Ex-Army officials may be booked under Pak Official Secrets Act for revealing statements

August 12th, 2009 BEIJING - Chinese prosecutors have charged Australian executive Stern Hu with commercial bribery, which means he could be facing up to seven years jail if found guilty by Beijing. China's official news agency Xinhua said Hu and three Rio Tinto Chinese colleagues were charged late on Tuesday, six days after being detained in Shanghai.

August 2nd, 2009 ALGERIA/PARIS - At least 18 suspected terrorists were killed during Algerian Army operations in the eastern part of the country, media reports said Sunday. The dead were believed to belong to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the reports said.

July 22nd, 2009 BEIJING - China has told Australia that it has sufficient evidence to prove Rio Tinto staff's involvement in espionage and bribery case. "I've introduced the information about the case to him (Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith) and stressed we have sufficient evidence to show that people involved in the case have obtained our state secrets through illegal means," The Australian quoted He Yafei, as saying.

July 15th, 2009 CANBERRA - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has blamed an agreement reached by former premier John Howard and the Chinese government for limiting his government's access to Rio Tinto's detained GM, Stern Hu. "I note the consular agreement, which we inherited from the previous Australian government, limits the demands we can make on the Chinese authorities for consular access.

July 11th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The Australian Government's open support to the Shanghai-based Australian general manager of iron ore mining company, Hu Stern, who has been arrested on espionage charges in China, is set to put the Kevin Rudd government in the worst foreign policy crisis since taking office in November 2007. "Frankly, it is difficult for a nation like Australia to see a relationship between espionage and national security and what appeared to be suggestions about commercial or economic negotiations," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in the wake of Australian consular officials gaining access to Hu for the first time since his arrest last Sunday.

July 6th, 2009 LONDON - British weapons inspector David Kelly was writing a book exposing highly damaging government secrets before his mysterious death. He was intending to reveal that he warned Prime Minister Tony Blair there were no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq weeks before the British and American invasion.

July 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army has named Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem to command the Swat operation against the Taliban, a media report said Saturday.

June 23rd, 2009 BEIJING - Chinese government officials will soon be required to think twice before connecting their flash-disks loaded with State secrets into unsecured computers, as they are likely to come under tighter surveillance to prevent leaks of confidential information. The top legislature was informed on Monday during briefings on amendments to the Law on Guarding State Secrets, that a tougher law was needed to cut access to the Internet or other public networks from secure computers, China Daily reports.

June 14th, 2009 LONDON - A construction company that built the headquarters of one of Britain's most sensitive spy bases - MI-5, has inadvertently revealed some of its well kept secrets on the Internet. The publicity brochure placed online contains the address and full colour pictures of its northern operations center, reports The Times.

June 11th, 2009 LONDON - The identity of the spy, who passed on Britain's nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union and triggered the Cold War, has been revealed with the opening of the KGB and MI5 files 70 years later. For ten years a Soviet spy codenamed "Eric" gave Britain's nuclear secrets to Moscow.

June 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Army would need to stay in the Swat Valley for at least a year after its operation against the Taliban in the region is accomplished, in order to prevent the extremists from resurfacing again, a senior Army official has said. Major General Ijaz Awan, who is commanding the military's Swat offensive, said the army would have to stay in the valley for at least another year so that peace and security could be re-established.

May 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has vacated the Army House - 18 months after retiring as the Chief of Army Staff.ources said the belongings of the former army chief had been moved to his Chak Shahzad farmhouse, near Tamri Chowk. Musharraf had retired from the army on November 28, 2007.

May 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has rubbished media reports that claim that it had shared its nuclear secrets with some Western countries to assure about the safety of its nuclear arsenal. Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit termed the reports "totally baseless".

March 31st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Under immense pressure from different quarters, Former Pakistan President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf has decided to vacate the Army House within next few days. According to sources, General Musharraf has informed about his decision to the Army Headquarter.

February 16th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's army Tuesday decided to hold fire and respect an agreement signed between the government and militants to enforce Islamic law in the violence-hit Swat valley, a media report said. 'The army works on the government's orders.