Hacking scandal presses Cameron to cut-short Africa visit

London, Jul 19: The fall out from Britain's phone hacking scandal engulfed the Scotland Yard on Monday with two of its top officers quitting in less than 24 hours, prompting David Cameron to cut short an Africa visit and call an emergency session of House of Commons to deal with the biggest crisis of his premiership.

London police was left virtually left headless after Commissioner Paul Stephenson and his deputy John Yates resigned within hours of each other over their hiring of former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis as the PR consultant for the Met police.

The developments shaking the London police came as Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News International, was arrested, interrogated and bailed out in connection with the phone hacking and bribery scandal that is threatening to bring down Rupert Murdoch's media empire in Britain and could eventually humble the country's leadership.

With a precarious condition at home, Cameron decided to cut short his Africa visit and called the House of Commons to meet unscheduled on Wednesday to discuss the scandal thread bare.

Cameron has already been criticised for ''fleeing the country'' at a time when his administration's relationship to Rupert Murdoch's empire was under unprecedented scrutiny.

Cameron came under intense pressure after Stephenson quit last night and took a parting shot at 10 Downing Street, contending in a carefully worded resignation speech that the prime minister risked being "compromised" by his closeness to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was his communications director.

PTI