Sean Hoare, the former News of the World reporter who was the first to come forward by name and accuse former NOTW editor and David Cameron adviser Andy Coulson of ordering widespread phone hacking, was found dead this morning.

Sir Paul Stephenson, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has announced his resignation. Sir Paul had been implicated in the phone hacking scandal thanks to his ties to News International executives, with whom he socialized while the Met undertook its inquiry

Rebekah Brooks, who resigned as chief of News Corp subsidiary News International on Friday, was arrested Sunday by the Metropolitan Police on charges relating to the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

Wondering why Scotland Yard botched the investigation into the News Corp phone-hacking scandal so badly? Well, it wasn't because the police agency was comically inept—at least, not entirely because it was comically inept—but because it was comically corrupt!

Rupert Murdoch's phone-hacking scandal rolls on today, with the resignation of Rebekah Brooks as CEO of News International. Brooks' farewell email to staff, via the AP:

Rupert Murdoch has given his formal interview since his world started collapsing around him—to the Wall Street Journal, of course. We're sure it was a hard-hitting barrage of questions. The upshot: He thinks he's handled the crisis "extremely well in every way possible." Yes sir! I was just going to say that.

In your sweltering Wednesday media column: the NYT repays Carlos Slim, the global advertising market is back, a columnist is canned for plagiarism, a book review feud, and the media's most ineffectual lawyer says goodbye.

It's not just murder victims and government officials who have been hacked by Rupert Murdoch's minions. A once-pseudonymous sex writer claims a writer for the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times installed a trojan on her computer in an effort to out her.

Last week, when News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks faced down News of the World reporters to explain why the paper was being cashiered, she warned darkly that all would become clear when the full extent of the rot at her company became known. Today another shoe dropped: Reporters for News International's Sunday Times and Sun illegally accessed former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's bank account, legal files, and family medical records.

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch touched down in London on the day his Sunday tabloid News of the World published its final issue, preparing "to face the growing phone-hacking scandal that prompted the paper's closure," and, we presume, to personally burn some of the incriminating evidence. Of which there appears to be a lot! The Guardian writes that new memos obtained by the police "appear to show that phone hacking was more widespread... than previously thought," and we've heard a rumor that even more papers—including some that aren't Murdoch properties—will be implicated in similar phone hacking schemes soon. That's the man himself above, of course, checking out the News' final page three girl in his Range Rover as he swings by the offices of News International, News Corp's U.K. subsidiary. Rupe! Do the crossword! [image via AP]

It hasn't hit newsstands yet, but journalists have taken a couple photos of the last copy of News of the World, which is shutting down following revelations that private investigators in its employ had hacked the voicemail of murder and abduction victims and their families.

James Murdoch, son of Rupert, Lord of Casterly Rock, Warden of the West and overseer of News Corp's properties in Europe and Asia, could face criminal charges over his role in the phone hacking scandal at News Corp tabloid News of the World. In the U.S. and the U.K.!

The latest update in the massively gratifying unraveling of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper holdings: Authorities believe an unnamed executive at News International, News Corporation's British subsidiary, intentionally destroyed "millions of emails" in an attempt to frustrate the criminal investigation into illegal hacking by News of the World reporters and private investigators.

Rupert Murdoch's News International, which operates the News of the World and his other British papers, is admitting that its reporters illegally accessed the voicemails of at least 24 celebrities and will settle a raft of lawsuits over the hacks.

The wiretapping scandal rocking Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper holdings is getting bad enough that Rupert is ducking questions from his own Fox Business reporters. It could also reach across the pond to his beloved acquisition, the Wall Street Journal.