A British Defence Ministry laptop packed with national security secrets has gone missing after an official left it in the back of a taxi. It was thought to contain vital information about new weapons systems.
It was the latest of several laptops with military or intelligence information reported lost in Britain in just over a year.
In March last year there were reports that agents of MI5, Britain's domestic security service, and MI6, the overseas security service, had lost laptops containing secret information.
The MI5 laptop, said to contain confidential information on Northern Ireland, was snatched at a London railway station. Before the start of the 1991 Gulf War, a laptop said to have contained combat plans was stolen from the car of a British air force officer, who lost his job as a result.
