England Security

Scotland Yard refused to confirm or deny a newspaper report Monday that three officers penetrated the grounds of Buckingham Palace and eluded capture during a test of security for the Royal Family. A London tabloid reported Monday that three officers climbed over a wall at the palace two weeks ago, deliberately set off alarms and then sat in a tree waiting to be caught.

Britain will seek emergency powers Monday permitting the indefinite detention of foreigners suspected of terrorism, the nation's latest move to tighten security after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. The controversial plan, which involves opting out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights, was immediately criticized by a leading human rights advocate.

The British sex scandal, to borrow a phrase, just "ain't what it used to be." That, at least, appears to be the verdict of connoisseurs of the genre who say they have been simultaneously riveted and slightly disappointed by reports dominating the nation's press for nearly two weeks on the social life of a former Miss India beauty queen.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II ordered guest rooms stripped of valuables before a state visit by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1978, a British newspaper said Sunday. Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed by firing squad during the 1989 Romanian revolution. The Sunday Express said the couple removed thousands of dollars worth of ornaments and fittings from rooms during an official stay in Paris earlier in the year.

Remember the saying, "Don't wish for something, you might get it!" The people who wish for a peace dividend are now crying about the closing of military bases. The government has never paid even $1 for a gun, a bomb, a plane or for a shipyard. Tax money is used to pay 20 million people to build and to deploy guns, bombs, airplanes and to pay people to man shipyards. Any defense spending cut means unemployment for someone.

Britain has warned airlines and airports to look out for briefcase bombs to avoid disasters such as the December, 1988, bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. A Transport Department spokeswoman said the first warning was issued Jan. 22 and updated Jan. 28 following intelligence reports that bombs could be smuggled aboard aircraft in the LINING OF SAMSONITE BRIEFCASES.

Britain's High Court relaxed injunctions obtained by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government banning publication of the memoirs of former intelligence officer Anthony Cavendish. The court said The Observer and The Sunday Times may print excerpts of the memoirs as long as they do not relate to national security matters. Thatcher's government obtained the interim injunctions as soon as it learned that the two London newspapers were planning to print the excerpts in today's editions.

Britain's Conservative government, responding to months of controversy and prodding from legislators, said it plans a major liberalization of the nation's secrecy law.

British police have cracked a ring of international computer hackers who penetrated more than 200 military and commercial establishments, including the U.S. Nuclear Defense Agency and Britain's Ministry of Defense, the Sunday Telegraph of London reported. The paper said police traced a 23-year-old British member of the ring after he approached one of the world's largest computer firms and offered to explain how he had broken into their system for a fee of about $5,300.

Embattled novelist Salman Rushdie expressed fear Friday that British support for him and "The Satanic Verses" is waning, and Muslims offended by his novel staged protests in several countries that left one person dead and dozens injured. The Indian-born British writer, in a call to the office of opposition legislator Paddy Ashdown, said he believes the British government "is beginning to play both ends against the middle," said a spokeswoman for Ashdown who took the call.

Britain has warned airlines and airports to look out for briefcase bombs to avoid disasters such as the December, 1988, bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. A Transport Department spokeswoman said the first warning was issued Jan. 22 and updated Jan. 28 following intelligence reports that bombs could be smuggled aboard aircraft in the LINING OF SAMSONITE BRIEFCASES.

Britain and France, responding to President Bush's plan not to modernize short-range nuclear weapons in Europe, announced that they will forge closer links of their own in security and defense matters. This may include cooperation on their own nuclear weapons programs, aides said at a summit meeting in England of Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and France's President Francois Mitterrand. Thatcher noted that the two are "independent nuclear deterrent powers--the only two in Europe."

Remember the saying, "Don't wish for something, you might get it!" The people who wish for a peace dividend are now crying about the closing of military bases. The government has never paid even $1 for a gun, a bomb, a plane or for a shipyard. Tax money is used to pay 20 million people to build and to deploy guns, bombs, airplanes and to pay people to man shipyards. Any defense spending cut means unemployment for someone.

The British sex scandal, to borrow a phrase, just "ain't what it used to be." That, at least, appears to be the verdict of connoisseurs of the genre who say they have been simultaneously riveted and slightly disappointed by reports dominating the nation's press for nearly two weeks on the social life of a former Miss India beauty queen.

A book whose publication was canceled says Britain had cracked enough Japanese codes to know an attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent but did not tell the Americans, according to printed excerpts. "Codebreaker Extraordinary" speculates that Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to bring the United States into World War II so badly he concealed British knowledge of Japanese movements before the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Excerpts were published in the Independent newspaper.

Britain announced Wednesday it is expelling about 30 Iranians on security grounds because of Iran's death threat against novelist Salman Rushdie. Meanwhile, a Beirut group believed to be holding two American hostages said it has finished plans to kill Rushdie.

Britain announced Wednesday it is expelling about 30 Iranians on security grounds because of Iran's death threat against novelist Salman Rushdie. Meanwhile, a Beirut group believed to be holding two American hostages said it has finished plans to kill Rushdie.

On a chilly Sunday last month, plainclothes police kicked in the front door at the home of a prominent investigative journalist and moved in to sift the contents of his house. On successive weekends, other police teams raided the offices of the prominent weekly, New Statesman, in London, and the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Scottish headquarters in Glasgow, seizing tapes, film and reams of editorial material.

Embattled novelist Salman Rushdie expressed fear Friday that British support for him and "The Satanic Verses" is waning, and Muslims offended by his novel staged protests in several countries that left one person dead and dozens injured. The Indian-born British writer, in a call to the office of opposition legislator Paddy Ashdown, said he believes the British government "is beginning to play both ends against the middle," said a spokeswoman for Ashdown who took the call.

Scotland Yard refused to confirm or deny a newspaper report Monday that three officers penetrated the grounds of Buckingham Palace and eluded capture during a test of security for the Royal Family. A London tabloid reported Monday that three officers climbed over a wall at the palace two weeks ago, deliberately set off alarms and then sat in a tree waiting to be caught.