British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday defended his decision to toughen anti-terror laws after his Centre-Left government on Thursday unveiled new measures including authorising police to hole terrorism suspects without charge for three months, instead of two weeks as previously.Blair, who won global support for the need to ban the incitement of terrorism at a UN summit in New York this week, said most European countries were tightening laws. ‘‘There’s never been an untrammelled right to what people accept as human liberties,’’ he told BBC radio.Civil rights groups said the proposals were draconian compared with other countries. They are also worried suspects could be deported to countries with dubious human rights records.On Thursday, British police seized seven Algerians as national security threats and said they would deport them. —Reuters
