RUPERT MURDOCH’S British newspaper company has agreed to pay damages to 37 high-profile victims of tabloid phone hacking, including actor Jude Law, footballer Ashley Cole, a friend of Prince William and former deputy prime minister John Prescott.

THE parents of Madeleine McCann, actor Hugh Grant and Harry Potter creator JK Rowling were named yesterday as core participants in the first stage of the inquiry into the British phone-hacking scandal.