| Passengers face tougher checks on US-bound flights |
| Updated at: 0752 PST, Monday, January 04, 2010 WASHINGTON: US officials Sunday toughened security measures for all US-bound airline passengers, and warned those traveling from or via 14 "terror linked" nations will undergo mandatory enhanced screening. The new measures came in the wake of the botched Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit, which has forced many airports and airlines to boost already tight security. All passengers flying into the United States from abroad will be subject to random screening or so-called "threat-based" screens, the Transport Security Administration (TSA) said in a statement. But it further mandated that "every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening." The tough rules go into effect from midnight Sunday (0500 GMT Monday) and follow the failed plane attack blamed on a 23-year-old Nigerian who had recently traveled to Yemen to train with Al-Qaeda. Suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly boarded the flight at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after flying in from Lagos, Nigeria. Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria are currently the only four countries designated state sponsors of terrorism by the State Department. But a senior administration official told media the mandatory stringent measures, which would include pat-downs and enhanced screening, would apply to all passengers traveling from or via a total of 14 countries, including Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. |
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