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Foot and mouth outbreak 'was sabotage'
A scientist called in to investigate whether the foot and mouth virus had escaped from an animal health research plant has said sabotage was becoming the only explanation. Andrew King, who was brought in by the Institute of Animal Health (IAH), in Pirbright, Surrey, said the police should now be asked to investigate. Dr King, a former head of molecular biology at the IAH, told The Times that biosecurity was so tight that he felt the outbreak must have been caused deliberately. He said: 'As far as I am concerned the authorities have failed to find any chink in the armoury of the establishment’s bio-security. What you are left with is human movement, which is not a matter for the institute, it’s a police matter. It’s very, very unlikely that it could be spread by accident. People do not spread the disease easily.”

British firm under scrutiny for export of Bosnian guns to Iraq
The government was facing awkward questions last night over an arms deal involving a British company licensed by the Department of Trade and Industry to import weapons but which was also selling machine guns to an Iraqi official later implicated in an alleged $1.1bn (£545m) corruption scandal. A committee of MPs and Amnesty International have both demanded to know whether the deal breaches either the UN arms embargo on Iraq or British government export laws. They want to know who was involved in the deal and what safeguards are in place to ensure arms exports negotiated by British companies through foreign intermediaries reach their intended destination.

The Mercenary Revolution: Military contractors profiting in Iraq
If you think the U.S. has only 160,000 troops in Iraq, think again.
With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies. There are now almost 200,000 private 'contractors” deployed in Iraq by Washington. This means that U.S. military forces in Iraq are now outsized by a coalition of billing corporations whose actions go largely unmonitored and whose crimes are virtually unpunished. In essence, the Bush administration has created a shadow army that can be used to wage wars unpopular with the American public but extremely profitable for a few unaccountable private companies.

Police on terror alert over theft of top secret records on computer database
A major security alert has been sparked after the theft of a computer database containing thousands of top secret telephone records from police investigations into terrorism and organised crime. Worried police chiefs throughout the UK launched a massive inquiry into the removal of the sophisticated computer and other IT equipment from a private firm specialising in gathering evidence from mobile phone calls made by suspects.

Inquiry ordered over Iraq killings
The Iraqi prime minister has called for an inquiry into the deaths of the governor and chief of police of the southern Iraqi province of Qadisiyah. Governor Khalil Jalil Hamza and Khalid Hassan were killed by a roadside bomb on Saturday as they headed back to the provincial capital, Diwaniyah, from the funeral of a tribal sheikh. Al-Maliki's office said in a statement: 'It is with sadness that we learnt of the martyrdom of the governor of Diwaniyah, Khalil Jalil Hamza, the police chief Khalid Hassan, and their guards from an explosive device.

Bush warns Iraq over ties with Iran
United States President George W Bush has sternly warned Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki against cosying up to Iran, amid what the US sees as unsettling signs of warming relations between Iraq and Iran. Mr Bush, holding a pre-vacation press conference, said he was not surprised at pictures showing cordial meetings between Mr Maliki and top Iranian leaders in Tehran but that he hoped the Prime Minister was delivering a tough message. 'You don't want the picture to be kind of, you know, duking it out,' he said, putting up his fists like a boxer.

Putin aides attack Miliband's family to undermine him over Litvinenko
The grandfather of Foreign Secretary David Miliband has been dragged into the diplomatic stand-off between Britain and Russia - more than 40 years after his death. Last week - as the two countries continued to trade insults over Moscow's refusal to hand over the man suspected of Alexander Litvinenko's murder - Mr Miliband was accused of inheriting a 'hatred' of Russia from his Polish-born Jewish grandfather Samuel. The accusation was made by Gleb Pavlovsky, one of President Vladimir Putin's closest advisers, who said Samuel fought under the command of Trotsky in the Twenties, eliminating White Russians opposed to communism.

Fatigue cripples US army in Iraq
Exhaustion and combat stress are besieging US troops in Iraq as they battle with a new type of warfare. Some even rely on Red Bull to get through the day. As desertions and absences increase, the military is struggling to cope with the crisis. Lieutenant Clay Hanna looks sick and white. Like his colleagues he does not seem to sleep. Hanna says he catches up by napping on a cot between operations in the command centre, amid the noise of radio. He is up at 6am and tries to go to sleep by 2am or 3am. But there are operations to go on, planning to be done and after-action reports that need to be written. And war interposes its own deadly agenda that requires his attention and wakes him up.

British livestock at risk from deadly bluetongue virus, scientists warn
Scientists warned last night that Britain is on the verge of a major new farmyard catastrophe with a disease called bluetongue that has ravaged mainland Europe and is poised to arrive in this country for the first time. They said that the deadly virus - which is spread by midges that have been able to expand further northwards thanks to climate change – originated in Africa and has killed 1.8 million animals since it first appeared in Europe in 1998.

Russia unveils air defence plan
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced what he called a vast programme to upgrade the country's missile defence system. Visiting a new radar early-warning station near St Petersburg, Mr Putin said it was the first step in a major construction project lasting till 2015. Russia has grave concerns about plans to deploy parts of a new US missile defence system in Eastern Europe. Mr Putin has warned that Russia will take measures to counter the plan.

Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look
Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday. 'I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, 'Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered'. 'And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another,' Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

Fears that shares crisis will hit UK
Investors are expected to suffer this week as fears grow that the global financial crisis, sparked by Americans defaulting on their mortgages, could have serious repercussions in Britain. Shares went into freefall round the world on Friday and experts are concerned the meltdown could soon be felt by British householders in the form of depressed house prices and lower income from investments. Pension funds which had been boosted by the strong performance of the stock market by this year's gains have been wiped out, sending some schemes back into the red.

All Korean hostages still in Taliban hands
Two seriously ill South Korean hostages are still in Taliban hands, a spokesman for the rebel group said on Sunday, but would be freed soon. The same spokesman had said late on Saturday the two women had already been freed and would soon arrive in the city of Ghazni, close to where they and 21 other Korean church volunteers were abducted by the insurgents more than three weeks ago.

Myths of Mideast Arms Sales
The Bush administration’s proposal to send $20 billion worth of arms and $43 billion in military aid to U.S. allies in the Middle East has been promoted by repeating a series of time-worn myths that should have long since been abandoned. With a shooting war in Iraq and a war of words with Iran well under way, the last thing the region needs is a new influx of high tech weaponry. The suggestions of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that this flood of armaments will be 'stabilizing” in the short term while underscoring the U.S. commitment to 'moderates” in the region over the longer term is a prime example of this historical amnesia.

Islamists urge caliphate revival
Some 80,000 Islamists have met in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to press for the re-establishment of a caliphate across the Muslim world. The Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir - which organised the conference - said it had been the largest gathering of Muslim activists from around the world. However, the group is illegal in many countries and key speakers have been stopped from entering Indonesia. A caliphate - or single state for Muslims - last existed in 1924.

States Try to Alter How Presidents Are Elected
When state Democratic leaders from around the country meet this weekend in Vermont, the California chairman, Art Torres, expects to be peppered with the sort of questions that have been clogging his in-box for weeks. What is this about Republicans trying to change the way Electoral College votes are allocated in California? Is there a countereffort by Democrats in the works? What does it mean for presidential candidates?

Reported Drop in Surveillance Spurred a Law
At a closed-door briefing in mid-July, senior intelligence officials startled lawmakers with some troubling news. American eavesdroppers were collecting just 25 percent of the foreign-based communications they had been receiving a few months earlier. Congress needed to act quickly, intelligence officials said, to repair a dangerous situation. Some lawmakers were alarmed. Others, jaded by past intelligence warnings, were skeptical.

The Fed's Dr No refuses to come to Wall Street's rescue
Cool, calm and collected, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, is driving Wall Street batty. When traders scream about a recessionary 'credit crunch', the former professor acknowledges their concerns but predicts continued economic growth. When they plead for easier money, Bernanke and fellow rate-setters firmly hold the line. 'Scandalous,' sputtered one North Carolina market strategist. Jim Cramer, the TV stockpicker, nearly melted in a pool of his own sweat on a recent programme, saying Bernanke had to flood the system with money to stop financial Armageddon. Shouted Cramer: 'He has no idea how bad it is out there!'

Annie Machon reveals how the bullying State crushed David Shayler
Ten years ago this month former MI5 officer David Shayler made shocking revelations in this newspaper about how Britain's spies were unable to deal with the growing threat of global terrorism. He disclosed how MI5's peculiar obsession with bureaucracy and secrecy prevented crucial information being used to stop bombings. And he told how insufficient agents and inept decision-making meant that terrorist groups were not properly monitored. None of his original disclosures was shown to be wrong. see also

Romney, Torture, and Teens
When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he’d support doubling the size of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, he was trying to show voters that he’d be tough on terror. Two of his top fundraisers, however, have long supported using tactics that have been likened to torture for troubled teenagers. As The Hill noted last week, 133 plaintiffs filed a civil suit against Romney’s Utah finance co-chair, Robert Lichfield, and his various business entities involved in residential treatment programs for adolescents. The umbrella group for his organization is the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools and Lichfield is its founder and is on its board of directors.

Ecover loses green backing over 'animal tests' on a 0.2mm flea
The world's biggest supplier of environmentally friendly cleaning products is embroiled in a bizarre row over 'animal-testing' - on tiny water fleas. Products by Ecover, which the company says are not tested on animals, carry the prized Vegan Society mark. They fill shelves of British supermarkets and help the Belgian-based firm achieve a £30million annual turnover. But the Vegan Society is to refuse permission for its trademark to be used when the endorsement comes up for renewal later this month.