UK plan targets govt monitoring

LONDON - Britain's new deputy prime minister pledged on Wednesday to lead a sweeping drive to protect civil liberties, curbing official surveillance and data collection by scrapping an unpopular national identity card program, limiting the retention of DNA profiles and the spread of closed-circuit cameras.

Nick Clegg said the coalition government was rolling back government monitoring after years of complaints from rights groups that personal freedoms have been sacrificed in the name of national security.

"This government will end the culture of spying on its citizens," Clegg said during a speech in north London. "It is outrageous that decent, law-abiding people are regularly treated as if they have something to hide. It has to stop."