As of 9:00 am (PST) this morning, it was learned via BBC's PM Program that settlements had been reached in 37 phone hacking cases involving Rupert Murdoch's News Of The World.

Among the high-profile recipients of cash settlements were actor Jude Law, who received $200,000.00, the family of murder victim Sarah Payne and ex-Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott.

As was reported on PM and also the 6:00 News, the Police investigation and the Leveson Inquiry have entered into a new phase of the investigation with, as one report put it, some 800 cases discovered so far.

Clearly, this investigation is nowhere near over and the breadth of the scandal (with a hint that phone hacking had taken place in other countries outside the UK) will be heating up in the coming weeks and months.

For now here is the latest, and reports from BBC Radio 4.