Terror plot to down airliners foiled. British authorities said Aug. 10 they had stopped an alleged
plot to use liquid explosives to blow up passenger airplanes en route from the United Kingdom to the
United States. The announcement included at least 24 arrests and resulted in heightened security and
lengthy travel delays at airports on both sides of the Atlantic. Passengers were prohibited from carrying
liquids and gels on flights.
Veterans Affairs reveals second computer data loss. The VA said Aug. 7 that a desktop computer
containing the private records of as many as 38,000 veterans had gone missing from a Reston, Va.,
office of subcontractor Unisys. The revelation came within days of news that Maryland police had
charged two men with the theft of computer equipment containing data on 26.5 million veterans and
active duty personnel from the home of a VA analyst in May, The Washington Post reported.
SHORT TAKES. America Online apologized Aug. 8 for posting 20 million keyword searches by
members. The searches were linked to unique numbers, whose identities were shown by The New York
Times to be easy to deduce.... Jewish community centers across the United States were put on alert
after a man allegedly shot six workers, killing one woman, at Seattle's Jewish federation building on July
28, the JTA news agency said. The man, a Muslim American with mental illness, was said to be angry at
Israel.