The authorities are investigating whether executives at the News of the World sanctioned payments to police officers to secure exclusive stories.
It also means that, having recruited Louis Saha, Alan Smith and Gabriel Heinze, United have sanctioned payments in the region of £3.5m in agent fees since the turn of the year - more than Sir Alex Ferguson has earned himself.
Coulson was also told that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided to go ahead with a possible retrial over corruption charges arising from allegations that he sanctioned payments to a police officer for confidential royal phone directories.
The Guardian has a profile of the attacker, Jonathan May-Bowles, who blogs — and video blogs — as Jonnie Marbles During her testimony later in the day, Rebekah Brooks, a former editor of The News of the World, said that she had never sanctioned payments to police officers for information.
In other developments: Rebekah Brooks tells MPs News International had acted "quickly and decisively" when new evidence of hacking emerged and that she never sanctioned payments to police.
Brooks: 'I never paid police' Jump to media player The former chief executive of News International Rebekah Brooks, has told MPs she "never knowingly sanctioned payments to a police officer".
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's former British newspaper boss, told a London court on Thursday she had sanctioned payments to public officials but denied authorising illegal sums for which she is on trial.
Asked by her defence lawyer on Thursday if she had ever sanctioned payments to public officials, something which is illegal, Brooks replied: "Yes, probably since I was deputy editor of the Sun... a handful of occasions, half a dozen".
A typical scene in a family court: an advocate acting for a young mother at risk of having her newborn baby adopted asks the judge to sanction payment for a psychological report into her mental functioning.
