Menezes family urges wider probe

14 July 2011 Last updated at 21:15 GMT Jean Charles de Menezes was wrongly identified as an Islamic militant

The family of a Brazilian man shot dead by police in London in 2005 has called for the News Corp phone-hacking investigation to be widened.

In a letter to UK PM David Cameron, Jean Charles de Menezes' relatives say the actions of police who investigated Mr Menezes' death should be probed.

They say officers may have leaked confidential information to the media.

The phone number of a cousin of Mr Menezes was seized from an investigator hired by The News of the World.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mr Menezes was mistakenly shot dead on an underground train at Stockwell station six years ago.

He was wrongly identified as a suicide bomber days after the 7 July bombings which rocked the capital.

'Cover-up'

The family of Mr Menezes was officially informed on Wednesday that the mobile number of one of his cousins, Alex Pereira, was found in documents that belonged to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

The police have now collected the details of other family members to check whether they had also been hacked.

Alex Pereira's number was on private investigator's list

A relative of Mr Menezes, Vivian Figueiredo, told the BBC that at some stages of the investigation it looked like private information on the case was being leaked to the media.

In the letter to Mr Cameron, the Menezes family says some members the London Metropolitan Police were too close to journalists from Rupert Murdorch's News Corp organisation.

A spokesperson for the Justice4Jean campaign group, Estelle du Boulay, said the Menezes family were shocked by the news that they may have been hacked at a time when they were most vulnerable and bereaved.

"They fear the police may be attempting to cover up their own wrongdoing once more relating to this case," said Ms Du Boulay.

The Menezes family has called on Mr Cameron to do everything within his power to ensure that the issue is thoroughly investigated.

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Mexico reporter and family killed

21 June 2011 Last updated at 08:03 GMT Notiver called for a swift investigation to catch those behind the murders A Mexican journalist has been shot dead, along with his wife and 21-year-old son, by gunmen who burst into his home.

Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, who wrote about politics and crime, was killed in his house in the port city of Veracruz.

Authorities have not yet determined a motive for the murders, which they condemned as a "cowardly" attack.

Rights groups rank Mexico as one of the most dangerous countries in the Americas for journalists.

Armed men broke into Mr Lopez Velasco's house in Veracruz early on Monday morning, killing him, his wife Agustina and his son, Misael.

Mr Lopez Velasco, 55, wrote for the daily newspaper Notiver, where he was also an editor. His columns focussed on crime, drug trafficking and political corruption.

In its coverage, Notiver called for a swift and transparent investigation to find those guilty of the three killings.

Those responsible "should be punished with the full weight of the law", the newspaper said.

In a statement on Monday, Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights said that, since 2000, 70 journalists had been killed and 13 were missing. There have also been 22 attacks on media organisations.

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