UK Prime Minister Tony Blair won the support of Parliament Friday for a new anti-terrorism law, allowing the government to act swiftly against eight foreign terror suspects who have been granted bail.
The House of Lords approved new powers to order house arrest, impose curfews and use electronic tagging for terror suspects without trial, after the government made concessions to end a bitter parliamentary deadlock.
The Prevention of Terrorism Bill, which also allows the government to ban terror suspects from meeting certain people or traveling, and to restrict their access to the Internet or telephone, later received the formality of royal assent to become law.
The new control orders are likely to be used immediately against the eight foreign nationals, including radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada who has alleged links to al-Qaeda. The men have spent three years in a high security prison without charge but were granted bail at a special commission on Friday.
The law under which the men were detained, and which allowed the judge to set such bail conditions, expires on Monday. The government urgently wanted its new powers cleared by Parliament and had warned that without new legislation the men could have walked free.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he would sign control orders Friday night for the 10 men held under the current terrorism legislation that expires Monday.
Parliament was deadlocked for almost two days over the bill, which will apply to both foreign nationals and Britons, with both the government and opposition refusing to make concessions.
The main opposition Conservative Party said the legislation would infringe civil liberties and had demanded a so-called sunset clause guaranteeing that the law would expire a year after being passed. The government refused, saying such an amendment would send a message that Britain was soft on terrorism.
Seeking to end the standoff, the government produced a timetable for Parliament to review and amend the law and promised Parliament time to draft more wide ranging legislation later in the year.
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS