Travellers face new delays and disruption on trips to Britain under government plans unveiled Wednesday to tighten defences against terrorism at airports, rail stations and major public spaces.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said airports and 250 of the busiest train terminals will get new blast barriers. The plan also calls for new baggage checks at major rail terminals, strict limits on cars dropping travellers off near departure gates, and, at times of heightened threat, frisking customers before they enter shopping malls.
Thousands of movie theatres, shopping malls, hospitals and schools will be advised on how to protect the public from bombs.
Brown said internet and technology companies will be asked to help stop online terrorist propaganda, and he announced that a meeting would be convened with leading British internet service providers to find ways of accomplishing that.
The plan is the result of a sweeping security review of nearly 900 public spaces by Terrorism Minister Alan West, former head of navy and defence intelligence, in the wake of the failed attacks in June on a London entertainment district and Glasgow airport. West warned that the battle against extremists would likely last a generation.
Also Wednesday, a high-speed Eurostar train service was launched, aiming to shave 20 minutes off a London-Paris trip and 25 minutes off the London-Brussels route.
The new fast train service was made possible by the completion of a high-speed line from London to the Channel Tunnel, part of a $12-billion project. Trains can now reach the maximum 186 mph in Britain.
France, which has a national network of high-speed railways, completed its part of the link in 1993, a year
before the tunnel opened. The high-speed line from the tunnel to Brussels was finished in 1997.
Related
Video
- Harry Forestell reports for CBC-TV (Runs: 2:18)
- Play: Real Media »
- Play: QuickTime »
More World Headlines »
- Millions of Iraqi children need help now: UNICEF report
- A United Nations report paints a grim picture of life in Iraq for two million children, but says an improving security outlook offers the opportunity to provide much-needed help.
- U.S. government asks judge to hold off investigating destroyed CIA tapes
- Lawyers for the U.S. government urged a federal judge on Friday not to launch his own investigation into the destruction of CIA videotapes that showed officers using harsh interrogation methods as they questioned suspects.
- 50 killed in suicide attack outside Pakistan politician's home
- At least 50 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide attacker detonated a bomb early Friday at a mosque outside the home of Pakistan's former interior minister, officials said.
- 5 men plead not guilty in death of Canadian biker
- Five men pleaded not guilty on Friday in the killing of a former Calgary man who was gunned down as he rode his motorcycle along a British expressway.
- French aid workers were 'saving lives,' not kidnapping: lawyer
- The six French aid workers facing kidnapping charges in Chad were trying to save children thought to be orphans, their lawyers said Friday at the start of their trial.