5 Sun Staffers Arrested in UK Bribery Scandal

Five staff at Britain's largest selling tabloid the Sun were arrested today along with three other people over alleged bribes paid to police and defense officials. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said in a statement that police had also searched the homes of the five staff and the group's London offices, potentially deepening the scandal over British tabloid wrongdoing. A 39-year-old female employee at Britain's ministry of defense, a 36-year-old male member of the armed forces, and a 39-year-old serving police officer with Surrey Police were among those arrested, police said.

The arrests of the staff at the Sun, purchased by Murdoch in 1969 and long regarded as the jewel in his British media empire, follow the arrests last month of four current and former journalists at the newspaper in connection with the same bribery inquiry. Murdoch closed down the 168-year-old News of The World tabloid in July amid public anger when the extent of its phone hacking was exposed. (More The Sun stories.)