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Britain introduces new anti-terror measures

Charles Clarke - Outlines anti-terror measures
Charles Clarke - Outlines anti-terror measures

The British Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, has outlined measures which would see foreign-born Muslim extremists who incite terrorism deported or excluded from Britain.

Mr Clarke says officials will draw up a list of what he called ‘unacceptable activities’ such as preaching or running inflammatory websites.

However, deportation can be stopped if it would mean a person is in danger of execution or ill treatment, so the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is now trying to get countries to guarantee this will not happen.

Jordan signed up today, meaning that Jordanian-born Abu Qatada, described as Osama Bin Laden's right hand man in Europe, could be among the first to be thrown out of Britain.

The shift in attention towards those who incite terrorism follows remarks by Syrian-born political refugee Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, who says that British voters who re-elected Mr Blair are to blame for the London bombings.

Mr Clarke has been under political pressure to deport him under existing powers.

All bombing victims now identified

Meanwhile, all 56 people so far known to have died in the London bombings have now been identified.

More than two dozen people are still in hospital with serious injuries and the death toll could still rise further.

Earlier the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, blamed Western foreign policy in the Middle East for creating the conditions for terrorist attacks such as those in London two weeks ago.

Mr Livingstone said that Western interventions to maintain control of oil supplies in Arab countries had produced the Islamist terrorism of extremists, including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

He said that a lot of young people in Britain were outraged by the double standards in Western foreign policy, reflected in America's support for Israel and detentions without trial in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

Mr Livingstone said he condemned all suicide bombings, but indicated that he understood why Palestinians may resort to the tactic in Israel.

He defended a photograph published in today's press, showing him with Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed and Anjem Choudary of the militant al-Muhajiroun group, insisting that posing for a picture with them did not imply he agreed with their opinions.

London train carriage removed

Last night, a train carriage in which seven people died in the terrorist attack near London's Edgware Road underground station was removed from the track. 

Police had been working since the bombings on 7 July to remove all the victims' bodies before the carriage could be taken away. 

The wreckage, weighing 20 tonnes, was transported to a secure police compound for further forensic examination.