Hackgate update: Rupert, James Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks asked to appear before British lawmakers

Even though the scandal-plagued British tabloid News of the World published its last-ever edition on Sunday, the paper's parent company, News International, is still fielding plenty of damaging fallout from shocking disclosures about the scope of the illicit phone-hacking activities that brought the paper down. And the worse things get for News International, the murkirr the prospects are for its corporate overseer, News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Here's a roundup of the latest news out of London:

• Parliament launches an inquiry. British lawmakers have asked Murdoch, his son and News International chairman James Murdoch and embattled chief executive Rebekah Brooks to appear before a select committee to answer questions pertaining to the phone hacking case.

"We have been made aware of the request from [the committee] to interview senior executives," a spokesperson for the company said, adding: "[We] will co-operate." A date has yet to be set, but Tom Watson, a member of committee, told BBC radio that committee "will be sitting next Tuesday and we expect them to attend." Watson added: "I suspect that some of them might be too cowardly to turn up but that is up to them to decide."

• The road not taken. According to Reuters, one of News Corp.'s leading shareholders tried to convince the Murdoch family to spin off its newspapers 18 months ago. "Too bad they didn't listen," the unnamed shareholder who is "one of the top 10 investors" in the media giant, told the news service. "I pressed them to spin the newspapers off as a separate company. They could keep control, but just get rid of them to bring up the stock value and highlight the value of other assets."

"They kept talking about how news blood ran in their veins and the answer was a resounding no," recalled the shareholder, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "James was just as adamant as Rupert, even worse."

Reuters notes that had such a move would have put News Corp. "in a better position to contain the U.K. phone-hacking scandal and stop it from tainting the rest of the media empire," such as its planned buyout of British satellite TV operator BSkyB.

• Satellite deal on hold. Speaking of the BSkyB deal, News Corp. has taken steps to delay its proposed takeover of BSkyB, the News Corp.-owned Wall Street reported, "as the company hopes to wait out the phone-hacking furor that continued to batter it Monday." In a "procedural move," News Corp. withdrew its agreement to spin off BSkyB's Sky News channel--which means that the U.K.'s Competition Commission gets another crack at a review. Approval of the deal could now be postponed "for six months or more."

• Investors losing confidence? Both News Corp. and BSkyB shares were fell sharply on Wall Street Monday. And News Corp. stock is trading down about 4 percent in global markets during Tuesday trading.

• Social-media boycott. A campaign has been launched on Twitter and Facebook calling for a complete boycott of Murdoch's U.K. media holdings.

• And after being away on vacation, Jon Stewart finally got his chance to weigh in on the News of the World news on Monday's "Daily Show," with correspondent John Oliver recapped the scandal for Stewart. "I'm about to give you a schadenfreudegasm," Oliver said.