DID JAMES MURDOCH AND OTHERS OWN SECRET PHONES?

Scotland Yard said over the weekend that it is looking into the discovery of four iPhones issued to senior executives at News International in October 2009, when James Murdoch was running the unit that oversees News Corp-owned newspapers in the U.K. News reports indicated that although nearly $20,000 was billed for use of the phones from the time they were issued, their existence was not disclosed to police investigating the phone-hacking scandal nor the Leveson inquiry, which has focused on News International’s ethics and practices. A spokeswoman for News International told the London Independent: “It is ridiculous to suggest that James Murdoch keeps or kept a ‘secret phone.'”