Police searched several houses near Glasgow International Airport and made a fifth arrest yesterday in connection with an attack on its main terminal and a foiled car bomb plot in London.
Britain's new prime minister warned that it is clear the country is dealing with terrorists associated with al-Qaeda.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a nationally televised interview that Britons must realize that the terrorist threat Britain faces is "long-term and sustained." He said it was "clear that we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaeda."
Lord Stevens, Brown's terrorism adviser, said the two attacks in Britain indicate that "al-Qaeda has imported the tactics of Baghdad and Bali to the streets of the UK."
On Friday, police thwarted an apparent plot to set off a coordinated bomb attack in central London when an ambulance crew spotted smoke coming from a Mercedes found rigged with explosives. They found a second Mercedes filled with explosives hours later.
And on Saturday, two men rammed a flaming jeep into the main entrance of Glasgow's airport, shattering the glass doors and sparking a raging fire just meters from people lined up at the check-in counters on the first day of summer vacation for Glaswegian schoolchildren.
The two men were in police custody yesterday, one of them under guard in hospital after being engulfed in flames when the jeep crashed.
Early yesterday, police arrested two others on a major highway in Cheshire, northern England, in a joint swoop by officers from London and Birmingham, Scotland Yard said in London, and a fifth suspect was arrested in Liverpool, police there said.
Police authorities said officers were searching a residential area about 12km west of central Glasgow -- an area about 1.6km from the airport. In Houston, a small town just outside Glasgow, police cordoned off the area around a two-story house to search it.
The two attacks clearly are linked, police and security officials said, noting that all three vehicles contained large amounts of flammable materials -- including gasoline and gas cylinders.
Britain raised its security alert level to "critical" -- the highest possible level, indicating terror attacks may be imminent as the attacks raised fears that the type of car bomb attacks now commonplace in Iraq has now reached European shores.
The new terror threat presents Brown with an enormous challenge early in his term.
Brown, a Scot who replaced Tony Blair as prime minister just last Wednesday, urged Britons to remain "constantly vigilant" about security.
"Everything is being done in our power ... to protect people's lives," he said.
Lord Stevens, London's former police chief, called it a major escalation in the campaign waged by Islamic militants.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source