A woman (47) was arrested today by detectives investigating phone-hacking at the News of the World.
She is being held at an Essex police station after she was detained at her home in the county this morning. Scotland Yard said she is the 17th arrest under its Operation Weeting investigation into mobile phone interceptions.
The BBC reported the woman is a long-serving personal assistant to the former Rupert Murdoch executive Rebekah Brooks.
The suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. She is the first Operation Weeting arrest since private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was released on bail until March over allegations of phone hacking and perverting the course of justice.
Phone-hacking detectives working their way through 300 million emails from News International have arrested a series of high-profile figures, including former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson.
Ms Brooks was a key figure in the scandal that developed last year, after she closed the 168-year-old newspaper while fighting to keep her own job. Journalists at the paper openly blamed Ms Brooks for the decision and said the move was designed to protect her position.
She received robust support from Rupert Murdoch, who at one point said his main priority was to protect Ms Brooks, before she eventually stood down in July. She has since been arrested and bailed by police.
The BBC said the arrested woman, Cheryl Carter, had previously worked for Ms Brooks, former managing editor of the paper Stuart Kuttner and former deputy editor Neil Wallis, who have all been arrested over the allegations.
News Corp declined to comment and the police refused to name the woman.
Some 1,800 people have come forward to express fears that they may have been hacked but the final total of people whose phones were hacked by the News of the World will be about 800, the force believes.
The scandal has already led to the closure of the Sunday tabloid after 168 years, prompted a major public inquiry, and forced the resignation of Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and assistant commissioner John Yates.