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Uncharged electronic devices to be banned from US flights
The American Transportation Security Administration will not allow cellphones or other electronic devices on US bound planes at some overseas airports if the devices are not charged up, under new airport security measures.
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Rifkind: 'Foolish to believe threat is minimal'
The latest security measures imposed last week followed intelligence warnings that al Qaeda's chief bomb maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, who is thought to be based in Yemen, had linked up with jihadists in Syria to pass on his skills.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, who disclosed that he had been briefed in advance about the measures, said that he had been left in no doubt that they were necessary.
However, he said that he had encountered a level of complacency among some elements of the public which he found "seriously disturbing".
Rifkind: New airport security measures 'unavoidable'
The head of the parliamentary committee which oversees the work of Britain's intelligence agencies has said that newly imposed airport security measures are "unavoidable".
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, said jihadi extremists were deploying "devilish technical skill" to create ever more sophisticated devices to evade existing security measures.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he warned of the dangers of "complacency" among the public in the face of the failure of the terrorists to mount any successful mass casualty attack in the UK since the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005.