US unveils new terrorism alerts, scraps colours

The Obama administration on Wednesday unveiled a new warning system to alert Americans about specific terrorism threats, formally pushing the much-ridiculed colour-coded warnings into the trash bin. The new alerts will warn of either an "imminent threat" or an "elevated threat" with a summary of the potential threat as well as an expiration date.
They could be extended, but unlike the old system there will not be an over-arching warning. "The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly over the past ten years," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement. In February she warned the terrorism threat was at its greatest since 2001. Several attacks have been either disrupted or uncovered in the past few years, including an attempt by al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen last year to detonate toner cartridges packed with explosives aboard US-bound cargo planes.