November 7, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba’an 20, 1422

LONDON, Nov 6: A British man was charged with possessing illegal weapons after customs officials here found two large combat knives hidden in luggage on a flight from the United States, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.

The spokesman said the charge and the arrest of three other British men for carrying knuckle dusters, mace and stun gun — also deemed illegal here — on the flight from Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, were not linked to terrorism.

The find at Gatwick Airport nevertheless highlighted a serious breach of security following the September 11 attacks in the United States, when knife-wielding hijackers seized four passenger planes and crashed three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

On Monday, a man of Nepalese descent was charged and remanded in custody after allegedly attempting to bring knives, a stun gun and a container of pepper spray aboard a United Airlines flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.—AFP