Names and faces

— The reverberations from the death of a nurse who accepted a hoax phone call about the ill duchess of Cambridge spread through two countries Sunday, as Australian authorities said London police had contacted them about a possible investigation. The Australian radio station behind the call also announced an immediate review of its broadcast practices after the debacle, which began with a prank call made Tuesday to the hospital where the former Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness. Two radio disc jockeys impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles and received confidential information about the duchess’s medical condition, which was broadcast on the air. The prank took a dark twist three days later with the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two, who was duped by the DJs. The death has sparked an angry backlash against the DJs, who have been taken off the air indefinitely. Australian police confirmed Sunday that they had been contacted by London police and said they would cooperate. Police have not yet determined Saldanha’s cause of death. Separately, Prince William on Sunday pulled out of attending the British Military Tournament, billed as “the largest display of military theatre in the world,” citing Kate’s illness. The duchess has not been seen in public since leaving the hospital last week.

Police detectives apologized to the family of rapper Notorious B.I.G. for failing to warn them about the planned release of his autopsy report more than 15 years after he died in a drive by shooting, the Los Angeles Police Department said Saturday. The detectives had intended to notify the rapper’s family, but the report was released prematurely “due to an administrative error,” the department said. Capt. Billy Hayes, who heads the department’s robbery homicide division, said the killing “has been a challenging case for us to solve. We hope that witnesses or other people with information will come forward and give us the clues we need to solve this case.” The 23-page report revealed that the rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was hit by four bullets after leaving a music-industry event in March 1997. One bullet hit his heart, left lung and colon causing his death.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/10/2012

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