http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100 <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a_wd1zEPQGG0&refer=germ any> &sid=a_wd1zEPQGG0&refer=germany Germany, Italy Boost Security After U.K. Plane Bomb Plot Foiled Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The German and Italian governments stepped up security after anti-terrorist police in the U.K. said they had foiled a plot to blow up airliners bound for the U.S. using explosives smuggled in hand luggage. ``As a precaution, we have ordered air-security measures to be heightened once again,'' the German Interior Ministry in Berlin said in a faxed statement, adding that details would not be made public. Italy's Interior Ministry said it had ``heightened vigilance'' and plans to monitor ``objectives related to the United Kingdom.'' U.K. authorities arrested 21 people overnight, Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said today. The U.K. and the U.S. raised their terror alerts to the highest level. Sky News said six aircraft were targeted. Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said as many as 440 flights may be canceled. ``No country is immune to attacks,'' Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in a statement released by his office in Brussels. ``Solidarity and international cooperation in the fight against terrorism remain vital.'' In France, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin will hold an anti-terrorism meeting with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and security officials at 4 p.m. today to discuss the implications. Britain today raised its terror alert to ``critical,'' the highest category in a five-point scale, indicating an attack is expected ``imminently,'' according to the Home Office Web site. Airports were instructed not to permit hand baggage aboard flights, the U.K. Department of Transport said. Italian `Measures' In Italy, Luigi Irdi, spokesman for Italy's Transport Minister, Alessandro Bianchi, said, ``We are evaluating whether to introduce the same measures in Italy on international flights as those adopted in the U.K.'' He said the ``measures'' referred to ``not permitting hand baggage aboard flights.'' Asian countries said they weren't taking immediate action. ``We are in contact with British authorities, but we have no plan to upgrade our terror warning,'' said Michel Lu, a spokesman at Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei. Alfonso Cusi, general manager of the Manila International Airport Authority in the Philippines, also said the threat level there hadn't been raised. ``We don't want to overreact because it could affect passengers and we don't want to cause undue panic,'' he said.
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