Rebekah Brooks -- the former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's News International media corporation -- reportedly has been arrested along with five other people as part of a police inquiry into allegations of phone hacking.
Sky News, partly owned by Murdoch's media group, says Brooks' husband, Charles Brooks, also was detained.
London police said five men and a woman were arrested on March 13 on "suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice."
The charge suggests authorities are focusing their investigation on a possible cover up of the scope of phone hacking by Murdoch's now-closed "News of the World" tabloid newspaper amid allegations of systemic phone hacking.
News International confirmed that its head of security, Mark Hanna, also was among those arrested.
With Reuters, AP, Sky News, and BBC reports