Phuket Gazette World News: U.S. warns airports over toothpaste bombs

– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: The United States issued a warning on Wednesday to airports and to some airlines flying to Russia for the Olympics to watch for toothpaste tubes that could hold ingredients to make a bomb on a plane, a senior U.S. security official said.

The official did not say whether any specific intelligence led to the warning, which was not issued to the public.

ABC News first reported the warning.

Russian forces are on high alert to head off possible militant attacks at the Winter Olympic Games, which begin on Friday in Sochi. Some U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern about security at the Black Sea resort, but U.S. President Barack Obama has said he believes Sochi is safe.

Suicide bombers killed 34 people in the Russian city of Volgograd, 400 miles (700 km) northeast of Sochi, in December. The attacks raised fears of violence at the Olympics.

U.S. security officials said they were not aware of any specific threats to the United States now.

In 2009 a Nigerian man tried to set off an explosive hidden in his underwear aboard a U.S.-bound airliner. In 2001 a man tried to blow up a jumbo jet with explosives in his shoes.

— Phuket Gazette Editors

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