President Barack Obama today blamed al-Qaida for an attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack.

Gordon Brown today called a high-level international meeting in London to discuss methods of countering radicalisation in Yemen, in the wake of the Christmas Day airline bomb attack.

US President Barack Obama will today receive a preliminary report on how a 23-year-old Nigerian with suspected terrorist ties managed to board a plane he is accused of attempting to bomb on Christmas Day, along with recommendations on how to prevent a sequel.

Security services were warned of a terrorist bomb plot weeks before the failed Christmas Day airliner attack, it was claimed today.

The Netherlands announced today it will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a “professional” terror attack.

A Somali national tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month with powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that together could have caused an explosion, officials said today.

The Dutch government says it will immediately begin using full body scanners on flights to the US to prevent future terrorist attacks such as the Christmas Day attempt by a young Nigerian.

The Christmas Day airline bomb plot suspect helped organise a “war on terror” conference while studying in the UK, it emerged today.

A “systemic failure” by American intelligence allowed the alleged terrorist behind the Christmas Day airliner bomb plot to board the aircraft despite warnings about his extremist views, US President Barack Obama said last night.

The Christmas Day airline bomber apparently charted his descent into lonely fanaticism in hundreds of internet postings.

Yemen today said it let the Christmas Day airline bomber into the country twice because no-one warned them he was a security threat.

The alleged terrorist behind the Christmas Day airliner plot is said to have told US agents there are more people “just like him” ready to carry out future attacks.

Pictures have been released in America of the burnt underwear worn by the man who allegedly tried to blow up a plane above Detroit on Christmas Day.

The US State Department said counterterror agencies were warned that the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day may be under extremists’ influence.

The young Nigerian man who allegedly tried to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight broke off contact from his worried parents only a few months before the attack, they said today in a statement.

US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded today that the aviation security system failed when a man on a watchlist with a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The man at the centre of the failed Detroit airliner bomb plot had been banned from entering Britain, it was disclosed today.

The family of a Nigerian man arrested after a failed airliner bomb plot say they contacted security agencies two months ago, after losing contact with him.

Armed officers rushed aboard the same Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight that was attacked on Christmas Day, after an emergency call from the crew about another Nigerian on board.