News Corporation's Chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch, has apologized to victims of criminal phone hacking by one of his tabloids. Friday's expression of sorrow comes after confidante Rebekah Brooks quit as head of the British newspaper arm of his media empire.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch apologized on Friday, to the family of murdered British school girl Milly Dowler, whose phone was hacked by the News of the World in 2002.

News International also plans to run apologies in all national newspapers, under the headline "We Are Sorry."

Murdoch said, "No. I'm not going to say anything further, I just said that, as the founder of the company, I was appalled to find out what had happened, and I apologized, and I have nothing further to say."

But apologies are not the end of the matter.

Murdoch and his son James, who chairs News International, will face angry questions from politicians next week, about suspicions that Britain's Parliament was misled over the phone hacking allegations.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks will also attend the session.

She quit her post on Friday, after a chorus of calls for her to go, including from Prime Minister David Cameron, opposition leader Ed Miliband and major News Corporation shareholders.

Ed Miliband said, "Well, I'm pleased that Rebekah Brooks has finally accepted responsibility for what happened on her watch as editor of the News of the World - the hacking of the phones of Milly Dowler, for example. But, as I said when I called for her resignation ten days ago, this isn't just about one individual. It's about the culture of an organisation.."

Public fury has galvanized political opinion against the Murdochs and their media empire, which in Britain includes a 39 percent stake in Pay-TV operator BSkyB and the influential Sun tabloid, as well as The Times and Sunday Times broadsheets.

The political pressure has forced the elder Murdoch to abandon a 12 billion US dollar plan to buy the rest of BSkyB.

Meanwhile in the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into claims that News Corporation journalists may have sought to hack the phones of September 11th victims, in its quest for scoops.

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