Police are investigating an alleged attempt to kill a former KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the cold war.
Oleg Gordievsky, 69, one of Britain’s most important double agents in the 1980s, says he was poisoned at his home in Surrey in a Russian assassination attempt. He said that after falling unconscious for 34 hours he was taken to a private clinic where he spent two weeks recovering. He still has no feeling in his fingers.
– The Guardian
One of the features of the Olympic torch relay as it passed through London yesterday was the phalanx of Chinese “flame attendants” wearing matching blue tracksuits that accompanied the flame every step of the way from Wembley to the O2 arena.
Officially, the attendants’ role is to ensure the safe handover of the torch between runners and to ensure that it remains lit throughout the relay. Initially, organisers said that between three and six attendants would be used, but more than a dozen surrounded the torch on the streets of London yesterday. They formed part of a huge security presence around the torch and a last line of defence – and were called into action at least once, when a protestor attempted to grab the flame from TV presenter Konnie Huq.
– The Guardian
US and Iraqi forces killed 22 people yesterday in a raid on the Baghdad stronghold of al-Mahdi Army, the Shia militia that fought Iraqi government forces in Basra last week, while kidnappers captured 40 students on a university outing.
The violence flared as the US Ambassador to Iraq and the commander of American forces prepared to testify to Congress tomorrow on the security and political progress of the American surge of forces in the past year.
– The Times