LONDON (Reuters) – A senior British police officer, questioned in parliament about a phone hacking scandal that led to closure of a leading newspaper, said on Tuesday he believed he himself had been the victim of phone hacking.

John Yates, an assistant commissioner with London’s Metropolitan Police, said it was inevitable that some officers were corrupt, but strongly denied he received illegal payments from newspapers.

LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) – “The basic test of a decent
police force is that it catches more criminals than it employs.”

That adage, coined by Robert Mark, a Metropolitan Police
Commissioner in the 1970s, might just as easily be applied to
another profession with a similar stake in the public’s trust –
investigative journalism.

LONDON (Reuters) – A former Scotland Yard detective plans to sue publishers of the News of the World for harassment and hacking his phone while he was investigating a high-profile axe murder, their lawyer said on Tuesday.

Mark Lewis, a lawyer for the policeman, Dave Cook, and for his wife Jacqui Hames, told Reuters he believed the planned suit against News Group Newspapers would be the first action against the now-defunct weekly for the physical trailing and electronic surveillance of a police officer by journalists working for it.

LONDON (Reuters) – A former Scotland Yard detective plans to sue publishers of the News of the World for harassment and hacking his phone while he was investigating a high-profile axe murder, their lawyer said on Tuesday.

Mark Lewis, a lawyer for the policeman, Dave Cook, and for his wife Jacqui Hames, told Reuters he believed the planned suit against News Group Newspapers would be the first action against the now-defunct weekly for the physical trailing and electronic surveillance of a police officer by journalists working for it.

LONDON (Reuters) – A former Scotland Yard detective plans to sue publishers of the News of the World for harassment and hacking his phone while he was investigating a high-profile axe murder, their lawyer said on Tuesday.

Mark Lewis, a lawyer for the policeman, Dave Cook, and for his wife Jacqui Hames, told Reuters he believed the planned suit against News Group Newspapers would be the first action against the now-defunct weekly for the physical trailing and electronic surveillance of a police officer by journalists working for it.

LONDON (Reuters) – More battlefield gains in rural areas will help raise flagging morale among Libyan rebels impatient for victory but won’t shift the military balance decisively against Muammar Gaddafi soon.

Without more outside help, such advances are unlikely to inflict the sort of pressure that would compel him to negotiate a peace settlement in good faith or set off an uprising by rebel sympathizers in the capital Tripoli, Western analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) – The search for a political solution to Libya’s war has quietly moved up a gear despite tough-looking declarations by Muammar Gaddafi and his rebel foes suggesting they can fight on.

In part, the impression of a quickening behind the scenes peace effort stems from the sheer number of statements made by the combatants urging a settlement, aggressive and sometimes contradictory though some of these communiques are.

LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) – The search for a political solution to Libya’s war has quietly moved up a gear despite tough-looking declarations by Muammar Gaddafi and his rebel foes suggesting they can fight on.

In part, the impression of a quickening behind the scenes peace effort stems from the sheer number of statements made by the combatants urging a settlement, aggressive and sometimes contradictory though some of these communiques are.

LONDON (Reuters) -

Hizb ut-Tahrir, a global Islamist party banned in many Muslim states, said on Friday Pakistanis should take to the streets to call for Islamic rule and join a campaign to end subservience to Washington that was advancing “from Indonesia to Tunisia.”

The party, which says it is non-violent but is accused by some analysts of seeking a coup in Islamabad, added that “powerful factions” in Pakistani society including the military should also take part, but violence had no place in its work.