London, July 18
The fall out from Britain’s phone hacking scandal engulfed the Scotland Yard today with two of its top officers quitting in less than 24 hours, prompting David Cameron to cut short an Africa visit and call an emergency Commons session to deal with the biggest crisis of his premiership.

The London police was left virtually left headless after Commissioner Paul Stephenson and his deputy John Yates resigned within hours of each other over their hiring of former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis as the PR consultant for the Met police.

The developments shaking the London police came as Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News International, was arrested, interrogated and bailed out in connection with the phone hacking and bribery scandal that is threatening to bring down Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Britain and could eventually humble the country’s leadership.

With a precarious condition at home, Cameron decided to cut short his Africa visit and called the House of Commons to meet unscheduled on Wednesday to discuss the scandal thread bare.

Cameron has already been criticised for ‘fleeing the country’ at a time when his administration’s relationship to Rupert Murdoch’s empire was under unprecedented scrutiny.

Cameron came under intense pressure after Stephenson quit last night and took a parting shot at 10 Downing Street, contending in a carefully worded resignation speech that the PM risked being “compromised” by his closeness to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was his communications director.

Yates resignation came after he was informed he would be suspended pending an inquiry into his relationship with Wallis, BBC reported. Wallis, a former NOTW deputy editor, was arrested and released on bail on Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications. Yates had checked the credentials of Wallis before the Met employed him as its PR consultant. Cameron called for an emergency session of Parliament on Wednesday to brief lawmakers on the scandal that has already claimed a number of victim.

The Commons was scheduled to go for a six-week recess after tomorrow’s sessions but it has been recalled to discuss the issue and Cameron will make a statement on Wednesday.

Rupert Murdoch and his son James, along with Brooks, will face grilling by lawmakers at the Commons culture committee tomorrow.

Britain’s senior-most police officer Stephenson, who resigned yesterday, is also scheduled to appear before the Home Affairs Select Committee tomorrow. Even as these dramatic developments unfolded, Britain’s Serious Fraud office said it was considering a request from lawmakers that it open an investigation into Murdoch’s News Corp. — PTI 

Kabul, July 18
US General David Petraeus, Washington’s new intelligence chief, handed over command of US and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan today, a day after a tentative start was made to a gradual process of transferring security to Afghan forces.

Petraeus, credited with reversing a spiral towards civil war in Iraq, took over in Afghanistan a year ago after his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, was sacked by US President Barack Obama for comments made in a magazine story.

He is leaving the military to take over as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as part of a wider shake-up of senior US security officials and takes over from Leon Panetta, the new US defence secretary.

Petraeus, who hands over to US Marine Corps General John Allen, oversaw a “surge” of 30,000 extra U.S. forces which helped stop the momentum of a growing insurgency, especially in the Taliban heartland in the south. He led a similar escalation of forces that helped turn around the Iraq conflict in 2007-08.

However, despite gains in violent southern provinces during Petraeus’ year in charge, the Taliban-led insurgency is still far from quelled. — AFP