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Treaty to Make Bombs Easier for Airports to Spot

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From The Washington Post

The United States and 39 other countries signed a treaty Friday in Montreal to help forestall terrorism in the skies by making it easier to detect plastic explosives at airports.

The agreement will require manufacturers in participating countries to add a chemical compound to plastic explosives that will set off warning signals on commercially available vapor detectors.

All of the major manufacturing countries, including Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and Germany, signed the agreement at the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Representatives of 35 other nations, including Cuba and Iran, signed a separate document signaling the intention of their governments to add their formal approval.

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Among those not represented at the conference leading up to Friday’s signing were Iraq, Yemen and Libya.

State Department spokesman Margaret Tutwiler said the treaty “is the culmination of a complex effort undertaken by scientists and technicians from around the world to identify appropriate marking chemicals for this specific type of explosive.”

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