The United States government has announced an internal inquiry into how the personal files of the three main presidential hopefuls came to be breached. A State Department spokesman said the files which contained information including biographical details and passport applications were accessed by employees working for independent contractors.
The Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, telephoned the candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, to apologise to them in person.
A BBC correspondent in Washington says it's still not clear exactly what information the contractors were able to see and what they did with it.
Saturday, 22.March.2008
