World scene

BRITAIN

Lords reject detention plan

LONDON | Britain’s House of Lords rejected a controversial plan to extend the amount of time that police can hold terror suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days, and the government said it would abandon the proposal.

The 309-118 vote came after an impassioned debate Monday, dealing the government a significant defeat. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said hours after the vote that the government would drop the 42-day clause from the government’s counterterrorism bill.

But Ms. Smith said a different version would be put into new legislation even though it wouldn’t be automatic - prosecutors would have to apply to a court each time they wanted a terror suspect held for that long and Parliament would then have to vote on each case if the court agreed to it.

The government had said the initial proposal - endorsed by the House of Commons in June by a margin of only nine votes - was needed to fight the complex international terrorist threats facing Britain.

The government’s effort to strengthen counterterrorism provisions gathered backing after suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London in July 2005.

BELARUS

EU suspends travel ban

LUXEMBOURG | The European Union suspended travel bans on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and dozens of other officials Monday as a reward for freeing political prisoners, but kept some sanctions in place.

In a further move to warm relations with former Soviet republics key to the bloc’s aim of diversifying its energy supply routes, EU ministers also ended most sanctions against gas-rich Uzbekistan after citing human rights progress in the Central Asian state, and pledged deeper ties with Moldova.

EU foreign ministers suspended for six months the visa ban imposed on Mr. Lukashenko after he was accused of rigging his 2006 re-election, together with restrictions on other officials.

PAKISTAN

American arrested in border region

PESHAWAR | A 20-year-old American man was arrested late Monday at a checkpoint near the Afghan border in a tribal region where Pakistani troops are fighting Taliban and al Qaeda militants, police said.

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