Interpol issues alert over Yemen parcel bombs

The global police agency Interpol issued an alert to help forces in its member states spot disguised bombs of the kind Al-Qaeda sent last week from Yemen using airmail parcel couriers. The so-called "Orange Notice", which will also be made public, contains photographs and technical details of the latest bombs, which were discovered and made safe at airports in Dubai and Britain after an intelligence warning. Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for sending the sophisticated devices, in which the explosive PETN was packed into printer cartridges and attached to timers. US intelligence believes the parcel bombs, which were addressed to Chicago synagogues but may have been intended to explode in flight, were the work of Saudi militant Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, thought to be a senior AQAP member.