FBI Opens Investigation Into Murdoch's News Corp.

UPDATE: Things keep getting worse for Rupert Murdoch and his media empire.

The FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that News Corp. journalists attempted to hack into the phones of 9/11 victims, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Murdoch's recently-shuttered News of the World has already been accused of, among other things, hacking the phones of families of the victims of the so-called 7/7 bombings that targeted London’s public transport system in July 2005, as well as the phone of a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 2002.

But the Daily Mirror, a British tabloid not owned by Murdoch, reported earlier this week that a former New York cop claims he was contacted by News of the World journalists who offered to pay him for the phone records of 9/11 victims.

That claim, naturally, got the attention of a number of U.S. lawmakers, several of whom requested that the Justice Department start digging around.

UPDATE Thursday at 11:57 a.m.: Looks like Rupert Murdoch and his son, James, have had a change of heart and will attend a parliamentary hearing next Tuesday on the phone hacking scandal.

The News Corp. execs originally declined the British Parliament's request to appear, but the company announced Thursday that the two men will now appear after all, Reuters reports.

Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World, also plans to attend.

Original Post Thursday at 10:53 a.m.: Rupert Murdoch is refusing to testify before the British Parliament about the alleged phone hacking among employees of his sprawling media conglomerate, News Corp.

A parliamentary committee had summoned the news tycoon to appear on July 19 to give evidence, but in a letter sent Thursday to John Whittingdale, the head of the government panel overseeing British media, Murdoch gave a polite but firm refusal.

“Unfortunately, I am not available to attend the session you have planned next Tuesday,” Murdoch wrote, although he added that he would be willing to appear before a judge in a separate inquiry that Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Wednesday.

Murdoch’s son James Murdoch, who oversees the European division of News Corp., was also asked to appear. He joined his father in refusing the summons, the panel announced Thursday, but he offered to appear on August 10 or 11.

It is unclear what power the British government has to compel the two men to testify, since they are American citizens.

Sir George Young, the Leader of the House of Commons, indicated that the British government may be able to impose legal penalties on the Murdochs if they are found to be in contempt of Parliament, the New York Times reports. Nonetheless, Young made clear that these kinds of sanctions hadn’t been imposed for a long time.

“If a witness fails to attend when summoned, the committee reports the matter to the House, and it’s then for the House to decide what further action to take,” Young told Parliament. “There hasn’t been a case of that kind for some considerable time. The House can order a witness to attend a committee. Apparently this hasn’t happened since 1920.”

The British aren’t the only ones looking into the News Corp. scandal, however. A growing number of U.S. lawmakers have expressed interest into digging around to discover if News Corp.’s papers hacked into the phones of American citizens, specifically the families of victims of 9/11.