Long before they were wed, in the murky days of deceit and divorce, Prince Charles and his mistress-now-wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, were no strangers to telephone taps that transformed risque private murmurs into oh-so-public newspaper headlines.
Now, the specter may have returned to haunt the royal household again -- this time not just in telephone intercepts of the prince's entourage but across a wider range of celebrities and politicians whose telephones may have been bugged by a tabloid.
The British police announced late on Tuesday that three men had been arrested on suspicion of intercepting telephone calls, possibly on mobile phones, following complaints by personnel at Clarence House, Charles' official residence in central London.
The News of the World, a mass-circulation tabloid with a penchant for disclosures, acknowledged that Clive Goodman, its reporter covering the royal family, was one of those under arrest.
The news bumped the Lebanon war off the top of some television news bulletins: Not only did it have everything a tabloid might wish -- titillation, celebrity and royal embarrassment to start with -- it also had the tabloid itself.
By late on Tuesday, few details of what had been intercepted -- and who had said what to whom -- had emerged.
"Police launched an investigation after concerns were reported to the Met's Royalty Protection Department by members of the Royal Household at Clarence House," London's Metropolitan Police -- the Met -- said in a statement. The investigation has been going on for around seven months.
The inquiry "is focused on alleged repeated security breaches within telephone networks over a significant period of time and the potential impact this may have on protective security around a number of individuals," the Met statement said.
Apart from Charles, the heir to the throne, and Camilla, now the Duchess of Cornwall following their marriage in April lat year, those most likely to have had their phones intercepted could well have included the royal princes, William and Harry -- the sons of Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Somewhat coyly, the statement said police had concluded that "public figures beyond the Royal Household" may have had their calls intercepted, kindling speculation that politicians and other members of the royal household might have been caught up in the eavesdropping web.
"The investigation initially focused on complaints from three individuals within the Royal Household," the police statement said, without identifying them. "As a result of their inquiries police now believe that public figures beyond the Royal Household have had their telephones intercepted which may have potential security implications."
"Police continue to work with the telephone companies concerned and continue to have their full support in attempting to identify any other person whose telephone may have been intercepted," the statement said.
The Press Association news agency reported, "the allegations did not relate to the tapping of live telephone calls, but another method of telephone interception or alleged hacking of phones."
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
UNDAUNTED: Panama would not renew an agreement to participate in Beijing’s Belt and Road project, its president said, proposing technical-level talks with the US US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the canal, accompanied by its Panamanian administrator as a South Korean-affiliated oil tanker and Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship passed through the vital link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, Rubio was said to have had a firmer message in private, telling Panama that US President Donald Trump
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
DIVERSIFY: While Japan already has plentiful access to LNG, a pipeline from Alaska would help it move away from riskier sources such as Russia and the Middle East Japan is considering offering support for a US$44 billion gas pipeline in Alaska as it seeks to court US President Donald Trump and forestall potential trade friction, three officials familiar with the matter said. Officials in Tokyo said Trump might raise the project, which he has said is key for US prosperity and security, when he meets Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for the first time in Washington as soon as next week, the sources said. Japan has doubts about the viability of the proposed 1,287km pipeline — intended to link fields in Alaska’s north to a port in the south, where