Mr. Brown and other ministers have also said they had no prior knowledge of the arrest plans.
Confusion reigned, though, with the American military saying it had no knowledge of the arrest and the Iraqi defense minister calling the assertion "baseless".
Mr. Putin has insisted that he had no advance knowledge of the arrest, an assertion few political experts seem to accept.
LONDON — Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, the British newspaper division of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of obstruction of justice, according to a person with knowledge of the arrest.
SAID TO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, the British newspaper division of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice, according to a person with knowledge of the arrest.
Trudeau revealed his prior knowledge of the arrest at an event in Montreal on Thursday, claiming there was no political motivation on Canada's part, as Ottawa seeks closer economic ties with Beijing.
Reached by telephone, an official from the Yantai Public Security Bureau denied any knowledge of the arrests.
Jon Siepmann, denied all knowledge of the arrests, but another American official said Mr. Idema was among those arrested.
But a person with knowledge of the arrests said that besides Ms. Brooks and her husband, they included Mark Hanna, the head of security for News International.
A source claiming to have inside knowledge of the arrests said that Libertas, a moderator on the Silk Road 2 forums [TOR link], has been arrested by the Irish Police (Garda Siochana) in Wicklow during a raid carried out on Thursday at about 8PM local time.
