Russia’s internal security agency has opened an investigation into claims of espionage made by Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, did not name any suspects. Last month Mr Lugovoi claimed that both Mr Litvinenko and his associate, Kremlin foe Boris Berezovsky, had contacts with MI6 and that Mr Berezovsky had given British intelligence sensitive information about Russia.
– The Telegraph
BAE gave Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia an airliner as part of Britain’s al-Yamamah arms deal, and the arms firm is still paying the expenses of flying it, the Guardian can disclose. The top of the range, four-engine Airbus 340, worth GB pound 75m, was painted in the silver and blue colours of Bandar’s favourite American football team, the Dallas Cowboys, and is said to have been presented to him on his birthday in 1998.
Prince Bandar denies any impropriety in allegations that he has been paid more than GB pound 1bn by BAE for his part in arranging the al-Yamamah deal, which was under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office until Tony Blair halted the inquiry on “national security” grounds.
– The Guardian
Police believe that a A$1.4 million ( GB pound 600,000) painting, deftly unscrewed from a wall while Sydney’s most distinguished art gallery was filled with visitors, may have already been transported overseas.
They said that the canvas by Frans van Mieris, the 17th-century Dutch master, stolen from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, was taken by an expert. The painting went missing during the busiest day of the week at the gallery, which attracted 6,000 visitors, and despite the constant presence of security guards.
– The Times
Hamas proclaimed the era of Islamic rule had arrived in Gaza last night as the final strongholds of the Palestinian security forces crumbled and President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency.
After a day in which Hamas bombed and burnt its way into Fatah-held compounds, the movement claimed to have seized Mr Abbas’s presidential compound in Gaza City, the “last bastion” remaining in Fatah hands.
– The Telegraph
The number of business wireless networks in London grew by 180 per cent, while public wireless hotspots increased by 27 per cent.
The RSA study found, however, that 19 per cent of wireless networks had no security. This is down from 26 per cent a year ago, but still too high, as unsecured networks leave businesses open to hacking attacks.
Of those that have some security, about 48 per cent used an outdated technology called WEP. It recently emerged, for example, that the hackers who gained access to more than 45m customer accounts at TJX, parent company of the discount retailer TK Maxx, did so through the company’s WEP-secured wireless network.
– The Financial Times