**The US has tightened its flying restrictions after Saturday’s failed bomb attack on New York’s Times Square.**Airlines must now check no-fly lists within two hours of being told of updates to watch lists, officials say.
The move is aimed at stopping known suspects from boarding planes, as 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad did on Monday.
The Pakistan-born US citizen has admitted trying to detonate the Times Square car-bomb, having learnt how to make it in Pakistan, court papers say.
He faces terrorism and explosives charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and transporting an explosive device with the intent to kill.
Tightening restrictions
Court officials will not say when Mr Shahzad - who is apparently providing significant information to investigators - will appear before a judge.
Investigators say the Connecticut resident has implicated himself and told them he had acted alone since hatching the plot last December.
But court documents show that he admitted having attended a militant training camp in the strife-torn Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said joint terrorism task force officials want to learn more about that training and who gave it.
Despite his name being added to the government’s no-fly list on Monday, Mr Shahzad managed to buy a ticket on an Emirates flight to Dubai and made it through JFK’s security checks late that evening.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government said Mr Shahzad had been heading for Islamabad in Pakistan, and had been due to change planes in Dubai.
Airline security staff apparently failed to check the latest version of the no-fly list - which included his name - when he checked in.
After last-minute checks by customs agents, the flight was stopped as it taxied to the runway, and he was pulled off the plane.
Before now, airlines had been required to check for updates to the no-fly list each day.
Under the tighter restrictions, they will now have to check the updated list within two hours of being informed of changes, homeland security officials were quoted as telling the Associated Press.
They risk a fine for failing to comply.
Smoking car
The New York Times reports that in 2004 detectives interviewed a man who bought a house from Mr Shahzad, wanting more information about the Pakistani American.
This suggests that for some reason, six years ago Shahzad had attracted the attention of the US government’s joint terrorism task force, although it remains unclear why.
While his roots may give the country of his birth a bad name, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the fact the incident took place in the US and that Mr Shahzad was a naturalised US citizen made him the responsibility of the US.
“The guy goes there for a studentship. He gets naturalised. He gets married, living with his wife. So it has happened in the US. So of course primarily it is the duty of that particular authority to keep an eye (on him).”
He said that even if Mr Shahzad had received terrorism training in Pakistan, that did not change Islamabad’s efforts to tackle the problem of Pakistan-based militants.
“If the individual decides to take the training individually and then gets motivated or does an act on his own, you cannot level that as a collective thing from Pakistan, or say that any sort of help is being given to them,” he said.
Mr Shahzad is alleged to have bought a car that was found loaded with a bomb made from fertiliser, fireworks, petrol and propane gas tanks.
The 1993 Nissan Pathfinder was left with its engine running and hazard lights flashing in Times Square on Saturday evening - when the square was packed with tourists and theatregoers.
The bomb was discovered and dismantled after a street-vendor noticed smoke coming from the vehicle and alerted police.
The unexploded bomb left crucial evidence intact that detectives used to trace Mr Shahzad.
How Times Square bomb suspect was arrested
The trail which led to the arrest of Times Square bomb suspect beganwith the discovery of a suspicious car early on Saturday evening, 1 May, close to New York’s busy Times Square.
The Nissan Pathfinder was caught on cctv cameras arriving in TimesSquare just before 1830 EDT. A street seller raised the alarm when he noticed the car parked with its engine running and hazard lights flashing.
Police evacuated Times Square. In the car’s boot they found all the ingredients for a homemade bomb including propane gas cylinders, fireworks and two clocks, a metal gun locker containing fertiliser.
From the car’s vehicle identification number, police traced the woman inConnecticut who sold the car to Faisal Shahzad (pictured). She also gave police a mobile phone number and helped identify him from photographs.
Faisal Shahzad lived in this Bridgeport building. Mobile phone records showed he made several calls to Pakistan and to a fireworks store in Pennsylvania. Court documents said he had received bomb-making training in Pakistan.
Police arrested Mr Shahzad at 2345 EDT on Monday 3 May after he boarded a flight to Islamabad, Pakistan. Although his name was on a no-fly list, he had been allowed onto the plane.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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