mr Hinton told a parliamentary committee that News Corp had carried out a full investigation of the phone-hacking matter and found that just one journalist was involved - a statement that turned out to be wrong.