Woman detained in Yemen in bomb plot

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Yemeni authorities detained a woman Saturday suspected of having a role in sending two bombs to the United States on Chicago-bound cargo planes.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said the United States and United Arab Emirates gave him information that identified the woman as a suspect, Sky News reported.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron said it appeared one bomb discovered in England was meant to detonate aboard the aircraft, possibly over British soil, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"We believe that the device was designed to go off on the airplane," Cameron said. "There is no early evidence that it was designed to go off over British soil, but, of course, we cannot rule that out."

The second device was found on a plane in the United Arab Emirates.

The British newspaper said U.S. and British security officials suspect American-born Anwar al-Awlaki of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula had a hand in the plot.

Yemeni security officials said the woman in custody was a medical student at Sana'a University and believed to be in her 20s, the Telegraph said. Her lawyer said the woman's mother also was detained, though she wasn't a prime suspect.

Investigators also were examining about two dozen other suspect packages, the Telegraph said.

Heightened security scanning was stepped up in Canada and Britain after the discovery late Thursday and early Friday of the two bombs originating in Yemen.

The packages on UPS and FedEx cargo planes were addressed to Chicago-area synagogues. The Transportation Security Administration said the PETN explosives were hidden in computer printer cartridges, with one on a timer and the other set to be detonated by a cellphone, The New York Times reported.

The chemical was the same as found attached to the underwear of a Nigerian man bound for Detroit last Dec. 25, officials said.

Stiffened U.S. security measures included a larger deployment of bomb-sniffing dogs, more airline passengers being subjected to "explosive-sniffing" walk-through chambers and more pat-downs, federal officials said.

John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, said Friday there was no end in sight to the increased screening.

"We don't want to presume we know the bounds of this plot, so we are looking at all packages," he said.