Medvedev urges new anti-terror approaches

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, July 6 (UPI) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called Wednesday for international cooperation and new methods to fight terrorism.

Speaking to representatives of security services from 63 nations gathered in St. Petersburg, Medvedev said, "Terrorism is the most terrible threat of modern times. Today, we should search for new, more effective methods of preventing terror."

Law enforcement should "react harshly to the igniting of inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred and propaganda of violence and extremism, particularly in the global information sphere," RIA Novosti reported the president said.

Alexander Bortnikov, chief of Russia's Federal Security Service, proposed an international task force to head off terrorist threats to the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.