WASHINGTON Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, is confronted by a protester with red paint on her hands as she arrives to testify at a congressional hearing on American policy in the Middle East. Several antiwar protesters were wrestled to the ground by police as they tried to disrupt the start of Dr Rice’s testimony.

The Secretary of State told the House Foreign Relations Committee that she and Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, had asked their deputies to conduct another study into the way that private security guards in Iraq operate after a critical internal report.

Richard Griffin, chief of diplomatic security at the State Department, resigned yesterday after the report criticised the supervision of the American security contractor Blackwater, which is under investigation for its conduct in Iraq. Blackwater guards are accused of killing 17 Iraqis last month while protecting a diplomatic convoy in Baghdad. (Reuters)

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