The full body scanners being introduced to Britain’s airports risk breaking child protection laws against making indecent images of children, campaign groups have claimed.

The pictures created by the scanners are so graphic they are tantamount to “virtual strip searching”, according to privacy campaigners who oppose the use of the security devices.

Ministers may be forced to consider making under-18s exempt from the scans and civil liberties campaigners are demanding measures to ensure the images, which will include those of celebrities, are not leaked onto the internet. Airport officials say the images from the £80,000 scanners are only seen by a single security officer in a remote location before it is deleted.  Read more... (398 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Gordon Brown has condemned plans by a controversial Islamic group to stage a march through Wootton Bassett – the town synonymous with honouring soldiers killed in Afghanistan. It comes after the leader of Islam4UK, Anjem Choudary, vowed to continue with the idea in the Wiltshire town despite repeated calls to drop it.

Civic leaders have asked Mr Choudary to reconsider his proposal for 500 members to walk through Wootton Bassett’s High Street carrying empty coffins.

And a Facebook site dedicated to preventing the march has already attracted more than 120,000 members.  Read more... (683 words, 1 image, estimated 2:44 mins reading time)

Afghanistan Notebook: flights are cancelled and departures delayed but the Army gets me – and members of my old regiment – to Kabul

The weather in London forces a last-minute change to my best-laid plans to get to Afghanistan as a “civvie” so I can revisit my old regiment out there. I’m grateful, though, that old habits die hard: my waterproofed bergen fares better than most of my fellow passengers’ luggage sitting out in the snow once our flight has been cancelled.  Read more... (848 words, 1 image, estimated 3:24 mins reading time)

MOSCOW: NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has arrived in Moscow for talks expected to focus on Afghanistan and Moscow’s potential assistance to the alliance’s efforts there.

On his three-day trip to Russia, Rasmussen is to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Relations between NATO and Moscow have improved significantly since they were frozen for six months in the aftermath of the August2008 Russia-Georgia war.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed its willingness to help the war effort in Afghanistan, due to fears that any return to power by Taliban extremists would destabilize Central Asia and endanger Russia’s own security. Russia has allowed NATO nations to use its territory for the overland transport of supplies to Afghanistan.

Barack Obama is to discuss the level of military commitment in Afghanistan with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. Mr Obama will land in Germany at the start of a three-stop European leg of his world tour.

Already having visited Afghanistan and Jordan, Mr Obama, the US Democratic presidential candidate, and overwhelming favourite in European polls, Mr Obama left Israel having vowed to strengthen ties with the country. Now he is to enjoy a whistlestop tour of Berlin before leaving for France on Friday, where he will meet President Nicolas Sarkozy. He will round up his tour on Saturday in London, where he will meet Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, and David Cameron, the Conservative leader.  Read more... (332 words, 1 image, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Published Date: 14 December 2009
A £150 million package to tackle the threat of roadside bombs in Afghanistan is set to be announced today – after the Prime Minister bedded down in forces accommodation in the country at the weekend.
£150m package for tackling roadside bombs after Brown spends night alongside Kandahar troops
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Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, is meeting troops in Afghanistan on a surprise pre-Christmas visit. The Prime Minister bedded down in forces accommodation in Afghanistan on Saturday night as he sought to demonstrate his commitment to supporting British troops serving in the country.

Mr Brown slept in what aides described as basic dormitory style rooms at Kandahar Airfield, the coalition headquarters for the region. It was the first time a British premier had stayed overnight in either Afghanistan or Iraq, and came at the start of a surprise pre-Christmas visit to the troops.  Read more... (446 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Published: 7:08AM BST 17 Aug 2009

More than three quarters of the population think the Government is not doing enough to support British troops in Afghanistan, a survey revealed. The YouGov poll asked the views of 2,127 people and found only 13 per cent said it was “very clear” why British troops are in Afghanistan.

Over half (57 per cent) said they should not be fighting in the country. Thousands of people, including army chiefs and former Prime Minister John Major, have backed a Daily Telegraph campaign calling for better treatment for injured troops. Just over one in 10 people (12 per cent) in the poll, commissioned by Sky News, said they thought the Government was doing enough to support the troops and 82 per cent said it should provide better support.  Read more... (588 words, 1 image, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Gordon Brown has welcomed US President Barack Obama‘s long-awaited announcement of a 30,000-strong troop ”surge” for Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister said a ”very substantial part” of the additional US force would be deployed to Helmand province where British troops have been engaged in heavy fighting against the Taliban.

However, he played down suggestions that British troops would start withdrawing from Afghanistan next year as the Afghans begin taking responsibility for security for some provinces and districts. ‘There was no question of us withdrawing our British troops until the point that we were sure that the Afghans could take over security control themselves,” he told MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions.  Read more... (650 words, 1 image, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

The father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan received a condolence letter from the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, almost two years after his son died.

Trooper Jack Sadler, 21, of the Honourable Artillery Company, was killed on December 4 2007 when his vehicle was caught up in a blast in Helmand Province.

But his father Ian said he only received a handwritten letter from Gordon Brown on November 17 2009, accompanied by a typed apology from an aide to the Prime Minister. Last month, Mr Brown was criticised for spelling mistakes in a handwritten letter to Jacqui Janes, whose son Jamie was killed in Afghanistan.  Read more... (425 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)