Prime Minister David Cameron faces questioning at a special parliamentary session Wednesday about the widening phone hacking and bribery scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and embroiled Britain's top police, many journalists and politicians.
Cameron cut short his Africa trip and returned home late Tuesday to appear before the parliamentary question session that he called. Cameron's former communications chief, Andy Coulson - a former editor at the now-defunct tabloid News of the World - is among several people who have been arrested in the scandal,
Cameron's appearance came a day after Rupert Murdoch was summoned by lawmakers to answer for the scandal at the News of the World. Murdoch said he was humbled and ashamed but accepted no responsibility for wrongdoing.
In a three-hour grilling Tuesday, the 80-year-old media tycoon insisted he was at fault only for trusting the wrong people at the News of the World, and noted that the paper made up a tiny portion of his vast media empire.
Murdoch appeared confused and flustered in the beginning of Tuesday's parliamentary hearing, turning frequently to his son James for answers. But he soon regained his trademark cool.
He said he had known nothing of allegations that staff at the News of the World tabloid hacked into cell phones and bribed police to get information on celebrities, politicians and crime victims, and that he never would have approved such "horrible invasions" of privacy.
"This is the most humble day of my career," said Murdoch, a man once so politically powerful in Britain that former Prime Minister Tony Blair flew halfway around the world to secure his support as he launched the Labour Party's bid for power in 1995.
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