Post date: Nov 01, 2010 8:27:28 PM
Britain's Home Secretary announces new bans and restrictions on freight flights following the discovery of bombs on cargo from Yemen.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (NOVEMBER 1, 2010) PARLIAMENT TV - Addressing the House of Commons on Monday (November 1) Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May announced new measures to try to prevent future attacks on cargo planes travelling to and through the UK.
She said the suspension on unaccompanied air freight to the UK was being extended to Somalia as well as from Yemen.
"This decision has been made as a precautionary measure and it will be reviewed in the coming weeks. It is based on possible contact between al Qaeda in Yemen and terrorist groups in Somalia as well as concern about airport security in Mogadishu," she said.
Britain will also ban people carrying larger toner carriages as hand luggage on flights departing from UK airports.
Governments, airlines and aviation authorities around the world are reviewing security after U.S.-bound parcel bombs sent by air from Yemen were intercepted in Dubai and Britain.
In London, Prime Minister David Cameron convened a crisis committee which will meet throughout the week after one of the packages was found on a United Parcel Service cargo plane at East Midlands Airport, north of London, on Friday.
The other bomb was discovered in a computer printer cartridge in a parcel at a FedEx facility in Dubai.