British cabinet colleagues defend use of anti-terrorism law

Britain's deputy prime minister called for urgent checks to see if the arrest last weekend of a journalist's partner under anti-terrorism laws was legal, distancing himself from his coalition partners who defended the nine-hour detention, Reuters reported. Nick Clegg said on Saturday he was not consulted before the detention of David Miranda, the partner of American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who led coverage of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's leaks about U.S. and British electronic spying. The contrasting responses to Miranda's arrest from Britain's governing coalition partners come as battle lines are being drawn for a general election in 2015. Clegg's Liberal Democrats have held fast to Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in vital areas such as economic policy but they disagree over issues ranging from Britain's role in Europe and its nuclear deterrent.