President Vladimir Putin has sent a chilling message to world leaders on the eve of the G8 summit with a threat to aim Russian nuclear missiles at European cities for the first time since the Cold War.
In comments that seemed calculated to cause consternation and division at Wednesday’s meeting in Germany, the Russian leader said that American plans to erect a missile defence shield in eastern Europe had left him with no choice but to retaliate.
“It is obvious that if part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States is located in Europe we will have to respond,” he told reporters from G8 countries in Moscow at the weekend.
– The Telegraph
German authorities yesterday closed most routes to the G8 summit site at Heiligendamm and pulled over cars for spot checks on the main road from Rostock, where protest riots have led to hundreds of people being injured.
Three days before the world’s industrial powers gather, the situation around the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm was calm, police said. But, after Saturday’s violence, they had stepped up security in Rostock, stopping people in the city centre yesterday to check bags and identity papers.
-The Guardian
The majority of Britain’s troops in Iraq could be withdrawn within 12 months under a military-options plan drawn up by the top British commander in Basra.
Under contingency plans announced in the Commons in February, the British troop presence in Iraq was to be reduced from 7,200 to 5,500 by the time of the next rotation of troops, which has just been completed. Most of the service-men and women were also to be pulled out of bases in the city of Basra and moved to the airport base by the end of this year.
– The Times
Gordon Brown insisted yesterday that he would not put civil liberties at risk despite signalling his determination to match Tony Blair’s hardline stance on countering terrorism with a series of controversial new measures.
Parts of the proposals will be laid out in detail on Thursday, when the outgoing home secretary, John Reid, announces a consultation on the terrorism bill due this autumn. They include detaining suspects for more than four weeks without charge, allowing questioning after charge and the use of intercept evidence.
– The Guardian
The kidnappings last week of a British consultant and his four security guards serve as a grim reminder of the price paid by these experts pay when things go wrong.
“I am not here for the money, I am not here as a mercenary and I am not running away from a broken life somewhere else,” said one Western consultant, who offers government ministries advice on management skills such as how to create IT systems.
Another consultant, a Briton who specialises in helping governments to learn basic project management skills and has lived in Baghdad’s fortified green zone for three years, said that his team “really feels we owe it to Iraq to help build back their country”.
– The Times
Security at Britain’s airports has been called into question after an undercover investigation exposed a litany of shocking lapses.
During a six-month investigation, security staff were secretly filmed reading magazines, doing puzzles and even sleeping instead of examining the luggage of passengers checking in to board flights to the US.
The revelations have led to calls by a senior American politician that all flights from Birmingham to America should be suspended.
Officials from ICTS UK, a private security company working at Birmingham International Airport, also left planes unguarded and failed to check passengers’ shoes, a measure introduced after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.
– The Telegraph