A Pakistani woman whose daughter’s carry-on luggage caused an airport to shut down for nine and a half hours says it was her ethnic background, not a few bottles of suspicious liquids, that set off security officials.

A woman passed through security screening at New York’s LaGuardia Airport with a stun gun and knife in her bag – and then alerted officials after discovering her mistake.

TERROR strikes from the sea could be even more catastrophic than those from the air, intelligence officials say. They fear a hijacked oil tanker could be rigged with explosives or a radioactive dirty bomb could be smuggled ashore in a shipping container.

A plane bound for London returned to New York’s Kennedy Airport early today after a flight attendant found a threatening note on a seat in the aircraft.