ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Investigations into preventable baby deaths allegedly concealed by senior NHS management. London, United Kingdom - The highest echelons of Britain's National Health Service are under unprecedented scrutiny after damaging allegations linked the deaths of new-born babies to cover-ups, incompetence and smear campaigns by senior health officials. The deaths of 16 babies and two mothers, alongside numerous clinical disasters that left babies brain damaged, may have been avoided if clinical failures at Morecambe Bay NHS Trust in northwest England had been properly investigated, it was revealed in parliament. At the heart of the media storm were senior managers at the Care Quality Commission, the beleaguered health and safety watchdog, who allegedly destroyed a damning internal review that showed its own inspection failures had left patients at risk of seriously poor care. The police are being urged to investigate allegations of perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public ...

Reports say retired general is being probed for leaks linked to 2010 cyber attack on Iran's nuclear programme. One of the highest ranking military officers in the US is under investigation for allegedly leaking top secret information about a cyber attack on Iran's nuclear programme, according to reports. NBC news channel reported on Thursday that retired General James Cartwright, a former second-highest-ranking officer, was under investigation for leaking information on a covert computer virus, called Stuxnet. The virus was used in 2010 to temporarily disable 1,000 centrifuges used for enriching uranium by Iran's nuclear facilities. Cartwright, who was the number two person in the joint chiefs of staff from 2007 to 2011, was instrumental in the development of Stuxnet, and his role was publicised in a New York Times article published last year. The article exposed that the virus was the Obama administration's key weapon against Iran's nuclear weapons programme. P...

At least 10 killed after explosions target roadblock run by government-allied Sunni group in western city of Ramadi. Two bombs have exploded near a checkpoint in western Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing at least 10 people, police and medics have said. The first explosion killed a police officer and the second bomb went off five minutes later as police and bystanders gathered around the wreckage in the Sunni heartland of Anbar, which shares a border with Syria. "We were on duty at a nearby checkpoint when the car exploded. We ran to work out what was going on, but before we reached the car it exploded again," said a policeman at the scene. Police and hospital officials said at least 22 people were wounded in the attack on the checkpoint which was run by Sahwa, a Sunni group that joined forces with the US troops to fight al-Qaida during the Iraq War. Since then, the group has been a target for Sunni fighters who consider its members traitors. More than 1,000 people died in a...

Identity of Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former IT specialist at CIA, revealed at his own request, UK newspaper says. The Guardian said on Sunday it published the identity of 29-year-old Edward Snowden, a current employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, at his own request. "I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," Snowden was quoted as saying. In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided to the London-based newspaper, he wrote: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions," but "I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant." Booz Allen confirmed on Sunday that Snowden was an employee of the company. According to the US technology consulting firm, he has worked for Booz Allen for less than three months and was assigned to a team working in Hawaii. ...

Edward Snowden says he leaked details of US programme harvesting internet and phone records to protect basic liberties. A former CIA worker has revealed himself as the source of leaked information on a secret US spy programme that harvests internet and phone records of US citizens and foreigners. Edward Snowden, a current employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, said he leaked information on the Prism programme to protect "basic liberties for people around the world". "I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under." In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, the 29-year-old said he had no intention of hiding "because I have done nothing wrong", but was aware that his actions had made him a target for US agencies. Snowden leaked a presentation on the Prism surveillance system, which allows the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI direct access t...

Interior ministry says all seven attackers killed in Afghan capital following assault on main airport.  A coordinated suicide and grenade attack on the Kabul airport has ended with all seven attackers being killed, the Afghan interior ministry has said. The Taliban earlier claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack on Monday, telling Al Jazeera that the target was the military airport. "There were seven assailants...two (suicide bombers) died detonating themselves and five others were killed in fighting," Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, chief of Kabul police, said. "There have not been any casualties to the security forces, and we have not received any report of civilian casualties so far," he said. Loud explosions and bursts of small-arms fire were heard during the attack, with the US embassy sounding its "duck and cover" alarm and its loudspeakers warning that the alarm was not a drill. Al Jazeera's Jennifer Glasse, reporting from the Afghan capital, ...