"There was a First Amendment this morning when I woke up. I don't know how it evaporated with the dawn," Connolly, an unsuccessful Democratic
candidate for governor in 1998, told reporters after his release.

Police said the costume included plastic dynamite, grenades and a replica
of an AK-47 assault rifle.

"The whole thing is just incredibly bizarre," said Police Chief Ed Googins.
"It just crossed the line."

The chief said there was no way to tell from a distance whether the gun was
real or fake.

Connolly also was carrying a sign that said "I love TABOR," a reference to
the Taxpayer Bill of Rights on the Maine ballot, but at least one person
who saw it thought it said "I love the Taliban," Googins said.

The Portland lawyer is known for wearing costumes to make political
statements, often donning a Bush mask and dancing for passing motorists.

His wife has described him as "marvelously eccentric."

In 2000, Connolly acknowledged that he tipped off reporters about Bush's
24-year-old misdemeanour drunken driving charge at Kennebunkport.
Republicans said the release of the information before the election was a
Democratic dirty trick.

'Looser laws'

The report's co-writer Dr David Murakami-Wood told BBC News that, compared to other industrialised Western states, the UK was "the most surveilled country".

"We have more CCTV cameras and we have looser laws on privacy and data protection," he said.

"We really do have a society which is premised both on state secrecy and the state not giving up its supposed right to keep information under control while, at the same time, wanting to know as much as it can about us."

The research says surveillance ranges from the US national security agency monitoring all telecommunications traffic passing through Britain to key stroke information used to gauge work rates and global positioning satellite information tracking company vehicles.

The report also highlights "dataveillance" - the combination of credit card, mobile phone and loyalty card information for marketing purposes.

Mr Thomas called for a debate about the risks if information gathered is wrong or falls into the wrong hands.

"We've got to say where do we want the lines to be drawn? How much do we want to have surveillance changing the nature of society in a democratic nation?" he told the BBC.

"We're not luddites, we're not technophobes, but we are saying not least don't forget the fundamental importance of data protection, which I'm responsible for.

"Sometimes it gets dismissed as something which is rather bureaucratic, it stops you sorting out your granny's electricity bills. People grumble about data protection, but boy is it important in this new age.

"When data protection puts those fundamental safeguards in place, we must make sure that some of these lines are not crossed."

'Balance needed'

The report will be presented to the 28th International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners' Conference in London on Thursday, hosted by the Information Commissioner's Office.

The office is an independent body established to promote access to official data and to protect personal details.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) said there needed to be a balance between sharing information responsibly and respecting the citizen's rights.

A spokesman said: "Massive social and technological advances have occurred in the last few decades and will continue in the years to come.

"We must rise to the challenges and seize the opportunities it provides for individual citizens and society as a whole."

Graham Gerrard from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said there were safeguards against the abuse of surveillance by officers.

"The police use of surveillance is probably the most regulated of any group in society," he told the BBC.

"Richard Thomas was particularly concerned about unseen, uncontrolled or excessive surveillance. Well, any of the police surveillance that is unseen is in fact controlled and has to be proportionate otherwise it would never get authorised."

Hersh, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine, has been a thorn in the side of the U.S. government for nearly 40 years. Since his 1969 exposé of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, which is widely believed to have helped turn American public opinion against the Vietnam War, he has broken news about the secret U.S. bombing of Cambodia, covert C.I.A. attempts to overthrow Chilean president Salvador Allende, and, more recently, the first details about American soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

During his hour-and-a-half lecture - part of the launch of an interdisciplinary media and communications studies program called Media@McGill - Hersh described video footage depicting U.S. atrocities in Iraq, which he had viewed, but not yet published a story about.

He described one video in which American soldiers massacre a group of people playing soccer.

"Three U.S. armed vehicles, eight soldiers in each, are driving through a village, passing candy out to kids," he began. "Suddenly the first vehicle explodes, and there are soldiers screaming. Sixteen soldiers come out of the other vehicles, and they do what they're told to do, which is look for running people."

"Never mind that the bomb was detonated by remote control," Hersh continued. "[The soldiers] open up fire; [the] cameras show it was a soccer game."

"About ten minutes later, [the soldiers] begin dragging bodies together, and they drop weapons there. It was reported as 20 or 30 insurgents killed that day," he said.

If Americans knew the full extent of U.S. criminal conduct, they would receive returning Iraqi veterans as they did Vietnam veterans, Hersh said.

"In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation," he said. "It isn't happening now, but I will tell you - there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq."

Hersh came out hard against President Bush for his involvement in the Middle East.

"In Washington, you can't expect any rationality. I don't know if he's in Iraq because God told him to, because his father didn't do it, or because it's the next step in his 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program," he said.

Hersh hinted that the responsibility for the invasion of Iraq lies with eight or nine members of the administration who have a "neo-conservative agenda" and dictate the U.S.'s post-September 11 foreign policy.

"You have a collapsed Congress, you have a collapsed press. The military is going to do what the President wants," Hersh said. "How fragile is democracy in America, if a president can come in with an agenda controlled by a few cultists?"

Throughout his talk Hersh remained pessimistic, predicting that the U.S. will initiate an attack against Iran, and that the situation in Iraq will deteriorate further.

"There's no reason to see a change in policy about Iraq. [Bush] thinks that, in twenty years, he's going to be recognized for the leader he was - the analogy he uses is Churchill," Hersh said. "If you read the public statements of the leadership, they're so confident and so calm.... It's pretty scary."

Police marksmen who were involved in the shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes on the tube last year took part in an undercover operation in Kent this week in which another man was shot dead.

The officers are members of Scotland Yard's CO19 firearms unit, who were supporting Flying Squad detectives attempting to stop a suspected armed robbery at a building society bank branch in New Romney on Tuesday evening.

Last night, police would not last night go into detail about the incident, although the unnamed man, 42, reportedly opened fire first with a shotgun. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has begun an investigation after taking over an initial inquiry by Kent police.

Three men were arrested as part of the Kent operation and last night were being questioned by detectives.

De Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician, was shot several times at point blank range at Stockwell tube station, south London, when he was mistaken for a suicide bomber the day after attempted bombings in the capital.

The Met last night confirmed that the CO19 team at Kent included officers at Stockwell, but would not comment on a report in the Daily Mail which said that one of the officers who fired on De Menezes shot the man.

The firearms officers were placed on restricted duties after De Menezes's death but after being told this summer they would not face criminal convictions they were restored to their previous roles.

The Met described the Kent operation as "proactive", and designed to "prevent and apprehend" those believed to be carrying out an attempted armed robbery of the building society.

She was Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Az., native serving with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal-Afar in northwestern Iraq. According to official records, she died on Sept. 15, 2003, from a "non-hostile weapons discharge."

She was only the third American woman killed in Iraq so her death drew wide press attention. A "non-hostile weapons discharge" leading to death is not unusual in Iraq, often quite accidental, so this one apparently raised few eyebrows. The Arizona Republic, three days after her death, reported that Army officials "said that a number of possible scenarios are being considered, including Peterson's own weapon discharging, the weapon of another soldier discharging or the accidental shooting of Peterson by an Iraqi civilian."

But in this case, a longtime radio and newspaper reporter named Kevin Elston, unsatisfied with the public story, decided to probe deeper in 2005, "just on a hunch," he told E&P today. He made "hundreds of phone calls" to the military and couldn't get anywhere, so he filed a Freedom of Information Act request. When the documents of the official investigation of her death arrived, they contained bombshell revelations. Here's what the Flagstaff public radio station, KNAU, where Elston now works, reported yesterday:

"Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed...."

She was was then assigned to the base gate, where she monitored Iraqi guards, and sent to suicide prevention training. "But on the night of September 15th, 2003, Army investigators concluded she shot and killed herself with her service rifle," the documents disclose.

The Army talked to some of Peterson's colleagues. Asked to summarize their comments, Elston told E&P: "The reactions to the suicide were that she was having a difficult time separating her personal feelings from her professional duties. That was the consistent point in the testimonies, that she objected to the interrogation techniques, without describing what those techniques were."

Elston said that the documents also refer to a suicide note found on her body, revealing that she found it ironic that suicide prevention training had taught her how to commit suicide. He has now filed another FOIA request for a copy of the actual note.

Peterson's father, Rich Peterson, has said: "Alyssa volunteered to change assignments with someone who did not want to go to Iraq."

Alyssa Peterson, a devout Mormon, had graduated from Flagstaff High School and earned a psychology degree from Northern Arizona University on a military scholarship. She was trained in interrogation techniques at Fort Huachuca in Arizona, and then sent to the Middle East in 2003.

The Arizona Republic article had opened: "Friends say Army Spc. Alyssa R. Peterson of Flagstaff always had an amazing ability to learn foreign languages.

"Peterson became fluent in Dutch even before she went on an 18-month Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission to the Netherlands in the late 1990s. Then, she cruised through her Arabic courses at the military's Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., shortly after enlisting in July 2001.

"With that under her belt, she was off to Iraq to conduct interrogations and translate enemy documents."

On a "fallen heroes" message board on the Web, Mary W. Black of Flagstaff wrote, "The very day Alyssa died, her Father was talking to me at the Post Office where we both work, in Flagstaff, Az., telling me he had a premonition and was very worried about his daughter who was in the military on the other side of the world. The next day he was notified while on the job by two army officers. Never has a daughter been so missed or so loved than she was and has been by her Father since that fateful September day in 2003. He has been the most broken man I have ever seen."

An A.W. from Los Angeles wrote: "I met Alyssa only once during a weekend surfing trip while she was at DLI. Although our encounter was brief, she made a lasting impression. We did not know each other well, but I was blown away by her genuine, sincere, sweet nature. I don't know how else to put it-- she was just nice.....I was devastated to here of her death. I couldn't understand why it had to happen to such a wonderful person."

Finally, Daryl K. Tabor of Ashland City, Tenn., who had met her as a journalist in Iraq for the Kentucky New Era paper in Hopkinsville: "Since learning of her death, I cannot get the image of the last time I saw her out of my mind. We were walking out of the tent in Kuwait to be briefed on our flights into Iraq as I stepped aside to let her out first. Her smile was brighter than the hot desert sun. Peterson was the only soldier I interacted with that I know died in Iraq. I am truly sorry I had to know any."

Late Monday, following inquiries by the press and pressure from his daughter, mother, and girl friend, Phil Smart was released.

Smart, 49, of Palmer, a Certified Public Accountant, was arrested on Oct. 10 on charges of assault - causing bodily injury, a probation violation, and running a stop sign, an official at the Wayne McCollum Detention Center in Waxahachie told The Iconoclast on Saturday. At that time, Smart had not been arraigned and bond had not been set, nor had his attorney visited with him during the extended incarceration.

On Saturday, detention center personnel denied The Iconoclast access to Smart to discuss with him his stance on pertinent issues regarding his campaign, but his girl friend, Donna Watson, was able to visit with him that evening and asked Smart a few questions on behalf of the newspaper.

Watson said that she had been concerned for Smart's well-being, since he takes prescription drugs for health conditions, such as high blood pressure, and had been denied them for several days during his incarceration.

Michelle Shinghal, a journalist for Hammer of Truth, who on Sunday contacted the detention center housing Smart, was told by officials there that Smart was arrested on Oct. 10, but the charge of running the stop sign was listed as occurring on Oct. 19, while Smart was in jail. After having her inquiry transferred to the booking department, Shinghal said that officials could not confirm the dates for the assault charge or the stop sign violation, but said that the assault charge was actually a probation violation and a misdemeanor charge, but that Smart could not be released until seen by a judge. Shinghal said she was told that it could take a month or more for Smart to see a judge.

But things changed Monday, when his daughter picked him up at the detention center.

In an interview with The Iconoclast, Smart said that there was actually only one charge, running a stop sign, which he says he did not do. He claims the stop is just another in a series of strange events that happen when he runs for political office, which he did in 2004, for county commissioner of Precinct 1 and was likewise arrested during the waning weeks of the campaign and was let out after the election was over.

On Monday night, Smart told The Iconoclast that on the day of his arrest he knew he was being followed by a traffic cop and was driving carefully.

"It's not all that unusual to have a cop behind you, but, like most people, I exercised extra caution. When I came to the stop sign, he was right behind me. I turned on my right turn signal and let a car pass that I needed to let pass, then waited for a second car to pass. It did.

"I made the turn and then after he (the cop) turned, he stopped me."

Smart continued, "He claimed that I failed to stop at the stop sign, which is absolutely false.

"I've got a cop riding my butt and I'm not going to stop at the stop sign?

"When he pulled me over, he said, 'Can I search your vehicle?'

"I said, 'No.'

"He said, 'Why can't I search it?'

"And I said, 'I don't have to let you search it.'

"Then he said, 'You're under arrest' then he searched my car. He found some prescription sleeping pills in my car.

"I said, 'You can't arrest someone for not stopping at a stop sign,' and he said, oh yes, he can. He told me they can arrest you for any kind of traffic stop except for speeding. It didn't make any sense to me."

Smart said, regarding the probation charge, that he was already in jail when the judge signed the order.

"It was some kind of thing they created."

Smart said that as far as he knows, the alleged traffic violation is the only charge pending.

"The only thing they would tell me when I checked out of that jail, or book in or book out, whatever you want to call it, they told me 'You have a traffic ticket out of Red Oak for $80, a fine, and if you don't pay that, you could end up right back here."

Smart says he intends to pay the ticket although he feels he is completely innocent of the offense, "or they will have something, that ticket. If I were to get stopped, they could say they've got a warrant out of Red Oak for $80, and that means, well, you could spend the rest of your life in jail for $80."

While in the detention center, Smart says he was in a cell by himself, with lights left on, no clocks, no windows.

"The only way you could tell the time of day was to count food trays for a period and try to find out what was on them, so you could tell if this was lunch and this was dinner. With the lights always on, I think I stayed awake at least three days or four days when I got there, till I couldn't do it any longer," he explained.

"I wasn't physically abused, other than to say that I was in solitary confinement. You can't look outside, you don't know what day it is. Eventually, anyone is going to lose their mind in that environment. I said, when I get out, I'm not going to forget about the people in here. I wasn't the only prisoner down there. There are people who have been there so long and they don't even know what they've been charged with. They say, 'I'm charged. I don't know why. I'll get out when they tell me.'

"It's all a matter of keeping the jail full. In other words, if they didn't have anyone coming in, they wouldn't let anybody out. If they had people coming in, they could say, well, you can get rid of two of yours and you can get rid of one or two of yours, whatever. People say they get $300 a piece for every inmate from the state. For every day they have you they get $300, so that's a money thing there."

Regarding his campaign, Smart said, "I didn't know if I would be out of jail before Nov. 7. What I was doing before was going out and talking to strangers and asking them, 'What's important to you? What are you concerned about? And the reception I got was very good, overwhelming. It was so positive, unbelievable. So that gave me a lot of encouragement."

Smart says that a big issue in this district is eminent domain and the Trans-Texas Corridor. He noted that his opponent, Republican Kip Averitt, will support the Trans-Texas Corridor if he gets re-elected, "for the party."

"I've talked to a lot of people and everyone is against it. I don't want it. This might die on its own, but the trouble is there would be a lot of damage done, people losing their property, their houses, and their land. But when you think about it, why would anybody be for it?"

Joey Dauben, a former investigative reporter for The Ellis County Press who now works as a coordinator for the Republican Party of Ellis County and publishes online, described Smart as a conscientious individual who dislikes corruption and is fast to voice his opinion against it. He noted that in 2004, Smart had run for county commissioner of Ellis County, only to be jailed then, too, a few weeks prior to the election and released after the election.

Dauben said that Ellis County is well known for governmental corruption and that Smart has been quick to criticize it.

Dauben noted that Smart's home has been ransacked, he's been accused of being a terrorist since he collects antique guns, and he has been harassed by law enforcement personnel who regularly follow him. Smart also collects antique cars, explained Dauben.

The former reporter appeared on a BBSRadio.com program, The Spiritual Politician, hosted by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster Friday night where he was interviewed from Republican headquarters in Ellis County. (right-click here and choose Save Target As to download Friday's program)

Said Dauben during the interview, "Philip Smart noticed graft and corruption and wanted to take a vital part in exposing it."

Dauben explained that in 1999 the county had constructed a $7 million three-story government center building in downtown Waxahachie after the initiative had been turned down twice by voters. Later, deemed shoddily built, it was torn down.

"That's just one of the things that Phil Smart got really big on," said Dauben.

"His downside was that he came out against what everyone knew was the truth, that Ellis County is corrupt," continued Dauben. "He came out against the very powers that have a stranglehold on what goes on in this county."

Dauben added, "For all the bad things that people say about him, being a loose cannon, he's an accountant, and, honestly, he doesn't strike you as the type of guy that would go to SMU and graduate as an accountant, but the guy's brilliant. He really is a smart guy. He's very involved with the church, being an accountant, helping people with their taxes, but he wants things running smooth, and the right way."

The former Press reporter said that Smart often comes across as "bombastic" and some say he's offensive, very blunt.

"He's the type of guy who is brutally honest and would say, yeah, it's a crock. We've got to change it. Right now,"said Dauben.

The Republican coordinator noted that the current State Senator, Kip Averitt, has only a 30-40 percent conservative rating on conservative organization report cards that have been put out, where Smart is near 100 percent. "Phil Smart's message was get back to the Constitution."

Dauben said to the people of Dallas-Fort Worth, "Yeah, Phil Smart was arrested, but at the same time, there's a huge story behind the headline."

He explained that Smart is a disciple of the Constitution, and is for clean government, no matter what it costs him and "that is a high understatement."

Members of the Libertarian Party at the national level are concerned that their candidate was jailed for nearly three weeks without arraignment during an important campaign timeframe and feared that the county would attempt to use the cancellation of habeas corpus to justify holding him without due process, perhaps making Smart's case a test for whether Americans still have the protection of the Fourth Amendment and if the tenure of his prolonged confinement could constitutes his being a political prisoner.

"These investigations are critical because the Republicans in Congress have ignored this serious problem," Lautenberg said.

Republicans have controlled Congress for most of Republican president George Bush's five years in office.

Lautenberg said the investigations "will uncover internal documents and agency correspondence that may expose widespread misconduct". He added: "Taxpayers do not fund scientific research so the Bush White House can alter it."

Kristen Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House Council for Environmental Quality, said early today that the administration had supported the scientific process in its approach to studying climate change.

"We have in place the most transparent system of science reporting, and claims that the administration interfered with scientists are false," she said.

"Our focus is on taking action and making real progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The nearly $2bn (€1.6bn) worth of climate science we publish annually leads the world and speaks for itself."

Carbon dioxide and other gases (primarily from fossil fuel-burning) that scientists say trap heat in the atmosphere have warmed the Earth's surface an average one degree over the past century.

The White House has committed to reducing the "intensity" of US carbon pollution, a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic growth.

But the total US emissions, now more than seven billion tons a year, are projected to rise 14% from 2002 to 2012.

In February, Republican Sherwood Boehlert, chairman of the Science Committee in the House of Representatives, and other congressional leaders asked Nasa to guarantee scientific openness.

They complained that a public affairs officer changed or filtered information on global warming and the "Big Bang" theory of the creation of the universe.

The officer, George Deutsch, a political appointee, had resigned after being accused of trying to limit reporters' access to James Hansen, a prominent Nasa climate scientist, and insisting that a web designer insert the word "theory" with any mention of the Big Bang.

A report last month in the scientific journal Nature claimed administrators at the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration blocked release of a report that linked hurricane strength and frequency to global warming. Hansen had said in February that NOAA has tried to prevent researchers working on global climate change from speaking freely about their work.

NOAA has denied the allegations, saying its work is not politically motivated.

"We agree that setting up single-faith prison programs is certainly not in the best interests of our secular government - or of prisoners," comments Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation co-president. "Secular, practical education is the answer in our prisons, not proselytizing a captive audience of prisoners, most of whom are already religious!"

"Our lawsuit has averted an egregious First Amendment violation, but the federal prisons are still engaging in unconstitutional activity," Gaylor added.

The Foundation lawsuit will proceed, since it is still challenging the constitutionality of ongoing "multifaith" programs set up by the Bureau.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court, Western District of Wisconsin, names Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; Federal Bureau of Prisons director Harley G. Lappin, and Clay Johnson III, director, Office of Management and Budget. Plaintiffs include the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog group of freethinkers (atheists and agnostics), co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker, and founder Anne Nicol Gaylor.

The Bureau of Prisons' 18-month Life Connections Program, instigated by the Department of Justice Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, has been operating since at least 2003. Created by Bureau Chaplain Kendall Hughes, it was designed as a faith-based model based "on the premise that inmates should pursue, nurture and commit themselves to religious faith."

Implemented by the Religious Services Branch of the Bureau of Prisons, Life Connections is operating in at least five federal institutions: the Federal Correctional Institution at Milan, Mich.; the US Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Ks.; the Federal Medical Center at Carswell, Texas; the Federal Correctional Institution at Petersburg, Va., and the Federal Correctional Institution at Victorville, Calif.

The Life Connections Facilitators hired by the Bureau of Prisons must have a degree with a major in religious studies, religious education or related curriculum. The facilitator coordinates all components of the Life Connections Program.

The Foundation contends the program goes far beyond accommodation, and instead exists to encourage and promote faith among inmates.

Such activities "violate the fundamental principle of the separation of church and state by using Congressional taxpayer appropriations to intentionally support activities that endorse religion."

The lawsuit further alleges that the Office of Management and Budget engages "in activities that create an atmosphere intended to cause federal agencies to increase their contracting with faith-based organizations merely because the organizations are faith-based." The complaint points out that the Office of Management and Budget gives a "report card" to each major federal agency, which apparently grades the agencies on the extent to which they have disbursed or increased their appropriations to faith-based agencies.

The Foundation seeks a judgment declaring that the Congressional taxpayer disbursements for the Life Connections Program violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, an order enjoining the defendants from continuing such appropriations, and an order requiring the defendants to establish regulations and oversight to ensure future funded activities do not include religion as a substantive integral component.

Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Gonzales, Case No. 06-C-0244-S, has been assigned to Judge John Shabaz, US District Court, Western District of Wisconsin. http://ffrf.org/news/2006/singlefaithvictory.php

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., is a national association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics) that has been working since 1978 to keep church and state separate. Read the Complaint at the address below.

Related addresses:

URL 1: ffrf.org/legal/gonzales_complaint.html

Baggage rules have been tightened at UK airports since August 10 when police and the government said they had thwarted a plot to blow up planes.

The restrictions have since been eased gradually, but the ban on liquids has remained - although passengers leaving UK airports for non-US destinations have been allowed to take items such as toothpaste on board, as long as they are bought after passing through security.

Under new arrangements being introduced across the European Union from next week, passengers will be allowed to carry small quantities of liquids within separate containers.

The rules restrict each of the individual items to 100ml, the typical size of a bottle of perfume. Such items must be brought to the airport contained in a single, transparent, resealable plastic bag - itself no more than a litre in capacity, or the size of a freezer bag.

Security experts believe that liquid explosive in such small quantities would not be enough to blow up a plane.

Other arrangements covering items such as medicines, baby foods and musical instruments will remain as before.

The DfT said that essential medicines and baby food were permitted in larger quantities above the 100ml limit, and large musical instruments can be taken on board in addition to the one item of cabin baggage.

A statement from the DfT said: "The security measures introduced at UK airports in August were in response to a very real and serious threat.

"We have always said that we would keep these measures under review, and in September we introduced changes which increased the permitted size of cabin baggage that passengers could take on board.

"Following consultations with industry and international partners, we can now introduce a change to the ban on taking liquids through the security checkpoint, to add to passenger convenience while continuing to maintain rigorous security."

Passengers travelling before November 6 were warned that the current restrictions would remain in place.