The Obama administration may ask overseas partners to enhance security measures at airports and is weighing whether to do the same here at home to address deepening concerns that terrorists in war-ravaged Syria are trying to develop a new generation of bombs that could be smuggled onto commercial planes, ABC News has learned.

"[This threat] is different and more disturbing than past aviation plots," one source said.

The issue was discussed this past week at the White House during a meeting of top-level officials from intelligence agencies, sources said.

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For months the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and other agencies have been quietly debating whether to boost the U.S. security posture and encourage overseas partners to take action too. The agencies have also been debating whether to make a public announcement on potential new security measures at airports.

The back-and-forth has been based on intelligence showing that a particularly extreme "subset" of terrorist groups in Syria was working alongside operatives from al Qaeda's prolific offshoot in Yemen to produce "creative" new designs for bombs, as one source put it.

Specifically, U.S. officials learned that associates of the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria -- the Al Nusrah Front -- and radicals from other groups were teaming up with elements of the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which built such innovative devices as the "underwear bomb" that ultimately failed to detonate in a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Bolstered by more recent intelligence, U.S. analysts believe the "subset" of extreme terrorists in Syria could be looking to down a U.S.- or European-bound plane, with help from one of the thousands of Americans and other foreign fighters carrying U.S. and European passports who have joined Al Nusrah Front and other groups in the region.

Intelligence obtained by the U.S. government, however, has not indicated a specific target or a specific timeline.

While U.S. officials have been outspoken about the dangers posed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and – separately – the threat of foreign fighters in Syria, the latest intelligence shows that the two threats have bonded in an unusually powerful way, essentially creating a sum more worrisome than its parts.

After coming across the initial thread of intelligence earlier this year, U.S. officials, in regular consultation with the White House, began developing plans and potential security measures to address the threat. The development of those plans is now in its final stages, according to sources.

It's unclear exactly what new measures are being considered for U.S. airports and U.S. stations in airports overseas. But one source said new measures could include increasing the rates of random screenings at airports, targeting certain types of travelers, or more obvious changes for travelers going through security lines.

The potentially lethal partnership in Syria is at least part of what sparked an advisory to airlines earlier this year to look out for explosives-laden toothpaste tubes, cosmetics and shoes.

Rep. Peter King, a top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said security at airports overseas is "a real concern" to officials in the U.S. and that the federal government needs to be "very aggressive" is responding to it.

"I can’t go into all the details but that is very important to do because a number of airports do not have the type of security that they should have," King said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week," speaking about boosting measures at airports overseas.

Since January, officials with access to the country's most sensitive intelligence have warned publicly that hard-to-detect "technologies and techniques" were being exported to Syria, that foreign fighters from the West were "learn[ing] new things" and "build[ing] new relationships" in Syria, and that "training complexes" were popping up there to prepare Western fighters for terrorist attacks against their home countries.

Get Me Rewrite: White House Talking Points on Iraq and Al Qaeda

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In May, FBI Director James Comey told a Senate panel the U.S. government has a plan to mitigate the direct threat to the U.S. homeland from Syria, though he declined to offer any details.

More recently, Comey said the U.S. government is spending "a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to identify" anyone who's gone to Syria, but "the challenge" is not missing anyone.

In an exclusive interview on Thursday with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, President Obama noted that "battle hardened" foreign fighters in Syria are increasingly slipping over porous borders and joining terrorist groups in Iraq, where the group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- or ISIS -- is now wreaking havoc.

Though al Qaeda denounced and cut ties with ISIS earlier this year, elements of both groups are committed to attacks against the West.

"Then they come back, they've got European passports ... [and] don't need a visa to get into the United States," the president said of certain foreign fighters.

As part of a much larger request to fund U.S. military operations, the White House has asked Congress to approve $500 million so that U.S. forces can train and arm "moderate" rebels fighting against the Syrian regime.

Syria threat could prompt airport changes

White House officials voice concern that terrorists in the war-torn nation are seeking a new generation of bombs.
No target or timeline

By Ju-min Park and James Pearson

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday it would put two U.S. tourists on trial for committing crimes against the state, dimming any hopes among their families that they would soon be released.

"Their hostile acts were confirmed by evidence and their own testimonies," said the North's official KCNA news agency, referring to Jeffrey Fowle and Matthew Miller who are being held by the isolated country. It gave no details on when they would face court.

It was the latest in a flurry of events in the volatile region as Chinese President Xi Jinping visits South Korea this week, and comes a day after Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles, defying a U.N. ban on such tests.

The visit by the head of state of its closest ally to a country with which the North is still technically at war could raise tensions.

But in part of the mixed signals sent by Pyongyang, the North offered on Monday to suspend military drills beginning July 4, if the South would call off annual joint exercises with its ally, the United States.

"The South Korean government should make a bold decision in response to our special offer and take a big step toward the new future to end the shameful past," the National Defence Commission, the North's top military body, said in comments carried by KCNA.

Japan has said it will respond to the missile test in cooperation with the United States and South Korea, but that it would not affect talks it is holding with the North this week on the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped by the reclusive state decades ago.

Jeffrey Fowle, a 56-year-old street repairs worker from Miamisburg, Ohio, was arrested after entering North Korea as a tourist in late April.

North Korea is one of the most isolated countries in the world, but its economic backwardness and political system is a draw for some Western visitors keen for a glimpse of life behind the last sliver of the Cold War's iron curtain.

A job application uncovered by the Dayton Daily News in Ohio said Fowle described himself as honest, friendly, and dependable.

Earlier reports in the paper said Fowle had previously traveled to Sarajevo, Bosnia and had a fascination with the former Soviet Union which led him to look for a Russian bride, whom he later married.

"Jeffrey loves to travel and loves the adventure of experiencing different cultures and seeing new places," said a statement from Fowle's family lawyer, released in early June.

"Mrs Fowle and the children miss Jeffrey very much, and are anxious for his return home," the statement said.

Little is known about fellow U.S. citizen Matthew Miller, who was taken into custody by North Korean officials after entering the country the same month whereupon he ripped up his tourist visa and demanded asylum, according to state media.

Miller was traveling alone, said a statement from Uri Tours, the travel agency that took the 24 year-old to North Korea, published on their website.

A spokesman for the New Jersey-based travel agency told Reuters Miller was in “good physical condition” and his parents were aware of the situation, but have chosen not to make any statement regarding their son's arrest.

In May, the U.S. State Department issued an advisory urging Americans not to travel to North Korea because of the "risk of arbitrary arrest and detention" even while holding valid visas.

HAPHAZARD LEGAL SYSTEM

North Korea's haphazard and inconsistent legal system makes it difficult to predict the outcome for the detained tourists.

It has detained and then released other Americans in the past year, including Korean War veteran Merrill Newman, whom it expelled last December after a month-long detention based on accusations of war crimes related to his service history.

Australian missionary John Short was arrested in February this year for leaving copies of bible verses at various tourist sites during his stay. Short, 75, and Newman, 86, were released on account of their advanced age and health condition, state media said in the wake of published confessions from the two men.

Another U.S. national, Kenneth Bae, a Christian missionary who had been arrested in November 2012, was convicted and sentenced by North Korea's supreme court to 15 years hard labor last year.

Pyongyang has detained a number of U.S. citizens in the past, using them to extract visits by high-profile figures, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton who in 2009 helped secure the release of two U.S. journalists who had secretly entered the country by crossing into the country from China.

The journalists, Laura Ling and Korean-American Euna Lee, were released after being tried by a city court in Pyongyang and given a ten-year hard labor sentence.

But North Korea has twice canceled visits by Robert King, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, to discuss Bae's case.

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Eyes on defense deals, Western powers rush to court India's Modi

By Frank Jack Daniel

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Western governments are rushing to visit India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, drawn by the prospect of multi-billion-dollar deals as the government prepares to open the nascent defense industry to foreign investment.

Senior politicians from France, the United States and Britain arrive over the next few weeks as Modi prepares to accelerate the modernization of the country's mostly Soviet-era weaponry.

Modi intends to build up India's military capabilities and gradually turn the world's largest arms importer into a heavyweight manufacturer - a goal that has eluded every prime minister since independence in 1947.

On the table is a proposal circulated within the new government to raise caps on foreign investment - with one option to allow complete foreign ownership of some defense projects.

"All the countries are trying to make their case, especially as there is the sense that the Indian market will undergo a shift," said Harsh Pant, professor of international relations at King's College, London.

"They get a sense from their dealings that something dramatic is going to happen and they want first-mover advantage," said Pant, who specializes in Indian defense.

First to arrive in New Delhi will be French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, whose top priority is to close a stalled deal to sell India 126 Rafale fighter jets, built by Dassault Aviation AVMD.PA, for an estimated $15 billion. (Full Story)

Fabius, who arrives on Monday, will meet Modi as well as his most powerful minister, Arun Jaitley, who holds the twin portfolios of defense and finance - and can therefore decide both whether to sign the deal and when to release the money.

U.S. Senator John McCain is also due in India next week. McCain, whose Arizona constituency is host to some of Boeing BA.N and Raytheon's RTN.N most important defense businesses, told the Senate on Thursday that Washington should seek to help India's economic and military development.

"This is an area where U.S. defense capabilities, technologies, and cooperation - especially between our defense industries - can benefit India enormously," McCain said of India's drive to modernize the armed forces.

UK STILL HOPEFUL ON FIGHTER JET

Meanwhile Britain is likely to send in Foreign Secretary William Hague and finance minister George Osborne in July, a British government source said on Friday.

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Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi (L), the prime ministerial candidate for India's main opposition …

Britain has drawn some cheer from the slow progress of the negotiations for the Rafale deal. The multi-national Eurofighter Typhoon was shortlisted along with the Dassault fighter before India announced the French jet was the winner.

Cost escalations and disagreements about building the Rafale in partnership with India's state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have complicated talks with France, and London has never entirely given up hope that it will return to the race.

However, on Thursday, one source at the Indian defense ministry said the deal was likely to be finally closed during Fabius's visit and could be signed this year. A French foreign ministry source said talks were continuing, but declined to give any details.

Russia, for years India's top weapons supplier, has already sent Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to visit the new government in Delhi, two weeks ago. Washington last year replaced Moscow as India's top defense supplier, according to IHS Jane's.

The Western nations will have noted that India's foreign minister expressed displeasure with Russia's recent offer to sell Mi-35 attack helicopters to India's arch-rival Pakistan.

"I don’t think it’s a competition," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal said after an early post-election visit to New Delhi.

"India will have strong and positive relationships with a variety of countries and that is to be encouraged," said Biswal. "We want to see India taking on a stronger and a leadership role in the region and around the world so we welcome that."

U.S. government officials are pushing hard for $2.8 billion in delayed sales of Boeing's Apache attack and Chinook military transport helicopters to be among the first completed under the new government, according to sources familiar with the issue.

The $1.4 billion order for 22 AH-64D Apaches was first approved in December 2010. A separate deal for 15 heavy-lift CH-47F Chinook helicopters is also valued at $1.4 billion. Boeing declined to comment on the prospects for the two orders.

$6 BILLION SPREE

India spent some $6 billion last year on weapons imports. It makes few of its own weapons, beyond ballistic missiles and assembly lines for foreign jets.

On Thursday, the government signaled it was in the mood for liberalization by allowing manufacturers to build more defense components without licenses, making it easier for Indian firms to partner foreigners.

At present foreign companies can only invest 26 percent in Indian defense projects without committing to technology transfer, which has put off many investors.

Before the election, sources in Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party said there was a plan to increase the cap to 49 percent.

"For higher-tech intellectual property we would want to go over 50 percent to be in a position to share technology that we have significant investments in," said Phil Shaw, chief executive of Lockheed Martin India Pvt Ltd.

"An uplift from 26 to 49 percent maintains the status quo and may not be sufficient incentive to make an investment here."

Lockheed Martin LMT.N already has a 26 percent investment in an Indian joint venture with Tata Advanced Systems that manufactures airframe components for the C-130J Super Hercules military transport plane.

India's Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has circulated a discussion document that proposes allowing up to 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in defense production, two government officials told Reuters.

The note suggested allowing 100 percent FDI in manufacturing of state-of-the art equipment, one of the officials said. It also recommends a cap of 49 percent for investments which do not involve transfer technology and a 74 percent ceiling in such cases where the foreign investor is ready to share technology know-how, the official added.

Last week, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said foreign investment in the sector would help increase the defensive preparedness of the country and reduce its dependence on imports, saving billions of dollars in foreign exchange.

However, she said the government was yet to take a final call on increasing the FDI ceiling and the decision would be taken by Jaitley and Modi. The proposals also face pockets of resistance in India's industry, Modi's party and the military establishment.

A.K. Antony, who was India's longest serving defense minister until his Congress party's election defeat in May, said this week that allowing higher foreign investment in defense would be "suicidal".

(Additional reporting by Andrew Osborn in London, David Brunnstrom and Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington, Alexandria Sage in Paris and; Rajesh Kumar Singh, Douglas Busvine and Nigam Prusty in New Delhi; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Greg Mahlich)

Why West is banking on India's new leader

Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to modernize the country's aging Soviet-era weaponry.
Billions at stake

NEW YORK (AP) — Gay pride parades stepped off around the nation on Sunday, in cities large and small, with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their supporters celebrating a year of same-sex marriage victories.

New York's Fifth Avenue became one giant rainbow as thousands of participants waved multicolored flags while making their way down the street. Politicians including Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo were among those walking along a lavender line painted on the avenue from midtown Manhattan to the West Village.

The parade marked the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the 1969 uprising against police raids that were a catalyst for the gay rights movement. The parade route passes The Stonewall Inn, the site of the riots.

In Chicago, as many as 1 million people packed the streets of the city's North Side for the first gay pride parade since Illinois legalized gay marriage last month.

Charlie Gurion, who with David Wilk in February became the first couple in Cook County to get a same-sex marriage license, said there was a different feel to the parade this year.

"I think there is definitely like an even more sense of pride now knowing that in Illinois you can legally get married now," Gurion said, as he posed for photograph after photograph with Wilk at the parade. "I think it is a huge thing and everybody's over the moon that they can do it now."

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Seattle: Marchers stretch out a large pride flag across the street during the 40th annual Seattle Pr …

In San Francisco, hundreds of motorcyclists of the lesbian group Dykes on Bikes took their traditional spot at the head of the 44th annual parade and loudly kicked off the festivities with a combined roar. Apple Inc. had one of the largest corporate presences, and chief executive Tim Cook greeted the estimated 4,000 employees and family members who participated. The parade drew more than 100,000 spectators and participants.

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and assorted state and local politicians rolled along Market Street along with gay city police officers holding hands with their significant others as their children skipped ahead.

For some veterans of the San Francisco parade, the event has lost some its edge as it gains mainstream acceptance.

"There's less partying," said Larry Pettit, who said he attended the first parade more than four decades ago. "There's less sex. Everyone's interested in politics and no one is having sex."

In Seattle, thousands of people gathered in downtown Seattle for the city's 40th annual Pride Parade. This year's theme — "Generations of Pride," honors civil rights battles in the city that elected its first openly gay mayor last November.

1 Million Celebrate 45th Annual Pride Parade in Ch …Play Video

Actor George Takei, who played in the "Star Trek" TV show and movies and is now an activist for gay and civil rights, was celebrity grand marshal of the Seattle parade.

A year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of landmark rulings, one striking down the statute that denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages and the other clearing the way for gay couples to wed legally in California.

In the 12 months since then, the ripple effects of those rulings has transformed the national debate over same-sex marriage, convincing many people on both sides of the contentious issue that its spread nationwide is inevitable.

From the East Coast to the Midwest and the Pacific, seven more states legalized same-sex marriage, boosting the total to 19, plus Washington, D.C. The Obama administration moved vigorously to extend federal benefits to married gay couples. And in 17 consecutive court decisions, federal and state judges have upheld the right of gays to marry. Not a single ruling has gone the other way.

Parades also were planned Sunday across the U.S., including in Minneapolis and Houston. Humbler celebrations were being held in smaller towns and cities such as Augusta, Georgia, and Floyd, Virginia, while festivals were held Saturday in France, Spain, Mexico and Peru.

Among the marchers Sunday in New York were cousins Yaseena Oatis, 20, and Shayna Melendez, 22, from Plainfield, New Jersey.

"We're walking to celebrate, to be embraced being who we are around people who are like us, free to express ourselves," Oatis said. "Everybody has a different story about how they came out as gay, but we're all here."

___

Associated Press writers Don Babwin in Chicago, Paul Elias in San Francisco, and Donna Blankinship in Seattle contributed to this report.

Rome (AFP) - The deaths of 30 boat migrants sparked anger and frustration in Italy on Monday, as critics accused the government of failing to deal with an immigration crisis which has seen over 5,000 people rescued in the last 24 hours.

Rescuers had found the bodies stuffed into the hold of a fishing boat from north Africa when they boarded the vessel to help the most vulnerable of almost 600 migrants in the vessel.

A navy doctor said the migrants had "likely suffocated" in the tiny space, and "advised against removing the bodies" as it was not yet clear whether there were poisonous gases in the hold which might affect others.

"Another 30 dead in a boat. Another 30 deaths on the consciences of those who defend Mare Lorum," said Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration Northern League party, in an ironic reference to the country's "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea") operation to rescue boat immigrants.

The League has warned Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government that plucking asylum seekers and immigrants to safety from their rickety boats only encourages more people to set out across the Mediterranean for Europe.

"Renzi and Alfano's shirts are soaked in blood. Stop the departures, help them in their own countries, immediately!" he said in a post on Facebook, pointing the finger not only at the centre-left leader but also at Angelino Alfano, Italy's interior minister.

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In this photo released by the Italian Navy on Monday, June 30, 2014, and taken on Sunday, June 29, 2 …

Maurizio Gasparri, the Senate leader of Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, blasted Renzi's "demented" navy operation and the "thousands of landings, deaths, tragedy, chaos. We cannot go on like this."

In a statement, the navy said some of the 30 migrants may have drowned rather than suffocated, though it would not confirm whether there was water in the hold or how much.

- 'We cannot face this emergency alone' -

It is not the first time Italian rescuers have found migrants dead on the overcrowded boats but never before was there such a large number.

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In this photo released by the Italian Navy on Monday, June 30, 2014, and taken on Sunday, June 29, 2 …

The boat is being towed by the Italian navy and is expected to arrive Tuesday in Pozzallo on the southeast coast of Sicily.

"We cannot face this emergency alone," Luigi Ammatuna, the mayor of Pozzallo, told ANSA news agency.

"The only two refrigerated rooms in the cemetery are occupied by the bodies of migrants. Where will we put the 30 victims of this atrocious tragedy?"

He said it was "impossible to take in the 900 or so migrants who are about to arrive" because "the reception centres in the area are full".

Three military ships carrying over 1,000 migrants each are expected to arrive in ports in southern Italy later Monday and Tuesday, the navy said.

Coast guard vessels and cargo ships carrying hundreds of others are set to arrive in Sicily, bringing the number rescued over the weekend to almost 5.500.

The number of migrant arrivals has now soared past the record 63,000 set in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings.

Italy has long borne the brunt of refugees making the perilous crossing from north Africa to Europe, but EU border agency Frontex says there has been a significant rise in numbers in recent months.

A series of tragedies has struck in the last few weeks, with ten people drowning and 39 having to be rescued after their boat sank off the Libyan coast earlier in June.

"No-one can dream that these deaths will end while the journeys continue. They are journeys of hope, but increasingly end up as journeys of death," the archbishop of Agrigento in Sicily, Francesco Montenegro, told Radio Vatican.

Alfano has called for the rescue operation to become a European initiative amid reports of thousands of migrants waiting in Libya to make the trip during the next few weeks.

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30 migrants found dead in refugee boat

Italian rescuers found the bodies after they boarded a fishing vessel to help people fleeing from North Africa.
Growing outrage over crisis