World News
US tightens security at airports: Britain on maximum alert amid fear of new attack
By Agencies
Sun, 1 Jul 2007, 13:42:00

Police raided homes and made arrests Sunday as the British government vowed to defy the "evil" of terrorism and put the country on maximum alert following three failed attacks.

Officers searched properties in Glasgow and Liverpool as the number of people arrested rose to five, including one man in critical condition in hospital with severe burns.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain faced the threat of Al-Qaeda attacks after a blazing car tried to ram into Glasgow airport's main terminal Saturday following two attempted car bombings in London Friday.

"We will not yield, we will not be intimidated," Brown told BBC television, adding that terrorism "can never be justified as an act of faith," adding: "It is an act of evil in all circumstances."

"It is clear that we are dealing in general terms with people who are associated with Al-Qaeda in a number of incidents that have happened across the world," he said.

Early Sunday police announced they were searching a number of homes in the Glasgow region following the airport attack which closed Scotland's busiest air hub overnight.

Meanwhile, US airports and mass transit systems will tighten security in response to apparent terrorist incidents in Britain, the Bush administration said Saturday.

The United States, however, is not raising its terror alert status, President Bush's spokesman and the Homeland Security secretary said. "There is no indication of any specific or credible threat to the United States — no change in the overall security level," Tony Snow told reporters in Maine.

Acting out of "an abundance of caution" during the upcoming Fourth of July holidays, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said the government is putting in place plans to increase security at airports, on mass transit and at transportation facilities.

"Some of these measures will be visible; others will not," he said in a statement.


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