England, News Of The World | featured news

Closing Britain's highest-selling newspaper, the 168-year-old News of the World, with just three days' notice in the wake of its phone-hacking scandal may feel like a nuclear option. In practice, it makes perfect commercial sense for Rupert Mudoch's News Corporation.

The News of the World, the British tabloid newspaper beset with a widening phone-hacking scandal, will shut down as result of the imbroglio, a top executive of its parent company said Thursday. The News, a feisty, hugely profitable daily that has been continuously published for 168 years, will cease publishing on Sunday, said James Murdoch, the son of media baron Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns the newspaper.

Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday condemned the alleged hacking of a slain teenage girl’s cell phone by a British tabloid. Nearly all of Britain’s papers reported Tuesday — citing unnamed sources — that a private investigator hacked into the cellphone of 13-year-old Milly Dowler in 2002 after she was reported missing. The investigator reportedly worked for News of the World, Britain’s biggest-selling Sunday tabloid.

Britain's News of The World tabloid has apologized for hacking into the phones of several public figures and offered to pay them compensation.