Britain is poised to announce significant cuts in the number of troops in southern Iraq following an upbeat assessment by US and British military officials in London yesterday.
This was the message from defence officials last night following talks between ministers and General David Petraeus, the American military commander in Iraq.
– The Guardian
Iraq announced a review of all foreign security firms yesterday after claims that 11 civilians were killed by members of Blackwater, the United States contractor.
Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, described the shooting on Sunday as “criminal” while a senior judge threatened the company with prosecution.
The incident has outraged Iraqis and revived controversy of the “shadow army” of up to 40,000 foreign armed guards who protect diplomats, airports and reconstruction projects in Iraq but are seen as operating above the law.
– The Telegraph
China and Russia are spying on the US on a scale not seen since the end of the cold war, the head of US national intelligence, Mike McConnell, said yesterday.
Giving evidence to a Congressional committee, Vice Admiral McConnell said that US facilities, intelligence services and development projects were all being targeted.
He was speaking weeks after the Pentagon had claimed it had come under attack from Chinese computer hackers. The Foreign Office is among British government departments that appear also to have been targeted.
– The Guardian
The case of a celebrity whose medical records were illicitly viewed by more than 50 members of an NHS hospital’s staff raised doubts yesterday about the security of the government’s GB pound 12.4bn scheme to upgrade the NHS’s IT systems.
The prying was revealed in board papers for North Tees primary care trust as a warning to managers to tighten procedures requiring doctors and nurses to log on individually before being allowed access to sensitive personal material.
– The Guardian
