Britain launches airport security review

BRITAIN said yesterday it was reviewing airport security and passenger screening procedures after a Nigerian who had studied in Britain was charged over last week’s failed plot to bomb a US passenger jet.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain was working closely with the United States and other countries to improve information sharing on potential terrorism suspects.

In co-operation with the United States, Britain would examine new techniques to enhance airport security, such as full-body scanners and explosive trace and advanced X-ray technology, Brown said in an article for a government website.

The Netherlands and Nigeria have already said they will use full-body scanners at airports.

“Al-Qaida and their associates continue in their ambition to indoctrinate thousands of young people around the world with a deadly desire to kill and maim,” Mr Brown said.

US President Barack Obama has blamed “human and systemic failures” for allowing the botched Christmas Day attack aboard a Detroit-bound airliner.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old suspect who says he was trained by al-Qaida in Yemen, is accused of trying to ignite explosives sewn inside his underwear on Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam as it approached Detroit.