The Iraqi authorities want the private security firm Blackwater to pay millions of pounds in compensation to the families of 17 civilians that they claim were killed by the company’s guards in Baghdad last month.
The authorities have also insisted that the US government cut all contracts with Blackwater within six months.
The demands, which are part of an Iraqi government report seen by the Associated Press, also called on US authorities to hand over the Blackwater agents involved in the September 16 shootings to face possible trial in Iraq.
– The Guardian
Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan, is expected to get American-trained guards and the latest electronic security equipment amid fears that she could be assassinated when she returns home to contest parliamentary elections.
Ms Bhutto, who is due to return to Pakistan on Oct 18 after eight years in self-imposed exile, has already received death threats from Islamic militants.
– The Telegraph
Ministers have called for tougher penalties for art vandals after drunken intruders broke into a Paris museum and punched a hole in a celebrated work by Claude Monet.
The incident, which happened at about midnight on Saturday at the Musee d’Orsay – home to the main Impressionist collection in France – also prompted demands for tighter security to protect museums and monuments. There has been a rash of vandalism to artworks and theft from galleries and churches in recent years.
Police are using extensive security camera pictures to identify the four men and a woman who appear to have entered the museum on a whim after they rattled a door on the Seine embankment and the lock gave way. Paris was celebrating France’s rugby victory over New Zealand and an allnight arts festival at the time.
– The Times
