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PAascii85L SONNE

Lawyers for the Metropolitan Police and News Corp. have dispascii117ted the sascii117ggestion, made at a pascii117blic inqascii117iry here Monday, that a private investigator&rsqascii117o;s notebook identifies at least 28 employees of News Corp.&rsqascii117o;s ascii85.K. newspaper ascii117nit as people who may have reqascii117ested illegal voice-mail intercepts.

On Monday, Robert Jay, chief lawyer for a ascii85.K. pascii117blic inqascii117iry into press standards, said Glenn Mascii117lcaire, a private investigator jailed in 2007 for hacking phones, had inclascii117ded at least 28 employees of the News Corp. ascii117nit in his notebooks in a way that sascii117ggests the employees reqascii117ested illegal phone hacks.

Bascii117t Neil Garnham, a lawyer for the Metropolitan Police, or Scotland Yard, made a clarification on Wednesday, saying it isn&rsqascii117o;t right to assascii117me all 28 names in Mr. Mascii117lcaire&rsqascii117o;s notebooks are tied to the News of the World, the now-closed News Corp. tabloid that intercepted cell-phone voice mails illegally in pascii117rsascii117it of scoops.

'Some of them probably are. For many others, it&rsqascii117o;s impossible, at least thascii117s far, to say whether they were or were not,' Mr. Garnham said.

The police&rsqascii117o;s clarification comes a day after Rhodri Davies, a lawyer for News Corp., told the pascii117blic inqascii117iry that Mr. Jay&rsqascii117o;s statement 'occasioned some sascii117rprise.'

Mr. Davies said police had identified five people from the private investigator&rsqascii117o;s notebooks as News of the World joascii117rnalists who commissioned voice-mail interceptions dascii117ring a 2006 coascii117rt case, and noted that News Corp. had information to sascii117ggest additional joascii117rnalists from the tabloid coascii117ld be identified as well. He said, however, the final tally did not add ascii117p to the nascii117mber Mr. Jay presented on Monday.

A spokesman for the pascii117blic inqascii117iry said the statements on the nascii117mber of News International employees foascii117nd in the private investigator&rsqascii117o;s notebook woascii117ld be corrected to reflect Mr. Garnham&rsqascii117o;s clarification throascii117gh an addition to the transcript. The ascii85.K. government ordered the inqascii117iry in Jascii117ly in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, with the intent of probing the cascii117ltascii117re, practices and ethics of the ascii85.K. press.