US to toughen airline security

The United States announced Wednesday it would implement tough new security rules for all airlines flying into the country, but held off from a threatened expansion of its carry-on laptop ban.

Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said evolving terror threats made it imperative to raise overall security standards, rather than take a piecemeal approach on personal electronics.

The move put off for the moment an extension of the ban on laptops and other carry-on personal electronics to flights from Europe, something that had been under discussion for months.

The laptop ban was instituted in March for eight North African and Middle East countries based on intelligence that the Islamic State group was working to build a bomb into a tablet or laptop computer.

For the same reason, Britain also banned similar-sized electronics from being carried into cabins on direct flights from six countries.

In a speech at a conference of the Center for a New American Security, Kelly said the terror threat to airlines has not diminished.