Jude Law: News International hacked me on U.S. soil

Actor Jude Law has confirmed what many have suspected: Rupert Murdoch's news empire extended its phone hacking to U.S. soil.

In a statement to a British court Thursday, Law said that reporters working for News International's former paper News of the World had hacked his phone repeatedly between 2003 and 2006, including while he was at New York City's JFK Airport.

Experts said that Murdoch essentially "waived the white flag" by agreeing to settle with Law and 35 other hacking victims including footballer Ashley Cole and former UK deputy premier John Prescott. In all, payments totalling $996,000 were announced.

"For me this case was never about money," Law said in a statement. "It was about standing up for myself and finding out what had happened. I owed it to my friends and family as well as myself to do this."

"I changed my phones, I had my house swept for bugs but still the information kept being published. I started to become distrustful of people close to me," he added. "No aspect of my private life was safe from intrusion."

News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch's U.S.-based News Corporation, refused to give any further details on the settlements.

"At the moment we're not commenting at all," a News International spokeswoman told AFP.

-- with AFP

(H/T: The Guardian)