The British Government will make payments to former detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to settle High Court actions and help pave the way for an inquiry into allegations of British complicity in torture, the Justice Secretary said today.

BRITAIN’S top spy, in the first public speech by a serving espionage chief, yesterday said terrorists might hit the West again “at huge human cost”, but nuclear proliferation by states was a more far-reaching danger.

MI6 HAS lifted somewhat the veil of secrecy that has surrounded its operations for the past century with the publication of the first authorised history of the service.

A BRITISH spy found murdered in his flat might have lain undiscovered for up to two weeks.

A British spy found murdered in his flat might have lain undiscovered for up to two weeks.

A man believed to be a British spy has been found murdered in a flat near the headquarters of MI6.

MI6 WAS not keeping files on Diana, Princess of Wales — or her lover Dodi Fayed — when they were killed in a Paris car crash, an inquest was told yesterday.

MI6 were not keeping files on Diana, Princess of Wales or her lover Dodi Fayed when they were killed in a Paris car crash, an inquest was told today.

THE former head of Britain’s MI6 today sought finally to draw a line under two notorious claims that rogue elements within the intelligence services have plotted to assassinate high-profile political figures.

Britain’s ambassador in Paris at the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales emphatically denied today that he ordered the embalming of her body on the instructions of MI5 to “conceal the fact she was pregnant with Dodi Fayed’s child”.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned by his intelligence chiefs that the case for war against Iraq was being fixed by the United States to suit their policy, it was claimed yesterday.

THE British Government yesterday formally withdrew its controversial claim that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons capable of being deployed within 45 minutes.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced an end to the informal “sofa” style of government meetings in the wake of the Butler report.

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair last night conceded there needed to be a shake-up in the way intelligence could be used in the run-up to war - including an abandonment of his informal "sofa" style of government.

WITH clarity of voice and affable manner, Lord Butler of Brockwell delivered his damning verdict on the failings of intelligence over Iraq.

BRITAIN’S Secret Intelligence Service’s lack of reliable human sources in Iraq was starkly exposed by the Butler report.

JOHN SCARLETT, the man who drew up the British Government’s dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, should not lose his job as chief of MI6 despite flaws in intelligence in the run-up to the war, the Butler report said yesterday.

John Scarlett, the man who drew up the British government’s dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, should not lose his job as chief of MI6 despite flaws in intelligence in the run-up to the war, the Butler report said today.

The long-awaited Butler Report into intelligence failings in the run-up to war in Iraq was being published in the UK today, amid fevered speculation in Westminster over whether the finger of blame will be pointed at British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Intelligence chiefs ignored warnings from their own leading experts that they could not be certain Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, an ex-intelligence official who gave crucial evidence to the Hutton Inquiry claimed today.

Gavin Cordon

FORMER British cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short said yesterday they were both told by MI6 in the run-up to the war with Iraq that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction did not pose any immediate threat.