Singapore, Dec. 4 -- A relapsed terrorist killed two and injured three in a stabbing attack in London last Friday, underlining the urgent need to stress-test defences against a scourge that had seemed lately to be on the wane. After peaking in 2014, deaths from terrorism worldwide fell sharply for the next four years. According to the 2019 Global Terrorism Index, there was a 52 per cent decline from 2014 to last year - from 33,555 deaths to 15,952. In Europe, the figures dropped for two consecutive years, from over 200 deaths in 2017 to 62 last year. Most of the major attacks this year took place in Africa and Afghanistan although Sri Lanka's Easter bombings, which claimed more than 250 lives, were the deadliest incident.
The respite offe...