Former News of the World executive Rebekah Brooks taken away by police in phone hacking scandal

Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch's media empire in Britain, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of phone hacking and bribing police for information.

The 43-year-old arrived at a London police station for a pre-arranged appointment at noon but was not expecting to be arrested, according to reports.

She spent several hours being questioned and was cooperating with police, her spokesman said.
The surprise move added a yet another twist in the scandal which has rocked Murdoch's News

Inteational media empire, forced the closer of the 168-year-old News of the World Sunday tabloid and caused several top executives to resign.

For the second consecutive day Sunday, Murdoch took out a full-page ad in British papers apologizing for his company's failures under the heading: \"Putting right what's gone wrong\".

\"For a business that prides itself on holding the powerful to account, we failed when it came to one of our papers,\" it said.

\"It may take some time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our readers, colleagues and partners.\"

Brooks, the former News of the World editor who quit as News Inteational chief executive Friday, was being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and corruption, police said.

She maintains she knew nothing about any phone hacking which took place under her watch, including into the voicemail of a missing 13-year-old, who was later found dead.

Brooks' arrest comes two days before she is scheduled to appear before a parliamentary investigations committee, along with Murdoch's son, James.

Her arrest raised doubts about her appearance given that she would not have to answer questions which could prejudice any criminal investigation.

Brooks is now the tenth person to be arrested over the allegations that News of the World joualists hacked into the voice mails of hundreds of celebrities, politicians, London bombing victims and ordinary citizens.

Actor Jude Law and Hugh Grant, Prince William and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown were all victims, according to reports.

Andy Coulson, who succeeded Brooks as News of the World editor and later became Prime Minister David Cameron's press spokesman, was also arrested last week.

No one has yet been charged.

Tensions within the Murdoch family are said to be running high, with the media titan's daughter,

Elisabeth, allegedly accusing her brother James of destroying the family-run company, the Guardian reported.

Pressure was also mounting on senior members of the British police force as it emerged Britain's top cop, Sir Paul Stephenson, accepted a free $20,000 stay at a top health farm which News of the World hacking suspect Neil Wallis was the PR consultant for.

To quell rising outrage in Britain, Murdoch also abandoned his takeover bid for British satellite company BSkyB last week and accepted the resignation of Wall Street Joual publisher Les Hinton, who was head of News Inteational at the height of the News of the World's phone hacking.