Tony Iommi denies report of Black Sabbath reunion (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi on Tuesday denied a report that the veteran British rock band was getting back together in its four man original line-up.

British paper The Birmingham Mail had reported that Iommi, singer Ozzy Osbourne, bass player Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward had begun rehearsing for a tour and a new studio album for release next year.

It quoted Iommi, 63, as saying the original foursome, which dates back to 1969, was looking forward to performing together again.

But in a statement on his official website on Tuesday, Iommi said he was just speculating and described the report as "absolute nonsense."

Iommi said the journalist had taken "a conversation we had back in June and made it sound like we spoke yesterday about a Black Sabbath reunion.

"At the time I was supporting the Home of Metal exhibition and was merely speculating, shooting the breeze, on something all of us get asked constantly, "Are you getting back together?"

"Thanks to the Internet it's gone round the world as some sort of "official" statement on my part, absolute nonsense," Iommi said, apologizing to his three bandmates.

Osbourne was fired from the band in 1979, leading to a revolving line-up for a number of years. The original members got back together for the 1998 album "Reunion" but split again afterward.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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CNN's Piers Morgan denies role in UK hacking scandal (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – CNN talk show host and former News of the World editor Piers Morgan on Tuesday angrily denied claims by a British lawmaker that he had taken part in phone hacking during his years as a journalist in Britain.

Morgan, who hosts the U.S. nightly talk and current affairs show "Piers Morgan Tonight," said he may have been a victim of hacking but that he had never hacked a phone himself.

"That MP (member of parliament) just claimed I boasted in my book of using phone-hacking for a scoop," Morgan said on Twitter during Tuesday's hearing by a British parliamentary panel in London on the scandal engulfing newspapers in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire.

"Complete nonsense. Just read the book," Morgan tweeted. "I've never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, or published any stories based on the hacking of a phone."

Morgan, who edited the now-defunct News of The World in 1994-1995, was responding to remarks by British MP Louise Mensch at Tuesday's televised grilling of Rupert and James Murdoch, which was seen around the world.

Mensch stated that Morgan had boasted in his 2005 book "The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade" of having won a scoop for his Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper by using a code to gain entry into another person's cell phone.

Morgan said Mensch had got her facts mixed up.

In the book, he wrote that he suspected he was a victim of phone hacking. "I wrote in my book that someone warned me phones could be hacked, so I changed my pin number."

Morgan, who said little during the first two weeks of the phone hacking scandal in Britain, said on his show on Monday that he did not believe that any story published in either the News of The World or The Daily Mirror under his editorship was obtained by unlawful means.

He also defended Rupert Murdoch, saying that he found it "impossible, personally knowing the man, to believe that he would have known about law-breaking on his newspapers, let alone would he condone it."

Morgan, 46, also worked on Murdoch's daily newspaper The Sun between 1989-94 before moving to The News of the World and then The Daily Mirror in London from 1995-2004.

He took over veteran Larry King's slot on CNN in January 2011 and is also a judge on the TV show "America's Got Talent".

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant. Editing by Peter Bohan)

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Murdoch tabloid Sun denies Jude Law hacking claim (AP)

LONDON – Jude Law is taking legal action against The Sun newspaper, claiming the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid hacked into voice mails for stories about his private life.

Murdoch's News International strongly denies the claim, accusing the actor of "a deeply cynical and deliberately mischievous attempt" to drag The Sun into the hacking scandal that has brought down its sister paper, the News of the World.

In a statement Friday, News International said Law's allegations "have no foundation whatsoever" and vowed to vigorously fight his claim.

Law's law firm, Atkins Thomson, declined to give details of the claim, which it said "will be considered by the court in due course."

Law is also suing the News of the World. That case is due to be heard next year.

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